05/02 Links Pt1: Corbyn called convicted 'terrorist' an 'iconic figure'; Today's Labour suspension count 3.. so far ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Jeremy Corbyn called convicted 'terrorist' an 'iconic figure'

Jeremy Corbyn described a convicted terrorist accused of plotting a series of suicide attacks in Israel as an “icon” and compared him to Nelson Mandela.
In a post now deleted from Mr Corbyn’s website, the Labour leader described Marwan Barghouti as an “iconic figure for ordinary Palestinians”.
Barghouti was convicted of organising attacks against Israeli civilians and allegedly founded the Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, a designated terrorist organisation.
The comments threaten to intensify the anti-Semitism row that has engulfed the Labour Party in the last week.
In 2004, an Israeli court sentenced Barghouti to five life sentences and 40 years in jail. He was accused of orchestrating ambushes and suicide attacks during the Palestinian Intifada.
In the article entitled “An icon is born: Marwan Barghouti”, Mr Corbyn wrote: “His sentence of five life terms by an Israeli Court means he now becomes an iconic figure for ordinary Palestinians, and his unshakable belief that he will be freed is shared by many.
"The Palestinian papers have likened his situation to that facing Mandela after the Rivonia Treason Trial in 1964.
"Indeed the similarities go well beyond the trial and prosecution of Marwan.”
Mr Corbyn has repeatedly failed to apologise for his past links to Hamas and Hezbollah.
He once described members of the two Islamist militant organisations as “friends”.

Pressure grows on Jeremy Corbyn as dossier of anti-Semitism in Labour Party is revealed

A dossier compiled by The Telegraph includes a series of disturbing examples of anti-Semitic attitudes among party activists and leading members.
It follows the suspension from the party last week of Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, and of Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West, for making anti-Semitic comments.
Labour has announced an independent inquiry into anti-Semitism and other forms of racism within the party.
But Mr Livingstone, who was suspended after saying that Hitler supported Zionism “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”, on Saturday refused to withdraw his statements and claimed the Israeli Prime Minister agreed with him.
Our dossier reveals that:
- A London Labour council leader shared a Facebook post comparing the “terrorist state of Israel” to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). He apologised and deleted it on Saturday;
- Mr Corbyn questioned why an anti-Semitic mural in east London should be taken down;
- The Labour leader also attended events run by self-confessed Holocaust denier Paul Eisen long after his views had become clear, and
- A Labour council candidate used the derogatory term “Zios” to refer to Jews.
Muhammed Butt, leader of Brent Council and “equalities lead” on the body representing 32 London boroughs, shared a post calling Israel a terrorist state and compared it to Isil, on April 16. It showed a Palestinian girl in a skirmish with an Israeli soldier.

UK Labour chief Corbyn rejects call to denounce Hamas, Hezbollah

Corbyn used a May Day rally to say the party “is absolutely against anti-Semitism in any form” after a tumultuous week that focused attention on the party’s attitude toward Jews instead of its campaigning efforts ahead of London’s mayoral race.
But as Labour attempted to push back against efforts to label it anti-Semitic, it also came under fire for Corbyn’s past contacts with Hamas and Hezbollah, both sworn to Israel’s destruction.
A statement from Corbyn’s spokesperson said he would continue to engage such groups, while denying that doing so was tantamount to an endorsement.
“Jeremy Corbyn has been a longstanding supporter of Palestinian rights and the pursuit of peace and justice in the Middle East through dialogue and negotiation,” the statement read, according to the Telegraph newspaper. “He has met many people with whom he profoundly disagrees in order to promote peace and reconciliation processes, including in South Africa, Latin American, Ireland and the Middle East. He believes it is essential to speak to people with whom there is disagreement, particularly when they have large-scale support or democratic mandates.”

Tell me who your friends are... Corbyn is not the person to fight Labour's anti-Semitism problem

Meet Hezbollah and Hamas. These are the people Jeremy Corbyn is calling "our friends."
Do you really believe that he is the right person to fight the growing anti-Semitism in the Labour party?

Jeremy Corbyn’s May Day CPGB-ML allies support Hamas “resistance missiles” & see Holocaust Denial as reasonable

Here are Jeremy Corbyn’s comrades from this year’s May Day rally in London, where he reassured those listening that he opposed antisemitism and all forms of racism:
Corbyn is surrounded by CPGB-ML flags:
They quickly started chanting against Israel:
“5, 6, 7, 8
Israel is a racist state!”
You see the flags belong to the Communist Part of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist); or CPGB-ML for short.
Harpreet Brar is the founder of the pro-North Korea party, and his daughter Joti Brar is an active member.
She published an article for the website of Holocaust revisionist Gilad Atzmon (who says throwing Jews into the sea is unfair on the sea, the Jews provoked the Nazis, Hitler will be proved right), about how the PSC should not be removing Holocaust deniers from its midst:

Labour officials suspended as anti-Israel post scandal widens

The party said Monday that Nottingham City councilor Ilyas Aziz has been suspended pending an investigation.
It later said Salim Mulla, a Blackburn with Darwen city councilor, was also suspended after anti-Israel Facebook posts surfaced.
According to a report from The Independent, many of the comments by Aziz were apparently made in August 2014, including one Facebook post in which Aziz wrote that “Jews and Muslims lived together in the Middle East, in peace pre 1948. Perhaps it would have been wiser to create Israel in America it’s big enough. They could relocate even now.”
In other posts he appeared to liken Israeli actions toward the Palestinians to those of the Nazis against Jews, referred to Israel as an illegal state, and made comments about “Zionist invaders.”

Another Labour Politician Wants to “Relocate” Jews to America

Pictured with Jeremy Corbyn above is Ilyas Aziz, a Labour councillor in Nottingham who backed Jezza for Leader. Cllr Aziz is Facebook friends with dozens of Labour MPs, all of whom must have missed him arguing that Israeli Jews should “relocate” to America “now“. Naz Shah was suspended for saying almost the exact same thing…
Cllr Aziz is also obsessed with the Rothschilds, for example posting this David Icke graphic:
And this image from the “Israel – Rothschilds’ Frankenstein Monster” account:
Cllr Aziz also posted a graphic about “drinking Gaza blood”.

Third Labour Councillor Suspended Over “Hitler” Tweet

And that’s the hat-trick. Burnley Labour councillor Shah Hussain has been suspended for tweeting to the Israeli footballer Yossi Benayoun that “you and your country doing the same thing that hitler did to ur race in ww2”. Cllr Hussain is certainly a charmer, he also expressed disappointment that the footballer was not kicked in the head “hard enough”.
A Labour spokesperson said:
“Councillor Shah Hussain has been suspended from the Labour Party pending the outcome of an investigation.”
Cllr Hussain tells Guido that he has not been “formally informed” of his suspension but confirms Labour have been in touch and that he believes he will be suspended pending the outcome of an investigation. That’s three Labour councillors booted out in five hours…

Labour Councillor: Israel Behind ISIS, “Zionist Jews are a Disgrace to Humanity”

Guido has just got off the phone with Salim Mulla, the former mayor of Blackburn who currently sits as a Labour councillor there. Last year Cllr Mulla posted on his Facebook page that it is “bloody obvious” who is behind ISIS: “Those who are not sure. ISRAEL.”
Cllr Mulla also posted the same graphic that got Naz Shah suspended, writing that the forced transportation of Jews out of the Middle East was a “very easy solution”.
He also posted a conspiracy theory video claiming Israel was responsible for the Sandy Hook shooting, adding “he is talking facts”.
And Cllr Mulla says “Zionist Jews are a disgrace to humanity”.

'Netanyahu, war criminals not welcome in UK,' suspended Labor member says

Two more Labor Party members were suspended Monday after posting anti-Israel messages on social media, continuing a rash of damning revelations that has placed Jeremy Corbyn's movement under harsher scrutiny for widespread anti-Semitism.
Salim Mulla, the former mayor of Blackburn, was suspended after posting a message on social media suggesting that Israel was responsible for Islamic State attacks against French and Japanese nationals.
News of Mulla's suspension was first reported by Sky News.
A glance at Mulla's Facebook page shows a number of highly critical posts regarding Israel, including one in which he accuses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a "war criminal."

Hate crimes against Jews up sharply in Britain, audit finds

The National Antisemitic Crime Audit from the non-governmental group Campaign Against Antisemitism said that nearly 1,000 incidents were reported in 2015, representing a 25.7% increase in anti-Jewish crimes on 2014, and making it the worse year on record.
Data collected from all of the country’s police forces showed that during 2014, UK police forces recorded 746 anti-Semitic crimes; that figure rose to 938 in 2015.
Violent crime jumped to 196 incidents, a 50.8% rise, in 2015 and accounted for 20.3% all crime against Jews, compared to just 126 incidents representing 16.9% of violent crimes the year before.
However, “despite the growth in antisemitic crime, police forces charged 7.2% fewer cases in 2015 than in 2014, meaning that only 13.6% of cases resulted in charges being brought,” the CAA said. In total 138 charges were brought in 2014, but just 128 in 2015.

EXCLUSIVE: Britain’s Most Notorious Muslim Radical Preacher Defends UK Labour Leaders Accused of Anti-Semitism

During an exclusive interview on Sunday, Britain’s most notorious radical Islamist preacher, Anjem Choudary, provided support for suspended Labour MP Naz Shah’s controversial Facebook post suggesting the relocation of Israel to the United States.
Choudary also defended the British Labour Party generally from charges of anti-Semitism, saying, “I think that the term anti-Semitism has been used as a tool to attack those who criticize Israel. And I think that’s become clear over the last few days.”
He was speaking in a joint interview with Breitbart News and this reporter’s Sunday night weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.”

Labour anti-Semitism: We must tell them the Mandate is over

In response to the growing wave of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic statements from the UK's leftist Labour party, Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Oren Hazan (Likud) on Monday called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take action.
Hazan requested that Netanyahu use his role as the acting Foreign Minister to summon the British Ambassador to Israel David Quarrey for a clarification.
In the talk, Hazan asked the Prime Minister to express Israel's outrage over the comments by top members of the leading British Opposition party, and ask that they be stopped.
"Members of Great Britain's parliament must internalize that the British Mandate on the land of Israel ended with the establishment of the state of Israel," said Hazan, referencing the establishment of the modern Jewish state in 1948.
"They would be better off giving their opinions on the popular Islamist terror front that is 'starring' in Europe, their true enemy, which they must face also in the capital of the (British) Kingdom as happened in the past," he said, noting on Islamist terror attacks in London.

Lessons from Nuremberg: 'The Holocaust started with words'

International legal symposium in Krakow to focus on lessons of the Holocaust and steps that can be taken to prevent genocide • "BDS movement mainly harms the Palestinians," world-renowned Canadian legal expert Irwin Cotler says.
Some eight decades have passed since the passage of the Nuremberg Laws passed in Germany, beginning the persecution of the Jews that became the Holocaust. Seven decades have passed since the Nuremberg Trials, which brought some of the Nazi perpetrators to justice.
On Tuesday, just before Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, an international legal symposium will be held at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. The event will focus on the lessons of the Holocaust and the steps that can be taken to prevent genocide.
Participants in the symposium will include world-renowned jurists Professors Irwin Cotler and Alan Dershowitz.
In an interview with Israel Hayom, Cotler, the Jewish Canadian former justice minister considered an international law and human rights expert, strongly criticized the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and said that not only have the Palestinians have not gained anything from it, they are actually its true victims.

JPost Editorial: Corbyn’s challenge

Will Britain’s opposition Labor Party succeed in uprooting anti-Semitism within its ranks? Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is going through the motions. But the task appears unsurmountable.
The problem is that – as the ancient Greek saying states – the fish stinks from the head. Labor’s recently elected leader is a man who has referred to Hamas and Hezbollah – Jew-hating terrorist organizations that seek to wipe the Jewish state off the map – as his “friends.”
In a meeting with Jewish leaders in February – his first after being elected head of Labor – Corbyn failed to express regret for his statement about Hamas and Hezbollah despite being pressed to do so.
In September of last year the newly minted party leader attended a “Labor for Israel” dinner in London and managed to give a 10-minute speech without once mentioning the country that was being honored – no small feat.
It is therefore not surprising that Corbyn’s arrival as leader has been accompanied by a series of anti-Semitic incidents within the ranks of the Labor Party, as though a cesspool dam of pent-up hatred had been torn down.

PAUL NUTTALL: The Labour Fish Is Rotting From The Head Down

I am not shocked in the slightest that the Labour Party is now embroiled in an anti-Semitism scandal. The only thing which has surprised me is that it hadn’t happened sooner.
After all, the Labour Party has been captured by a bunch of hard Left middle class activists who have a visceral hatred of Israel.
These are the people who joined the Labour Party in their droves last summer, with the sole intent of voting for Jeremy Corbyn in the leadership contest.
At the time, a number of Labour Party grandees voiced their concerns about the huge influx of activists, but they were swept aside as ‘Blairite’ stooges who were opposed to the party shifting Leftwards.
The Blairites lost and the hard Left won with the election of Corbyn, and now Labour is reaping what it has sown, because they elected a leader who has dallied with Islamist organisations for a number of years.
For example, he is a known supporter of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate that terrorises Gaza.

Stand With Us: Of Livingstone, Hitler and the unmentioned Nazi Palestinian Mufti

In the uproar following Ken Livingstone’s comments about Hitler having been a Zionist “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews” a crucial point has not been raised: the collaboration at the highest levels with the Nazi regime by Haj Amin el Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the father of Palestinian nationalism.
The intense criticism against Livingstone is appropriate. Correcting the history of the Zionist movement and its response to the rise of Nazism is paramount. Yet, if dealing in any manner with the Nazi regime delegitimizes a national movement, then Palestinian leader Haj Amin’s close collaboration with the likes of Himmler, Hitler, Eichmann and Goebbels should make anti-Israel campaigners rethink their strategy of injecting the Holocaust into their assault on Israel’s legitimacy.
There is a world of difference between the desperate effort of Zionist leaders to rescue German Jewry from the Nazis, which by definition required the need to “deal” with Berlin, and Haj Amin’s overt alliance with Nazi Germany including support for the Final Solution.
Anti-Israel campaigners often make the point that Palestinian Arabs should not be “made to pay for the Holocaust,” a “European crime.” This argument fails on two counts. First, it ignores the three millennia of unbroken Jewish habitation of the land of Israel, in which Jews are an indigenous people. Secondly, it denies the close collaboration with Nazi Germany by the Palestinian leadership of that era, which by 1941 knew of, supported and even participated in the Nazi genocide. This is something for which contemporary Palestinian leadership must finally acknowledge and take responsibility.

PETER HITCHENS: Everyone Howls At Batty Ken – But They Wouldn’t Dare Tackle Racist Muslims

This is a sad fact. On visits to the Muslim world, from Egypt to Iran, Iraq and Jordan, via the Israeli-occupied West Bank, I have repeatedly met foul and bigoted opinions about Jews which people in this country would be ashamed to speak out loud.
I have no doubt that there are plenty of Muslims who do not harbour such views. But there are those who do, and British political parties which seek the support of Muslims have often been coy about challenging this. As for all these people who have suddenly got so exercised about Judophobia, and wildly worked up about Ken Livingstone’s batty views on Zionism (standard issue on the far Left for decades), I have some questions for them.
Are you prepared to put the same energy into challenging and denouncing Judophobia among the Palestinians you support abroad, and the British Muslims whose votes you seek here?
Because, if not, I might suspect that you are just using the issue to try to win back control of the Labour Party, which you lost last summer in a fair fight.

British Jews in False Labour

It is just when you think that things could not possibly get any worse that they always do. Take the case of the Jews and the British Labour Party, for example.
No, not the Jews who are becoming an increasingly open target of the rampant and rabid antisemitism that has been afflicting the so-called liberal side of the UK political spectrum for some time now. The election of Jeremy Corbyn to head the party that supposedly represents the mainstream Left was already a bad omen, as it reflected the way the wind was blowing where Israel was concerned.
This did not come as a surprise to anyone, least of all Israelis. Europe is in the throes of what National Review columnist and author Andrew McCarthy has been warning about for years: the deadly marriage of radical Islamists to Western Leftists that once would have seemed counter-intuitive. After all, the former oppose everything the latter stands for and then some. This includes, but is not exclusive to, the treatment of women and gays.
The end result is that old-style antisemitism, of the upper-crust variety – the type that became totally taboo after World War II saw millions of Jews marched into the ovens at Auschwitz – has found a new home. This one has a stamp of legitimacy brandished on its front door. It is the right to express vitriol against the state of Israel, the collective successful Jew.

The Observer view on Labour’s antisemitism crisis? ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’

The Observer editorial then concludes thusly:
How tragic it is that [Khan’s] appeal has been muffled by the rancorous row within his own party over its failure so far to quell the suspicion that it is harbouring a virulent strain of antisemitism.
In summary, out of fifteen total paragraphs in their editorial on ‘antisemitism in the Labour Party’, only one actually deals substantively with antisemitism in the Labour Party.
Whilst other UK publications have admirably confronted the issue of anti-Jewish racism within Labour head-on, it’s disappointing that The Observer decided instead to frame an editorial as a commentary on the issue while failing to actually address it in the text – effectively changing the subject instead of dealing with the implications of Livingstone’s comments and even more uncomfortable truths about the broader problem of antisemitism within the British left.

BBC’s Jeremy Bowen misrepresents a CST statement

The eruption of further scandals concerning members of the UK Labour party last week prompted extensive coverage of the story on all the BBC’s various platforms, with some items purporting to explain to the corporation’s audiences the difference between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. One such written backgrounder was previously discussed here and another item with the same theme appeared (from 01:48:00 here) in the April 30th edition of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ programme.
Inadvertently demonstrating once again why the fact that the BBC does not work according to an accepted definition of antisemitism is problematic, presenter Justin Webb introduced the item as follows:
“Now, can you be anti-Israeli without being antisemitic? The question swirls around the debate about Labour’s current difficulties. What does the dividing line actually look like? Well we heard on this programme during the week an open disagreement between two Jewish commentators about whether disputing Israel’s right to exist did or did not itself constitute antisemitsm.”
The programme Webb appears to be referring to can be found here at 01:36:05. He of course refrains from informing listeners that according to the definition of antisemitism used by the All Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism and the College of Policing, “[d]enying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” is indeed considered antisemitism.

Combating Terror in Israel

Israel might improve its thwarting efforts if it can find a way to enlist the help of a potential terrorist’s inner circle – parents, relatives and even friends – to locate him early and neutralize him. The way to achieve this goal would likely require the use of carrots, not only sticks.
• Operational measures – Israel has already taken numerous operative measures to treat and reduce the damage caused by terrorist attacks, including easing licensing for weapons: increasing deployment of police officers in areas prone to calamity: imposing restrictions on Palestinian movement and employment in Israel: and enforcing stricter penalties on employers of illegal workers.
It seems that these measures have met with limited success, but they have not brought the wave of terror to an end or even reduced it. Israel can take additional operative measures. One is to relaunch the Civil Guard in the format of the late 1970s as a means of counterterrorism. In this framework, many civilians would be recruited to the ranks to carry out armed patrols in their neighborhoods in a type of district policing that uses volunteers who undergo training designed for this mission.
These volunteers would multiply the police force and be deployed throughout the country.
It is reasonable to assume that this step would not bring an end to the current wave of terror, but it could be very effective in dealing with self-initiated and locally initiated terrorist attacks.
The new civil guard would strengthen the deterrence effect, enable rapid and professional intervention in the event of an attack, and, most importantly, increase the public’s sense of security and reduce its anxiety.

John Kerry’s Camera Caper

It was in Geneva this past Sunday, as we learn from Jordan’s official news agency, that the country’s foreign minister (and deputy prime minister and minister of expatriate affairs), Nasser Judeh, discussed the issue of “Palestine” with US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Judeh underlined the importance of relaunching serious and effective talks within a set timeframe. Such talks, he added, must lead to the two-state solution, entailing the establishment of a viable and independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Not a word about the fiasco of the Temple Mount cameras.
Last fall, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was called to Geneva and Amman to find a way to calm things down over the Temple Mount. Of course, all that was needed was for King Abdallah II to inform his hundreds of employees there to halt the incitement; stop Muslim ruffians from entering the sanctuary; prevent them from preparing firebombs and worse; keep them from building barricades; and put an end to the nasty and uncivilized shouting by the women, nicknamed the Wicked Witches of the Waqf, at Jews visiting the site.

Father of Palestinian siblings killed at crossing demands footage

The family of a Palestinian brother and sister who were shot dead last week as they allegedly tried to carry out a stabbing attack demanded Monday the release of security camera footage of the incident, and insisted that the two had no intention of attacking security personnel and had merely taken a wrong turn when they were gunned down.
Maram Hassan Abu Ismail, 23, and her brother Ibrahim Saleh Taha, 16, residents of Beit Surif, a village in the central West Bank, were shot dead at the Qalandiya crossing north of Jerusalem on April 27. An investigation determined Sunday that the pair were shot by civilian security guards and not Border Police officers stationed at the crossing. Abu Ismail had hurled a knife at security personnel before she was shot, according to the police account of the incident. Police said the knife was recovered at the scene; a spokeswoman said a second, identical knife was found on Taha’s belt, along with a Leatherman-style multi-tool.
Their father, Salah Abu Ismail, 61, from the village of Katana north of Jerusalem, told The Times of Israel in a telephone interview Monday that his daughter had arrived at the crossing to obtain a permit to enter Jerusalem for medical treatment. He insisted that neither of his children was carrying a knife.

Hamas brags of one stabbing every two days

The Hamas terrorist organization has published a periodic report on the Al-Quds Intifada, as it has termed the current Arab terror wave that has already claimed the lives of 34 victims since starting last September.
According to the Hamas statistics, 13 stabbing attacks plus an additional stabbing attempt took place in April, in addition to three shooting attacks, two car ramming attempts, and one bus bombing by a Hamas suicide bomber in Jerusalem in which 15 were wounded.
In all of the attacks combined a total of 26 Israelis were wounded, according to Hamas.
The rate of 14 stabbings or stabbing attempts during the course of the month works out to a frequency of one stabbing every two days, indicating that the terror wave is still going strong despite assessments that the rate has toned down.
Polls late last month showed that the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs strongly support the terror wave, indicating that the violence will not be dwindling anytime soon.

Video Proves Hamas Link to Israeli Bus Bombing

In a large Hamas rally on Thursday in the Gaza Strip attended by thousands of supporters, Ismail Haniyeh spoke, but a new display of hate attracted the most attention. Directly behind the speakers' lectern was a green bus with the words "Number 12" on it—the same number of the bus blown up this week by a Hamas operative.
A picture of the Temple Mount figured in the background, and during the demonstration, an actor entered a cage where he portrayed a Palestinian detainee surrounded by Israeli soldiers. At the hate rally, at which armed members of Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, young women danced, and children watched attentively.
Before the Gazan supporters, Haniyeh complimented the "heroic act" of Abd al-Hamid Abu Srur, who committed the suicide terrorist attack in Jerusalem that wounded 20 other people. Haniyeh warned during the rally of the continuation of the closure on the Gaza Strip. "It's impossible to continue the siege of two million Palestinians in Gaza." Haniyeh addressed Israel: "There's a limit to patience. Don't tighten the noose on the Gaza Strip and don't misinterpret our patience in Gaza."

Iran to grant citizenship to families of foreign ‘martyrs’

Iran has passed a law allowing the government to grant citizenship to the families of foreigners killed while fighting for the Islamic Republic, the official IRNA news agency reported Monday.
“Members of the parliament authorized the government to grant Iranian citizenship to the wife, children and parents of foreign martyrs who died on a mission… during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) and afterwards,” it said.
Citizenship must be awarded “within a maximum period of one year after the request,” IRNA added.
Iran’s outgoing conservative-dominated parliament will serve until late May.
No figures are available on the number of foreign fighters killed during the Iran-Iraq war, but Afghans, and even a group of Iraqis, fought alongside Iranian forces against the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Report: IDF Soldiers Rescue Arab Terror Kidnap Victim in Daring Raid

IDF soldiers entered the Arab town of Nil’in late Sunday night to hunt down three Arabs who crossed the security fence after allegedly having kidnaped an Israeli citizen, according to the Hebrew-language ‘0404‘ news website.
Nil’in is located 17 kilometers (about 10 miles) west of Ramallah, but just a mile north of the Jewish city of Modi’in Illit. It is also very close to the 1949 Armistice Line (the so-called “Green Line”) and not far from Highway 443, where there have been numerous Arab attacks on Jews during the terror wave that began last October.
It’s not clear how the infiltrators managed to get through the security fence.
The hostage was dragged into a location in the village while a mob of Arabs pelted the IDF troops with stones. Other Arabs placed rocks in the road in order to block vaccess by Israeli army vehicles.
Neither strategy was effective in stopping the IDF forces, who simply pushed through the hail of rocks and entered Ni’ilin to search for the kidnap victim.

Charges against Hamas man reveal monthly salary of $2,000 for operating terror tunnel

Suspected Hamas operative Medhat Abu Sneima was indicted in Beersheba on Sunday for crimes including plans to attack Israeli soldiers along the Gaza border.
Abu Sneima, 24, from Gaza, was arrested a month ago. According to the indictment, which lists 18 charges, he joined Hamas in 2007.
In 2014, he allegedly paid $7,000 to become part owner of a smuggling tunnel from Egypt to Gaza. As such, he made $2,000 per month for operating the tunnel, earning a total of about $50,000 -- a huge sum in Gaza -- during the two years the tunnel was active.
The indictment stated that when Abu Sneima became part owner, the tunnel was about 500 meters (1,640 feet) long, but it was later doubled in length and ran under both Egyptian and Israeli territory. Abu Sneima and his partners are suspected of smuggling some 30 rifles, 10 trunks of ammunition and 35 pipes from which to make 50-kilogram (110-pound) rockets through the tunnel. From 2014 to early 2016, Abu Sneima and his partners allegedly smuggled weapons to arms dealers in the Gaza Strip along with Hamas naval commando uniforms.

Gaza’s Unemployed University Grads Target Hamas with Hunger Strike

Protesting the economic conditions in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, university graduates in the territory on Sunday launched a campaign protesting rampant unemployment and their inability to find jobs, setting up a tent encampment in the city center and starting a hunger strike in protest of their “uncertain future.”
Said Lulu, a resident of Rafah and one of the leaders of the protest movement, told the pan-Arab Asharq al Awsat newspaper that he couldn’t find a job after graduating from Al Azhar University’s school of communication.
“I refuse to take my own life like so many other young people do,” he said. “I’m determined to go on living despite my terrible living conditions.”
Lulu, who together with his comrades launched the hashtag #want_work, invited all unemployed university graduates to join hands and make a difference.
Lulu said that he worked at a restaurant in Rafah, making 700 shekels (less than $200) a month, not nearly enough to help support his family that returned to Gaza in the 1990s after years in Iraq.

Islamic Jihad delegation visits Iran to 'discuss ways to strengthen intifada'

Islamic Jihad representatives are visiting Iran to discuss ways to strengthen the intifada in the West Bank and Jerusalem, Palestinian media reported on Sunday.
The delegation, headed by the organization’s Secretary- General Ramadan Abdullah, will visit Iran for a few days, according to a statement issued by the terrorist organization.
The delegation will meet Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Shamkhani.
Islamic Jihad announced that “the delegation visiting Tehran has met with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, as well as other senior Iranian officials.”
In these meetings, the parties discussed the circumstances prevailing in the Islamic world and especially the issue of Palestine and the ways to bolster the intifada in the West Bank and Jerusalem against “Zionist expansionism.”
Additional subjects discussed were the attempts to “Judaize al-Aksa mosque” and the need to support the steadfastness of Gazans in light of the 10-year blockade.

After losing to a Palestinian-affiliated team, Jordanian soccer fans chant pro-Israel slogans

The split within Jordanian society between East Bankers and Jordanians of Palestinian origin is manifested in every field of life in the Hashemite Kingdom.
On Wednesday, during a soccer match between the Faysali team, affiliated with the East Bank, and the Wihdat team, affiliated with the Palestinian population of Jordan, this split remerged.
After losing the match, Faysali fans started chanting: "With soul and blood we will redeem you, Israel," distorting the well-known refrain: "With soul and blood we will redeem you, al-Aksa," which is the symbol of the Arab endeavors for the so-called liberation of Palestine.
By replacing "Palestine" and "al-Aksa" with "Israel", Faysali fans repeated their ritual of provoking Palestinian-affiliated al-Wihdat. Almost every encounter between these two soccer teams in the past few years has ended with skirmishes and clashes between fans of the two opposing teams.

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