05/20 Links Pt1: Poking a gaping hole in the Palestinian narrative; Has the UN Human Rights Council become Frankenstein? ~ EoZ

From Ian:

IDF Blog: ISIS threatens to wipe out Israel. Here’s why we’re taking them seriously.

Facts at a glance:
- ISIS in Egypt started out targeting Israeli targets, such as Israeli pipelines carrying gas between Israel, Egypt, and Jordan.
- The most dominant terrorist organizations in the Sinai have ties to Hamas. ISIS fighters train in Gaza before returning to the Sinai. Hamas helps with training, medical care, transferring funds, and assisting with communications.
- In 2012, the Egyptian Army started Operation Sinai to destroy tunnels between Hamas in Gaza and militants in Sinai. These same tunnels were used to smuggle weapons into Gaza to attack Israel.
- Top ISIS leaders have repeatedly threatened major attacks against Israel. We take their threats seriously.
Israel’s border with Egypt has long been volatile, with terror groups shaking the stability in Northern Sinai. Our newest threat in the region is an offshoot of a deadly international terror organization: ISIS in the Sinai. The terror capabilities of ISIS’s Sinai branch are cannot be ignored. Their shootings, bombings, projectiles, and other attacks have killed both civilians and soldiers. Israel has always been a primary target of the group from its inception. Ansar Bait al-Maqdis (ABM) and their anti-Israel rhetoric has only increased since their incorporation into the Islamic State.
The situation in the Sinai has undergone serious changes over the last five years. Here are some key points in the evolution of the ISIS threat in the Sinai:

ISIS threatens global war with Israel

Islamic State threatens Israel in an article in its weekly newsletter this week, saying that unlike Hamas, the “war on Israel will not be limited by geographical boundaries or by international norms.”
According to the article in the Al-Naba newsletter identified by the Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor of MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute) and shared with The Jerusalem Post, Israel feels threatened by ISIS because of the “collapse” of neighboring states and the Sunni terrorist group’s advance toward the borders of the Jewish state.
For this reason, Israel has started to fight against Islamic State in Sinai and Syria, it says, adding that the entire world is now an arena for the fight against all the “polytheist combatants, including the Jews,” who are legitimate targets. Israel is using jets to attack Islamic State in Sinai, the article claims.
“The collapse of the Sykes-Picot statelets, which were tasked with protecting the Jewish state; the approach of ISIS mujahideen toward its borders; [Israel’s] fear of the spread of its [ISIS’s] methodology among the oppressed Muslims inside those borders [i.e. fear that ISIS ideology is spreading among Israeli Arabs]; and the manifest failure of the Crusader states who protect the Jews to win the battle against it [ISIS] – all these are factors that caused the Jewish state to not sit idly by in face of this danger,” it says.

Poking a gaping hole in the Palestinian narrative

Most people have never heard of the Eshkol plan, and you might be wondering why.
The answer is really very simple: it pokes a gaping hole in the narrative put forward by the Palestinians and their supporters, who assert that the root of all Israeli-Palestinian discord lies in the events of 1967, rather than in the long-standing and deep-seated Arab desire to wipe Israel off the map.
The fact is that had the Arabs and the Palestinians sincerely accepted Eshkol’s proposal, regional peace in the Middle East would be entering its sixth decade already and the so-called Palestinian question would have been resolved long ago.
Going back still further, if they had come to terms with Israel’s establishment in 1948 rather than choosing war, the entire region might have flourished.
At this point, there is no turning back the clock, and in light of subsequent developments, Eshkol’s plan is as unworkable now as it might have been sensible back then.
But even after so many decades, it is worth recalling his audacious proposal, if only to highlight where the underlying fault truly lies for the ongoing conflict: with the Palestinians and their defenders.
So next time you hear someone blathering about how the “occupation” is the cause of all our troubles, just think back to the grandfatherly figure of Levi Eshkol, the peace he offered to make in 1965, the Arab hatred and enmity with which it was greeted and just how different things could have been.

UN Watch: Has the UN Human Rights Council become Frankenstein?

Who selects this rogues’ gallery? Last year, the head of the council panel that shortlists candidates was the representative of Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Hassan Trad.
We are actually about to mark a third anniversary. Next month, Geneva will celebrate 200 years since Mary Shelley and her husband, the great Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, joined Lord Byron and a few others at Villa Diodati, nestled in the beautiful hills of Cologny, just above Lake Geneva.
In that cold and dark June of 1816, amid storms of thunder and lightning, they exchanged ghost stories. Mary Shelley then had a nightmare, which she famously published: the story of an idealistic student who tried to create life, only to be horrified by the result – the story of Frankenstein.
When I walk past Villa Diodati, gazing across Lake Geneva to see the majestic UN building that houses the council, I cannot help but wonder: If Eleanor Roosevelt and René Cassin were alive today, and beheld a body that grotesquely legitimizes murderers, dictators and anti-Semites, would they not be revolted by what has become of their creation? Would they not conclude that today’s UN Human Rights Council has become Frankenstein’s monster, and their dream become a nightmare?

Arabs demand UN remove Jerusalem panel from Israel exhibit

Arab and Islamic nations are demanding that the United Nations remove a panel from an Israeli exhibition that calls Jerusalem “the spiritual and physical capital of the Jewish people.”
A letter from the Palestinian UN mission to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft circulated Thursday evening expressed “vehement rejection” at the description, echoing protests by Arab nations at the UN and the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.
The letter said any references “which purport to assert Israeli sovereignty on this land … are legally, politically and morally incorrect and unacceptable.”
Jerusalem is the historic capital of the Jewish people, and the west of the city has been under Israeli sovereignty since the foundation of the modern state. Israel annexed the Old City and east Jerusalem after capturing the territory in the 1967 Six Day War.

State Department Misleads Congress on Extent of Anti-Israel Bias at United Nations

The State Department is using misleading statistics to make the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) seem less anti-Israel than it truly is, according to a leading watchdog of the international body.
The HRC was put under the microscope this week on Capitol Hill during a Human Rights Commission hearing that examined its first 10 years of existence, which has been marred by anti-Israel bias and membership by some of the world’s worst human rights abusers.
The HRC was founded in 2006, but the Bush administration withdrew from the body in hopes of starving it of legitimacy. That policy was reversed by the Obama administration in 2009. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the administration “believed [it] could make a difference by working with [the council] on the inside rather than standing on the outside merely as a critic.”
Seven years later, the State Department is trying to prove that the 2009 decision has improved the council and made it less anti-Israel.
While acknowledging that the council remains an “imperfect body” with a “strong bias against Israel,” the State Department’s Erin Barclay testified to Congress that the hyper-focus on Israel has greatly decreased since 2009.
“Prior to our joining the HRC, over one-half of all country-specific resolutions the council adopted concerned Israel,” Barclay said. “Today, about one-fifth of the HRC’s country resolutions deal with the Palestinian territories.”
Hillel Neuer, the executive director of U.N. Watch, testified after Barclay and said that the statistic she used was “entirely inconsistent” with numbers calculated by his group.

IsraellyCool: WATCH: The Whole Two State Solution Dead Or Alive Debate

I posted earlier just my part in the Campaign4Truth’s Great Debate on the Two State Solution: Dead or Alive.
If you want to watch the complete event from start to finish as a YouTube playlist I’ve put that together for you and I’ll embed that at the end.
First up we have Ambrosine and Sharon from Campaign4Truth introducing the event and the speakers:
He was followed by headline act (and she obviously deserves the billing) Melanie Phillips. I think this will be a much talked about talk when people internalise what she said.
David Hirsch, UK academic and firm proponent of the two state solution came next. I don’t have a lot in common with many of his views.
Mudar Zahran, a Palestinian from Jordan who lives in exile in London came next.
Then came David Collier who was sitting (only just) to my left but I agreed with almost everything he said. To the point that by the time he and Melanie had spoken, much of my talk needed to be changed.

IsraellyCool: WATCH: In Which Brian Gets The Final Word

I’ve already had two posts of videos from the Campaign4Truth’s Two State Solution: Dead or Alive debate in London. This should be the third and final one. This is a summary of all the times I spoke during the (long) question and answer session that I posted in the last post.
On to the end I’ve added my answer to the final question from one of the panelist’s children. She asked me if I was denying the Human Rights of Palestinians and I wanted to get my answer out.
If you want to more about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam, click on that link to see them both, side by side.

IsraellyCool: WATCH: Brian Answers A Tricky Question

After yesterday’s video, I decided to go back and give a fuller answer to the question that James Sorene, CEO of BICOM asked me. He thinks I shouldn’t say that the Palestinians are identity thieves because it will make peace less likely.
BICOM is the UK’s sort of AIPAC type lobbying organisation but they’ve historically been hugely committed to the “Peace Process and the Two State Solution. They haven’t quite come to terms with the near complete realisation within the Israeli public that the Two State Solution is not coming about and its pursuit so far has brought nothing but pain. I’m not sure, except for moving to Israel, that people like that will ever really “get it”.
I firmly believe the vast discrepancy between the way Israel is reported outside Israel, and the awareness of being attacked that Israelis feel, contributes to the separation of views of Jews in Israel and in the diaspora.

Douglas Murray: Anti-Semitism in Britain's Labour Party Rotting from the head down

Anti-Semitism isn't new to the UK Labour Party, and its recent anti-Semitic outbursts shouldn't surprise anyone. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has ordered an "independent inquiry" into the party's anti-Semitism. Douglas Murray, a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Gatestone Institute, explains in the video below how Labour's anti-Semitism problem starts at top of the party, and why this inquiry won't solve anything.

Anti-Semitism in Britain’s Labour Party: Rotting from the head down

Rod Liddle: Rod Liddle: Labour’s putting me on trial for thought crime

The blog to which Mr Stolidity took exception was about anti-Semitism in the Labour party. I had suggested that it was indeed rife among sections of the infantile white middle-class liberals and also among the increasing number of Labour Muslim activists and councillors. Perhaps it is my suggestion that many Muslims are not favourably inclined towards Jews that provoked my suspension from the party — certainly it provoked a furious diatribe from the congenital idiot and Guardian journalist Owen Jones, who described it, with his usual semantic flair, as ‘rampant racism’. Or perhaps it was my assertion that if the Palestinians were given Israel they would turn it very quickly into Somalia that enraged these new commissars. If so, then they themselves are guilty of racism and cultural imperialism. Obviously I meant that this would be a good thing, Somalia being an exciting and vibrant state with ever so much to commend it. I would live there tomorrow, given the opportunity. As would we all.
Listen: I see this interview as an opportunity. An opportunity to meet Shami Chakrabarti, who, having joined Labour a couple of days ago, is now leading its investigation into ‘racism and Islamophobia’ within the party while also trying to run the UK through her various other posts. And also a chance to apologise for having dared to suggest that any Muslim anywhere could ever be accused of anti-Semitism and to insist that my reference to Somalia was a dreadful mistake, for which I am terribly, grovell-ingly, sorry — I meant that they would turn it into Switzerland. I sometimes get countries beginning with ‘S’ confused.
I just hope that during this interview with Harry and the boys, which reminds me a little of the British Communist party’s disciplinary sessions in the mid-1950s — nobody mentions the word ‘Corbyn’. If they do, my silent friend — Jessie the Dog — will leap up and begin snarling and barking and may bite someone. It’s just how she is. Anyway, I will let you know how I get on.

France to hold summit on Israel, Palestinians on June 3

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Thursday he’s called for a planned Israeli-Palestinian peace conference to be held in Paris on June 3.
“So that everyone can attend … I have suggested that the conference initially planned for May 30 be held on June 3,” Ayrault said after talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
“We reviewed again the position concerning France’s initiative to hold a ministerial-level meeting in Paris to relaunch the Middle East peace process,” Ayrault told reporters.
This would also provide the opportunity “for Israel and the Palestinians to resume [talks] on the basis of a two-state solution,” he said.
“We are in a crisis situation and every day the situation on the ground gets worse,” he added.

How Bibi Outfoxed Kerry. Again.

The first is the illusion that anyone in the State Department, even with the assistance of the former British prime minister and the Egyptian leader, has a clue as to how Israeli politics works. President Obama’s first months in office were spent with his foreign policy team trying to undo the results of the February 2009 Israeli election that brought Netanyahu back to power. At that time, the goal was to somehow get Tzipi Livni to topple the prime minister, but she never had a chance. And the more they tried, the firmer Netanyahu’s grip on power became. The pattern repeated itself in subsequent years as Obama picked pointless fights with the Israeli over settlements, the 1967 lines and Jerusalem. Each spat was an attempt to weaken Netanyahu, but it always backfired as the prime minister gained domestic popularity by standing up to Washington especially on consensus issues like Jerusalem.
After so many failures, any fool could have come to the conclusion that the harder the U.S. tries to openly muscle or outmaneuver Netanyahu, the stronger he gets. But Kerry is not just any fool; he’s a uniquely clueless diplomat with little understanding of the ins and outs of Israeli coalition politics and no interest in learning from his mistakes. As Haaretz reports, they understood that the passage of a two-year budget plan meant there was little chance of toppling Netanyahu by normal parliamentary means until 2019. So they sought to push forward Herzog with a plan to supposedly tempt the prime minister with the prospect of a broad coalition with an unchallengeable majority. Their leverage was the idea that Kerry would hold off on the release of a Quartet report that sharply criticized Israel about settlements.
But neither Kerry nor the equally clueless Blair understood that Netanyahu was playing three-dimensional chess while they were attempting to win at checkers. Instead of establishing an Israeli government with a weak link determined to gain their favor at the foreign ministry, Netanyahu used their maneuver to create one more to his liking.

Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick slated to be next Likud MK after Ya'alon resignation

Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick is slated to become the next MK for the Likud party after Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon announced his resignation from the ministry and the Knesset Friday morning.
Glick is a controversial figure in both the religious and political sphere in Israel, becoming the face of the Jewish struggle for prayer rights at the Temple Mount, the most sacred holy site in Judaism and third holiest in Islam.
His activism almost lead to his death in late 2014, when he sustained four gunshot wounds outside the Menchem Begin Hermitage Center in Jerusalem from the gun of convicted Palestinian terrorist Moataz Hejazi.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Incoming Defense Minister Has Never Denied Eating Palestinian Children (satire)

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to announce in the next day or two that he has appointed as Minister of Defense a man who has never, according to media records, denied feasting on the bodies of Palestinian boys and girls as a weekly ritual.
Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman will replace Moshe Yaalon, who resigned today, as part of the agreement covering the addition of Liberman’s party to the governing coalition. The Soviet-born party leader is often described as ultranationalist, a term that ignores his stated willingness to leave the settlement he inhabits in exchange for real peace with the Palestinians – but that also does nothing to negate or refute the idea that he regularly dines on the flesh of helpless Palestinian youths, a claim he has never addressed.
Activists and commentators expressed outrage that such a man could be placed in charge of Israel’s largest government apparatus, with a budget exceeding 70 billion shekels. “I have never seen Liberman in the same room as the infamously bloodthirsty Vlad Dracula, and that already raised my suspicions,” charged Amnesty International contributor Jacob Burns, referring to a medieval aristocrat of notorious brutality who lent his name to the title character in Bram Stoker’s nineteenth-century novel about a vampire. “Forget trafficking in Palestinian organs; this guy would eat them with fava beans and a Chianti – I mean, he’s never denied that he does that all the time, basically every night, right? And he speaks Romanian. Need I say more?”

How the U.S. Could Help Foster Real Peace in the Middle East

The White House is reportedly anxious to support a last-ditch effort at getting Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiation table. John Hannah argues that since such efforts are doomed to fail, the U.S. should pursue more realistic goals:
President Obama might more productively direct his energies during his waning months in office to the slightly more auspicious diplomatic ground of Israel’s thickening links with a handful of key Arab states. While the fact of such contacts is nothing new, there’s now a palpable sense that both the frequency and quality of the interactions, mostly conducted in private, have intensified considerably over the past few years. . . .
[While most] of the interactions remain covert, there’s also been a slow but steady series of important public milestones. . . . The degree of progress shouldn’t be exaggerated. Nor should it be dismissed. . . .
The United States should have a profound interest in testing how far the budding strategic rapprochement between Israel and the Sunni Arab states can go. Given its role as the most important, powerful, and trusted outside partner on both sides, there’s no doubt the United States could serve as a catalyst, organizer, and patron of this emerging coalition—mediating, prodding, strategizing, and providing reassurances, guarantees, and resources. Although the current contacts between Israel and some of its neighbors is heartening, that contact won’t reach its full potential absent active U.S. assistance and protection. The historical antagonisms, suspicions, and risks—especially for a religiously conservative monarchy like Saudi Arabia, the self-styled epicenter of worldwide Islam—may simply be too great for the parties to overcome on their own.

Elliott Abrams: The military aid standoff: An argument, not a crisis

Would all that be different, and worse, next year under a new president? That seems unlikely. Does anyone expect peace to break out, to see the deadly Syrian civil war ending, to see Iran and Hezbollah withdrawing support for Assad, to see crises between Israel and its neighbors Jordan and Egypt? In fact, if the regional picture is worse, the argument for more aid to Israel is as strong as ever and maybe stronger. If there is a “hot summer” between Israel and Hamas, or Hezbollah attacks Israeli towns, or ISIS gains more in Syria, the argument for more aid to Israel is even more powerful.
If Rand Paul had been the Republican nominee, and if Bernie Sanders were going to be the Democratic nominee, there would be an argument that the military aid deal must be wrapped up immediately.
Neither man was ever a great enthusiast about US-Israel military relations.
But those two are not going to be the nominees, and whatever criticisms can justly be offered of Trump and Clinton neither one will want to start his or her presidency with a great big fight over aid to Israel. Moreover, whether Congress is led by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, or by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, there will be strong pro-Israel leadership on Capitol Hill.
So it would be great to do the military aid deal now. But this is an argument, not a crisis. If an agreement cannot be reached with Obama, it can and will be done when Obama is gone.

How Independent Is Israel?

Such words from an Israeli prime minister would be unthinkable today, when Israelis have become accustomed to a degree of dependence on the United States that Begin’s generation could never have imagined. The self-sufficient Zionist and Israeli “resistance” to which Begin alluded is a thing of the distant past. Today, it is hard for most Israelis to remember life outside the Pax Americana, before the era of the “unshakable bond” between the two countries.
But this is why, as Israel celebrates its nearly seven decades of independence, it is worth recalling that things were not always like this—and that during its first two decades, when it didn’t depend on the United States, Israel’s very lack of dependence served it well. Despite Washington’s disapproval and admonitions, Israel achieved a number of crucial goals that still form the bedrock of its national security as a viable sovereign state. Had it instead become an American client earlier in its history, it would likely be a far weaker state today.
In this perspective, the Iran deal concluded by the Obama administration last year, and vigorously but futilely opposed by Jerusalem, leaves one wondering whether a scenario might yet arise, possibly sooner than the deal’s expiration, in which Israel will wish it still possessed the freedom of action it enjoyed in its earliest years. Without the tools afforded by its American alliance, Israel would have very few options against Iran. But that very alliance may well foreclose even those options.
Israel declared independence 68 years ago, but being independent is a process, not a moment. That process is still unfolding, and it is still incomplete.

Spinning the Clinton Parameters On Al Jazeera

Spurning Peace and Undermining a Narrative
In short, Martin Indyk was correct when he said Palestinians failed to accept a generous peace offer during Ehud Barak’s tenure and again during Olmert’s tenure. (Hasan’s article conveniently ignores Indyk's reference to Olmert.)
Hasan, on the other hand, was wrong. His claims that Arafat accepted and Barak rejected the Clinton Parameters are irreconcilable — Arafat’s reservations, as many noted, were incompatible with the Parameters. And his appeal to Bill Clinton’s authority flopped — the former president couldn’t be more clear about his view that Arafat rejected the peace plan.
Even Hasan’s citation of Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, who initially seemed on Twitter to side with the al Jazeera host, was a pyrrhic victory. True, Ravid said it was wrong for Indyk not to mention Barak’s reservations. (And indeed Indyk didn't mention them, presumably because like so many others he understood those reservations to fit within the contours of Clinton's Parameters.) But Ravid also acknowledged that Hasan’s "both sides had reservations"-formulation was misleading; that Arafat said no; and that Barak, unlike Arafat, wanted to move forward on the plan.
And neither Ravid nor anyone else cited by Hasan took issue with the claim that the Palestinians could have had 95 to 97 percent of the West Bank. That’s because it is true.
It’s easy to understand why an anti-Israel activist might want to strike from the record numerous Palestinian opportunities to have a state. These rejections of statehood undermine the claim that Palestinians are fighting only for freedom, and not against Israel per se. So some activists carefully avoid mention of the rejections, and let the omission silently bolster their case. Hasan’s type of revisionism, though, was loud and brash. To paraphrase from a recent Al Jazeera article: Let him believe it. But the historical record says otherwise.

Fatah Official Zakaria Al-Agha: Right of Return to Israel, Not to the Palestinian State

Zakaria Al-Agha, a member of the Fatah Central Committee and of the PLO Executive Committee, said recently that the Palestinian Right of Return, as formulated in U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194, was indisputable, but that "someone who returns also has the right to receive compensation." "It is about return, as well as compensation," said Al-Agha. He added that the refugees must return "to their cities, villages, and homes," and not the Palestinian state that will be established. The interview aired on Palestine TV on May 11, 2016.

Terror attack thwarted after teen caught with knife on Jerusalem light rail

A stabbing attack was prevented Thursday evening in Jerusalem, after Police and Border Police officers on patrol along the light rail line in the Shuafat neighborhood of east Jerusalem found a butterfly knife on the body of an Arab-Israeli teen.
The 16-year-old was boarding a bus towards the Damascus Gate of the Old City when he aroused suspicion.
Authorities searched the boy's belongings and found a butterfly knife on his person. He was taken for questioning shortly thereafter.
Initial investigations indicate that the teen, a Jerusalem resident, was intending to attack police.
This incident comes days after a Palestinian man stabbed and slightly wounded a Jewish youth near the Old City’s Damascus Gate in east Jerusalem before being overpowered and arrested by Border Police officers after a short pursuit on foot.
According to Ch. Supt. Asi Aharoni, spokesperson for the Jerusalem Police District, a team of Border Police officers were on special patrol outside Damascus Gate at around 9:30 a.m. on Monday when they heard shouting coming from Hanevi’im Street nearby. The officers ran to the scene and saw a suspect who had just stabbed a Jewish man in the back and was fleeing toward Ben Shadad Street.

Palestinian activist suspected of Hamas ties released after 94-day hunger strike

Israel released the Palestinian journalist Muhammad al-Kik on Thursday after a 94-day hunger strike.
The 33-year-old resident of Ramallah began his hunger strike four days after he was arrested on November 21 at his home in Ramallah for terrorist activities connected to Hamas, according to Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency].
After being released Kik said, "This victory was made by you all. You got tired but went down to the streets and covered and followed up on the news. This is not exclusively about who achieved the victory, this victory is a joint victory by everyone because we all stood (together)."
Kik had agreed to end his strike in February, but remained to be in custody until the Israeli Military determined whether there was new intelligence that would require further detention.

IsraellyCool: A Taste of “Concentration Camp” Gaza: Oregano Restaurant

Inspired by the Gaza mall photos, I have featured on this blog various facilities from Gaza, with the aim of providing readers with a glimpse into the real Gaza, which is anything but a concentration camp as some claim.
My point is not that there is no hardship in Gaza, but rather that the situation is a far cry from what is being presented by the palestinians, their supporters and the mainstream media.
Introducing Gaza’s Oregano Italian restaurant.

Argentine ex-presidents summoned to testify in Hezbollah-linked chopper crash

Six former presidents of Argentina were summoned to testify in the investigation into the 1995 death of the son of ex-president Carlos Menem after he named Hezbollah as responsible.
Judge Villafuerte Ruzo on Wednesday requested the testimony of Fernando de la Rúa, Ramón Puerta, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Eduardo Camaño, Eduardo Duhalde and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The six ruled Argentina after Menem, who said last Friday that he believes his son was assassinated by Hezbollah — information that his then-foreign minister, Guido Di Tella, heard from foreign embassies in Buenos Aires. Menem was president from 1989 to 1999.
Menem’s lawyer, Omar Daer, told the TN news channel on Wednesday that his client also wants to know what kind of information the Security Secretariat had about Hezbollah’s possible involvement in the March 1995 accident of the helicopter that Carlos Menem Jr. was piloting when it crashed.
On Friday, Menem for the first time told a judge that Hezbollah killed his 26-year-old son.

JCPA: How Close Are We to Unconventional Terror Attacks by ISIS? The Dirty Bomb Scenario

Early last month, world leaders attending a nuclear security summit in Washington DC expressed concern over nuclear and radiological terrorism threats. This was a formal international gathering hosted by the American president dedicated to the evolving ability of terror groups to plan and carry out mass killing attacks using unconventional means.
Publicly, the summit’s participants did not provide any substantial new information about any pending preparations among known terror groups. This raises the question how serious the threat is, and in the absence of clear leads and intelligence materials, the question is how can we assess this threat?
The background of the global Jihad provides us with some indications, especially those efforts conducted by former Al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin-Laden, to acquire nuclear materiel. His efforts included a couple of initiatives but especially worrisome was Bin-Laden’s bargaining with a former Sudanese general who claimed he could provide such nuclear materiel. According to the 9/11 Commission’s report, Bin-Laden paid $1.5 million dollars only to find that the offer was a fraud.
In most cases, the orphan radioactive sources (material no longer under regulatory control) represent a danger of “dirty bombs” – rather than actual nuclear bombs – which can contaminate large areas.

ISIS execute 25 people by DISSOLVING them in nitric acid: 'Iraqi spies' were tied up with rope and dropped into a vat in public as a warning to others

ISIS has executed 25 people in Mosul, northern Iraq, by lowering them in a vat of nitric acid, according to several local news reports.
The men had been accused of spying on ISIS on behalf of Iraqi government security forces.
According to witnesses, the 25 alleged 'spies' had been tied together with a rope and lowered in a large basin containing nitric acid until their organs dissolved.
'ISIS terrorist members executed 25 persons in Mosul on charges of spying and collaborating with Iraqi security forces,' a source told Iraqi News in a statement.
'ISIS members tied each person with a rope and lowered him in the tub, which contains nitric acid, till the victims organs dissolve.'

US again tells European banks trade with Iran is OK

The United States and its partners in the Iran nuclear talks are trying anew to convince European banks and businesses that now-legal trade with the Islamic Republic won’t be punished.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany and the European Union’s foreign policy chief said in a joint statement Thursday that Iran deserves the sanctions relief it’s due under last year’s landmark nuclear deal. “This includes the reengagement of European banks and businesses in Iran,” they said after meeting in Brussels.
“We will not stand in the way of permitted business activity with Iran, and we will not stand in the way of international firms or financial institutions’ engaging with Iran, as long as they follow all applicable laws,” the statement said.
Iran has complained that US sanctions that remain on the country are preventing it from receiving the full benefits of the deal under which it agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The US maintains it has met its obligations, but has been trying to convince foreign firms that some trade with Iran is now legal.

IMF: Iran Must Stop Funding Terror, Money Laundering if It Wants to Join Global Economy

Iran’s failure to bring its money-laundering and terror finance laws into compliance with international standards has discouraged foreign banks from doing business with the country, according to a senior International Monetary Fund official.
David Lipton, a deputy of the IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde, told Bloomberg News while in Tehran on Tuesday that “the best thing the government can do, and the banks can do, is to bring those standards up to international levels and try to reassure foreign partners, banks and otherwise that Iran’s banks are safe to deal with.” He added that “lenders here have to acknowledge that foreign banks will make decisions based on their assessments of risk management.”
Lipton is the first senior IMF official to visit Tehran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, according Iran’s central bank. His warning about Iran’s banking system echoes that of other industry and independent experts.

Religious Persecution in Iran Spotlighted as Ayatollah’s Daughter Meets Jailed Bahai Leader

A meeting between the daughter of a prominent ayatollah and a leader of the Bahai faith in Iran this week has provoked outrage among the country’s elite and underscored the religious intolerance of its government, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Faezeh Hashemi, daughter of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president of the Islamic Republic and current chairman of the expediency council, has been roundly blasted by the country’s clerical leadership for paying a house visit to Fariba Kamalabadi, an imprisoned Bahai leader who has been furloughed for a short time.
Kamalabadi, along with six other Bahai leaders in Iran, was sentenced to twenty years in prison after being convicted in 2010 of crimes including “espionage for Israel,” “insulting religious sanctities,” and spreading “propaganda against the system,” according to Amnesty International. Kamalabadi and Hashemi met in prison in 2013, when the latter was sentenced to six months for “spreading propaganda against the system.”
Hashemi has a reputation for being outspoken. She previously started a newspaper for women and is believed to be the first woman of the Iranian establishment to publicly ride a bicycle, challenging the religious dictates of the government.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Report: Sex, Personal Hygiene A Jewish Mind-Control Plot (satire)

A new study by the Centers for Disease Control suggests that people only engage in sex and personal hygiene practices when under the control or influence of Jewish puppetmasters.
Researchers at the Public Health and Policy Division have discovered strong evidence that under normal circumstances, humans do not pursue sexual encounters or keep their bodies clean or groomed. However, when placed under the impact of various mind-control methods long associated with Jews, people are eight hundred times more likely to engage in those activities, or attempt to do so. The study will be published in next month’s issue of the journal Health Education Research for the Medical and Interpersonal Theaters (HERMIT).
Scientists examined societal trends before and after the arrival of Jews onto the historical scene, and noticed that as Jewish influence on civilization increased, so did hygienic practices and population – with population increases a known by-product of sexual activity. Taken together that long-ignored correlation raised a number of eyebrows at the CDC, said lead study author Dr. David Duke.
“I’ve already stopped showering,” he said, “at least until the data are confirmed or disproved. And most of my team here at the CDC has sworn off flossing, brushing teeth, and romance of any sort. It’s the prudent thing to do, given what we seem to know so far about pernicious Jewish influence.”

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