[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Why Hamas denies the kidnappings

Hamas continues to deny that they were behind the kidnappings and murders of Eyal, Gil-ad and Naftali:

A Hamas spokesman denied responsibility Monday evening for the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers, threatening to “open the gates of hell” against Israel if it launched an attack against the Gaza Strip.

“The story of the disappearance and killing of the three settlers is based on the Israeli narrative only,” Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP. “The Israeli occupation is trying to refer to this narrative in order to justify its wide-scale war against our people, against the resistance and against Hamas.”

It looks like Hamas is taking its talking points from Mondoweiss and Ali Abunimah, who sickeningly claimed a week after the kidnapping  that it was equally likely that Jews had abducted the boys:

Abunimah writes that the Israelis have an obligation to satisfy the public mind before making such accusations:

Reminder that the occupiers vandalizing Palestinian communities have still produced no evidence Palestinians “kidnapped” the settlers.

Abunimah also asked a very logical question: Why aren’t Israeli soldiers raiding the Israeli colonies on the West Bank? Are Jews really immune from suspicion of foul play in connection with missing teenagers?

But now we know that Hamas was behind it. The two missing kidnappers and their families are Hamas associates, and even Hamas doesn't deny that.

Normally, Hamas is proud of their terror attacks. This time they are denying it. The question is, why?

This can now be answered, based on the background information now being revealed:

Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Gil-ad Shaar, 16, the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers whose bodies were found on Monday, realized very quickly that they had been abducted on the night of June 12.

The three teens were waiting at Geva’ot Intersection, west of the settlement of Alon Shvut in the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem, soon after 10:15 p.m, looking to catch a ride heading west on Route 367 toward Beit Shemesh and from there to locations in central Israel where each of them lived.

The prevailing assessment within the defense establishment is that the kidnappers, at least at first, only saw one of the hitchikers, perhaps Yifrach, who did not know Shaar and Fraenkel. Only once the kidnappers’ Hyundai i35 came to a stop did the kidnappers realize that they would be outnumbered by their hostages within the small confines of the car. This may be what changed the nature of the crime from kidnapping to murder, security sources suggested.

Inside the Hyundai, Israel alleges, were Hamas terrorists Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme.

Recognizing, too late, that the car was not an innocent Israeli vehicle, one of the teens called the police at 10:25 p.m. and whispered, “We’ve been kidnapped.” The call was transferred immediately to a senior female officer, who continued to ask questions but received no reply. The call lasted for 2:09 minutes and was then cut off. The officer called the number eight more times, but received three busy signals and reached voicemail five times.

The kidnappers, apparently realizing that a call had been made, shot the three teens dead soon afterwards in the backseat of the car, military sources said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday night that they were murdered “in cold blood.”

Early assessments by some regarding the professionalism of the terrorists appear to have been misplaced: the killers seem to have panicked. The three teens did not fulfill the role Hamas sought for them, security officials indicated, to serve as bargaining chips that would free thousands of Palestinians prisoners and promote the Hamas brand throughout the West Bank.

The killers then drove a further 10 minutes or so before switching vehicles. They abandoned the Hyundai i35, a relatively new vehicle, and set it on fire.

They transferred the bodies to the second vehicle, and drove close to the field in the Halhul area where the three corpses were ultimately discovered, bound, partially buried, and in what eyewitnesses said was “in not good condition,” on Monday afternoon. The land where the bodies were found belongs to the Kawasme family, Channel 2 news reported.

Unbeknownst to the killers, the emergency call had not prompted an alert by Israel’s security forces. The senior officer did not pass on the information to her superiors or listen to the recording for further evidence, concluding that it was a prank call. The security forces realized there had been a kidnapping, and began what became an 18-day search operation, only some seven hours later.

Assuming that they were being hunted down right away, the kidnappers quickly abandoned the three bodies, and made their escape.

Hamas is denying the murders because it was a botched operation. 

The goal was to kidnap a soldier or a "settler" to bargain for the release of prisoners. Hamas has made no secret of that desire, and even published handbooks on how to best accomplish a kidnapping.

The appearance of two more teens, the panicking over the phone call, and the murders in the backseat (from where it would have been nearly impossible for them to escape or fight back) were not planned. I'm not sure that the torching of the stolen car was planned either.

The named kidnappers are associated with Hamas, as are their families. It is clear that they felt they were being pursued, they got rid of the bodies as quickly as they could - in lands belonging to one of their families - and they hightailed it out of the area as fast as possible, no doubt at the behest of their Hamas handlers. They could have waded to Jordan by the time the Israeli police recovered from their serious errors of judgment regarding the phone call.

The discovery afterwards that two of the victims were children and even some Arabs might object to murdering minors ensures that Hamas will not take credit for this attack, even though it was clearly planned by them. Hamas is already on thin ice with Egypt accusing it of being a terror group and the unity government not working out very well.

If they had successfully kidnapped a soldier, or a Jewish adult,  Hamas would have unlimited prestige and it would gain the protection of the PLO and Fatah, which have made the exchange of prisoners a major platform. Two dead children would not engender the amount of sympathy Hamas required from its erstwhile partners in "unity." Right now, with the outrages by Islamists in in Syria and Iraq, Hamas does not want to be associated in anyone's minds as another version of ISIS.

This is why Hamas must lie about its involvement in this hideous murder of children, to maintain a tiny bit of deniability as it attempts to raise its profile in the Arab world as a major political player and not as a terror group.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/30/2014 07:36:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 06/30 Links Pt2: International leaders condemn murder of kidnapped teens

From Ian:

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International leaders condemn murder of kidnapped teens

Politicians and leaders throughout the world fiercely condemned Monday the murder of three Israeli teenagers, Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel and Gil-ad Shaar, whose bodies were found several hours earlier near the Palestinian village of Halhul, north of Hebron. The three had been abducted on June 12 while they were hitchhiking from a bus stop in the Etzion Bloc in the West Bank.
“We obviously condemn in the strongest possible terms violence that takes the lives of innocent civilians,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
French President Francois Hollande condemned the “cowardly murder” as well, and went on to offer his sincere condolences to the slain teenagers’ families and to Israeli authorities, AFP reported.
Prime Minister David Cameron stated that the killing was “an appalling and inexcusable act of terror perpetrated against young teenagers,” according to AFP.

Daphne Anson: Isi Leibler's Insights Into European Antisemitism, Jewish Leadership Reactions, & Other Critical Current Issues (video)

Here's the highly articulate and characteristically forthright veteran international Jewish leader and Jerusalem Post columnist Isi Leibler in conversation with Rabbi Mark Golub on Shalom TV. The topics range from the kidnapping of the three teenage Israelis in the West Bank, to the New York Metropolitan Opera's planned restaging of the despicable opera "The Death of Klinghoffer", to the crisis of European antisemitism and the head-in-the-sand attitude of what passes for the Anglo-Jewish leadership.

BDS Activist Admits: Boycott Call Limited

A senior official in the BDS movement has admitted that the “boycott” of Israel is limited to areas that don’t hurt the boycotters too much.
In a series of emails obtained by The Jewish Press, a leader of the BoycottIsrael.info website confirmed that “the BDS campaign, supports a boycott of Israeli institutions, not a blanket boycott of all Israeli individuals.”
The emails were prompted by a news article about Israeli doctors from Haifa who volunteered their time in May to treat hundreds of patients in northern Ethiopia. BDS activists were asked whether Ethiopians would have correctly boycotted the Israeli doctors, in order to show their disgust with the Zionist enterprise and support for the “Palestinians”.

Famed Rock Star Bashes BDS 'Real Racists'

Famed rock musician Phil Soussan, a bass guitarist songwriter and producer who has worked with Ozzy Osbourne, Billy Idol and other popular singers, spoke out against the BDS boycott movement targeting Israel.
On his Facebook page last Friday, Soussan compared several recent events, noting the crackdown on Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA team Los Angeles Clippers over his racist remarks that were revealed in a recording, and the recent outrage over the name of the NFL football team Washington Redskins over its perceived negative portrayal of Native Americans.
"Sterling - a racist? …shock, horror, disgust, public outcry, fines. The Washington Redskins ? …NOT in our country!" wrote Soussan.
"But, here in Los Angeles, in an attempt to target, harass and intimidate Jewish students at UCLA, Students for 'Justice' in Palestine (SJP) have just demanded that candidates for student government positions sign a statement pledging they will not go on any trip to Israel sponsored by Jewish organizations," continued the rock musician.

How One Woman's War Against Iran Could Make Legal History

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is could make history this week - and in doing so deal an unprecedented blow to the world's biggest state-sponsor of terrorism.
Her organization, Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center, has spent the last 11 years since its founding fighting terrorism in courts throughout the world. Its campaign of "lawfare", or legal warfare, battles for the rights of terror victims by waging way on the purse-strings of terror, targeting the pockets of everyone from the terror groups themselves, to the banks which serve them, to the states which back them.
Shurat HaDin works through the US Federal Court, taking up cases for American citizens who were injured or killed in terrorist atrocities in Israel. The indefatigable Darshan-Leitner has managed to win $1.5 billion of damages so far, of which "more than $120 million" has actually been collected. It may seem like a relatively small fraction, but it is a remarkable achievement considering that most of the entities being sued do not recognize US courts or turn up to their hearings, and certainly do not willingly hand over their assets even after losing the ruling. Lawyers instead are forced to track down assets owned by the defendants to freeze and, where possible, seize them on behalf of the claimants.

French bank fined $8.9 billion for dealing with Iran

French bank BNP Paribas has agreed to pay US authorities a $8.9 billion fine to avoid being tried in court for dealing with US-blacklisted countries, including Iran, sources close to the matter told AFP.
The deal forces BNP to plead guilty to the bank’s deals from 2002 to 2009 with countries that Washington has blacklisted like Cuba, Iran and Sudan.
The investigation probed more than $100 billion of transactions, finding that $30 billion of that amount were concealed in order to skirt the sanctions.

The true face of the New Israel Fund

Don't get too excited by the pleasant-sounding names. They have nothing to do with morals. "Human rights" was long ago made into a code name for denying the right of the Jewish people to their own state and to defend themselves. In his book "Financing the Flames," Edwin Black showed how the Ford Foundation and the NIF fuel a culture of terror and violence in Israel. A decade ago, Black conducted research on the American Ford Foundation and revealed its involvement in funding anti-Semitic and anti-Israel organizations that took part in the infamous Durban Conference in 2001, a conference that claimed to combat racism, but instead, primarily targeted the Jewish state.
In an online interview with Mida, Black said that when he was asked to monitor the Ford Foundation, he discovered that 10 years earlier, Ford had stopped supporting the Durban groups and started supporting the NIF. According to him, "This is a natural progression: NIF can do the same work it did in the Durban organizations, but with one distinct advantage -- it has a Star of David on its front door, thus allowing it to operate efficiently, while covering the public's eyes."

BDS and Klinghoffer Opera: Liberal Focus on Incorrect Tactics, Not Incorrect Analysis

In both cases, we find liberal organizations refusing to reject either BDS boycotters or Palestinian terrorists because their criticisms of Israel are exaggerated or false. Instead, by their silence, these organizations give legitimacy to the demonizing efforts. Jews have had a long history with organizations that agree with the slander made against them but rejected the violent solutions offered by the most regressive forces. Although pre-World War II Poland has important differences from the contemporary threats Jews face, recall the 1936 Easter homily by Cardinal August Hlond, primate of the church in Poland.

Countering the Presbyterian Church’s World Without Zion

The tactics deployed by anti-Israel zealots at the recent Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly would have made Soviet dictator Joe Stalin proud. The leadership of PCUSA and a few committees long hostile to Israel hijacked the committee process. They removed a chairman they couldn’t control, and made sure that the microphone stayed in the hand of anti-Israel speakers, along with self-loathing Jewish Quislings who piled lies upon accusations upon demonization of Israel. Pro-Israel voices were given only one-90 second shot to respond. Pro-Israel resolutions were turned into pro-Palestinian, so that delegates who had bothered to read originals before the conclave unwittingly voted against their actual wishes.
By the time the dust settled, Committee 4 had sent a number of resolutions to the floor that openly contradicted each other – but all were hostile to the Jewish State. The divestment resolution – the one everyone was watching – passed by a narrow margin. A sleeper resolution – not even debated during the plenary – which was far, far worse, passed by a huge margin.

Anti-Zionist tract no longer sold on Presbyterian site

Following the divestment vote at the General Assembly, Jewish leaders said that the combination of the booklet’s sale and the divestment would precipitate a rupture in Jewish-Presbyterian relations.
Presbyterian leaders have been at pains in recent months to distance themselves from the booklet, although they never made clear why the process of removing it for sale was so involved.
The statement Friday said that the Israel/Palestine Mission Network may continue to sell the booklet and a companion DVD study guide through other avenues. It also explained the removal as a matter of addressing a distraction but did not address the materials in the study guide that Jewish groups found offensive.

What do American students learn about Hamas and Hezbollah?

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt books are the worst offenders. In discussing the Gaza strip, the high school textbook explains that, “Since 2007, an organization called Hamas, which means ‘Islamic Resistance Movement,’ has controlled Gaza.” The middle school version goes even further and characterizes Hamas as a “political group.” The high school textbook is equally evasive about Hezbollah, explaining only that, “the Syrian regime received backing from Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.”
By failing to identify Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, these textbooks mislead students.
In both cases, Hamas and Hezbollah are discussed in context with either an authentic political organization (Fatah and the Palestinian National Authority), or a nation-state (Iran). Students reading this text will internalize Hamas and Hezbollah as synonymous with these other groups/nations and will fail to grasp the true nature of Hamas and Hezbollah’s hatred of Jews and Israel, and the violent acts of terror they undertake.

One Professor’s Twisted Definition of ‘Scholarship’

What, though, does Abdulhadi, a professor at SFSU’s College of Ethnic Studies, understand the word “scholarship” to mean? That question, I would contend, is what lies at the heart of this controversy.
By her own admission, Abdulhadi’s methodology does not begin from dispassionate neutrality, whereby the perspectives of all parties to the conflict, including that of the Israeli mainstream, are taken into account. Instead, as she says in her public statement, “The purpose of such programming is to contextualize the study of Palestine as well as the study of Arab and Muslim communities within other social justice struggles and affirm our principle of the indivisibility of justice.”
To my ears, that sounds much more like explicit political advocacy, not scholarship—and it gets worse. In the passage where she discusses her meeting with Leila Khaled, Abdulhadi doesn’t even mention the latter’s participation in the hijack of an El Al plane in 1970, which resulted in the shooting of a member of the flight crew. Instead, she lionizes Khaled as a “Palestinian feminist icon” whose insights are integral to “a counter narrative to the orientalist depictions of Palestinian, and other Arab and Muslim, women as weak and docile.” Later on, we learn that another element of Abdulhadi’s “scholarship” involves “our commitment to the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel”—a quite astounding admission, given that she has spent the previous pages bemoaning AMCHA’s “attack” on academic freedom in the U.S.!

SFSU Ethnic Studies Dean: I Stand With Pro-Terror Research

On Wednesday evening, Kenneth P. Monteiro, the Dean of College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, issued a strong defense of pro-terror professor Rabab Abdulhadi, claiming that the AMCHA initiative, which brought attention to Abdulhadi's radical "Palestinian Solidarity tour," was unreliable. In line with typical scandal cover-ups, Monteiro's first line of defense was to attack AMCHA's character, using buzzwords and failing to address any of the issues at hand:

UN Racism Expert Condemns Holocaust Denial

Unlike its discredited predecessor, the Human Rights Council has not passed one single resolution condemning antisemitism. (The Commission on Human Rights used to condemn antisemitism in 3 separate resolutions each year. Not much has changed since our 2004-2007 The United Nations and Anti-Semitism Report Card.)
Yet, in a recent welcome development, Mr. Mutuma Ruteere, the UN’s expert on racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance, had some tough words for antisemites across the world. In his most recent report, the expert dedicated an entire section to “Countering Holocaust denial and the distortion of History” and included another section outlining successful methods for combating neo-Nazis and skinheads.
In particular, the report explicitly defines and denounces modern Holocaust denial. The report defines Holocaust denial as 1) denying six million Jews were killed during the Second World War; 2) professing the Nazis had no official policy or intention to exterminate Jews; and 3) extermination and concentration camps such as Auschwitz-Birkenau never existed.

French ironies and the Jews

One of the most painful and heated of the controversies extending throughout more than a hundred years of French history, and still continuing today, concerns the presence and rights of Jews in France.
Anti-Semitism in France, in both practical and rhetorical form, has been vigorous, divisive, and deadly, as revealed by the prejudice and injustice of the Dreyfus Affair (see picture of Dreyfus above after his release from Devil's Island) and the dishonorable actions of the Vichy regime in its participation in the Holocaust during World War II.
The situation could have been otherwise. Though a Polish prince in 1264 issued a document granting Jews personal freedom and legal autonomy, it was the edict of the French Constituent Assembly passed on September 27, 1791 that can be considered the first real act of modern Jewish emancipation.

New Primetime Drama ‘Tyrant’ Filmed Entirely in Israel (VIDEO)

The new FX Network drama Tyrant was shot entirely in Israel, just 10 miles north of Tel Aviv, Bloomberg News reported last Tuesday.
Tyrant follows the life of an Arab dictator’s second son Barry, played by Adam Rayner, who reluctantly returns home to the Middle Eastern nation of his birth to join the family business away from his suburban life in America.
The elaborate set production for the primetime drama included a crew of 300 and a reported cost of over $3 million an episode, according to Bloomberg.

Ayelet Zurer named Best Actress in Monte Carlo festival

Israeli series "Hostages" won the Best International Drama Series award at the 54th annual Golden Nymph Awards ceremony held in Monaco last week as part of the Monte Carlo Television Festival.
"Hostages" lead actress, Ayelet Zurer, took home the Best Actor in a Drama Series award.

Israel’s top 10 models to watch

Israeli supermodels Bar Refaeli and Esti Ginzburg are well known to anyone who’s seen the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition or Victoria’s Secret ads. Former Miss Israel Gal Gadot has risen from supermodel to superstar as she is poised to play Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Though these women and others listed in ISRAEL21c’s 2011 look at Israeli top models are still at the height of their careers, we decided the time has come to introduce readers to the latest crop of Israeli models storming the world’s catwalks.

Leviathan strikes $30 billion gas deal with UK company

Partners in Israel's Leviathan natural gas field have signed a non-binding letter of intent to supply the U.K.'s BG Group with an estimated $30 billion worth of natural gas for its facility in Idku, Egypt.
The preliminary agreement, announced Sunday, comes on the heels of supply agreements signed with Jordan and other local countries, making Israel a major local exporter of natural gas. Once the deal is signed and authorized, the natural gas will be sold directly to BG's Egyptian facility, which has the necessary infrastructure to liquefy it.
BG will receive the gas via a special outlet that will be installed adjacent to the Leviathan gas field. An underwater pipe will connect the outlet to the BG liquefaction facility in Idku.

Nepalese students return home from Israel after agriculture training

Fifty-four students have returned home after receiving 10-month training on agriculture in Israel.
The students, who had left for Israel for agriculture training at the joint initiation of Sana Kisan Bikas Bank and Israeli Embassy in Nepal, shared their knowledge and experiences at a press meet organized in the capital on Friday morning.

The colors on your TV and phone are about to pop

The Israeli company Qlight Nanotech aims to enhance the quality and colors of LCD TV screens and LED lights while reducing energy consumption.
Its semiconductor nano-crystals with unique optical and electrical properties could be a panacea for next-generation flat-panel displays and could double the battery life of your smartphone, claims Qlight CEO Shlomo Amir.
The forward-thinking company is working full speed ahead on its nano-sized crystals for screens and mobile displays –– promising an environmentally friendly alternative to dangerous chemicals and energy-guzzling technologies.

Israeli 3D tech behind ‘ultimate selfie’ sports drone

Israeli-developed 3D printing technology is helping a Latvian company enable extreme sports enthusiasts take the ultimate selfie — a drone that follows them and shoots video of their performances from the air as they do triple wheelies, a “360” on a skateboard, ride the surf, or any of their other adrenaline-pumping activities.
Using 3D printers developed in Israel by Minnesota-based Stratasys — which merged with Israel’s Objet 3D Printers in 2012 — Helico Aerospace Industries, the company behind the AirDog, has been “printing” components of just the right size and shape for a drone that is taking the sports world by storm.

72 hours to make a better world

At the three-day Tikkun Olam Make-a-thon (TOM) running through July 1 in Israel, teams of engineers, occupational therapists, designers and artists from around the world are pooling their talents to produce open-source working prototypes of affordable assistive gadgets for people with disabilities.
The tools of modern digital fabrication – including laser cutters, 3D printers, and other rapid manufacturing equipment — are at the heart of this “maker revolution” taking place in the recently opened Nazareth Industrial Park.
TOM is a project of the Tel Aviv-based policy group Reut Institute, which last year inaugurated its XLN (Cross-Lab Network) Initiative to make 3D printing available to people in Israel’s periphery regions; and the Schusterman Philanthropic Network’s Connection Points.

US regulators okay Israeli-made robotic legs

Federal health regulators in the US approved Thursday a first-of-a-kind set of robotic leg braces that can help some disabled people walk again.
The ReWalk system, developed in Israel, functions like an exoskeleton for people paralyzed from the waist down, allowing them to stand and walk with assistance from a caretaker.
The device was developed by the founder of Israel-based Argo Medical Technologies, who was paralyzed in a 1997 car crash.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/30/2014 06:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Will the US react to the murder of an American by Hamas? Oh, please!

I see some tweets wondering whether the White House will react strongly to the murder of an American citizen by Hamas.

You gotta be kidding.

The US treated a case where three Americans were killed in a diplomatic convoy in Gaza with kid gloves!

Back in 2003:

A powerful remote-controlled bomb detonated beneath an American diplomatic convoy in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing three American security specialists assigned to the American Embassy by a private military contractor and wounding an American diplomat. The bombing was the first fatal attack on an official American target since the current Palestinian uprising began three years ago.

The explosion shortly after 10 a.m. hit one of three armored Chevrolet Suburbans carrying American diplomats and a security detail to Gaza City for meetings with Palestinian candidates seeking Fulbright scholarships for graduate studies in the United States.

Did the US push hard to find the murderers?

Not at all:

After Parsons' body was brought back to Wayne for a funeral at his Roman Catholic parish and burial in a Franklin Lakes cemetery, his family figured the killers would eventually be tracked down.

"We believed that as time went by the perpetrators would be caught," John Parsons said.

But nothing happened.

"It just fell off the radar screen," he said.

Or perhaps it was blocked by Palestinian authorities.

Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism show that the FBI and State Department officials tried to respond quickly. A team of seven FBI agents arrived a day after the bombing.

But Palestinian authorities had not secured the crime scene, the documents say. As the agents tried to collect evidence, they were pelted with rocks by Palestinian youths. Fearing they might be harmed, the agents quickly scooped up as much material as they could and left.

The Associated Press reported that the Palestinian crowd chanted "Allahu Akbar" - God is great - as the U.S. agents retreated to their cars surrounded by rifle-toting Palestinian police.

The FBI documents offer no clues about possible suspects. But investigators are quite sure of one critical element of the story: The bomb, containing 150 to 200 pounds of TNT, was set off by a remote control device. In other words, the bombers targeted the convoy.

A few months after Parsons' death, Palestinian authorities charged three members of the Palestinian Revolutionary Council with manslaughter for possessing explosive devices connected to the bombing. A Palestinian judge ordered that three suspects be released for lack of evidence, but Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat kept them in jail.

The three were later freed by a mob, reportedly led by the PRC, and have never been caught. Several months later, the head of Palestinian military intelligence announced that he knew the names of the killers. But he declined to arrest them, claiming that Palestinian police "cannot act against the factions while the fighting with Israel continues."

As the years went by, a litany of U.S. officials called on the Palestinians to solve the case - or allow American investigators back into Gaza to track down suspects and witnesses.

So the PA protected the murderers, and the US backed off....because the idea of publicly upsetting the idea that the Palestinian Authority is anything but peaceful is not to be considered.

Real peace cannot ever happen while the world allows itself to be taken hostage by lies. And the ideas that Fatah is "moderate," that the PA wants peace, that Abbas accepts Israel's existence in any real way, that Hamas is "pragmatic"...all of them are lies.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/30/2014 03:12:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] NYT reporting bodies of teens found

From NYT:

Israeli military searchers found three bodies believed to be those of the missing Israeli teenagers who disappeared more than two weeks ago in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, senior government officials said Monday. The Israeli government called an emergency Cabinet meeting.

The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity before the official announcement, said the Army had found the three bodies buried “in a field near Hebron” and were waiting to inform the families before releasing information.

“They know it’s the three, they will know for sure after they do the autopsy."The official said the three appeared to have been shot to death, likely “very close to the kidnap” time, and that the prime suspects had still not been caught.

There are no words.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/30/2014 01:34:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 06/30 Links Pt1: EU, U.S., Funding Incentives to Kill Jews; Netanyahu calls for Kurdish independence

From Ian:

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EU, U.S., Funding Incentives to Kill Jews

Children living in territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority, funded by Europe and the U.S., are encouraged to kill Jews and destroy Israel.
There can be no peace so long as financial incentives to kill Jews and destroy Israel continue to be dangled in front of Palestinian populations. It is this aggression, and not humanitarian relief, that much of the well-intended international funding -- with no conditions whatsoever attached -- is used for.
The only conclusion one can draw is the EU and the U.S. are actually on the side of terrorism.
So long as the EU and the U.S continue to fund entities which openly promote acts of terror, they should be held criminally liable as accessories to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The New York Times's Pro-Terrorist Op-Ed

On Saturday, The New York Times featured a piece by jailed Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood member Khaled Al-Qazzaz titled "Why Is the World Silent? Khaled al-Qazzaz: Disappeared by Egypt's Military."
The imprisoned Qazzaz, whose op-ed was "smuggled" out of prison and obtained by The New York Times, posits himself as an innocent “engineer” and “educator” who had just recently become “interested in politics” and was now being unfairly locked up by the newly elected Sisi regime.

'New reality requires security fence on Jordan border'

In light of recent changes in the Middle East, Israel is going to have to construct a security fence along the length of its border with Jordan, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies conference in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu said that in any future peace deal with the Palestinians, the Israel Defense Forces would be the entity protecting Israel in Judea and Samaria, including the Jordan Valley.
Israel "must stabilize the region west of the security line in Jordan," Netanyahu said, adding that the territory of a future Palestinian state, up to the Jordan River, would have to remain under full Israeli security control for many years.

Watch: ISIS fighter says they will 'break all borders to reach Jerusalem'

A video purportedly shot by Islamist militants at a captured Iraqi border post on the Syrian border shows captured Iraqi soldiers and vehicles, while an English-speaking fighter reaffirms the declaration of an Islamic "caliphate."
The fighter, Abu Safiyya from Chile, claims to be standing on the Iraq border with Syria.
In the clip, titled The End of Sykes-Picot, Safiyya says that the ISIS will eventually break all of the Middle East borders to make way to Jerusalem.

Three Officers, Two Cops to Be Dismissed over Teens' Abduction

The Israel Police's Judea and Samaria District Operations Department Commander will be dismissed as a result of the police's mishandling of a call from the abducted yeshiva boys that was mistakenly classified as a prank call, as will the Commander of the District's Control Outpost (Mashlat) and Operations Branch Commander, IDF Radio reported Monday. Also to be dismissed are the policeman who was in charge of the shift at the police's '100' hotline and the senior policewoman who received the information about the call and classified it as a prank.
The five dismissals were decided upon by a committee appointed by Police Commissioner Lt. Gen. Yohanan Danino to look into the police's initial handling of the abduction. The committee handed in its conclusions Monday and Danino accepted them. A disciplinary court will decide whether to fire the policemen or keep them in service.

Ban to Peres: We Take Kidnapping Very Seriously

Speaking at the beginning of a meeting with President Shimon Peres at the UN Headquarters in New York, Ban said that the organization takes the kidnapping very seriously and will do whatever it can to help, in close coordination with international partners.
“Under any circumstances or any reasons this cannot be justified; it's totally unacceptable and I've condemned it in the strongest possible terms,” he said, according to a statement issued by the UN.
“I'm sending again my strong solidarity, first of all, with those young people who were kidnapped and must be enduring terrible days, and their families and friends, and the people of Israel,” Ban noted, adding that he had spoken with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu about the situation.

Nigerian leader decries ‘dastardly’ kidnapping of teens

“Given Nigeria’s experience with the scourge of terrorism, I assure you that we are in solidarity with you, as we believe that any act of terrorism against any nation or group is an act against our common humanity,” Jonathan wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a letter.
“We unequivocally condemn this dastardly act and demand that the children are released unconditionally by their abductors,” he wrote.

Kidnapper's Mother 'Proud of Him to my Last Day'

The mother of one of the Hamas kidnappers who the IDF has identified as being behind the June 12 abduction of three Israeli teens has spoken out, both denying his involvement yet saying if he is behind the abduction "I'll be proud of him till my final day."
The revelation comes in an interview with Channel 10 by the mother of Amar Abu-Eisha (33), whose identity, along with that of Marwan Kawasmeh (29) was released by the IDF last Thursday, as the main actors behind the abduction. The two are known Hamas terrorists from the Hevron region.

When does the BBC call a kidnapping a kidnapping?

Despite the fact that Israeli intelligence reports point to Hamas responsibility for the kidnappings, the BBC might perhaps claim that the fact that no group has so far provided concrete evidence that it holds the abducted teens is the reason for its ambiguous approach. It is therefore interesting to take a look at how it portrayed another kidnapping seven years ago – that of BBC reporter Alan Johnston in the Gaza Strip.
Alan Johnston was kidnapped on March 12th 2007 by the Salafist Jihadist group ‘The Army of Islam’, not far from the BBC’s Gaza office. Nearly two months later – on May 8th - that group (which had previously denied any connection to Johnston’s disappearance) sent a tape to Al Jazeera which included the first concrete evidence that he had been kidnapped.
One might therefore expect that a look through the archives would show that between March 12th and May 8th, the BBC’s almost daily reports on the topic would have referred to Johnston as “missing”, “apparently abducted”, “believed seized” or “disappeared”. That was indeed the case during the first week – see for example reports here, here and here. However, one week into the incident, the BBC’s approach changed.

5 held for death threats against Arab teen who slammed kidnapping

Police arrested five people Monday for threatening to harm an Arab Israeli youth for supporting the Israeli campaign to find and rescue three kidnapped Israeli teens.
The suspects were from Umm al-Fahm and the Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor and the investigation into the threats is ongoing, police said.
Yihye Zakaria Mahameed, a 17-year-old resident of Umm al-Fahm, was subjected to a fierce backlash including death threats from his peers after uploading a photo to Facebook of himself holding an Israeli flag and a “Bring Back Our Boys” sign two weeks ago.

MK Hanin Zoabi's Family Speak Out: 'She Doesn't Represent Us'

Mohammed Zoabi, the 17-year-old who publicly disagreed with his relative MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) over her blatant anti-Israel stance, isn't the only Zoabi who has had enough of the Arab MK's Israel-hating antics.
On Monday, a representative of the Zoabi family told reporters that there were many people in the extended Zoabi clan who disagreed with Hanin when she said that the Hamas terrorists who kidnapped three Israeli teens weren't terrorists, justifying the abduction.
“The Zoabi clan numbers about 10,000, and we are not all Hanins,” said Nahal Zoabi, a cousin of the MK and the principal of a high school in Kfar Nin, near Afula. “I condemn the kidnapping, it was an immoral and wrong thing to do. I pray that they come home to their families safe and sound, and I would hope to be with the families when the boys come home.”
Nahal Zoabi said she was speaking for many members of the family, who she said strongly disagreed with comments by the MK.

'Zoabi bill' heads to Knesset House Committee

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation voted on Sunday to present Habayit Hayehudi MK Ayelet Shaked's "Zoabi bill" to the Knesset House Committee.
If passed, the legislation would allow the House Committee to impeach and potentially dismiss lawmakers for identifying with a terrorist organization or inciting racism. A two-thirds majority vote would be required to impeach such MKs, and the Supreme Court would have the final say over their dismissal.

The Bewildering Zoabi Family – Where Hatred and Love for Israel Abound (AUDIO)

A relative of firebrand Israeli Arab Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi is awaiting trial in southern Eilat for kicking and harassing a policeman during a drug raid of her home, during which, among other things, she called him a “stinking Jew,” and a “Nazi.”
“You sonofab***h, stinking Jew occupier – this is my home, and I’ll do whatever I want,” Nasrin Zoabi told officers, according to the local ErevErev website.
“You don’t know who you’re dealing with, you Nazi,” she shouted, as police searched for illegal substances.

Netanyahu hints at further Gaza action: Either Hamas reins in rocket fire or we will

If Hamas does not stop rocket fire, Israel will take action, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday after at least 14 rockets exploded in an an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel.
The rockets fell following a series of Code Red rocket alert sirens throughout Monday morning, the IDF said. A home was lightly damaged from shrapnel caused by one of the rockets, police said.
Earlier, on Monday morning, two rockets exploded in the south in open areas.
The prime minister told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that "Hamas should take into account that we won't allow continued shooting.

Hamas fired rockets for first time since 2012 -- officials

The security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, assessed that Hamas had probably launched the barrage in revenge for an Israeli airstrike several hours earlier which killed one person and injured three more.

Israel strikes Gaza after further rocket attack, killing 1

The army said in a statement that the raid was targeting terrorists “in the southern Gaza Strip, during their final preparations to launch rockets at civilian communities of southern Israel.”
“Hamas is responsible for the outrageous attacks originating from Gaza, and will be pursued as such,” IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said.
Palestinians said the man who was killed in the Israeli airstrike had been a member of Hamas.

Passover eve widow to 'JPost': Demolish terrorist's home, his whole family was party to attack

Leading up to the High Court hearing on whether to demolish the family house of Ziad Awwad, Hadas Mizrahi, widow of murdered police officer Baruch Mizrahi told the Jerusalem Post that demolishing the house was "the minimum" that could be done.
Mizrahi said that the entire family were "all partners in this terrible attack and were a family of terrorists," adding that "they all knew" about his attack plans and tried "to hide him" from the authorities.

Temple Mount: Jews Harassed, Ordered to 'Respect Ramadan'

Groups of visibly-Jewish visitors are regularly subjected to harassment and even physical attacks by Muslim extremists, and Rabbi Richman described how even during the heavily-policed visits during Ramadan, the violence is continuing unabated.
The rabbi himself led a group of ten Jewish visitors to the site Monday morning, and described how a peaceful visit soon degenerated into "basically a lynch", after a group of Muslim women started to heckle the group. They were soon joined by others, and the crowd swelled to "hundreds".
"It's something which is impossible to describe," related Rabbi Richman. "You have these women dressed in black who come into your face and they hold up three fingers and gloat - like 'we have your children' - it's just the most unbelievable thing."

I’m Glad I’m Not Getting The Same UN ‘Help’ As Palestinian Refugees By Hassan Amir, refugee from Mosul, Iraq (satire)

A proper refugee agency provides for the immediate physical needs of the displaced, then tries to find them a safe place to go. Whether or not we end up here in Jordan permanently, there’s no way I’m going to entrust my family’s future to an organization that has condemned generations of Palestinians to perpetual limbo, squalor, and discrimination from host countries. United Nations Relief and Works Agency? Spare me. Whose relief, exactly?
Mine. I’m relieved we’re not subject to the bizarre world of Palestinian refugeehood, in which the goal, perversely, is not to find proper accommodation for actual humans, but to maintain those stateless souls as bargaining chips in an ever-desperate struggle to oust the Jews from their state. Give it up, you morons. It’s been 66 years.They’re not going anywhere. But we are – wherever we can find a secure place with a modicum of economic opportunity. We’re not stupid.

Wars in region distract from "central confrontation" with "barbaric Israel"

Op-ed in official PA daily: Wars in Iraq and Syria "divert the people of the Arab nation from the duty of the basic and central confrontation, which is with the barbaric Israel" "[Israel's] leaders forget that these flames are burning because of it, and will be directed towards it in the end"
A recent op-ed in the official Palestinian Authority daily lamented the current wars in Syria and Iraq because they "divert" the Arab nations from the real goal, which is "to bury the [Israeli] myth that is being lived by the bloodthirsty, helmet-clad and rifle-bearing soldier." The op-ed insisted that the civil wars "are burning because of it [Israel], and will be directed towards it in the end."

Hamas Asks Turkey to Stop 'Israeli Aggression'

Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday, asking him for to act against Israel.
Mashaal complained to Davutoglu about the IDF Operation Brother's Keeper, which has cracked down on the Hamas terrorism infrastructure in Judea and Samaria while searching for the three Israeli teens that were abducted by Hamas terrorists on June 12.
The Hamas leader told Davutoglu that Israel is conducting "arrests, aggression and threats" in the operation, reports Walla!.

Egypt to Charge Two 'Israeli Spies'

An Egyptian and two Israelis, including an intelligence officer, will be tried by an Egyptian court for allegedly "spying" for the Jewish state, judicial sources said on Sunday.
The Egyptian, named as Salameh Mohammed Suleiman, is in custody and the two Israeli "fugitives" are to be tried in absentia, the sources said. The Israelis were named as Shlomo Sofer and Juma'a Adbari al-Tarabin.

8 rebel fighters crucified by ISIL in Syria

The report comes amid fierce clashes on the outskirts of Damascus between the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is spearheading a major offensive in Iraq, and rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
“ISIL executed eight men in Deir Hafer in the east of Aleppo province” on Saturday because they belonged to rebel groups that had fought against the jihadists as well as Assad’s forces, it said.
ISIL then “crucified them in the main square of the village, where their bodies will remain for three days,” the Britain-based monitor said.

Kurds in Iraq deserve independence, Netanyahu says

Recent turmoil in the Middle East — including the territorial gains made by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — offers Israel the chance to “build an axis for regional collaboration,” the prime minister said. “This is not only a challenge but also an opportunity. We can’t solve the conflicts between extremist Sunnis and Shiites, not in Syria or Iraq or elsewhere. These two camps are our bitter foes – the Shiites led by the Iranians and the Sunnis led by al-Qaeda and ISIL. But they are also other people’s enemies as well. That is where there is an opportunity for enhanced regional cooperation.”
Such cooperation already exists but Israel should act to boost it to prevent harm to itself and moderate Arab states in the region, Netanyahu said. “It is upon us to support the international efforts to strengthen Jordan, and support the Kurds’ aspiration for independence. Jordan is a stable, moderate country with a strong army that can defend itself, and it is especially due to this that these international efforts are worthy of supporting it. The same is true for the Kurds: They are fighting people that have proven political commitment and political moderation but they’re also worthy of their own political independence.”

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/30/2014 12:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] ISIS makes public appearance in Gaza

ISIL/ISIS flags were seen at the funeral of two terrorists killed by the IDF last Friday, according to NRG.

Not only that, but one of the terrorists - claimed by the PRC - was wrapped in an ISIL flag.

Last February, Al Monitor reported that the major Salafist group in Gaza had declared allegiance to ISIS.

It seems Ayman al-Zawahri’s statement on Jan. 22 disavowing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) had very little impact on the Salafist jihadist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip. The most prominent among those organizations, the Mujahedeen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem, quickly issued a statement on Feb. 2, asserting that they were “committed to helping ISIS and bolstering its ranks.” The statement added that the infighting taking place in Syria was due to “an unfair view toward ISIS and its emir, the Prince of Believers Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.”

Not long after, a video spread on social networking sites and local news agencies showing purported Salafist jihadists affiliated with al-Qaeda, meeting in the Gaza Strip on Feb. 11, to offer support and pledge allegiance to ISIS.

In the video, dozens of armed black-clad men were seen carrying various types of weapons, their bodies arrayed with explosive belts as they stood in front of a backdrop of palm trees, with an al-Qaeda flag by their side. The video started with a written phrase that read, “Jerusalem champions the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham,” with no further evidence indicating the location of where the clip was shot.

Yet there are a lot of people who are emotionally invested in the idea that Israel's enemies are somehow different than those who are dedicated to destroying the Western world.

(h/t Yoel)



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/30/2014 10:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Jordan distancing itself from plan to employ 1500 Jordanians in Eilat

AFP reports:

The Israeli government Sunday authorized 1,500 more Jordanians to come and work in its Red Sea resort of Eilat to combat a labor shortage, the tourism ministry said

It said the decision was taken because of the “serious crisis” caused by not enough hotel workers.

The Jordanians would enter Israel to work and go back across the border to Jordan at night once their shift was finished, the ministry said in a statement.

“I am persuaded that this decision will reinforce peace between Israel and Jordan, and help reduce high unemployment in southern Jordan,” it quoted Tourism Minister Uzi Landau as saying.

Ministry figures show that some 300 Jordanians currently work in and around the resort, which has about 12,000 hotel rooms.

Jordan's Ammon News says that Jordan's Labor Ministry knows nothing about this.

The secretary-general of the ministry Hamada Abu Negmet said the ministry "does not have relationships with Israel, nor any program or cooperation of any kind," pointing out that there may be other parties to cooperate with Israel in this endeavor but certainly not the ministry.

That seems unlikely.

“We are under severe pressure by the shortage of manpower in Eilat – especially in the summer season,” said Eilat Hotel Association CEO Shabtai Shay. Being able to employ Jordanians “will make our lives much easier,” he said.

The Jordanians will work only during the day – crossing the border in the morning and returning to Jordan in the evening.

“I’ve done everything in my power to employ Israelis,” Shay said. “We offer special benefits; we offer higher salaries…but we were unable to employ Israelis.”

I imagine that there are plenty of Western college students who would love to work in Eilat all summer for free in exchange for transportation, room and board.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/30/2014 08:00:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] NYT again implies moral equivalence between terror victims and active fighters

More lazy moral equivalence from Jodi Rudoren in The New York Times, in a story headlined "After West Bank Kidnapping, 2 Mothers Embody a Divide"  (originally the headline seems to have been "2 Mothers Cope With Loss of Sons:")

It was about 4 a.m. on a Friday when the police banged on Rachel Fraenkel’s door in this Jerusalem suburb looking for her 16-year-old son, Naftali, and a friend he studies with at a yeshiva in the West Bank. The night before, Naftali had texted his parents saying he was going to hitchhike back home. They had no idea he had never arrived.

“I was praying maybe he did something stupid and irresponsible,” Ms. Fraenkel recalled, “but I know my boy isn’t stupid, and he isn’t irresponsible.”

It was almost exactly a week later, just past 5 a.m., that Aida Abdel Aziz Dudeen was startled awake by a gunshot, then banging on her own door in the West Bank town of Dura. Her family had locked the door the night before to keep her 15-year-old son, Mohammed, from confronting the Israeli Army after days of house-to-house searches and arrest raids. The key was still under Ms. Dudeen’s pillow.

“I didn’t imagine he would jump out the window,” she said. “I saw a cousin at the door shouting, ‘Mohammed is a martyr!’ I said, ‘Mohammed who?’ He said, ‘Your son.’ He showed me a shirt with blood. I wanted to know who died because I still believed my son was inside the house.”

More than two weeks after the abduction of Naftali and two other Israeli teenagers, Israel’s security crackdown has raised questions about the asymmetry of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the value of lives on both sides. Mohammed, who witnesses said was among a crowd of youths who hurled stones at Israeli soldiers storming their neighborhood that morning, is one of five Palestinians fatally shot by soldiers in the West Bank; three more have been killed by airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Most Israelis see the missing teenagers as innocent civilians captured on their way home from school, and the Palestinians who were killed as having provoked soldiers. Palestinians, though, see the very act of attending yeshiva in a West Bank settlement as provocation, and complain that the crackdown is collective punishment against a people under illegal occupation.

Ms. Fraenkel and Ms. Dudeen share little aside from deep religiosity and empty beds where their sons should be. But both have been thrust into conspicuous roles in their side-by-side societies, reflecting the conflict’s human costs.

So who is being compared to a boy who was just trying to get home?

An Arab boy who jumped out his window specifically to fight Israeli soldiers, who participated in a riot where not only stones but Molotov cocktails were being thrown at the soldiers.

The New York Times is comparing a boy who was kidnapped because he was a Jew to a boy who deliberately chose to be a combatant and to engage in acts of war.

Being a Jew in a region that Palestinian Arabs believe should be Jew-free isn't exactly the same level of "provocation" as purposefully going out of your way to join a battle. While Rudoren doesn't explicitly make the equivalence, the style of the article where the mothers of both boys are interviewed leaves little doubt as to what impression she wants to give her readers.

The implication, of course, is that being Jewish on "Palestinian land" is just as reprehensible as hurling firebombs and potentially deadly projectiles.

(h/t Ronald)



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/30/2014 05:28:00 AM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Only Muslims are allowed to attack on Ramadan

Some Arabic media are outraged that Israeli jets hit terrorist targets on the first day of Ramadan. Attacking during holy days must be an unconscionable act.

Of course, they weren't too concerned about attacking Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur in1973.

But the irony is that the Arab world calls the Yom Kippur War The Ramadan War.

That year, Ramadan coincided with the Hebrew month Tishrei in which Yom Kippur is marked. They celebrate it as a victory, and they celebrate that they waged war during Ramadan!

Which means that not only did Muslims attack Jews on the Jewish holy day, but they did it during the Muslim holy season as well.

Obviously, the rules of war are completely different for Muslims than for everyone else.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/29/2014 07:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] PRC celebrates the 2006 kidnap and murder of a Jewish teen

The Popular Resistance Committees have taken responsibility for the recent rocket attacks from Gaza.

Al-Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, on Sunday claimed responsibility for launching rockets from the Gaza Strip toward southern Israel.

The shelling is part of "our retaliation to the Israeli crimes against our Palestinian people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and the ongoing violations against prisoners," according to the statement.

The statement marks the first time a Palestinian faction claims responsibility for the upsurge in rockets launched from Gaza since Israel launched a massive military deployment across the West Bank in mid-June in pursuit of three missing Israeli teenagers.

On their homepage, they are celebrating the 8th anniversary of one of their terror attacks:

Today is the eighth anniversary of the killing of Zionist soldier Eliyahu Asheri who was killed in the West Bank at the hands of mujahedeen heroes under the name "Operation Angry Knights" ...
In light of these jihadist memories we emphasize the following: First, we confirm that the option of kidnapping Zionist soldiers is our choice and our highest priority at the current stage as long as there are Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and we will not give up this right and no obstacle will stand in our way. Secondly, we call on all Palestinian factions to work in the trench of blood and flesh that will bring victory and pride and liberation and liberation of our brave prisoners of the Zionist occupation and appreciate the steadfastness of our prisoners and unite with them behind the walls and the bars. Thirdly, we call on the Arab nation and Islamic countries to pay attention and put all their power to the issue of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in the prisons of the Zionist enemy and work through all political and military means to liberate them all, and that the blood of the Palestinian and Arab-Muslim have a heavy price, and the enemy should know about it and we are willing to strive and penetrate the border in order to obtain the freedom of our prisoners from the prisons and to liberate our people from the great siege and imprisonment.

Eliyahu Asheri was not a soldier.

Eliyahu Pinchas Asheri (February 2, 1988 – June 25, 2006) was an Israeli student from the settlement of Itamar, in the northern West Bank. He was a student at the religious pre-army Mechina (preparatory program) "Elisha" in Neveh Tzuf.

On Sunday, June 25, 2006, Eliyahu was kidnapped while on his way from Beitar Illit to Neveh Tzuf, northwest of Ramallah. Asheri was last seen on 9:00 pm Sunday night, after he left the home of a friend in Betar Illit and was hitchhiking near the French Hill intersection of Jerusalem by one of his classmates.

On Tuesday, the Palestinian militant group Popular Resistance Committees initially announced that the group has kidnapped a Jewish settler in the West Bank. On Wednesday, June 28, Abu Abir, the spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, stated that Asheri would be "butchered in front of TV cameras" if Israel did not suspend its Operation Summer Rains into the Gaza Strip, which took place is in response to the kidnapping of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) corporal Gilad Shalit.Later on that day the Popular Resistance Committees stated that Asheri was slain.

Around 2:30 am on June 29, the IDF recovered the body of Asheri which had been buried in an open field near the village of Beitunia, not far from Ramallah. The forensic investigation revealed that Asheri he was shot to death by a bullet to the head from close range, possibly the same day in which he was abducted. The IDF had been led to the site by the Palestinian militant Wasam Abu Ragila, whom was a prime suspect of the murder of Asheri, whom had been arrested on Wednesday by the Israeli police anti-terror unit and IDF troops and whom confessed in his investigation about his part in the kidnapping and murder of Asheri and gave specific details about the location of Asheri's body.

On the morning hours of 4 July 2006, during a joint operation conducted by the IDF and the Israel Security Authorities, the three Tanzim militants whom murdered Eliyahu Asheri and whom were hiding in the a Palestinian Police headquarters building in Ramallah, were apprehended after a three-hour standoff. The three men were Bassam Shafik Atiya Ahtiya, Khamze Salah Taktuk, and I'iam Fuab Naaef Kamamju. All three were reported to be members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and had been serving in the security forces of the Palestinian Authority.

Wo while the PRC took responsibility, it was Fatah terrorists that kidnapped and murdered Eliyahu, and they were protected by the PA.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/29/2014 05:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Egyptian army to delay rollout of "AIDS cure" by six months

Aw, and I was so looking forward to this.

From Al Arabiya:

Egypt’s army on Saturday said it would delay for six months the public use of a device previously announced as being able to treat and cure hepatitis C and AIDS viruses.

The postponement of the device was made two days before a scheduled date set by the army for putting the machine to use at military hospitals, UAE-based daily Gulf News reported on Sunday.

“The delay will continue until the end of the experimental period related to the follow-up of patients being treated by the device... this takes six months,” army medical services chief Maj. Gen. Jamal a-Serafi said, according to the newspaper.

In what had been dubbed earlier this year as a “unprecedented scientific breakthrough,” the device, named C-fast, had also been touted to “eliminate the C virus with a cost tens of times less that its foreign likes, and is 90 percent successful,” an Egyptian army spokesman said in a statement.

The news of the machine triggered satires and parodies on social media an TV programs after an army medical staffer said the equipment draws blood from the patient with HIV or AIDS, destroys the virus and returns it as nutrients “like grilled meatball” to the patient.

Without actually touching the patient!

Maybe they are still training their jinn to treat AIDS.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/29/2014 03:00:00 PM

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[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 06/29 Links: After rocket fire, Israeli jets strike 12 locations in Gaza; Israel's War of Words

From Ian:

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After rocket fire, Israeli jets strike 12 locations in Gaza

The Israel Air Force struck twelve separate sites in the Gaza Strip early Sunday in an ongoing air offensive against continued rocket fire at Israel’s southern towns.
The strikes targeted a weapons factory in the northern part of the strip, another weapons facility and a “terror center” in central Gaza and six sites in the southern strip, three of them concealed rocket launchers, the IDF said.
Direct hits were confirmed on all sites.

Netanyahu: Israel Ready to 'Expand' Gaza Operations

Israel is "ready" to expand its operations in Gaza, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned Sunday after the air force struck 12 targets overnight following a surge in terrorist rocket fire.
Speaking to ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the almost-nightly military strikes on Gaza could be expanded should the need arise.
His remarks came after a sharp hike in tensions along the border as terrorist groups have stepped up their fire on southern Israel.
"Over the weekend, the IDF attacked multiple targets in response to firing at Israel from the Gaza Strip. We are ready to expand this operation as per need," Netanyahu said, without elaborating.

Hamas Admits Giving Rocket Terror a Free Hand

Abu-Marzouk, deputy to Hamas's political bureau leader Khaled Mashaal and the man tasked with the reconciliation with Fatah, clarified on his Facebook page that Hamas has no security coordination with the IDF, something Hamas has criticized the Palestinian Authority (PA) over.
The Hamas deputy leader clarified that the Hamas ceasefire with Israel, which was brokered by Egypt to end the 2012 counter-terror Operation Pillar of Defense, is different than the PA's security cooperation with the IDF.
That ceasefire, according to Abu-Marzouk, was a strategic achievement for Hamas, given that it canceled the buffer zone on the Gaza side of the security barrier, allowing terrorists to approach the fence to launch attacks. Abu-Marzouk added that it expanded the maritime boundaries for local fishermen, and opened border passages.
Abu-Marzouk announced that the terrorists launching rockets, which on Saturday night directly hit a factory in Sderot burning it down, are not being stopped or arrested by Hamas.

After rocket barrage, Liberman calls to consider retaking Gaza

Over a dozen rockets were fired at southern Israel from Gaza over the weekend, with one destroying a paint factory, and injuring four. Israeli jets responded by hitting 12 sites in the strip, including concealed rocket launchers and “terror sites,” the military said.
“We have to decide if we are heading to a scenario of re-taking full control of the strip,” Liberman said in an interview with Army Radio. “We’ve seen that a limited operation just strengthens Hamas, so the alternative is clear. There is no scenario in between.”

IDF said to arrest father of kidnapping suspect

According to Al-Resalah, Israeli soldiers raided and searched a number of homes in Hebron early Sunday morning, arresting Omar Abu Aysha, the father of 32-year-old Amer Abu Aysha, a known Hamas member who went missing immediately following the kidnapping. The elder Abu Aysha was reportedly one of seven Palestinians from the Hebron area arrested by the IDF overnight.
Abu Aysha’s mother told The Times of Israel that unlike Zayd — Amer’s brother who was killed in a clash with IDF soldiers in Hebron in 2005 — Amer was a family man who was deeply involved in the lives of his wife and three children. She said he had worked in Jerusalem as well as in Azaria, east of the city. She added that she too last saw Abu Aysha on Thursday, June 12, before the abduction, and said she did not notice anything unusual in his behavior.
She added, however, that if her son did take part in the kidnapping, she was proud of him and hoped he would continue to evade capture, both by Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces.

Bring this up at the iftar dinner

It’s been 15 days since the kidnapping of three Jewish boys on their way home from school. They are, if alive, being held by terrorists under conditions that one tries not to imagine. You, President Obama, who have said that there are “unbreakable bonds” between the US and Israel, have not seen fit to mention this in public, despite requests from Jewish organizations and individuals.
I suppose you want to remain above the fray. If you condemn the kidnapping, then Palestinian supporters will demand that you also condemn a whole litany of ‘crimes’ alleged to have been committed by Israel. Best just keep your mouth shut, say your advisers.
The problem with this policy is that it implies a) a moral equivalence between the terrorism that’s an integral part of the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim war against Israel, and Israel’s efforts to defend herself; and b) an assumption that accusations made by pro-Palestinian sources are equally reliable as statements of the government of Israel.
Both of these equivalences do not hold, and your acting as though they do is not an indication of fairness — rather, it demonstrates your bias in favor of the Arab side.

Huckabee Accuses Obama Admin of 'Anti-Semitic' Bias

Appearing on Fox's Outnumbered, Governor Mike Huckabee railed against the State Department and the Obama administration's "bias against Israel." Huckabee said he thought it is "an anti-Semitic, irrational bias."
Huckabee has not minced words since three Israeli teenagers went missing on June 12, earlier calling out President Obama for his "idiotic" response. He added: "“But the bigger context is there has been such a disconnect between this administration and realistic, reasonable policy, not just for Israel but throughout all the Middle East. I believe a lot of it is because the president is quite naive.”

EU demands 'proportionate means only' in search for boys

The European Union on Saturday reiterated its condemnation of the abduction of three Israeli students two weeks ago, but urged Israel to use restraint as efforts to rescue the boys entered a third week.
In a statement, the EU also commended Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for his "unequivocal condemnation of the abduction" and lauded the PA's cooperation with Israel in the rescue mission.
However, the EU condemned Israel for "killing several Palestinians" during the course of the search for the missing boys, and called on Israel to "use proportionate means only to bring about the return of the abductees."
"We also condemn recent indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza. We call on all sides to exercise maximum restraint and to avoid any further escalation which will worsen the situation," the statement went on to say, concluding with an urgent call for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

US: Jordan may ask Israel to go to war against ISIL

Jordan may ask Israel and the United States to help it fight the al-Qaeda-linked jihadi group that threatens Syria and Iraq if it threatens Amman as well, senior Obama administration officials said.
According to a Friday report by The Daily Beast, the officials told senators in a classified briefing earlier this week that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is eyeing Jordan as well as its war-torn neighbors, and that some of its jihadists have already tweeted out photos and messages saying they have seized a key Jordanian town.
The Daily Beast quoted one of the Senate staff members who attended the briefing as saying that, according to the administration officials, if Jordan were to face a military onslaught from ISIL, it would “ask Israel and the United States for as much help as they can get.”

Ex-security adviser: Israel should bolster Jordan against ISIL

Yaakov Amidror, who until recently served as the national security adviser, said with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant advancing in Iraq, Israel should come to Amman’s aid should it need it.
“If Jordan asks for assistance, we should help,” Amidror told Army Radio. “We need to help with whatever they may need in order to overcome the problems developing on their eastern borders.”

Israel is Engaged in a War of Words

This war, like all the other wars Israel has fought, is a defensive war, unasked for and undesired. But unlike the other wars, Israel is not the victor here. There are no six day triumphs and no modern day miracles. There are no spoils of war to claim and certainly no glory.
In fact, we’ve all but conceded this war, the war on words. We’ve succumbed, believing ourselves outclassed and outmanned. Only a few diehards continue to fight this battle, which means there can be no turning things around to our advantage, no last minute save.
Left-wing journalists explain that “West Bank” is now the accepted term and tell me I’m being picayune, not to mention awkward, by insisting on, A) Judea and Samaria, or, B) The disputed territories.
One right-wing colleague tells me that by refusing to use the word “Palestinian” to describe the Arab population of Israel, I am a big turn-off to fence-sitters that might otherwise be persuaded to my viewpoint. He says that it’s as if I don’t consider them a real people deserving of human rights.
He says that my refusal to use the word “Palestinian” makes me look racist.
Yet I am positive that the only way to win this war is to avoid the use of language that has been foisted on us, language that not only is not descriptive of reality, but is loaded with skewed political sentiment. The propagandists have absconded with the words, with their true meanings, thus revising history and facts on the ground.

Kerry Names Lowenstein as Star ‘Actor’ to Replace Indyk

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has appointed his long-time aide Frank Lowenstein as “Acting Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations” following the departure of “permanent” envoy Martin Indyk, as reported here.
The State Dept.’s verbal acrobatics concerning Indyk’s departure and Lowenstein’s arrival provide plenty of evident that Foggy Bottom’s reality deals with more with its own in-house industry of solving the unemployment problem than with the realities of the Middle East.
Lest anyone think that the peace process has failed, State Dept. Spokeswoman Marie Harf was careful to tell reporters on Friday that Indyk really did not quit or resign.

Netanyahu Vows to Outlaw Raed Salah's Islamic Movement in Israel

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened his weekly cabinet meeting by addressing anti-Israel incitement on Friday outside Umm-Al-Fahm, adding to a chorus of criticism regarding a rally calling for the abduction of Israeli soldiers.
"Outrageous calls were heard supporting the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers," the Prime Minister began. "Most of Israel's Arab citizens do not support this, and I call on their leaders to stand boldly and firmly in condemning these statements."
Until then, he said, he would fight the incitement.
"As Israeli citizens, we cannot accept and put up with such outrageous statements," Netanyahu warned. "The IDF protects all of us."

Israeli Firefighters Come Under Fire From Syria

Israeli firefighters responding to a call on the Golan Heights Sunday morning were fired upon by forces on the other side of the Syrian border.
No one was injured. IDF soldiers removed the firefighters safely. The army has not yet responded to the fire.
The incident occurred in the area of Ein Zivan, a kibbutz in the lower Golan Heights near the Syrian border. Firefighters were responding to a call to put out a small brush fire.

Abbas adviser forced to flee Temple Mount

A senior adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was forced to flee the Temple Mount on Friday after dozens of Palestinian protesters assaulted him.
Mahmoud al-Habbash, who until recently served as religious affairs minister, is considered one of Abbas’s most trusted advisors.
Following the formation of the Hamas-Fatah government on June 2, Abbas appointed Habbash as chief justice of Islamic courts.
Friday’s incident began when Palestinians discovered that Habbash had arrived at the Temple Mount for meetings with the mufti of Jerusalem and other senior Islamic figures.
The protesters surrounded the office of the mufti and demanded that Habbash leave immediately.
They accused him of coming to Jerusalem with an Israeli permit.

Bank reported to nix transfer of Hamas salaries

A money transfer from Qatar intended to cover the salaries of Gazan civil servants from the Hamas movement hit a snag Saturday after the Arab Bank refused the handover, a senior Hamas official said.
“The state of Qatar graciously transferred money to the Arab Bank, but with an extravagant sense of Arab nationalism, the Arab Bank refused to take the money,” Hamas No. 2 Moussa Abu Marzouk, wrote sarcastically on Facebook, the Ma’an news agency reported.
Marzouk, who is currently in exile in Egypt, added that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the new unity government “are still looking for a mechanism” to successfully transfer the funds.

UN Concerned Hamas Terror Tunnels Not Up To Safety Standards (satire)

The United Nations Human Rights Council expressed misgivings today about the network of tunnels and underground bunkers constructed by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere, noting that it is unlikely that the structures meet the requirements that would help guarantee the safety of the people using them.
The Council heard testimony from survivors of a tunnel collapse two weeks ago in which five people were killed, and both the scale of destruction and the depth of the passage made rescue and salvage attempts difficult. In a statement that the Council approved following the testimony, the body urged Hamas to adhere to stricter standards, and chided Israel for putting up barriers that make the construction of the tunnels a necessary measure to avoid detection in executing attacks on Israel.

Daphne Anson: "BDS Activism Has Shifted Back To The Churches"

It might not be raw and ferociously in-yer-face like this recent blatant example of "Christian" antisemitism on Facebook , but it reeks of antisemitism nonetheless: the attitude of elements within the Presbyterian Church (USA) which has narrowly adopted a resolution instructing the Presbyterian Foundation and Board of Pensions of the PCUSA to “divest from Caterpillar, Inc, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions.”
We learn of this antisemitism within the PCUSA from NGO Monitor, which has prepared a comprehensive report on the subject that can be accessed here and which includes examples of Facebook activity

Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent slammed for misleading Tweet about Iranian arms shipment

Here’s the text of Beaumont’s Tweet:
“Despite Israeli claims, UN panel decides missiles on the seized ship Kos were for Sudan NOT Gaza”
However, here’s headline to the Haaretz story by Louis Charbonneau, published earlier in the day, that Beaumont linked to:
‘UN panel: Arms ship seized by IDF came from Iran, but not bound for Gaza
First, note Beaumont’s distortion of the Haaretz headline. Though the headline only claimed, per the article, that the UN had determined that the ship itself (carrying the arms) was heading for Sudan, Beaumont twisted it to appear as if the UN had concluded that the arms (that the ship was carrying) were destined for Sudan – and not Gaza.

Sudanese Woman Previously Sentenced To Death For Christianity Takes Refuge At U.S. Embassy

Mariam Yehya Ibrahim, who was sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith, is now under the protection of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, reports CNN.
On Thursday, Ibrahim and her husband were released from Sudanese custody, after having been detained two days earlier on charges of forging travel documents. Ibrahim had been released from prison only a day before from her earlier charges of apostasy.
Earlier this week, Ibrahim's legal team announced that her death sentence had been overturned and she had been set free after weeks of intense international pressure. It was only 24 hours after that release that she was detained a second time while she and her family were at the airport on their way to the United States, where she has been granted a Visa.

Suspect in Brussels Jewish Museum shooting appeals extradition ruling

The French suspect in a May 24 shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels that left four people dead has appealed a French court ruling on Thursday approving his extradition to Belgium, his lawyer said on Saturday.
Mehdi Nemmouche, 29, has been held in police custody on anti-terror laws on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and possession of weapons in relation to the attack since being arrested in the southern city of Marseille on May 30.
"He was not satisfied with the decision," Nemmouche's lawyer, Apolin Pepiezep, told Reuters.

Two Teens Arrested Over Anti-Semitic Vandalism at UK Cemetery

Two 13-year-old boys have been arrested after anti-Semitic graffiti and swastikas were daubed over gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in Manchester, the BBC reported on Saturday.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) called the attack at the cemetery in Rochdale Road, Blackley, "sickening and cruel".
GMP said the boys were arrested on Friday on suspicion of committing a racially-aggravated public order offence.
The boys were released on police bail until July 25, the report said.

Spanish town named ‘kill Jews’ seeks Jewish center

Lorenzo Rodriguez, the mayor of the town of Castrillo Matajudios in northern Spain, was scheduled to present the plan at a meeting Wednesday at the seat of the local government in the city of Leon, Radio Arlanzon reported.
In addition to opening a center for studies on the culture of Sephardi Jews, Rodriguez is seeking to initiate archaeological excavations that he said would help clarify how his town of a few dozen families came to receive its controversial name.

Israeli elected to UN Womens' Rights committee

For the third year in a row, the United Nation's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women will boast an Israeli on its panel of representatives, Haaretz reported.
Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari will sit on the committee and hails from the law department at Bar Ilan University. She is also the head of the Rachman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women.
Halperin-Kaddari has sat on the committee for the last two consecutive years and was re-elected to participate in this year's session with the support of delegates from 128 countries. (h/t MtTB)

Israel and Germany to play soccer friendly to mark 50 years of relations

Israel will host Germany in an international friendly on March 25, 2015 to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between the countries, the Israel Football Association announced on Sunday.
The IFA and DFB agreed on the date of the tie on Saturday after Israel's Minister of Culture and Sports Limor Livnat had come to an initial understanding with German Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maiziere when he was in Israel as part of the German cabinet's visit to the country in February.

WOMEX selects Ester Rada

Ethio-soul singer Ester Rada is the latest Israeli to be chosen to feature at the highly prestigious WOMEX World Music Expo, set to take place in October. Rada was among the first 10 acts to be selected in the first round of jury-selected official showcase artists for this year’s world music industry networking event.
“A number of artists create traditional music with a twist or add a traditional flavor to contemporary styles . . . Ester Rada (Israel) filters her modern R’n'B and soul through her Ethiopian roots,” reads the press release announcing Rada’s selection.

Announcing a new feature: WW100 -- World War I and the Jews of Palestine, Commemorating the Centenary since the Outbreak of the War to End all Wars

WW100 -- World War I and the Jews of Palestine, Commemorating the Centenary since the Outbreak of the War to End all Wars
We will present over the next year special features commemorating the centenary of World War I, showing the major battles that shook Palestine, the Jewish population of the Holy Land, and the Jewish soldiers who fought -- on both sides. Below are sample pictures:

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 6/29/2014 01:00:00 PM

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