02/11 Links Pt1: How Palestinians hurt the Palestinians; ‘Hares Boys’ Palestinian Rock Stars ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Israel's Arabs: A Tale of Betrayal

During the past two decades, some of the Israeli Arab community's elected representatives and leaders have worked harder for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip than for their own Israeli constituents.
These parliamentarians ran in elections on the promise of working to improve the living conditions of Israeli Arabs and achieving full equality in all fields. However, they devote precious time and energy on Palestinians who are not citizens of Israel. They vie for the distinction of being the most vitriolic provocateur against their country.
Such provocations make it more difficult for Arab university graduates to find jobs in both the Israeli private and public sectors.
The big losers are the Arab citizens of Israel, who have once again been reminded that their elected representatives care far more about non-Israeli Palestinians than they care about them.

How Palestinians hurt the Palestinians

Ban Ki-moon in his article asks Israeli authorities “to unequivocally support the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian institutions” and make “significant shifts in policies toward the West Bank and Gaza.” True, he also tells the Palestinians that change will require of them “consistently and firmly denouncing terrorism and taking preventive action to end attacks on Israelis, including an immediate stop to Gaza tunnel construction.” But there is no real denunciation by him of the intense incitement by the PA authorities at the highest level and the Hamas government in support of the violence in the West Bank.
Interestingly, Hamas — its nefarious terrorism and violence and its dedication to Israel’s destruction — is not mentioned by name even once in the Secretary-General’s statements.
It is time the UN and the international community recognize the Palestinians’ key role in their present predicament but also “the weight of a half century” of Israeli people’s frustration and lack of confidence in the Palestinians’ and their representatives’ acceptance of a historic compromise for a two state solution.

The Mottle Wolfe Show PodCast: Palestinian Rock Stars

The so-called ‘Hares Boys’ are the cause of the day among Palestinians and their Western supporters including the government of the UK. After all boys will be boys and what did they do that was so bad? They stoned the car of a Jewish woman driving her three young daughters home, resulting in the death of a toddler. Mottle discusses the latest Gush Etzion terror attack with Josh Hasten, a New Hampshire recap, and a new Hamas hit sweeping the charts.

Video of Israeli jogger attacked by terrorist in Gush Etzion emerges

The Palestinian stabbing attack against Tomer Ditore, 28, on Tuesday evening was caught from a distance on a short video that was published on a number of WhatsApp groups a day later.
A Hebrew speaking narrator can be heard explaining the actions seen on the video, which would otherwise be hard to discern.
It shows Ditore, wearing a bright orange shirt jogging on the the Derech Ha’avot path near the Neve Daniel settlement in the Gush Etzion region of the West Bank.
A Palestinian man runs up the grassy hill and onto the path where Ditore is jogging. He runs behind Ditore and then catches up to him.
The two men can be seen struggling. It is at this point that the Palestinian stabs Ditore and then runs away back down the grassy hill in the direction of the nearby village of Nahlin.

Where Terrorism is Not News

I’m a runner.
I’m a long distance runner and for the past few years, I have run thousands of kilometers. Most of my runs have started and finished from my home in Neve Daniel, a small town in the Gush Etzion region twenty minutes south of Jerusalem.
There is a beautiful trail that goes between Neve Daniel and the next few towns. It’s called “Derech Avot,” Hebrew for the “Path of the Patriarchs,” a reference to the Biblical story of Avraham going to sacrifice his son Isaac. This would be the route they would have traveled toward Jerusalem.
One does not have to believe in the Bible to see that the trail is indeed based on an established ancient route. There are 2,000-year-old Roman mile markers along the path as well as an ancient Jewish mikvah (ritual bath) dating back to the Second Temple. Pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for holidays would ritually immerse themselves along the way.
Last night, as I was driving home, I heard the news that a runner on the trail, near my home, had been stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist who then sprinted off into the hills in the direction of Nahalin, a nearby Palestinian village.
The victim’s name is Tomer Ditur. He’s 28.
And if you live in Israel, you probably already know this.
But if you live outside of Israel, you would have no idea unless you have Israeli friends on social media who posted about the attack.
That’s because the mainstream media does not consider such attacks as “news.”

'Palestinian incitement can be stopped'

Head of the Israeli news agency "Makor Yisraeli", David Bedein, fiercely attacked the IDF Civil Administration as well as the Ministry of Education for allowing the distribution of schoolbooks that contain incitement against Jews.
"For the past twenty years what has characterized the Palestinian Authority media and their education system is clear incitement to war," Bedein told Arutz Sheva.
Bedein, who used to head the Sderot Media Center, knows what war feels like having lived under constant rocket fire from Gaza for almost 15 consecutive years.
"We have received assurances from the US State Department that Palestinian schoolbooks, especially for the UNRWA schools would be okay now, and would meet standards of peace and reconciliation with Israel. We went out and purchased 150 of their new schools books and found that the opposite is true."
Bedein outlined that this problem has been going on for some time, since before the Six Day War, and suggested that Israel confiscate the schoolbooks when they arrive at the Erez Junction near Gaza, or other checkpoints before they cross over into Judea and Samaria.

Arab Israeli teen girls carried out Ramle stabbing attack 'to be martyrs'

Two Arab Israeli teenage girls were indicted Thursday for an attack last week in which they stabbed a security guard at the Central Bus Station in Ramle.
The two 14-year-olds were accused of attempted murder in efforts to become "shadeedat" (Arabic for martyrs) and kill for the sake of religion in accordance with the current wave of Palestinian terror. The teens were also indicted for plotting to commit a crime and possession of a knife.
The two lightly wounded a security guard last Thursday morning near the entrance to a mall next to the city's main bus terminal in what police say was a foiled terrorist attack.
According to the indictment filed in the Lod District Court by the Central District Attorney, the two had wanted to stab soldiers, however when they saw that there were no soldiers in the vicinity, they attacked a security guard while shouting "Allah, Allah" after he asked the pair for their identifications.
According to the indictment filed Thursday morning, the duo decided to carry out a nationalistically-motivated attack instead of going to school.

Two Arab Jerusalem youths indicted for attempted murder

Two Arab teenagers, ages 14 and 16, from east Jerusalem’s Shuafat neighborhood, were indicted by Jerusalem’s Juvenile District Court on Wednesday for attempted murder stemming from a stabbing attack last month near the Old City’s Damascus Gate.
According to the indictment, the unidentified minors confessed to being influenced to stab Jews and security personnel after watching online videos showing Border Police conducting weapons searches of female Arab suspects in Jerusalem.
The videos, the indictment says, inspired the boys to carry out a “stabbing attack against Jews or members of the security forces in order to kill them and become martyrs.”
On the morning of January 30, at approximately 11 a.m., both suspects, whose ages prohibit publication of their names, purchased two 10 cm.-long knives at a store near their homes to carry out deadly stabbings, the indictment says.

PMW: Israeli Arab MP justifies murder for nationalistic reasons

Basel Ghattas, an Arab member of the Israeli Parliament, has justified the murder of Israelis by Palestinian terrorists. Ghattas was suspended this week for four months from activities in the Israeli Parliament, following Palestinian Media Watch's exposure of his and two other Arab MPs' meeting with families of terrorist murderers. The MPs had observed a minute of silence in honor of the terrorists and referred to them by the term of highest honor in Islam, "Shahids" (Martyrs).
Now MP Ghattas has clarified his position justifying Palestinian murder of Israelis in a TV interview, saying that Palestinians who kill Israelis are neither "criminal" nor doing anything "illegal" but are acting "in the turmoil of the struggle against the oppressive occupation":
Israeli Arab MP Basel Ghattas: "The day Arab MPs abstain from visiting Martyrs' (Shahids) families who have lost their precious sons in the turmoil of the struggle against the oppressive occupation - they did not go to kill or attempt to kill for criminal reasons or illegally - the day we abstain from visiting Martyrs' families, we will have to vacate our [parliamentary] chairs and leave the keys at home." [Hala TV, Panet website, Feb. 10 and 11, 2016]
Israeli Arab MP Ghattas' position is similar to that of the Palestinian Authority which claims that murder and terror attacks against Israeli civilians is part of a "legitimate Palestinian struggle."

Arab member of Israeli Parliament justifies murder of Israelis by terrorists

Guardian misleads on row over Arab MKs meeting with terrorists’ families

Beaumont misleads on two counts.
First, contrary to Beaumont’s claim, the Palestinians terrorists in question were not killed during “attempted attacks”, but during deadly attacks. One of the Palestinians killed three Israelis in a terror attack on a Jerusalem bus in October.
Also, the Arab MKs did not merely visit with the terrorists’ families. As Palestinian Media Watch reported, they ‘honored’ the terrorists themselves with a moment of silence, and referred to the terrorists as shaheeds (martyrs).
It’s one thing for the Guardian to avoid publishing a stand-alone article on the disturbing behavior by three Arab MKs, but quite another to mention the row in a report about another topic, while failing to reveal the most relevant elements of the story.

PreOccupiedTerritory: I Can’t Stab Jews Today? You Never Let Me Do ANYTHING (satire)

By Falestin Masri, age 13
Mother, you’re being completely unreasonable. All I want to do is go out with a sharp implement and impale as many Jews as possible, but you insist I finish my homework and chores first. That just won’t work – we both know by the time I finish there won’t be nearly as many people out and about, and my chance to approach my victims undetected will evaporate. Admit it: you don’t want me to participate in this Intifada. You never let me do ANYTHING.
Remember last week, when all the boys were throwing firebombs at the cars with Israeli yellow license plates down on the highway? Well, I’d already finished my chores, but you made me clean my room again – I’d already done so the day before! But you dug for any pretext to keep me away from the action, and you found one. I wasn’t going to disobey you outright, not with Father there. But I could tell from the look on his face he was proud that his eldest daughter wants to shed some Jewish blood. You’re just too restrictive. None of my friends ever have to get permission to go stone cars or stab Jews. This is SO unfair.
I bet YOUR mother wasn’t this strict. I bet if I asked her she would encourage me to get a kitchen knife this minute, go down to the nearest road junction and attack some Jews waiting to catch a ride or bus. You’re not contradicting me outright because you know it’s true. See? See? So why can’t I do it? It’s as I said – you’re being totally unreasonable.

After Labor rules out Palestinian state in the short term, Netanyahu says: 'Good morning, Herzog'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) tried during a Knesset debate on Wednesday to differentiate each other’s views on a two-state solution, which both support but say is not currently viable.
“Good morning Buji! I’m glad you woke up. Welcome to the Middle East,” Netanyahu said, using Herzog’s nickname, regarding the opposition leader’s recent statements that a Palestinian state is not immediately viable.
The prime minister recalled: “A year ago, I clarified that facing the great changes happening in our region and since all territory that is cleared is captured by extremists, it doesn’t look like we can implement the two-state solution under the current circumstances. And then you attacked me.
“And then, at the beginning of the week, something happened. Members of the Labor Party decided that the two-state solution cannot be implemented,” he added. “You’re the last ones to recognize the reality. We can’t trust your judgment to deal with the challenges around us.”
Netanyahu referred to his “Bar-Ilan Speech” of 2009, in which he called for a Palestinian state for the first time, and the conditions he set for it, the first being that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state, and the second that the Palestinian state be demilitarized.

Netanyahu to Opposition: Stop Criticizing Israel Abroad

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called for the Knesset members of the Israeli opposition to support Israel’s government in the international arena.
Speaking at a Knesset meeting convened by the opposition, Netanyahu said the opposition was undermining Israel’s standing in the world.
“I heard [opposition leader] MK [Isaac] Herzog tell the president of France that it is impossible to realize a two-state solution,” he said. “Perhaps now you will stand united with us in the face of international efforts to impose dangerous solutions on us. We will resist any attempt to force solutions on us.”
Commenting on an idea recently floated by Herzog, who suggested that Israel disengage from the Palestinians in the absence of peace negotiations, Netanyahu said, “All the talk about separation with an agreement or without, or security separation — is not suitable. Israel must be the one responsible for security on the ground and the one to implement the demilitarization.”
“Mutual recognition and demilitarization are two fundamental values, without which there cannot be an arrangement,” he said.

New York Times’ Thomas Friedman Says Peace Process Is Dead

The Israeli-Palestinian peace process “is dead,” declared longtime New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman in a piece about the Middle East on Thursday.
“The next US president will have to deal with an Israel determined to permanently occupy all the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, including where 2.5 million West Bank Palestinians live,” he wrote, referring to the West Bank, or what the Israeli authorities refer to as Judea and Samaria.
In pondering who killed the said peace process, Friedman suggested everyone from right-wing settlers — “able to sabotage any Israeli politician or army officer who opposed them” — to the Gaza-ruling terror group Hamas, which made a “laughingstock of Israeli peace advocates” through its devotion of resources to means of violent resistance to Israel, rather than somehow turning “Gaza into Singapore.”
In addition to Hamas, Friedman also blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for sacking the PA prime minister, Salam Fayyad, who Friedman said was committed to institution-building and fighting corruption.

Likud MK: Palestinians can’t even say ‘P’

Likud Knesset member Anat Berko ruffled a few feathers and raised a few brows at the plenum on Wednesday when she called into question the veracity of the Palestinian claim to regional territory, by citing the absence of the “P” sound in the Arabic alphabet.
“As we’ve noted, the letter ‘P’ doesn’t even exist in Arabic, so the borrowed term (Palestine) is worth looking into,” Berko said from the podium during a discussion called by opposition parties on the status of the two-state solution. The lawmaker began to add that Israel did not deny the existence of “a Palestinian entity” alongside the Jewish state, and wished for peace with it, when a hubbub broke out among left-wing MKs.
“Did you hear that?” Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg cried out in astonishment, repeating Berko’s statements to her fellow lawmakers.
“Yes,” Berko answered her. “There’s no ‘P’.” She added in exaggerated pronunciation for emphasis: “‘Pa pa pa,’ there’s no ‘Pa.’ There’s ‘Fa.'”

Shaked rules out adoption of historic Levy Report

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home party spoke on Thursday at the Dead Sea Directors Conference, where she asserted that it is impossible to adopt the historic 2012 Levy Report at the current juncture in time.
She began by saying, "this coalition is right-wing, and comes to rule according to the agenda of the right, not of the left."
When asked about the management of Israel's Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, which remains under military rule given that it has yet to be annexed since having been liberated in the 1967 Six Day War, Shaked said "we work together with the Defense Minister."
"They lead but we are very dominant. There is cooperation and it's significant and important," she added. Queried regarding law enforcement in the region, she opined, "I don't think that there is harsher enforcement against Jews in Judea and Samaria than there is against Arabs."
The statement comes on the background of the complaints of activists, who have documented systematic illegal Arab building in serious offenses that have yet to be acted on, even though in many cases the structures have demolition orders on them. Meanwhile many Jewish buildings are demolished despite having been bought in full, in many cases in the name of a non-present alleged Arab owner.

Ya’alon said seeking return of bodies from Gaza alongside Turkey détente

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has demanded that any future détente between Israel and Turkey include assurances for the return of the bodies of two IDF soldiers held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to a Wednesday report.
Israeli and Turkish negotiating teams met Wednesday in Switzerland, as part of ongoing efforts to reach a reconciliation agreement between the two one-time allies, Western diplomats said.
Ya’alon is currently in Switzerland on a working trip to discuss security cooperation. He was not expected to take part in the Turkey negotiations directly.
According to a high-ranking Israeli official quoted by Haaretz, most of the issues on the agenda have been resolved, but two major hurdles remain: Turkey’s demand that Israel end its military blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip — designed by Israel to prevent Hamas importing weaponry — and Israel’s demand that Turkey put an end to harboring Hamas officials in Ankara.
Ya’alon, Haaretz reported, has stated in discussions with the Israeli negotiating team that in exchange for an easing of the Gaza blockade, Israel should demand that Turkey use its influence on Hamas to assist in the return of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, both of whom were captured during the 2014 war with Gaza.

PA asks EU to recognize 'Palestine'

Nabil Shaath, a member of the Central Committee of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction, is calling on France and other countries in the European Union (EU) to immediately recognize the “State of Palestine” and to impose significant sanctions on Israel in order to bring an end to the “occupation”.
Speaking at a meeting with a delegation from the European Commission, Shaath said that the Palestinian Authority accepts in principle the recently announced French initiative to coax Israel and the PA back to peace talks through an international peace conference.
France has threatened to unilaterally recognize “Palestine” if its initiative for a conference fails.
Shaath emphasized the importance of the existence of an international framework for the peace process, a complete cessation of Israel’s “settlement activities” and the setting of a timetable for ending the "occupation".
Abbas welcomed France’s initiative to jumpstart the peace process between via an international peace conference, calling on African nations to support the idea.

UNRWA worried Middle East crises 'competing' for Palestinian aid

Desperate humanitarian needs elsewhere in the Middle East are increasing "competition" for funding for Palestinian charities, the UN warned on Wednesday.
A Palestinian official warned any aid shortage could see the situation "explode."
Bo Schack, Gaza director of UNRWA, which operates a multi-million-dollar network of institutions throughout Gaza, admitted there was concern crises in Yemen, Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East meant donors have less money to spend.
Negotiations between Palestinian factions over a unity government have stumbled, while Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza to prevent Hamas smuggling in advanced weaponry, leaving some governments to question whether funding for Palestinians is well spent.
Others have diverted parts of their aid budgets to focus on the refugee crisis in Europe.

Jordanian MP threatens to topple government over Israeli gas import

Jordanian parliament member Muhammad Dawaymeh declared that the parliament will vote no confidence in the government if it moves towards signing a natural gas import deal with Israel.
In an interview with the Jordanian Raya radio station on Wednesday, Dawaymeh claimed that in the next week, government representatives will participate in a general meeting in the parliament to discuss the subject, after 35 parliament members requested such a meeting.
In the beginning of February, the Jordanian BDS movement relaunched its social media campaign against gas imports from Israel that was first launched in September 2014 following reports of renewed negotiations between Noble Energy and the Jordanian authorities.
The partners of the Leviathan gas reservoir signed a letter of intent to supply about 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Jordan’s National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) over a 15-year period in September 2014. However that deal was put on hold by Jordan due to upheaval between Israel’s Antitrust Authority and the Leviathan natural gas reservoir’s main stakeholders.

Israel police to appoint first Muslim deputy commissioner

Jamal Hakrush has been tapped to become the first Arab Muslim promoted to deputy commissioner in the Israel Police.
Hakrush, a career police officer who hails from the Galilee village of Kafr Kanna, will take up the role at the helm of a new police unit aimed at fighting the disproportionate amount of crime within Israel’s Arab community, police confirmed.
Police spokeswoman Luba Samri refused to go into detail regarding the expected appointment, only saying that Hakrush was qualified and had many accomplishments. “He is a suitable candidate to do this job,” she said.
Commissioner Roni Alsheich announced the new initiative on Tuesday during an “appreciation day” for police in the Knesset. He explained its necessity due to “frighteningly high” rates of domestic violence, murder, illegal weapons possession, and other crimes in the Arab sector.

High Court ruling ends gay Palestinian’s asylum nightmare

A gay Palestinian man seeking asylum in Israel has reportedly been assured that he will not be sent back to the West Bank after the High Court of Justice intervened, ending a years-long saga during which he was arrested repeatedly.
According to an Army Radio report Thursday, the unnamed Palestinian came to Israel five years ago from the West Bank after fleeing for his life, and was given a temporary residence permit by the IDF’s Civil Administration.
Yet, a lack of coordination between authorities has resulted in delays in the issuing of new permits for him, and he has thus been arrested six times, three in the past week alone, on suspicion of being an illegal alien.
After his most recent arrest in Tel Aviv, the man’s case was referred to the High Court of Justice, which acknowledged the life-threatening circumstances and released him unconditionally, allowing him to stay in the country even without a permit, the report said.

Israeli dentist gets 20 months for delivering cash to Hamas

An Arab Israeli dentist was sentenced Tuesday to 20 months in prison for aiding the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas by transferring large sums of money to members of the organization in the West Bank.
The Nazareth District Court handed down the sentence to 32-year-old Malik Jamil Mubarak Khatib from the northern Arab Israeli town of Kafr Kanna. He also received an NIS 50,000 ($13,000) fine.
Khatib was apprehended in May 2015 in a joint operation by the Shin Bet security service and police while on his way to the Palestinian West Bank city of Ramallah.
A sum of NIS 170,000 (about $43,700) in cash was found in Khatib’s possessions at the time of the arrest.
The court mentioned in its ruling that the Shin Bet had specifically warned Khatib not to engage in such activity on two occasions in the weeks prior to his arrest.

Robert Kennedy assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, denied parole

Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy in 1968, was denied parole for the 15th time on Wednesday, a California prison official said.
Sirhan, 71, had a suitability hearing at the Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility near San Diego, the California Board of Parole Hearings said on its website.
Sirhan will be up again for parole in five years, said Luis Patino, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

JPost Editorial: Hope, not tunnels

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot on Tuesday delivered a welcome measure of reassurance to some Israelis who think they hear digging underneath their homes, and some who in any case advocate a second Operation Defensive Shield in the West Bank.
Rumors of IDF countermeasures have abounded recently, with perhaps the most outrageous being a proposed carpet bombing along the Gaza perimeter to surround the northern Gaza border with craters deep enough to deter tunneling. If it rains enough to fill it, we could have a moat between us and Gaza.
Eisenkot sought to relieve fears of a renewed Gaza tunneling offensive by declaring Israel’s counter-tunnel technology to be “the best in the world” in an address before the Fourth Annual Conference in Memory of Lt.-Gen. Amnon Lipkin Shahak, held at the IDC, Herzliya.
Declining to reveal specifics, he noted only that such measures are mostly hidden from public view. But since 2013, he added, “this has been at the top of the IDF’s priority list. There has been an ongoing intelligence effort,” he added.

Hints by Security Officials Support Palestinian Suspicions of Israeli Hand in Hamas Tunnel Collapses

Comments made by the head of the IDF at a conference in Herzliya on Tuesday enhanced Palestinian suspicions that Israel was behind the collapse over the past month of five Gaza-originated tunnels and killing of Hamas operatives inside, the Hebrew news site Walla reported on Wednesday.
Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot said the IDF was using all means at its disposal to neutralize the tunnels, noting that most of the methods it employed were clandestine.
In addition, according to Walla, in an interview with the Palestinian news agency Ma’an last week, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai – the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories – responded ambiguously to whether or not Israel had a hand in the tunnel collapses. “Only God knows,” he said.

Hamas launches attack against Israel - on social media

With Israel and Hamas playing a game of cat and mouse underground along the Gaza frontier, the two combatants have opened up a new front in their long-running war – social media.
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit posted an item on its Twitter feed that notes how the Palestinian Islamist group glorifies suicide bombing while threatening "to blow the roofs off of buses" in a new intifada.
The post prompted the Hamas military wing to retaliate with its own angry retort, saying that "force is the only language you understand…idiots!"
Hamas has been in the news recently as the issue of its tunnels gained attention.
The collapse of four tunnels recently – underground passages that Israel says are intended to launch and facilitate attacks against its soldiers and civilians – cost the lives of a number of operatives with the group's military wing.

Emerging split within Hamas' military wing following member's execution

The armed wing of Hamas is facing a split following the execution earlier this week of a top commander of Izaddin Al-Kassam, Mohamed Eshtaiwi.
Hamas said that it executed Eshtaiwi for “moral and behavioral trespasses.” He was a senior commander of Izaddin Al-Kassam and was in charge of some of its tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
On Thursday, a hitherto unknown group called “The Free Al-Kassam Brigade” issued a statement in which it strongly condemned the execution of Eshtaiwi and called for an investigation.
Sources in the Gaza Strip said that the group consists of members of Izaddin Al-Kassam who belong to Eshtaiwi’s family.
The group claimed that Eshtaiwi was found guilty of “treason” for “contacting” leaders of Hamas abroad. It pledged allegiance to Hamas leader Khaled Marshal, who is based in Qatar.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas delegation in Iran to mark 1979 Islamic Revolution

A Hamas delegation arrived in Tehran on Wednesday to participate in celebrations marking the anniversary of the “victory of the Islamic Revolution” in 1979.
The delegation, which is headed by Abu Omar Nasser, is expected to hold talks with a number of senior Iranian officials, according to reports in the Iranian media.
The visit comes despite ongoing tensions between Iran and Hamas over the latter’s refusal to support the regime of President Bashar Assad in the civil war in Syria.
As a result of the tensions, Iran has reportedly suspended financial and military aid to Hamas.
On the eve of the visit, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hussein Ansari announced that his country was continuing to support Palestinian “resistance” groups, including Hamas.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Israel Snags Royalty Rights To ‘Protocols’ (satire)

Treasury officials gathered in the Israeli capital today to celebrate the country’s most recent achievement, a secret deal that will allow the Jewish state to profit from each sale of the infamous Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a book that has proved especially popular in the Arab and Muslim world.
Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon assembled his senior staff to mark the completion of a royalties arrangement binding on all publishing houses worldwide, an agreement that removes the book from the public domain and secures its publication, translation, and distribution rights for the Government of Israel in perpetuity. For each copy of the work sold, Israel will earn fifteen percent of the cover price, and will thus gain immensely from the burgeoning sales of the book among those who wish the nation ill.
The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, published in the late nineteenth century in Russia, purports to document a world-spanning Jewish conspiracy to control economies and governments. Antisemites have seized on it as a pretext for their prejudices, and it is extensively taken as factual in societies where hatred of Jews and Israel is commonplace, such as the Islamic world. An Egyptian publisher recently issued yet another edition, as it proves perennially popular; it is even required reading in many schools.
Now, however, those who buy into the conspiracy theory will face the tough choice of enlightening themselves with the nefarious designs of the Jews as depicted in the Protocols, thereby empowering the Jewish cabal with even more cash, and remaining in the dark as to the specifics of those designs by declining to purchase the book. Publishers, especially, face a Hobson’s choice, given that they stand to lose from any popular movement to obtain the text by other means.

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