03/10 Links Pt1: Douglas Murray: Iran's Cash for Murder; My friend Taylor Force is dead ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Iran's Cash for Murder: Why is the UK Silent?

The Iranian distribution of cash to families of terrorists is an open incitement to an ongoing campaign of murder. It should by now have not only been condemned by the whole world, but have caused a colossal rethink among the P5+1 nations that signed the ill-judged accord with Iran.
It is worth considering another recent Iranian development: the decision -- allegedly by a conglomeration of media outlets, but hardly able to be separated from the government in a country whose press is more "government" than "free" -- to increase the cash-bounty on the head of the British novelist Salman Rushdie.
The British government has been strangely mute on the matter. The "normalised" relations with Iran were meant to lead to business opportunities for Britain and an increase in decent behavior from Tehran. Instead, the first major test of Iranian-British relations in several decades turns out to be precisely the same test that the late Ayatollah Khomeini drew up in 1989.

My friend Taylor Force is dead

He laughed and smiled a lot in the classes at West Point. He sat behind me, next to me, or across from me during our first two years at the United States’ premier institution. He was very mild-mannered, sharp, and professional. I couldn’t think of someone who was more of a model of “America’s finest” than him. He was handsome, articulate, brilliant, and just so GOOD. I can’t think of a moment where he wasn’t exuding an aura of pure positive energy. He was as honest and heartfelt as they come, but now he’s dead.
Taylor Force was murdered in cold blood by a West Bank Palestinian. Hamas announced that they’re celebrating their martyrs last night. As I write this, there are parties from Gaza to Ramallah continuing all day, and probably tonight. It’s not every day they get a former US Army officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. For them, this is a great boon.
Taylor died in a war that he didn’t know he was in the middle of. Taylor is dead because of a lot of misleading ideas about exactly what goes on in Israel. Misleading people is currently the policy of the US government.
The US and Israel’s policy is to see the idea of a Two State Solution through. The reason for this policy is the belief that there’s more good than evil in the world, and peace is a reality that can be achieved. Moreover, they believe peace is something that must be achieved.

Mourning the Loss of Taylor Force

Taylor Force, who died yesterday when a Palestinian terrorist stabbed him to death near the beach in Jaffa, was an Eagle Scout. He was a Field Artillery Officer in the United States Army who had served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. He was a graduate student of business administration at Vanderbilt University, and he was in Israel on a school-sponsored trip to do what creative, enterprising people in free and robust societies do when they travel: meet like-minded people, inspire and draw inspiration in turn, and enjoy a meal and a stroll in a scenic part of town.
That’s a vision of life that Israelis readily share. The young Palestinian man who snuck into Tel Aviv for no other purpose than to take the lives of innocent men and women, and who ended up killing Force and wounding his wife, holds a starkly different view. So does Mahmoud Abbas, who recently insisted that terror acts like the murder of Force were nothing more than “a peaceful popular uprising,” as well as the majority of Palestinian officialhood, which supports the violence in words and in deeds, and, according to a recent poll, 72 percent of young Palestinians, for whom violence, not diplomacy, is the path forward.

How You Can Support the Family of Taylor Force, the American Student Murdered in Israel

On Tuesday, American business school student Taylor Force was murdered in Tel Aviv in a spree of terrorist attacks across Israel that left 14 injured. Force, 28, was in Israel on a school trip run by Vanderbilt University, where he was an MBA student. His wife was also severely injured in the attack, according to Israeli medical services.
A graduate of West Point, Force was a combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Today, speaking alongside Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Vice President Joe Biden mourned Force, saying: “Let me say in no uncertain terms: the United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts. This cannot become an accepted modus operandi. This cannot be viewed by civilized leaders as an appropriate way in which to behave even if it appears to inure to the benefit of one side or the other. It’s just not tolerable in the 21st century. They’re targeting innocent civilians, mothers, pregnant women, teenagers, grandfathers, American citizens. There can be no justification for this hateful violence.”
In the wake of Force’s tragic murder, one of his classmates has launched a crowdfunding campaign to assist his family. “The world lost a wonderful man on Tuesday,” the page reads. “Taylor was loved and respected by everyone who was fortunate to have known him. His permanent smile, positive spirit, and kindness were complemented with his honor, integrity, and dedication to serving others.” You can donate here.

Defiantly tranquil Tel Aviv walks off fatal stabbing spree

A day after an American tourist was killed and 10 people were injured by a Palestinian terrorist on a stabbing spree here, the Tel Aviv promenade leading into Jaffa was still bustling Wednesday with international tourists and residents soaking up the panoramic views of the Mediterranean.
Aside from frequent police patrols and a number of police cars stationed around Jaffa’s Watchtower Square and the southern part of the promenade, nothing looked out of the ordinary. ZAKA crews had worked through Tuesday night to scrub any remnants of blood from the sidewalk.
“I feel very secure; we didn’t feel scared at all,” said Ana Maria Varela, a Peruvian tourist on a 10-day pilgrimage to Israel, as she walked near the site of the fatal stabbing. “You can’t even tell that something happened. It’s not like at home in Lima. A day after an event like this you’d still be able to feel it.”
Only hours earlier another tourist, American student Taylor Force, had been walking in the same area when he was stabbed to death by Bashar Massalha. Force, a US army veteran and a graduate student at Vanderbilt University, was killed and his wife critically injured in the attack, which followed two other terror attacks that same day in Petah Tikva and Jerusalem.

Russian Victim of Jaffa Terror Attack Praises Israeli Medical Care
Yevgeny and Irina Tsiplin, a Russian couple wounded in Tuesday’s Palestinian stabbing spree in Jaffa, say they are grateful for the medical care they received and continue to receive following the incident.
Tsiplin was treated for mild injuries and released from Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center, where his wife, who is six months pregnant, continues to receive medical care for moderate injuries. The couple was visiting Israel for the first time.
“The doctors told us that everything is fine with the pregnancy,” Tsiplin said.
He went on to describe the circumstances of the attack, saying, “We came to Israel to travel on our own for 10 days, and [on Tuesday] we decided to visit the boardwalk. The terrorist ran up and injured me and then my wife….There was a group of American tourists beside us, and he also attacked them. There was a doctor among the group and he was the first to help us until emergency services arrived.”
Despite the shock of the attack, he said, “What happened to us could have happened anywhere in the world, so I am not afraid to come back here. We really enjoyed ourselves, and that is also what we will tell our friends.”

Son of Family Slain by Hamas Infiltrator in 2002 — Awarded Citation for Subduing Butcher-Knife Killer in 2006 — Thwarts Attack on Wife by Female Palestinian Terrorist Today

An Israeli who thwarted a terrorist attack on Wednesday afternoon overpowered a terrorist in 2006, after losing his parents, brother and grandfather in a terrorist attack in 2002, the Hebrew news site nrg reported.
Yeshurun Gavish, a resident of Kedumim, a settlement in Samaria (the West Bank), was in the middle of the circumcision ceremony of his new-born nephew, when his wife, Dikla – who had left the premises to get something from her house a few doors away – phoned to tell him (and security forces) that there was a female terrorist outside with a knife.
According to nrg, Gavish ran home, where Dikla had locked herself in the bathroom, and he assisted three IDF soldiers and the settlement’s security guard in neutralizing the woman.
“It evoked pictures in my mind of what happened to the Gavish family back then,” Dikla told nrg, referring to the March 28, 2002 Hamas massacre, which left her husband’s parents, Rachel and David Gavish, both 50, his brother Avraham Gavish, 20, and maternal grandfather Yitzhak Kanner, 83, dead.

Peace Now Leader Slams Extrajudicial Killing Of… I Just Can’t…

Yariv Oppenheimer, leader if leftist NGO Peace Now just tweeted something that left us scratching our heads this morning.
Translation: “In Petach Tikvah and in Jaffa, videos showing how neutralizing (a terrorist) becomes an extrajudicial killing. In the current atmosphere no one in the media dares to deal with the situation.”
Now if you were following the news of yesterday’s terror attacks you would have read that in the incident in Petach Tikvah referred to by Oppenheimer, Yonatan Azarihab, the orthodox man who was collecting money for charity at the time was stabbed multiple times in his upper body. In what I can only imagine was a superhuman burst of adrenaline, Azarihab pulled the knife out of his own neck and stabbed his own attacker to death.
You read that right. Yonatan Azarihab is deserving of condemnation for what you just read according to the likes of Oppenheimer.

More Lies from Eyad Kishawi

Eyad Kishawi, posting in Facebook as Eyad Kay remains a consistent source of misinformation.
Ahmad Amer was shot after attacking a soldier with a knife. Yet Eyad, co-founder of the extremist group Al Awda shared a post that claimed:
He had a pen, not a knife, yet he was executed by Zionist occupation forces today, his name is Ahmad Amer from Zawyah village, near Salfit, he is a 16 years old schoolboy, 9 March 2016.
Eyad, how many "innocent" 16 year olds write a will before they leave home?

Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas Ignores Biden's Call to Condemn Terrorist Attacks

In Washington, the White House echoed his call. Press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters the Obama administration expects Palestinian leadership to condemn “any act of terrorism” against innocent civilians, including the stabbing attack that took Force’s life.
But the PA officials rejected the Vice President's request.
After offering his condolences at their Ramallah meeting, Abbas told Biden that Israel has “killed 200 Palestinians in the past five months,” but he did not clarify that many of those deaths were Palestinians killed attempting to execute attacks against Israelis.
Abbas stressed the need to “combat terrorism in all its forms,” according to a statement released by Abbas’s office after the meeting. “Victory over ISIS and terrorism requires the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital,” the statement quoted Abbas as telling Biden.
Abbas held Israel responsible for the current wave of terrorism.
“The continued Israeli dictates, settlements and occupation are the reason behind the violence and bloodshed,” Abbas charged.
One official said Biden should have demanded that Israel “halt its policy of extra-judicial executions” against Palestinians and “daily assaults” on al-Aksa Mosque and other Islamic holy sites. Amin Maqboul, a senior Fatah official who is closely associated with Abbas, said the Palestinian leadership was not denouncing attacks on Israelis because Israel does not condemn “deliberate attacks against Palestinians.”

Broad support in Knesset for bill to deport terrorists' families to Gaza

MKs from all coalition parties and some in the opposition signed a bill that would deport terrorists’ family members to Gaza, which Knesset House Committee David Bitan (Likud) submitted Wednesday.
The idea for the bill came from Transportation and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz, after Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit said last week that expelling Palestinian terrorists’ families from the West Bank to Gaza violates Israeli and international law and could play into the hands of those seeking to have Israel tried for war crimes in the International Criminal Court.
Katz said the bill is “a firstrate act of deterrence,” and called on the Attorney-General’s Office to cooperate and allow it to pass into law quickly.
“Everyone must understand that we are at the height of a war against ISISstyle terrorist attacks by radical Islam,” Katz stated. “This is terrorism by individuals, about which we do not have additional intelligence, and therefore, we need to take additional deterrent and preventative steps.”

Herzog to Biden: Jews will continue to be murdered if we don't separate from the Palestinians

If Israel does not take steps to separate from the Palestinians, Jews will continue to be killed in terror attacks and the two-state solution will be in danger, opposition leader Isaac Herzog told US Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday.
Biden met with Herzog before concluding his three-day trip to Israel in a conversation that focused on the current wave of terror and on Biden's impressions on the Palestinian issue based on his talks with leaders during his visit. The US vice president's trip saw him meet both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas separately. Biden traveled to Jordan on Thursday after concluding his visit in Israel.
Herzog presented his initiative on separating from the Palestinians to Biden, saying that "only separation will bring a halt to terror."
The opposition leader told Biden that his plan is intended to stop the wave of lone wolf terror and preserve the vision of two states for two peoples, "the only vision that will preserve Israel as a Jewish, secure and democratic state."
Herzog’s plan calls for completing the security fence around settlement blocs. Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem would be outside the fence.

Jerusalem shooter's last will: 'Palestinian factions mustn’t claim responsibility for my attack'

The Palestinian terrorist who carried out a shooting attack in Jerusalem Wednesday had demanded in his last will that Palestinian factions not claim responsibility for the terror attack he carried out.
Mohammad Jamal Kaluti, 21, carried out a shooting attack on an Egged bus in the capital's Ramot neighborhood Wednesday morning accompanied by another Palestinian, Abdel Malik Abu Kharub. After the two opened fire on the bus from a car they were driving in, they fired again at security forces, injuring a police officer. They were shot by Israeli policeman and died later.
In his last will, Kaluti demanded the Palestinian factions: "Do not claim responsibility for my martyrdom-seeking operation. I do not belong to any faction and my martyrdom is a sacrifice for Allah."
Kaluti's demand demonstrated a prevalent tendency among Palestinian terrorists in the recent wave of violence – disassociating themselves from official Palestinian terror organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who are no longer regarded as the champions of Palestinian resistance.

EXCLUSIVE - ‘Divine Vengeance’: Gaza Terrorists Celebrate Murder of American Veteran Killed in Jaffa Stabbing Rampage

In exclusive interviews, Islamic extremists in Gaza welcomed Tuesday’s stabbing rampage in Jaffa that left one American tourist dead and at least eleven people wounded, some seriously.
The American victim was identified as Vanderbilt graduate student Taylor Force, 29, a U.S. military veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Abu Seif Aldin, a senior operative in Hamas’ so-called military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, told Breitbart Jerusalem that “the attack was a natural reaction to the crimes of the Israeli occupation against the Palestinians.”
Force should have known he entered a “war zone,” Adlin added, because “as long as the occupation continues nobody is safe.”
“The Palestinians had nothing against him personally, but everybody who supports the occupation, as a tourist, businessman or any other function bears responsibility. And you saw what happened to that young American.”
“It was a divine attack, a divine vengeance,” said Abu Ayna Al-Ansari, a well-known, Gaza-based Salafist jihadist leader. “The casualty in the battle against the Zionist occupiers was an American soldier who fought in the war against Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

BBC News misleads audiences on Fatah incitement map

In other words the BBC is not prepared to tell its audiences in its own words about the incitement and glorification of terrorism coming from the PA leadership and other official Palestinian sources: rather, it frames that subject as something that ‘Israel says’.
Moreover, the report’s next paragraph presents a very recent example of glorification of terrorism from Fatah within the same framing – even whilst misleading readers about a map which actually eliminates Israel.Fatah map
“A spokesman for Mr Netanyahu noted on Wednesday morning that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement had posted on Twitter a cartoon showing a hand holding a knife over a map of Israel and the Palestinian territories calling the Jaffa assailant a “hero” and a “martyr”.”
The article then goes on to promote ‘whataboutery’ and unchallenged falsehood from a veteran Fatah propagandist.
“An aide to Mr Abbas, Nabil Shaath, told AP that Mr Biden “should start from where the real crime is, which is the Israeli occupation and Israeli colonial settlement, because the beginning is here for those who want peace in the Middle East.””
So there we have it: further evidence that the BBC is too ideologically conscripted to tell its audiences about the very relevant subject of Palestinian Authority incitement in its own words.

Censored by Buzzfeed: Seven Unbelievable Israeli Defence Technologies That Could Save Your Life

If ever you’re attacked by a knife-wielding terrorist, these seven incredible Israeli innovations could save your life, tried and tested over five months of near-daily Palestinian attacks in Israel. They don’t call Israel the Start-Up Nation for nothing.
1. Nunchucks
Yair Ben-Shabat happened to be holding nunchucks as he walked in Jerusalem by the 185 bus, when a Palestinian terrorist stabbed a soldier on the bus and tried to steal his weapon. “I jumped onto the bus and helped them fight the terrorist,” recalls the unlikely hero. “I took nunchucks out and hit him where I had to for them to be able to pry loose the weapon he held.” #Zioninja.
The above post was deleted from the BuzzFeed website hours after being uploaded. It was censored for containing a “political agenda”. Apparently the notion of Jews defending their own lives from political violence is still controversial. So I’ll repost it here instead. Judge for yourself.

How Well Did Your News Source Cover the American Murdered by a Palestinian on March 8, 2016?

The Knoxville News provided a brief biography of the American graduate student, Taylor Force, who was murdered in Jaffa, Israel by a Palestinian terrorist. The article's lead sentence stated, "A West Point graduate who served tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan was the Vanderbilt University student stabbed to death during a series of attacks in Israel, officials said." It also provided a photograph of Force (above).
A Reuters article identified Force as the victim of the attack, but offered no information except that he was a "tourist."
The Huffington Post, relying upon the Reuters report supplied no further information.
An Associated Press (AP) report appearing on Yahoo News identified Force as a graduate student at Vanderbilt, but did not mention his military service or that he was a graduate of West Point.
Evidencing a disturbing detachment from the shocking incident, the Newshour proceded with an interview by Judy Woodruff of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman about Vice President Biden's trip to Israel. After briefly noting the stabbing attack, the interview moved on and never mentioned it again. Friedman demonstrated exquisite poor timing with an analogy about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, stating,
It’s actually been dead for a while. I just called it by its real name. It’s clear to me, Judy, that both sides have conspired. This was like “Murder on the Orient Express.” There were so many stab wounds in this body, hard to tell exactly which one was the fatal blow.
Friedman closed the interview with his oft-repeated and tired analogy, "friends don’t let friends drive drunk, and we have been letting a lot of people drive drunk."

Shmuley Boteach: The Obama administration and Israel’s abused leaders

When Oren arrived in DC he learned that, "Secretary of State Clinton has excoriated Netanyahu for 45 minutes over the phone, rebuking him for humiliating the president and undermining America’s ability to deal with pressing Middle East issues." Oren was then called in for an "immediate meeting" with Steinberg.
Oren writes that his approach would be "While I would continue to adhere publicly to the ‘all’s well’ [between the United States and Israel] pose, behind the scenes I would forcibly resist this attempt to fabricate a crisis." Oren continues, “There, waiting in his not-nice American mode, was Deputy Secretary Jim Steinberg, who proceeded to read me the text of Hillary’s conversation with Netanyahu. This contained a list of demands, including a total building freeze in East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank, most of which would be unacceptable to any Israeli prime minister, much less a [right-leaning] Likudnik.”
Oren describes, “Steinberg added his own furious comment—department staffers, I later heard, listened in on our conversation and cheered—about Israel’s insult to the president and the pride of the United States.”
Oren did not mince words saying, “Let me get this straight. We inadvertently slight the vice president and apologize, and I become the first foreign ambassador summoned by this administration to the State Department.”
Oren added that the People of Israel will view this as "nothing but a pretext to arm-twist us and beat up on us.”
Such are the tales of how Israel’s leaders have faired under the Administration of President Obama.

Revealed: Obama attacked Netanyahu for being 'condescending'In interview, US President Barack Obama describes for the first time a particularly frosty meeting in which he berated the Israeli PM.

Details of a tense meeting between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have been revealed for the first time, shedding further light on the fraught relationship between the two leaders.
Tensions between the two leaders over major policies, from the peace process with the Palestinian Authority to the nuclear deal with Iran and beyond, have been a feature of their relationship since Obama took office - as have the occasional displays of apparent personal dislike.
But in an interview with veteran American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg for The Atlantic, Obama described one particularly charged meeting in which Netanyahu "launched into something of a lecture about the dangers of the brutal region in which he lives," i.e. the Middle East.
Obama said he felt Netanyahu was being condescending towards him, and responded: "Bibi, you have to understand something. I’m the African American son of a single mother, and I live here, in this house. I live in the White House. I managed to get elected president of the United States. You think I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but I do."
The revelations were made during a special interview marking the last year of Obama's eight terms in office.

'Netanyahu nixed meeting with Obama because of defense package hold-up'

A hold-up over a new US defense package for Israel was behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to forgo a meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington this month, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely's remarks contrasted with a statement by Netanyahu that cited his reluctance to risk being drawn into the US presidential campaign as the reason for declining a White House offer to host him on March 18.
Current US military grants to Israel, worth about $3 billion annually, expire in 2018.
Israel, which last year requested $5 billion in future annual aid but whose officials have since set their sights on $4 billion to $4.5 billion, says it needs to expand its military, rather than just upgrade technologies, given spiraling arms procurement it anticipates by arch-foe Iran and Arab states.
US officials have given lower target figures of around $3.7 billion. The dispute prompted Israeli officials to hint that Netanyahu may bank on Obama's successor for a better deal.

Report: Abbas rejected new peace plan

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas reportedly rejected a new peace plan outlined by visiting US Vice President Joe Biden yesterday, according to Arab media reports.
Abbas and Biden met in the PA leader's Muqata headquarters in Ramallah on Wednesday, following Biden's meeting with Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
According to the Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper, the US Vice President used the opportunity to present Abbas with a fresh initiative, which would have included dividing Jerusalem and a total freeze on Israeli "settlement building" in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.
In return the PA would be expected to recognize Israel as the Jewish state, and give up its demand for a "right of return" for the descendants of Arabs who left the country during the Israeli War of Independence in 1948.
Abbas, not for the first, promptly rejected the generous offer.

France Lobbying Arab States in Effort to Relaunch Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault is seeking support from Arab states in an effort to relaunch peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
“[The Israeli-Palestinian conflict] is a powder keg waiting to explode,” said a senior French diplomat ahead of Ayrault’s two-day visit to Egypt, where he will meet with Arab ministers, Reuters reported Wednesday. “Everybody sees it, and yet nobody is doing anything. We know this isn’t going to be resolved in three months, but it’s imperative to give a new political horizon to the process.”
France reportedly plans to ask Arab countries to commit to a conference, taking place before May, that would set forth incentives aiming to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations by August.

Hundreds of illegal Palestinian workers arrested in mass crackdown

Police arrested hundreds of illegal Palestinian workers, and dozens of Israelis who employed them, in a series of raids across the country on Wednesday and Thursday.
Over 270 people were detained at construction sites and “gathering points,” including 15 supervisors, a police statement said.
“Based on the current security situation, in the past few days the Israel Police has increased enforcement measures against people illegally residing in Israel,” the statement read.
In one operation, 22 Palestinians were arrested at makeshift living quarters near the Besor Stream national park in southern Israel, police said.

6 Palestinians trapped, 1 missing, in Gaza tunnel collapse

Six Gaza Palestinians were trapped and one was missing on Thursday after a tunnel caved in, the sixth to collapse since January, a local civil defense official said.
The cave-in was caused by Egyptian flooding of the border zone in its campaign to stop smuggling, the official told AFP.
He described the underground passage from the southern Gaza town of Rafah into neighboring Egypt as a “trade tunnel.”
Israeli officials have said there are dozens of tunnels linking Gaza to the Sinai Peninsula and used to smuggle goods — including weapons — and people in and out of the Gaza Strip.
A local official confirmed that authorities had spoken by cellphone to one of the men trapped by the tunnel collapse and that rescue efforts were under way.
Tunnels falling in have left 12 Gazans dead since the beginning of this year.

Foreign press group slams Hamas for ‘excessive’ new fees

An umbrella group representing foreign journalists working in Israel and the Palestinian territories on Wednesday condemned Hamas for increasing registration fees for armored cars used by journalists covering the Gaza Strip.
In a sharply worded reproach of the “excessive” new measures posted on its website, the Foreign Press Association said it was “deeply disturbed” to learn of the upped prices.
In the past, authorities in Gaza applied the same fee for armored cars as for other vehicles with the same size and type of engine, namely NIS 2,100 ($538) a year for a diesel vehicle.
Hamas officials are now impounding foreign news organizations’ armored cars and demanding NIS 4,000 a year.

Israelis and Palestinians cooperate in rescue of sick Gaza lion

A lion in declining health was rescued from a zoo in Gaza and transferred to a zoo in the West Bank on Wednesday the Defense Ministry reported.
The relocation of the lion to a zoo near Tulkarm was facilitated in a joint effort by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and the Gaza Ministry of Agriculture.
The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture and Park Authority in partnership with COGAT expedited the the lion's acclimation process in his new home.
The state of the animals in Gazan zoos has long be the concern of animal rights activists and governmental authorities internationally. The combination of military conflict with Israel and the oppressive Hamas regime has left many animals dead.
In May of 2015, two lion cubs from Gaza were rescued by an international animal welfare organization FOUR PAWS and taken to a Jordanian animal treatment and rehabilitation center.

Palestinian Women Turn to Israel for Abortions

“Fatma”, a mother of twins with a demanding workload, was distraught to discover she was pregnant again. Her doctor agreed to perform an abortion, she says, only after she promised to pretend the procedure had been a medical emergency.
“He felt sorry for me and told me, ‘If someone asks you how you ended up having an abortion, I will be in trouble and will lose my job, so say you were hemorrhaging at the time,'” said Fatma, who lives in the West Bank.
“He did the abortion for me – the first time, the second time and third time,” she told Reuters, speaking on condition her real name not be used as she had never told her husband.
For women seeking abortions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where Palestinian law strictly limits the procedure, the choice is stark: have the baby or terminate the pregnancy by using ruses, risky back-alley methods or even turning to neighboring Israel, where the laws are far more permissive.
Women’s rights campaigners rue the ban but decriminalization looks unlikely. Conservative customs guide much of Palestinian society and parliament has effectively been suspended since 2007 because of factional disputes, making it impossible to amend or pass new laws.

Anti-Israel groups planning 'women flotilla'

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), a group which has been behind previous initiatives to breach Israel's naval blockade on Gaza, has announced yet another flotilla, this one made up of women activists.
The group chose International Women’s Day to announce the launch of their Women’s Boat to Gaza (WBG) project, it said in a statement.
According to the announcement, the Women’s Boat to Gaza will set sail in mid-September of this year, and plans to dock at a number of Mediterranean ports along its route, and arrive Gaza on October 1.
The statement also added that the flotilla will carry notable women from all over the world, in order to highlight “the undeniable contributions which have been made by Palestinian women to the resistance movement”.
The flotilla is endorsed by women’s organizations from all over the world, including the Women’s Affairs Center (Gaza), The Coalition of Women for Peace (Israel), and organizations from Spain, Norway, Mexico, the United States and Canada.

MEMRI: On International Women's Day, Palestinian 'Al-Quds' Daily Lionizes Terrorists As Paragons Of Palestinian Womanhood

On the occasion of International Women's Day, the Jerusalem-based Palestinian daily Al-Quds posted an article titled "Pioneers in Fighting, Struggle and Social Activism: Palestinian Women Took Part In Making History." The article features short biographies of 16 Palestinian women, several of whom are terrorists, including Dalal Al-Mughrabi, Fatima Bernawi and Leila Khaled. Also featured is Umaya Juha, known for her inciting cartoons. The article presents terrorist attacks as laudable acts of bravery and self-sacrifice.
The article on a page of the paper devoted to International Women's Day
The following are details on several of the women featured in the article, and a translation of the article's description of them.

PMW: PA TV on Women's Day: Female terrorist murderer is role model

On International Women's Day, a host on official Palestinian Authority TV urged Palestinian women to "remember" terrorist Dalal Mughrabi who led the most lethal terrorist attack in Israel's history - known as the Coastal Road Massacre - in which Dalal Mughrabi and other terrorists killed 37 Israeli civilians, among them 12 children.
Palestinian Media Watch has shown that Dalal Mughrabi is presented by PA and Fatah leaders as one of the prime heroes of Palestinian society.
The PA TV host asked Director of the General Association for Women's Affairs in Tyre, Lebanon, Alia Zamzam, what significance International Women's Day has for Palestinian women and the director replied that Palestinian women "struggle" as the men do, and then mentioned terrorist "sister Dalal Mughrabi" as a "source of pride" for Palestinian women:
"We salute sister Dalal Mughrabi (i.e., who led killing of 37)... Dalal Mughrabi was one of the fighting sisters, and it may be that she paved the way so the sisters could continue. She was a source of pride for the Palestinian woman." [Official PA TV, March 7, 2016]

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