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12:13 PM
Elder of Ziyon
Jesus Returns, Is Promptly Stabbed By Palestinian Teen (satire)
After her recent trip to the Holy land, Michele Bachmann declared that the return of Jesus Christ was imminent. The one-time Presidential hopeful and now America’s resident queen of batshit crazy, announced the urgent need to convert Jews to Christianity because of the return of Nazareth’s mascot. But as most people wrote Bachmann off as spewing more of her craziness, against all odds, Jesus did make his comeback. Like Neil Patrick Harris in Harold and Kumar Went to White Castle, the deity came out of nowhere – with great fanfare – just when it seemed like everyone was beginning to forget him.Khaled Abu Toameh: When Will Obama and the West Listen to Hamas?
However, just as some of the world began to rejoice in the second coming, a Palestinian teen ran up to the son of God and stabbed him while yelling, “Dirty Jew! Allahu Akbar!” The attack is the latest in a string of stabbings sweeping across Israel, and the motives of this particular attacker are not yet clear. Jesus is currently in critical condition in an Israeli hospital, where doctors have upgraded his status to, “critical but miraculous.” Luckily, he was able to receive a blood transfusion from a bottle of wine collected from a nearby church.
What senior Hamas figure Musa Abu Marzouk and other Hamas leaders are saying is very clear: Even if a Palestinian state is established in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, Hamas and other Palestinians will continue to fight until Israel is completely destroyed.UPDATE: Death Toll Rises to 8 in Jordanian Shooting of US Trainers
Hamas is openly stating that it will use any future Palestinian state as a launching pad to attack and eliminate Israel.
Hamas is not a small opposition party in the Palestinian territories that can be dismissed as a minor player. Hamas is a large Islamist movement, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that controls the entire Gaza Strip with its population of 1.8 million Palestinians. Hamas, not much different from Islamic State and Al-Qaeda, has its own security forces, militias, weapons and government institutions.
The Obama Administration and Western governments can talk as much as they like about the two-state solution. Even if President Abbas agrees to a Palestinian state, he will never be able to persuade Hamas, Islamic Jihad and many other Palestinians to recognize Israel's right to exist.
Under the current circumstances, where Hamas and other Palestinians continue to dream about the destruction of Israel, any talk about a two-state solution is nothing but a joke.
The death toll has risen to eight in the deadly shooting attack Monday by a Jordanian police officer who aimed his weapon at his instructors during a training session at the Jordan International Police Training Center in Muwaqar, near Amman.
The attack took place on the tenth anniversary of Al Qaeda suicide bombings that killed 57 at three luxury hotels in Amman. It was the worst terrorist attack in the history of Jordan.
At least two of the victims were identified as American civilian instructors working as contractors at the site. A third victim was a South African trainer, and a fourth was a Jordanian national who was working as a translator at the facility. Four others were believed to have been Lebanese nationals, according to Jordanian media.
According to a U.S. statement, the two Americans were training Palestinian Authority security forces on behalf of the State Department’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau.
Troops foil stabbing near Abu Dis, shoot attacker dead
Border Police shot dead a Palestinian teenager Tuesday afternoon as he attempted to stab officers near the East Jerusalem village of Abu Dis, in the third stabbing attack of the day against Israelis.Update: Terrorist Killed while Trying to Stab Jews near Damascus Gate
According to police, the ran at guards with a knife at the Kiosk Junction shouting “Allahu akbar” (God is great). He was shot after refusing to halt, despite being ordered to do so several times by the guards.
The assailant died of his wounds at the site. No other injuries were reported. He was later identified as 16-year-old Buadi A-Nar from the West Bank city of Jenin, the Walla website reported.
Guards shot an Arab terrorist trying to stab Jews on Shivtei Yisrael Street near Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem shortly after noon Tuesday. Channel 10 television reported that the attacker was killed.Two Arab boys stab Jerusalem light rail guard
No one else was injured. A previous report that the incident was criminal is apparently incorrect.
The attack occurred minutes after two Arab teenagers, 12 and 13 years old, moderately wounded a guard at the Light Rail station in Pisgat Ze’ev. The guard was able to shoot and wound one of the attackers, who along with his partner were arrested.
Two Arab youths stabbed a security guard for the light rail in the northeastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev on Tuesday, police said. Minutes later, a stabbing attack was thwarted near Damascus Gate.Explosives, rifles found next to Jerusalem Court
The security guard, who was moderately wounded in the attack, managed to fire his weapon toward the two attackers, wounding one, a 12-year-old boy.
Passengers on the light rail subdued the second attacker, who is 14, until police officers arrived at the scene and took him into custody.
According to Palestinian sources, the two attackers were cousins, Moawiyah and Ali Alkam. One is from the Shuafat refugee camp and the other from nearby Beit Hanina.
The victim suffered stab wounds to the upper body, according to the Magen David Adom first-aid service.
Two Arab terrorists, father and son, were arrested on Tuesday afternoon after explosives and weapons were discovered in their home in Jerusalem.Trial begins for 13-year-old Palestinian stabber
Their home is located adjacent to the Jerusalem District Court on Salah al-Din Road not far from Hebrew University's Mount Scopus Campus; just last Monday a firebomb was thrown at the court in an attempt to burn it down.
Police detectives searched the home aided by Border Patrol officers and a canine unit, and found hidden in the house explosives, improvised rifles and ammunition.
With the help of the trained dog the detectives located the weapons, and a bomb squad then neutralized the explosives at the scene.
Both the father and the son were arrested, and an investigation was launched against them.
Police released in a statement that they are "working at all times to thwart incidents endangering human life, on all fronts, and continuing activities and increased deployment throughout Jerusalem for the peace and security of residents of the city and its visitors."
A Palestinian teen went on trial before a Jerusalem court on Tuesday over a stabbing attack last month that fueled a media war amid the ongoing deadly surge in Israeli-Palestinian violence.Footage leaks of cops interrogating tearful teen stabber
According to the indictment, 13-year-old Ahmed Manasra and his cousin Hassan, 15, stabbed two Israelis — aged 25 and 13 — in mid-October in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood. Police fatally shot Hassan and a passing car ran over Ahmed.
Manasra’s attorneys pleaded guilty to some of the clauses in the indictment, but said the two cousins had no intention of killing the Israelis, Israel Radio reported. The case was expected to last past the defendant’s fourteenth birthday, which would allow the court to hand down a prison sentence.
Security guards outside the courthouse hurled stun grenades to disperse protesters. There were no injuries reported.
Manasra’s case became a lightning rod for both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian divide after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas erroneously claimed in a televised speech that Israelis had “summarily executed” Ahmed. The 13-year-old at the time was recovering at an Israeli hospital.
Israel promptly accused Abbas — as it has done repeatedly in the past months — of fomenting violence with what it said were incendiary comments.
Ahmed Manasra was seriously injured when he was hit by a car while trying to flee the scene of the attack in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Zeev neighborhood on October 12, and his accomplice-cousin Hassan Manasra, 15, was shot dead by security forces after charging at police with a knife.Israel Uncovers West Bank Hamas Network Funded by Gaza and Qatar
The pair allegedly stabbed two Israelis — a 13-year-old, who was critically injured; and a 25-year-old, who was moderately injured.
Ahmed was treated in Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital and arrested upon his release last week.
Manasra at first admitted to carrying out the attack, but then walked back his confession.
Ahmed Manasra can be seen in the police video being grilled by officers who repeatedly call him a liar as they urge him to cop to the charges of attempting to murder two Israelis.
Manasra denies the allegations, saying he doesn’t remember the incident, even when he’s shown security camera footage of himself and his cousin, Hassan Manasra, chasing a victim down.
By the end of the video, the boy is in tears.
Israeli authorities arrested 24 Hamas terrorist operatives in the West Bank on Monday who are suspected of trying to revive the Hamas network in the area with the help of Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip and Qatar.Despite terror wave, tourism to Israel increased in October
Among the detainees were several high-ranking Hamas members who have been arrested before, some of them more than once. According to Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, 19 of the suspects are known to have direct links to Hamas or to have publicly voiced support for the organization, and the remaining five suspects are believed to have secret ties to Hamas.
The Shin Bet believes that the heads of the West Bank Hamas network had been working to renew the Hamas presence in Qaliqilya and the surrounding villages and had been preparing to engage in terrorist activity. The squad was reportedly receiving significant funding and direction from Hamas headquarters in Gaza and Qatar. During the arrest raid, more than $8,900 in cash was seized.
Despite a terror wave that spread throughout the nation last month, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reported on Tuesday that there was a pronounced spike in tourism during October.Arab League condemns 'Israeli escalation'
According to the CBS, approximately 290,000 tourists visited Israel in October, compared to 224,000 visitors in September, marking a 29% increase.
Additionally, CBS reported that 5% more tourists came to the country last month than compared to the same period last year.
CBS said it partially attributed the spike in tourism to the International Astronautical Congress, hosted at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, which was attended by over 2,000 people from 60 countries.
Arab foreign ministers searched on Monday for ways to halt what one called Israel's "dangerous escalation" of violence against Palestinians - i.e. to stop Israel to defend itself against terrorists.'Root out ISIS ideology in Beduin schools in Negev'
Weeks of knife, gun and car assaults by Palestinians in Israel have killed eleven Israelis, and left dozens wounded.
Attacks against Jews began in late September, as tensions rose after Palestinian Authority (PA) incitement over the Temple Mount - Judaism's holiest site.
"This emergency meeting comes with the dangerous escalation by the Israeli government, the settlers, the Jewish extremist groups, and the Israeli forces in the blessed city of Jerusalem," United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan told the meeting, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.
He chaired the gathering of the 22-member bloc, and said the Palestinian issue is key to peace and security in the region.
The government must act to root out Islamic State ideology in Beduin schools, MK Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) said on Tuesday.PMW: #so_what - Fatah fuels attacks against Israelis
He made these remarks as a guest of the Knesset Education, Sports and Culture committee which convened to discuss Islamic State ideology in the Israeli education system following a motion for debate on the issue initiated by Cohen.
“In touring the Beduin towns [in the Negev] I hear from numerous people of a phenomenon of a strengthening of Islamic presence and an IS ideology,” said Cohen in the opening remarks. “We cannot turn a blind eye to this phenomenon.”
Cohen, a native of the Negev, who served as Welfare Minister in the previous government and as former Mayor of Dimona in the South, penned a letter explaining the urgent nature of the issue:
“Two months ago six teachers from the settlement of Hura in the Negev were arrested. Four of them were suspected of promoting an Islamic State ideology within the schools in the community. Two weeks ago, a terrorist from the same settlement (Hura) carried out a fatal attack for nationalistic reasons in Beersheba,” Cohen wrote.
The above photo encouraging more Palestinian stabbing attacks against Israelis was posted by Abbas' Fatah movement on Facebook a few days ago. [Official Facebook page of the Fatah Movement, Nov. 7, 2015]Hamas: We're closer than ever to 'liberating Jerusalem'
Palestinian Media Watch has documented other examples of Fatah's promotion of stabbing attacks.
The text on the photo, "#so_what", is a new hashtag appearing on Palestinian social media as a slogan which is being used to encourage Palestinians to continue rioting, throwing rocks and using violence against Israelis. "#so_what" is a Palestinian response that makes light of Israel's alleged crimes against Palestinians, showing that Palestinians don't care. It also implies that no matter what Israel does, the Palestinians will continue their ways. They will continue not to care, and they will continue to riot, throw rocks, carry out stabbing attacks etc. The words refer to a video that went viral, showing an elderly Palestinian man arguing with Israeli soldiers. A soldier points to rioting Palestinians, saying: "They're throwing rocks at us." The old man replies: "So what, let them throw rocks."
This cartoon illustrates the idea that Palestinians don't care about anything Israel does - #so_what!? A soldier points a machine gun at a group of Palestinians, saying: "I will shoot you." The Palestinians reply: "#so_what" [Website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission, Nov. 8, 2015]
A senior member of Hamas boasted on Monday that the terrorist group was closer than ever to “liberating Jerusalem”.If Only There Were Some Non-Violent Way To Protest by Bassem Tamimi, Palestinian Activist (satire)
Speaking with the Quds Press news agency, Hamas political bureau member Salah Bardawil said that the “Al-Quds Intifada”, as Hamas refers to the current terror wave, opened the gates to the liberation of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, adding that the intifada continues to escalate every day and efforts to stop it will fail.
Bardawil accused the international community taking a "pale" stand about the "occupation", and also claimed that some Arab states are collaborating with Israel. In addition, he claimed the Palestinian Authority is weak and faltering, and is unable to halt its security coordination with Israel.
"The Palestinians," he claimed, "are defending the religion which is above the nation and any issues of faith...our faith will not be deterred and those who rely on the fact that the siege and the killings would lead to our defeat are deluded."
The intifada, claimed Bardawil, "shows that the Palestinians are closer than ever to liberating Jerusalem from the occupation."
Don’t get me wrong: I do relish the attention I get from using my family as pawns in the media war against Israel, so I have some flesh in this game, so to speak. But I don’t want to see my children growing up learning that the only way to achieve things is through violence! If only there were an avenue of protest, of activism, of disobedience, that did not require violence! Well, wish in one hand and spit in the other, and see which one fills up first, as they say.Druze Op-Ed Writer Says Israeli-Arab Press to Blame for Incitement to Violence Against Jews
Indeed, if only there were other civil rights campaigns from which to draw principles of non-violence. It would be amazing to discover that anything at all could be accomplished by such means, and to adopt them for our use. If only an oppressed minority somewhere in the world – say, blacks in mid-twentieth-century America – had leaders who demonstrated the irresistible moral force that non-violent resistance conveys. Had such figures existed, with, perhaps, some record of inspiring speeches or writings in which they laid out their philosophy and methods, well, then there might be something to talk about.
Or if only there had been colony of a Western power – which is, after all, how we Palestinians see our own situation – with a national liberation movement, one that adhered to non-violence in it efforts to gain international sympathy and cause the world – and that Western power – to come to terms with the immorality of its policies. Perhaps a place formerly under British rule until the late 1940’s, so that our situations could be parallel, and we could learn from them how to conduct such a non-violent campaign. Then, perhaps, we could embark on a similar path, and be able to transition into healthy self-governance. How I wish such a precedent existed!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go collect my stipend from Amnesty International.
Incitement to violence against Israelis and Jews “isn’t coming from where you expect it,” Israeli Druze Daniel Salameh asserts in an op-ed published Monday on the Israeli news site nrg.Israeli Students Launch Anti Zuckerberg Attack: Enough with Incitement
According to Salameh, it not primarily being promoted in mosque sermons or social media posts, but rather “right under our noses” in the Israeli-Arab media.
Salameh, fluent in both Hebrew and Arabic, recounts perusing the Israeli-Arab newspapers on Friday and being surprised at their focus. Instead of covering issues of relevance to the Israeli-Arab community, he says, the stories were more about condemning Israel.
Among other concrete examples, Salameh points to a headline in Al-Sonara, a prominent Israeli-Arab newspaper, which read “The IDF is deliberately killing our children.” And another, quoting the mother of the female terrorist who attempted to carry out a stabbing attack in Afula saying she missed her daughter — with no mention that the young woman had been threatening police with a knife — and claiming she had been shot for speaking Arabic.
Students at the Copywriting Studies Department at ACC College in Tel Aviv were handed an assignment from their course moderator Alex Rosenfarb, a topical pitch around which they created a series of ads in which they call on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to take responsibility and to remove content that encourages violence on his 1.5 billion-user network, reports the advertising website Mizbala (Hebrew for trash heap).Israelis campaign for ‘biased’ NBC reporter to get the boot
These have been particularly difficult times in Israel, with what appears to be a storm of violence sweeping through the land, dazzling everyone and refusing to die, especially as the social network serve as an amplifier for extremists on all sides. It’s time to tone things down significantly.
The posters were designed by Dor Fishy Weintraub based on Copywriting students’ ideas.
A Facebook campaign to have NBC news reporter Ayman Mohyeldin fired amid claims of bias against Israel has garnered broad support among Israelis.CNN’s Anonymous Terrorist
The campaign is focusing on a recent report in which Mohyeldin erroneously asserted that Israeli security forces had shot dead an unarmed Palestinian.
The “Good Guys” Facebook group published a video last week in which dozens of Israelis called for Mohyeldin to be dismissed. Many of those featured in the video held up signs reading “Fire the liar,” and those behind the clip encouraged others to share on social media pictures of themselves with similar banners to show their support for Mohyeldin’s removal.
Organizers also promised to broadcast a video featuring the banner-touting protesters on a large screen in New York’s Times Square in two weeks’ time.
A short four paragraph CNN piece on a terror attack at a checkpoint is missing one vital piece of information. See if you can spot it:Israel’s systemic discrimination against knife-wielding attackers revealed
Israel: Woman pulls knife at checkpoint, gets shot by security
A knife-wielding woman who tried to attack a security checkpoint in the West Bank was shot by guards, the Israel Defense Ministry said.
“A woman terrorist arrived at the checkpoint located on Route 55 next to Alfei Menashe holding a knife,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
Alfei Menashe is an Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank, west of Nablus.
“Security guards at the checkpoint called her to stop a few times, and when she didn’t, they fired at her and neutralized the threat,” the statement said.
If you haven’t already figured it out, ask yourself who the “knife-wielding woman” is.
A clue: The missing word begins with the letter “P.”
Despite the ubiquity of smart phones, it’s still not every day that a Palestinian terrorist attack is clearly captured on video. This may explain why a clip of a Palestinian woman stabbing an Israeli security guard at the entrance to a settlement on Nov. 8 was so widely circulated, even within British media typically averse to publishing evidence demonstrating the accuracy of ‘Israeli versions’ of events.Haaretz Headline on Palestinian Attack: 'Palestinian shot dead'
As you can see, shortly after the security guard asked the 22 year-old Palestinian woman for identification, as she approached the entrance to the settlement, she reached into her purse, grabbed a knife and stabbed him.
The Independent was one such British news site which published the video, using the accurate headline: Palestinian woman stabs Israeli guard at West Bank settlement Beitar Illit entrance in CCTV video of knife attack.
However, though the video was published almost without commentary, editors evidently found it necessary to add one sentence of text below the clip.
"The woman was not granted entry into the West Bank settlement"
Haaretz Headline on Palestinian Attack: 'Palestinian shot dead'Gaza court sends three 'spies' to prison
"Palestinian woman shot dead," is the page 2 headline in Haaretz's English edition today, the latest in a series of news headlines obscuring Palestinian terror attacks.
Who is this Palestinian woman, depicted in the headline as a victim, as opposed to a perpetrator?
Those who bother to read the accompanying article learn:
A Palestinian woman was shot to death yesterday at a checkpoint in the West Bank after she drew a knife and advanced towards soldiers, refusing orders to desist. No one else was injured in the incident.
The Defense Ministry said that at around 7 A.M. a Palestinian woman approached cars at the Eliahu checkpoint, on Route 55 near the Alfei Menashe settlement.
She ignored several demands from the Israeli security forces to stop, and when warning shots were fired into the air, she drew a knife from her bag. At that point, security personnel shot and killed her.
But as noted by Adam Levick, managing editor of UK Media, a member of CAMERA's British department:
In our social media obsessed world dominated by Twitter, Facebook and internet memes, the headlines and blurbs of mainstream news stories are often all that news consumers notice.
A military court in Gaza on Sunday sentenced three men from Gaza City's Zaytoun neighborhood to prison, in addition to penal labor, after they were convicted of collaborating with Israeli intelligence, the Ma’an news agency reported.Preparations for Paris Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher Massacres Revealed in Emails Between Terrorist and Handler
One of the men, 30, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while another 30-year-old suspect was sentence with nine years.
The third man, 25, was given a seven-year sentence, according to Ma’an.
Hamas regularly places citizens on trial on charges of spying for Israel, and sometimes sentences them to death.
The group executed 18 men in August of 2014 for collaboration with Israel. The move was blasted by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which said that the executions had been conducted illegally outside of the Palestinian court system and could thus not be considered to have gone through fair process.
Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel is punishable by death. All death sentences, however, require the approval of PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who issued a moratorium on death sentences in 2005.
Email exchanges between one of the perpetrators behind the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher attacks in Paris and an unknown “handler” were obtained by the French daily Le Monde, according to a France24 report on Saturday.Anti-ISIS activists use horrific jihadi propaganda film to claim brutal militants executed hundreds of children
The emails — discovered by investigators into the January 7 murder of 12 employees of the satiricial newspaper and January 9 killing of four Jewish hostages taken at the kosher grocery chain — purportedly show details of plans leading up to the multiple slayings.
Though, according to Le Monde, most of the messages between Amedy Coulibaly — killed by French commandos who stormed the store — and an anonymous person from abroad were encrypted, a few were clear.
One of Coulibaly’s mails read: “I’ve got an AK47 with 275 rounds and six Tokarevs [semi-automatic handguns] with 69 rounds.”
He sent this message, which went on, “I also have three bullet-proof vests, tactical jackets, tear gas grenades and a stun gun,” mere hours after his close friends, Said and Cherif Kouachi, committed the Charlie Hebdo massacre.
A horrific ISIS video which purportedly shows 200 Syrian children being lined up and gunned by militants has been revealed to be a jihadi propaganda video from 2014.Italy Arrests ISIS Terrorist Disguised As Refugee
The sickening mass execution video was posted online by an anti-ISIS activist based in Yemen and quickly started to draw condemnation from social media users shocked by the atrocities.
However the footage is believed to have filmed in late August 2014 and the victims are prisoners of war who were caught by ISIS after the jihadi group overran the Assad held Tabqa airbase in Syria.
Forced to lie side-by-side and with their faces in the dirt, the video shows about 200 Assad regime soldiers fighting in the Syrian Arab Army stretched out in a long line to the left and right.
Behind them, at least a dozen gunmen armed with assault rifles and handguns stand poised and ready to fire.
One militant then begins firing at point blank range - shooting each prisoner individually as he makes along the row of victims.
Italian authorities arrested a convicted Tunisian terrorist with links to ISIS as he tried to enter the country on a boat carrying Syrian refugees.Terrorist How-To Manual Shows US Homeland in ISIS Crosshairs
Ben Nasr Mehdi was first arrested in Italy in 2007 after getting exposed as the mastermind behind planned attacks on Italian soil on behalf of a now ISIS-affiliated group. Mehdi was deported last year after completing his seven-year prison term in Italy.
It appears he planned to finish what he started in 2007 and carry-out his Jihadist calling.
Reports revealed the arrest Monday. It apparently took place Oct. 4 after a navy vessel rescued a ship of 200 migrants in the Mediterranean. Mehdi claimed to be a refugee fleeing war but was caught during a finger print scanning, along with the human traffickers that organized the trip. Local authorities tried to keep the arrest secret to prevent panic and handed Mehdi over to Tunisian authorities.
A 64-page terrorist operations manual recently released by an Islamic State supporter on Twitter underscores concerns that the US homeland remains firmly in the group’s crosshairs. FBI Director James Comey told US intelligence officials last month that the Bureau has approximately 900 ongoing Islamic State-related inquiries, most of which involve homegrown suspects.NYT: Arab Allies Vanish from Anti-ISIS Air War
The manual, “Safety and Security Guidelines for Lone Wolf Mujahideen,” provides detailed instructions on successfully carrying out terror attacks.
“I think the manual format gives them sort of a how-to process and therefore it’s another indication of the danger we face in dealing with these self-motivated jihadists,” said former FBI Associate Deputy Director Oliver “Buck” Revell. “I think it shows a great deal of critical analysis at the heart of the movement and that they are certainly knowledgeable, and they are not ignorant of our methodologies and even our technical capabilities, and we would be wise not to underestimate their capabilities.”
A former high-ranking EU intelligence source tells the Investigative Project on Terrorism that three former members of Saddam Hussein’s intelligence service who currently are in Raqqa, Syria, wrote the English-language manual, which was derived from earlier Arabic lectures.
Arab allies have largely abandoned the U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria as America gets ready to escalate airstrikes against the jihadist group, reports The New York Times (NYT).Turkey Election: Two Million Voters Registered Between July and November
Western allies such as Australia and France have also limited their role in the offensive against ISIS, noted the Times:
The Obama administration heralded the Arab air forces flying side by side with American fighter jets in the campaign’s early days as an important show of solidarity against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or Daesh.Top commanders like Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, who oversees operations in Syria and Iraq, still laud the Arab countries’ contributions to the fight. But as the United States enters a critical phase of the war in Syria, ordering Special Operations troops to support rebel forces and sending two dozen attack planes to Turkey, the air campaign has evolved into a largely American effort…
Administration officials had sought to avoid the appearance of another American-dominated war, even as most leaders in the Persian Gulf seem more preoccupied with supporting rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. Now, some of those officials note with resignation, the Arab partners have quietly left the United States to run the bulk of the air war in Syria — not the first time Washington has found allies wanting.
Those who suspect the surprise victory of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey’s national elections Sunday was fraudulent may have more evidence to support their theory: the astronomical increase in registered voters between the last election in June and Sunday’s referendum.Islamist Turkey Does Not Belong in NATO
Writing in Commentary, American Enterprise Institute scholar Michael Rubin notes that more than two million voters seemed to have materialized in election lists between June and November 2015. Rubin notes that two million voters were added to rolls between 2011 and 2015–fewer, in fact, than in the past five months. Unlike the United States, Turkish voter registration occurs automatically through a citizen identification number provided at birth, discarding the possibility that a special election galvanized Turks to register to vote in droves. Anyone over the age of 18 who wants to vote is already registered.
The wide discrepancy in new voters Rubin has identified echoes concerns from high-ranking members of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), who told the Turkish newspaper Zaman on Sunday that they feared voter registration scrolls had been altered to benefit the AKP. The party noted that more than 600,000 people had “disappeared” from voter registries and 400,000 added. As the party does not have identifying information on those people regarding their party, they must assume those removed had died in between the two elections and those added had just turned 18 years old.
Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum adds some clarity to what effect these voters may have had, noting that the AKP received nine percent more votes between June and November.
There was gloom in the air Sunday evening at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square.PR Firm Hired to Clean Up Image of Turkish PM Who Called Israel a 'Geopolitical Tumor' and Netanyahu a 'Terrorist'
Members of Canada’s Kurdish community had gathered to celebrate the “International Day of Solidarity with the people of Kobani,” the Syrian city near the Turkish border where Syrian Kurdish forces last year inflicted a historic defeat on the Islamic State.
Usually, thousands of Canadian Kurds rally to the call of such events.
But this time there was a marked drop in attendance in the crowd, which initially gathered at the intersection of Yonge St. and Bloor St. to march to Toronto City Hall.
That’s because news had just come in that the Islamist AK Party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had swept to an unexpected victory in the snap election called in Turkey after polls in June resulted in a hung parliament, with no party capturing a majority of seats.
On Sunday, Erdogan’s AKP won nearly 50% of the votes, enough to form a majority government, thus ensuring five years of single-party, dictatorial rule, resembling the now ousted Muslim Brotherhood government of Muhammad Morsi in Egypt.
For Turkey’s Kurds and those living in the diaspora in Canada, this news was devastating.
One of the world’s largest PR Agencies, Burson-Marsteller (BM) has been hired by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu “to improve his overseas image” following the recent Turkish elections. Davutoglu’s AKP Party hired the American-based firm only a few days after his AKP party won an absolute majority, and BM’s offices in Berlin, London, Paris, and Washington, D.C. are actively working the media.PR Firm That Refused to Represent Israel Now Has Hate-Filled Turkish Prime Minister as a Client
Burson-Marsteller, whom I revealed last year rejected Israel as a client (deeming the Jewish State too controversial), represented the Muslim Brotherhood of Tunisia. Who is this gem of a Prime Minister for whom Burson-Marsteller is now working?
Davutoglu is author of a 2001 book, Strategic Depth, which declared that a Jewish State of Israel is unsuitable for the Middle East. He proudly noted that Turkey was the only country standing beside the Palestinians in their international recognition process. Referring to Israel, he has said that …”the AK Party will not be the friend of an oppressor" and as The Economist has noted, has called Israel “a geopolitical tumor.”
His foreign policy has been described as “Muslim Brotherhood-inspired transnationalism,” and he as “ the brains of the Muslim Brotherhood’s governing party in Turkey.”
In January 2015, Davutoglu accused Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu of terrorism and said Israeli "provocations" such as the bombardment of Gaza were contributing to radicalization in the Muslim world. He compared Netanyahu to the Islamist terrorists who killed 17 people in the Charlie Hedbo attacks.
Burson-Marsteller, a major international PR firm, has been retained by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu “to improve his overseas image” following the recent Turkish elections.
Relations between Israel and Turkey have been on a downward spiral since Davutoglu’s AKP Party has been in power. Furthermore, Davutoglu’s foreign policy has been described as “Muslim Brotherhood-inspired transnationalism.”
This ideology, then, is consistent with the PR firm he chose — because Burson-Marsteller refused to work with Israel as a client, yet represented the Muslim Brotherhood of Tunisia.
Davutoglu has a history of animosity towards Israel. He wrote a book, Strategic Depth, which declared that a Jewish state is unsuitable for the Middle East, and has called Israel “a geopolitical tumor.” He has also claimed that “Jerusalem belongs to us and not to the Jews,” and has openly embraced Hamas and its leaders.
Even Hillary Clinton wrote in her memoirs that Davutoglu threatened to declare war on Israel.
Yet Burson-Marsteller has no qualms about representing him.
Clearly, last year’s controversy that erupted when Burson-Marsteller refused to work with Israel did not cause the company to shy away from representing an anti-Israel entity.
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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/10/2015 12:00:00 PM
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