[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 04/20 Links Pt1: Can You Capture Your Home?; Executions Surge in Iran after Nuclear Talks

From Ian:

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Honest Reporting: Can You Capture Your Home?

The historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem is a well-established fact. Jews have lived in that small area for thousands of years. It is the site of the ancient Jewish Temples as well as dozens of more modern places of worship. For most of recorded history, Jews have lived inside its walls.
But in 1948, that connection was disrupted. The city fell during Israel’s War of Independence to the Jordanian Legion. All the Jewish homes were destroyed, the synagogues burned down, and the surviving Jews were exiled. Watch our video where eyewitnesses tell what it was like for the Jewish refugees of Jerusalem to have to flee their homes. The military attack was an unprovoked assault, part of a wider campaign to destroy the nascent Jewish State.
Only after the city was liberated by the Israeli Defense Forces 19 years later was the Jewish quarter rebuilt, and Jews allowed to once again live in their historical and spiritual capital.
This is history. It is the key context, without which there can be no understanding of the “issue” of Jerusalem. Yet in almost every case when the media report on events in Jerusalem, this context is left out. Instead, one finds a short background sentence, such as the one below appearing in a recent New York Times article:
Israel captured the compound — along with the rest of the Old City from Jordan in the 1967 war

U.N. Watch: End this 'relief'

As the Palestinian Authority officially becomes the 123rd member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and threatens to use it as a cudgel to beat Israel, the United States must back up its displeasure with more than words.
It can begin by withholding its significant share of funding of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Established six decades ago as a “temporary” assistance agency for Palestinian refugees, it has metastasized into a partisan operation with direct ties to Hamas terrorists.
This so-called humanitarian agency has “repeatedly downplayed” Hamas' instigation of three conflicts since 2008, according to Brett D. Schaefer and James Phillips for The Heritage Foundation. Last summer the UNRWA found itself fumbling to explain how Hamas rockets turned up in its facilities.
Meanwhile almost three-fourths of the UNRWA's so-called clients aren't living in refugee camps, report Messrs. Schaefer and Phillips. Yet since 1950, the United States has dumped about $4.9 billion into an agency that “obstructs its original mission” and “impedes negotiations for a permanent peace agreement,” they add.
As the Palestinian Authority now nose-thumbs U.S. objections to its ICC membership and drifts further from negotiations with Israel, the U.S. must register its disappointment appropriately by withdrawing its “relief” agency funding

Iran’s regime and IS are two sides of the same medieval coin

Dear President Barack Obama and all the leaders of the P5+1:
In August, 2014, Islamic State abducted thousands of Yazidis, monotheists whose beliefs are linked to Zoroastrianism and other ancient Mesopotamian religions. Many of the abductees were women and children. A few hundred of them have been released or escaped, but it’s believed that about 4,000 remain captive. Many women and girls have been gang raped and sold into sex slavery, and some have become pregnant, including a 9-year-old girl who is now in Germany. IS believes Yazidis are heretics, and it published an article in its propaganda magazine, Dabiq, to justify their mistreatment in accordance to theological rulings of early Islam. Some Yazidi men have volunteered to marry the women who have returned violated and traumatized, but the ones who are pregnant have little hope. They are too close to the trauma, constant reminders of unspeakable horrors that most want to forget. Many of the women have resorted to suicide.
Sexual violence in conflict zones is nothing new, and I am no stranger to it. In 1982, I was arrested at the age of 16 in Tehran. I was a student activist born in a Christian family, and I didn’t like the fact that Iran’s revolutionary regime not only did not deliver any political freedoms, but also it took away the personal freedoms of Iranians. We protested, and many of my teenage friends and I were arrested. I was tortured and was forced to convert to Islam and “marry” one of my interrogators under the threat that if I didn’t, my family would be harmed. My so-called husband, Ali, raped me over and over again. I became pregnant at 17, but I miscarried. After 2 years, 2 months, and 12 days in Evin prison, I was released and returned home. My father had already disowned me. My boyfriend, Andre, told me that even if I had come home with a baby in my arms, he would still have wanted to marry me. I was grateful to him. With Andre’s support, I survived, and we made it to Canada. Many of my friends were not so lucky; they are buried in mass graves in Iran.

Why Many US Jews Are Turning to the GOP

From the horrific expansion of ISIS to an impending US-Iranian deal that will do little to quash the ayatollahs’ atomic ambitions, Jews the world over have mounting reasons to worry. Obama’s ongoing, Kindergarten-like tantrum over the re-election of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is hardly reassuring.
All of this may explain why American Jews increasingly are leaning toward the Republican Party and its policies that unapologetically defend Israel and hammer radical Islamic terrorism. In contrast, Obama gives the Jewish state the back of his hand and refers vaguely to “violent extremists” rather than specifically to the Muslim zealots who gleefully kill Jews, Christians, and virtually anything that moves and is not militantly Islamic. (As demolished antiquities from Afghanistan to Mosul can attest, these fanatics even destroy inanimate objects.)
A recent Gallup poll found that Jewish support for the Democrat Party has fallen from 71 percent in 2008 to 61 percent in January. Pew Research indicates that 68 percent of Jews surveyed backed the Democrats in 2012, compared to 61 percent today. Meanwhile, over the same period, Jewish approval of the GOP grew by a quarter, from 25 to 31 percent.

Mike Huckabee Calls Two-State Solution ‘the Nuttiest Thing I’ve Ever Heard’

Likely US presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said on Saturday that the widely accepted two-state solution for Israeli-Palestinian peace is a crazy idea and that the disputed West Bank territories already belong to Israel, Newsmax reported.
It’s “the nuttiest thing I’ve ever heard” the former Arkansas governor said, while addressing several hundred people at the Republican Leadership Summit in New Hampshire.
“One of those parties believes the other one should not exist,” added Huckabee. “Let’s quit pretending there is such a thing in that particular country. In the land of Judea and Samaria, there should not be a question as to whether or not that is going to belong to Israel — because it does belong to Israel.”
Speaking at the two-day event, Huckabee also said that he witnessed an Islamic State terrorist camp in Syria just two miles from where he stood during a recent visit to the Israeli Golan Heights. He added that he heard at least 10 rocket and shell explosions going off in Syria, Newsmax reported.

Jeffrey Goldberg: David Cameron on Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism

When I met not long ago with David Cameron, the prime minister of Great Britain, I knew that he had repeatedly and publicly professed concern about the safety of his country’s Jewish citizens, but I did not know that he was thinking deeply about the nature of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism—in a similar manner to Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, who is Europe’s leader in combating anti-Zionism and Judeophobia. (You can read more about Valls and his opposition to anti-Zionism here.)
In my conversation with Cameron, parts of which appeared in my April cover story on the future of European Jewry, he made it clear, in much the same way that Valls made it clear, that the issue of anti-Semitism ought not to be the concern of Jews alone. He stressed that he is worried that the international movement to declare Israel an illegitimate state—with its contention that Israel’s existence as an independent, Jewish-majority safe haven is morally unsupportable and should therefore be brought to an end—shares characteristics with anti-Semitism. In light of what is happening in Europe—not only the kind of anti-Semitism that prompted me to write the cover story, but also the slow vanishing of the line that separates anti-Israel discourse from straight-up anti-Semitism—I thought it would be worthwhile to post longer excerpts of our conversation.

How Ed Miliband lost the Jewish vote

This week, a poll for the Jewish -Chronicle found that 69 per cent of Jews intend to vote Tory next month, with Labour trailing on only 22 per cent. Moreover, while 64 per cent said David Cameron had the best attitude towards British Jewry, only 13 per cent picked Miliband as the best supporter of the community. The Jewish Chronicle poll found 73 per cent of Jews said the parties’ approach toward Israel and the Middle East was ‘very’ or ‘quite’ important in determining how they would vote, and by 65 to 10 per cent Cameron led Miliband on having the best attitude.
Community activists believe Miliband’s position on Israel has become such a sticking point that many Jews who traditionally vote Labour can’t bring themselves to do so. One said: ‘They have been forced to choose between their party and their support for Israel in a way they never thought they would be.’ Some have already made that choice: last autumn, Maureen Lipman declared that, for the first time in five decades, she wouldn’t be voting Labour. At the same time, Kate Bearman, a former director of Labour Friends of Israel, resigned her party membership.
Even some Jewish Labour activists believe the party has written the community off electorally. This could turn out to be a costly miscalculation. There are a string of marginals — Finchley and Golders Green, Hendon, Brent Central, Ilford North, Hornsey and Wood Green, Hampstead and Kilburn, Harrow East, Harrow West and Hove — where Miliband has little room for error and Jewish voters could provide the difference between victory and defeat.
The Labour leader has, says one sympathetic observer, shown a great deal of ‘carelessness’ in his dealings with the Jewish community. If that carelessness costs him the keys to No. 10, he continues, the ‘tragedy will be complete’.

Force Reserve: Ireland’s role on the Golan Heights

In 2013 Syria’s civil war ratcheted up in intensity and military operations, with the Syrian army and insurgents encroaching seriously into the area. This adversely affected the efforts of Undof to carry out its mandated tasks. In a number of instances UN personnel were attacked, taken hostage or both, and UN installations were looted of weapons, ammunition and other equipment, forcing them to be abandoned. The result was that in March 2013 Croatia withdrew from participation in Undof. Austria followed suit. These departures prompted an urgent plea from the UN for the Irish Defence Forces to step in, which they did in September 2013.
According to Defence Forces sources, events on the ground on the Golan are changing almost constantly. Within the area itself, all UN positions on the Bravo Line have been abandoned, as has the main Undof camp just outside the eastern side of the Area of Separation. Camp Faouar was close to MSR7, the main road to Damascus, where Undof retains an administrative presence.
Undof’s main remaining base and operational headquarters is Camp Ziouani, where most of the 48th Infantry Group is now based. The camp is on the Alpha Line and backs on to Israel’s technical fence. Built to accommodate about 250 people, it now copes with more than double that number.
Most UN positions on the Alpha Line south of post 80 (known as UNP80) have also been abandoned, and the post can only be reached by patrols travelling between it and Camp Ziouani inside Israeli-occupied Golan.

Netherlands justifies Iran’s “accession” to UN women’s rights committee

In the wake of controversial tweets by a senior Dutch political officer, a spokesman of the Dutch foreign ministry doubled down and defended Iran’s election to the board of UN Women on grounds that it would “maintain dialogue” with “the more conservative countries,” and “encourage improvement,” reports De Volkskrant, a leading daily newspaper in the Netherlands.
On Tuesday, UN Watch called on Dutch foreign minister Bert Koenders to fire Bregje Wijsenbeek, a senior political officer dealing with human rights at the Dutch embassy in Pretoria, over her embarrassing tweets defending the election of Iran’s regime to the board of UN Women because, in her words, “Iran is not misogynist,” its “main religious structure was built for a woman,” and because when she visited Iran people in the metro gave her presents.
Yet instead of denouncing Iran’s election to the board as did U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, the Dutch foreign ministry, according to an article in De Volkskrant (see below), responded to UN Watch’s letter by saying that Wijsenbeek “is not involved in any way in [Dutch] policy on women’s rights in Iran.”

Executions Surge in Iran after Nuclear Talks, Iran off U.S. Terror List

"Terrorism is not only achieved by bombs but also by terrorizing citizens for generations through executions. Is the hanging of 700 persons since the beginning of the 'moderate' Mr. Rouhani's presidency... not a form of terrorism?" — Mina Ahadi, Founder, ICAE.
"During the P5+1 nuclear talks there was absolute silence with regards to the high rate of executions and human rights violations in Iran. Because of this silence, this matter has taken a turn for the worse." — Mina Ahadi, Founder, ICAE.
"We would like to request that the Islamic Republic of Iran be held accountable by the International community and... sanctions to be placed on the regime for the high rate of executions." — Mina Ahadi, Founder, ICAE.
As this article was going to press five more people were hanged in the Central Prison of Karaj.

The bold red line

Only a profound misunderstanding of the nature of the Iranian regime could lead anyone to believe any deal will satisfy Tehran's nuclear ambitions • The truth is the U.S. can bring Iran's nuclear program to a halt -- it simply chooses not to do so
The Iranians understand this deal will buy them time, and their price is future recognition of Iran as a nuclear power. That is an impossible price for Israel and other nations in the Middle East to pay.
I believe the best alternative should have been to continue imposing and aggravating the sanctions, while making it clear to Iran that any nuclear endeavor on its part would be limited by clear, bold red lines, and if any of them are ever crossed, the U.S. will react forcefully.
Exhausted by current sanctions, Tehran would be wary of violating the deal. This could have made Iran relinquish its nuclear program, especially faced with a viable military threat, but given the American policy, which no longer seems to want to strip Iran of its nuclear capabilities, other concepts must be introduced.
Should the outline of the framework agreement mature into a final deal, Israel will be faced with only a handful of options: making do with the deal, meaning preparing for the day when Iran becomes nuclear while trying to generate deterrence, or trying to forcibly stop Tehran, contrary to world powers' wishes. Neither option is a good one, making for a very tough call.

Could Israeli F-35s turn the tables on Iranian S-300 missiles?

Russia’s recent pledge to provide Iran with one of the models of the S-300 air-defense system fleshes out some of the purported advantages of the new aircraft. Aside from the potency and maneuverability of the S-300’s missiles, and the precision of the radar and ability of the system to track and target multiple aircraft, it is also mobile. Within minutes it can change location and re-deploy. The F-16 of today, Lt. Col. B said, would need to be armed with intelligence about the location of the system in order to avoid it, flying along the stitch in radar coverage. Otherwise, it would be alerted only once the radar had locked in on it — perhaps too late — or rely on Israel’s formidable electronic warfare capacities, jamming the radar, or its intelligence planes, which could locate the systems’ radars. In the F-35, he said, all of this information is spread out before the pilot, “and the hunter becomes the hunted.”
Calling the pilot’s situational awareness “improved to the point of being absolute,” he said “I see the world. I see where he is and how he is deployed,” including surface-to-air missiles. “All of it is now with me. I can attack. I can destroy you on the way to the target.”
This is not to say that today’s IAF planes lack the ability to unlock the S-300. Quite likely, the IAF has trained against the system in Greece and has created a combat doctrine capable of defeating it. The F-35 though, he said, “is similar to the iPhone,” in that the planners were able to take the capacity once housed on separate aircraft – stealth, intelligence gathering, advanced radars, planning, control, and electronic warfare – and “pack it all into a single fighter plane.”
Shapir conceded that the aircraft has “fantastic” capabilities and even said it might yet prove a useful tool against the S-300, but asserted that the only reason it is a truly necessary tool for Israel – which fights most of its battles near home but needs to maintain the capability of projecting its air power to places as distant as Tehran — is because Israel’s planes are aging and the United States “made the F-35 the only game in town.”
“There’s no other way,” he said, “because there’s nothing else out there.”

We'll hit Russian arms going to Hezbollah, Netanyahu tells Putin

Following the decision by Russia to deliver S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russia's President Vladimir Putin in their telephone conversation last week that Israel's red line was leakage of Russian military equipment from Iran to Hezbollah via Syria. This was not mentioned in the short press release published by the Prime Minister's Office after the call, US periodical "Defense News" reports today.
The official Israel announcement said that Netanyahu had expressed grave concern at Russia's decision to sell the advanced systems to Iran, and had told the Russian leader that the decision "will only encourage Iranian aggression in the region and further undermine the stability of the Middle East."
Netanyahu further said in a statement that "This sale of advanced weaponry to Iran is the direct result of the dangerous deal on the table between Iran and the P5+1. Can anyone still seriously claim that the deal with Iran will enhance security in the Middle East?"

What Does Russia Gain from the S-300 Sale?

Russia’s surprise announcement it was reinstating its sale of S-300 missiles to Iran caught many observers off guard. It was not clear what the primary motivation was for the Russians in reinstating a sale that the United States and Israel had lobbied so hard against several years ago, so soon after the negotiated framework agreement with Iran. Was it to humiliate President Barack Obama? Was it to reassert Russian influence in the world? Was it to destabilize the talks entirely?
Is Russia trying to influence the final outcome of the negotiations, perhaps derail them? Does it feel this helps the Iranian position or does Moscow have some reason to make the US demand a harder bargain?
We put some of those questions to Olena Bagno-Moldavsky from the Institute for National Security Studies, who specializes in Russian affairs.
“Russia benefits from the negotiations for several reasons: A) participation in negotiations 'normalizes' Russia’s international position that has been weakened in the aftermath of the events in Ukraine in 2014. B) The Russian economy will benefit from the lifting of international sanctions [on Iran], and the S-300 purchase is the first sign of this. C) If a solution for Iran is not found, Russia will benefit anyways because it will retain its position as one of the major economic partners for Iran.”
The Russians are in a no-lose situation, being perfectly positioned to expand its exclusive influence in Tehran if the negotiations fail, but standing to gain even more economically if sanctions are removed.

Iran: We Won't Allow 'Foreigners' to Inspect Our Sites

A top Iranian commander on Sunday said that his country will never permit “foreigners” to inspect its military sites.
“Not only will we not grant foreigners the permission to inspect our military sites, we will not even give them permission to think about such a subject,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the second-in-command of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), was quoted by Press TV as saying.
“They will not even be permitted to inspect the most normal military site in their dreams,” he declared.
Salami added that a harsh response awaits anyone who talks about such inspections.

Iran's Zarif: It's time for US to choose between cooperation and confrontation

It is time for the US and its allies to choose between cooperation and confrontation, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in reference to current nuclear negotiations with the West in a Monday New York Times op-ed he penned.
"We agreed on parameters to remove any doubt about the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program," Zarif wrote, claiming that the Iranian people had done their part to facilitate an agreement, and now the onus is on the US and its allies to follow suit.
"It is time for the United States and its Western allies to make the choice between cooperation and confrontation, between negotiations and grandstanding, and between agreement and coercion," he said.

No BBC coverage of new Iranian ‘factsheet’ on P5+1 deal

The millions of people around the world who rely on the BBC to keep them up to date with international news and developments will be unaware of the fact that on April 15th the Iranian parliament publicised its own ‘factsheet’ on the topic of the framework agreement negotiated by the P5+1 and Iran two weeks earlier.
The lack of BBC reporting on this new document means that – as was the case with the equally under-reported previous ‘factsheet‘ put out by Iran – audiences lack the information which would enable them to compare the Iranian view of the framework agreement with the version of its terms publicised by the US State Department – and enthusiastically (and exclusively) promoted in numerous BBC reports.
In this latest document, discrepancies between the Iranian and US accounts of the terms of the framework agreement are seen once again on issues such as sanctions repeal, centrifuges, existing stockpiled nuclear material, inspections and verification of adherence to the deal. Differing interpretations of the duration of the agreement are also apparent, with this latest Iranian document citing a five-year long agreement, whereas US officials have spoken of a ten to fifteen year time frame.

Iranian ship convoy moves toward Yemen, alarming US officials

U.S. military officials are concerned that Iran's support for Houthi rebels in Yemen could spark a confrontation with Saudi Arabia and plunge the region into sectarian war.
Iran is sending an armada of seven to nine ships — some with weapons — toward Yemen in a potential attempt to resupply the Shia Houthi rebels, according to two U.S. defense officials.
Officials fear the move could lead to a showdown with the U.S. or other members of a Saudi-led coalition, which is enforcing a naval blockade of Yemen and is conducting its fourth week of airstrikes against the Houthis.
Iran sent a destroyer and another vessel to waters near Yemen last week but said it was part of a routine counter-piracy mission.
What's unusual about the new deployment, which set out this week, is that the Iranians are not trying to conceal it, officials said. Instead, they appear to be trying to "communicate it" to the U.S. and its allies in the Gulf.

100 bereaved families try to prevent Israel-Palestinian memorial event

Over 100 bereaved Israeli families have appealed to Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Sunday, requesting him to prevent a joint Israeli-Palestinian remembrance ceremony on memorial day, army radio reported.
Combatants for Peace and The Parents Circle – Families Forum, two Israeli non-profits, have been holding a joint ceremony for families of Israeli and Palestinian victims on Israeli Memorial Day for the past decade. But 107 families signed a letter addressed to Ya’alon, asking him to ban the entry of the Palestinian families to Israel this week and amend the memorial day law with a regulation preventing such joint ceremonies.
“The ceremony is a provocation which degrades Memorial Day and the memory of the fallen,” read the letter. “We are shocked by the fact that the Israeli government allows a joint memorial ceremony for our enemies who took part in murdering and harming our children … and for our children living in Israel, killed simply for being Jewish.”

A survivor of terror, Israel’s first Arab news presenter is done being a victim

Lucy Aharish was a 5-year-old girl who had just finished clothes shopping with her parents in Gaza when the family vehicle was attacked by a terrorist.
“It was April 1987, a very hot day, and my dad opened the window,” she recalled. “I remember a traffic jam on the main road and I saw someone approach us with something in his hand. I looked at him and he looked back at me, and I automatically started sliding down on my seat in fear. My mother shouted ‘Lucy, sit up straight,’ and when she finished her sentence we heard a bang in the car.”
The terrorist had shoved a Molotov cocktail into the car — which her father quickly ejected — and threw another on top of the vehicle which ignited, enveloping it in flames. Lucy and her parents escaped unscathed, but her 3-year-old cousin suffered severe burns all over his body and was hospitalized for months.
“The man’s face is etched in my memory,” Aharish told The Times of Israel earlier this month in a Tel Aviv cafe in her unaccented Hebrew. “Growing up, I couldn’t understand how someone could be so evil.”

Jordan border residents seek fence to prevent future terror

Residents of the southern Arava desert have formed a volunteer patrol to counter what they say is a 200-kilometer stretch of the Israeli-Jordanian border that is insufficiently defended and thus vulnerable to terrorist infiltration.
“I’m worried we’re going to wake up only after an attack, and I’d be happier if the state paid attention to what’s happening here before anyone dies,” local farmer Yoram Riati, a former paratrooper and Shin Bet officer who organized the new unit, told Channel 10 television.
The unit is named “Lotar Arava.” Lotar is the military’s acronym for “counterterrorism.”
“You have people here [in the unit] from [elite IDF units] Shaldag, Sayeret Matkal, Flotilla 13, the Paratroopers and Golani reconnaissance units,” one volunteer said.

More 'Gestures': Israel Slashes Wait Time for PA Entry Permits

In what appears to be yet another “gesture” to the Palestinian Authority, Israel has streamlined its admission policy for PA residents. Whereas formerly it took a PA resident several weeks to get an entry pass into Israel, the process has now been cut to hours.
Previously, each request was examined one at a time, and requests were forwarded to a central office, where they were processed and checked. Last September, a new computerized system was installed at checkpoints, with all records and data digitized, enabling security officials to check the status, record, and other important information associated with applicants. According to one official who spoke to Arutz Sheva, “all we need to do now is enter an applicant's ID number into the computer and a short while later we receive the necessary clearance. If everything checks out, we can issue an entry pass within a very short time.”
The system can accurately check 500 identity numbers each time it is activated. The IDF issues some 20,000 such passes a day, mostly for workers, hospital patients, and others who need to travel to Israeli cities for personal needs.

Israel arrests 13 Palestinians in overnight raids across West Bank

Israeli forces operating in the West Bank overnight arrested 13 Palestinians, the military authorities announced on Monday.
Five of the Palestinians arrested are suspected of involvement in so-called “popular terrorism and violent disturbances aimed at civilians and security forces.”
Two others who were arrested in Hebron are accused of membership in Hamas.
All of the detained Palestinians are being subjected to interrogation.

Israelis Seek to Halt PA's 'Soccer Intifada'

The Palestinian Authority is determined to get Israel booted out of FIFA, the international organization that manages several soccer leagues, and doing so is “a gross attempt to mix sports and politics,” said Ofer Eini, chairman of the Israel Football (Soccer) Federation. Eini, along with Rotem Kamer, CEO of the Federation, are set to leave Sunday for an emergency FIFA meeting in Switzerland to attempt to head off the PA's efforts to get Israel removed from FIFA leagues.
Several weeks ago, Palestinian Authority top terrorist Jibril Rajoub told Israeli newspaper Maariv that he intended to get Israel booted out of FIFA. Rajoub, who chairs the PA's Football Association, filed a petition with FIFA to suspend Israel, claiming that Israel discriminates against Arab players, and refuses to allow teams from PA-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria to travel to and from Gaza.
To counter that claim, Eini and Kamer will present evidence of their own testifying to the widespread inclusion of Arabs in Israeli soccer, with facts, figures, videos, and other items.

Smuggled Weapons-Making Coal Seized En Route to Gaza

An attempt to smuggle 18 tons of special "metallurgical coke" coal into Gaza was foiled on Sunday at the Nitzana border crossing, which leads to the Sinai from where the coal was to be smuggled into Gaza.
The smuggled coal, which was seized thanks to the joint activities of the Tax Authority and General Security Service, is used as fuel in firing furnaces to forge metals.
Information from security sources indicates the coal was meant to help Gazan terrorist organizations cast metals so as to create and design weapons to be used against Israel.
Due to the threat, customs inspectors at the Nitzana border crossing decided to seize the goods after consulting with Israel Security Agency (ISA).
"This seizure is one success of many in the meaningful and joint effort...to locate smuggling into the Gaza Strip through the border crossing, with a goal of uprooting this phenomenon completely and ensuring the security of the state of Israel," stated the Tax Authority.

Report: Hamas official arrested in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian authorities arrested a high-ranking Hamas official who served as the Gaza-based terrorist organization’s financial branch outside of the Strip, according to an unconfirmed report in the Egyptian Al-Youm al-Saba’a newspaper on Monday.
The report stated that Maher Salah had been apprehended in the gulf state several months ago on suspicion that he laundered money and illegally smuggled funds across the Saudi Arabian border, according to Israel Radio.
The Egyptian newspaper added that Hamas member Mohammed Nazzal has since been appointed financial chairman in Salah’s stead.
Eight months after a ruinous war with Israel, the reconstruction of Gaza has barely begun, and Hamas remains its power despite expectations that it cede some of its power to West Bank-based Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Aid agencies and analysts say that prospects for recovery have been hampered by the political wrangling from Hamas and Fatah, the continued embargo and a slow response from donor countries.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Abbas meets with MK Ayman Odeh, calls on Arab countries to allow visits by Israeli Arabs

All members of the Joint List, headed by MK Ayman Odeh, will soon visit Qatar, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Saturday.
Abbas made the announcement during a meeting in Ramallah with Odeh and the head of the Islamic Movement (southern branch) in Israel, Abdallah Nimer Darwish.
Abbas said that the Arab League was also planning to receive all members of the Joint List in Cairo but did not say when the visits to Cairo and Doha would take place.
However, he expressed hope that the Arab countries would change their policy and allow Israeli Arabs to visit.

MK Tibi urges boycott of West Bank settlements

Joint (Arab) List MK Ahmad Tibi on Sunday urged Israeli citizens to actively refrain from purchasing merchandise produced by Jews residing in West Bank settlements, in order to pressure the government into changing its policies across the Green Line.
Speaking during a debate on the Knesset Channel, Israel’s C-SPAN, Tibi said he supported dealing financial harm to the settlements, whose very existence, he claimed, blatantly violated accepted international laws.
“From this studio, I call on the public to boycott the settlements, to boycott the produce of the settlements,” the lawmaker said. “We are talking about a war crime, so boycott the settlements.”
Last week, the High Court of Justice largely rejected an appeal against a law that limits Israelis’ ability to call for boycotts of West Bank settlements. The 2011 law allows for civil damages lawsuits to be brought against those advocating boycotts that target Israelis because of their connection to Israel — and explicitly includes boycotts against Israelis living in “territory held by Israel” as within the definition of potential victims who can sue for damages.

PA Court Dismisses Case Against Abbas Arch-Rival

A Palestinian court on Sunday dismissed a high-profile corruption case against exiled Gaza strongman Mohammad Dahlan, the arch-rival of Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Speaking to AFP, defense lawyer Sevag Torossian said the Ramallah-based corruption court had ruled that the charges against Dahlan were “inadmissible,” in a move the lawyer hailed as a “great victory.”
The court ruled that a 2012 decision to lift Dahlan’s parliamentary immunity had not been carried out in line with parliamentary law, legal documents showed.
The lifting of immunity had paved the way for another case in May 2014 in which he was convicted in absentia of defamation and sentenced to two years in prison.

PA TV host lauds poem: "Jaffa, Acre and Haifa... Leave, leave. This land is my land"


Terrorist serving on PA municipal council glorified on PA TV


Mother of Martyr: We ululate since “our child is going... to marry the Dark-Eyed Virgins”


ISIS Guide Teaches How to Befriend, Rob and Kill Westerners

Islamic State (ISIS) continues to take it's jihadist terror war online and to the West, with a newly revealed online manual by the group instructing jihadists in the West on how best to conduct attacks.
The 70-page manual - written in fluent English - instructs interested terrorists on creating one or two-man sleeper cells, having them change their names, appearances and mannerisms so as to go undetected and slip past Western security, reports IBN Live.
The guide starts by giving would-be terrorists pointers about how to raise funds for their jihadist attacks. ISIS recommends robbing people through online scams and fraud, writing "if the (shedding of) non-Muslim blood is permitted by scholars, then no doubt (the taking of) their wealth is."
Once the fledgling jihadists have stolen funds, the next step according to the guide is building home-made weapons, including crude bombs and cell phone detonators.
The 10-page section on building improvised bombs teaches how to use jars of nails, pressure cookers, gas canisters and microwave ovens to make lethal explosives, and there is even a description of how to make a car bomb.

Hoax fools wannabe jihadis

An internet impostor has fooled dozens of followers of radical hate preacher Junaid Thorne into revealing their thirst for violence against Australian-based targets including newspaper cartoonists, Jewish groups and other innocent civilians.
Security agencies are now reviewing material gathered by the anonymous impostor who set up a fake Twitter account pretending to be Thorne this month.
Within days more than 160 people had followed the account and many discussed openly with the impostor the idea of bombing Jewish organisations based in Sydney, as well as threats to carry out Charlie Hebdo-style attacks on cartoonists Larry Pickering and Bill Leak.
Both men drew cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed after the attack on the French satirical newspaper in January which left 12 people dead including cartoonists, journalists and police officers.
In one exchange with a Thorne follower, the impostor asked whether the individual was planning to kill Leak and Pickering.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 4/20/2015 12:00:00 PM