| 04/18 Links Pt2: Prosor: The Middle East War on Christians; US calls Ukraine leaflets ‘grotesque’ Posted: 18 Apr 2014 03:00 PM PDT From Ian:
Ron Prosor The Middle East War on ChristiansThis week, as Jews celebrate the Passover holiday, they are commemorating the Bible's Exodus story describing a series of plagues inflicted on ancient Egypt that freed the Israelites, allowing them to make their way to the Holy Land. But over the past century, another exodus, driven by a plague of persecution, has swept across the Middle East and is emptying the region of its Christian population. The persecution is especially virulent today.
The Middle East may be the birthplace of three monotheistic religions, but some Arab nations appear bent on making it the burial ground for one of them. For 2,000 years, Christian communities dotted the region, enriching the Arab world with literature, culture and commerce. At the turn of the 20th century, Christians made up 26% of the Middle East's population. Today, that figure has dwindled to less than 10%. Intolerant and extremist governments are driving away the Christian communities that have lived in the Middle East since their faith was born. (h/t Serious Black) Egyptian Christians Slammed for Visiting Israel for EasterOn Sunday, the Arab news website Elaph alluded to an Israeli government ploy by citing sources in Egypt's travel industry that claimed Israeli visas issued for Easter travel were really intended for another "mass" immigration of Coptic Christians to Israel. These fears stem from earlier waves of Christian emigration.
It is doubtful that Egypt's ruling class views as disagreeable a potential exodus of Copts. It is more likely to be encouraged, if not fostered, just as in the evacuation of Jews from Egypt during the Nasser era. Currently, focusing on such "news" creates an opportunity to criticize and condemn imaginary offenses by Jews and the Israeli government. Sarah Honig: We are the accusersWhat has become known as Kerry's "poof" speech is precisely what Israel was afraid of – being blamed for the predictable flop of Kerry's delusional project.
Kerry can postfactum posture self-righteously and smugly deny having blamed Israel but that's precisely what he did when he enumerated Israel's supposed sins one by one. He then dramatically paused for a studied special effect – replete with expressive hand gestures – before resorting to really sophisticated phrasing: "Poof, that was sort of the moment." The suggested cause and effect was unquestionable. No belated pedantic quibbles can erase Kerry's intentional, even vindictive, anti-Israel smear.
If anything, Kerry's cynical performance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee underscores all the reasons for Israel not to make concessions just in order to make a good impression. Caroline Glick: The disappearance of America's willThe most terrifying aspect of the collapse of US power worldwide is the US's indifferent response to it.
In Europe, in Asia, in the Middle East and beyond, America's most dangerous foes are engaging in aggression and brinkmanship unseen in decades.
As Gordon Chang noted at a symposium in Los Angeles last month hosted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, since President Barack Obama entered office in 2009, the Chinese have responded to his overtures of goodwill and appeasement with intensified aggression against the US's Asian allies and against US warships. US calls anti-Semitic Ukraine leaflets 'grotesque'The United States on Thursday condemned as "grotesque" the distribution of leaflets demanding that Jews in eastern Ukraine register with a self-proclaimed local authority or face consequences. US officials also denounced other instances of religious intolerance that are inflaming tensions in the crisis in Ukraine and said no such behavior could be tolerated.
Speaking in Geneva after top diplomats from the US, European Union, Russia and Ukraine reached agreement on steps to de-escalate the situation, Secretary of State John Kerry denounced the leaflets.
"In the year 2014, after all of the miles traveled and all of the journey of history, this is not just intolerable; it's grotesque," Kerry told reporters. "It is beyond unacceptable. And any of the people who engage in these kinds of activities, from whatever party or whatever ideology or whatever place they crawl out of, there is no place for that." Jews cast doubt on origin of anti-Semitic flyers in DonetskThe leaflets were handed out by several Balaclava clad men carrying a Russian flag earlier this week as well as being found plastered to buildings near a synagogue.
The flyers also said Jews were hostile to the Donetsk Republic and bore the signature of its leader, Denis Pushilin. Pushilin has denied any connection to the flyers.
Ukrainian Jews have indicated that they are unsure of the flyer's provenance, telling The Jerusalem Post that it is impossible to determine its connection to the separatists.
According to a local news report, unnamed sources from the local Jewish community said that the flyers were an attempt to provoke a conflict and blame the attack on the separatists. The Steady Rise of African ZionismThere is something quite remarkable happening on the African continent. A groundswell of love and support from African Christians for the State of Israel, forged in biblical ties and a mutual love of the land.
It is a relationship that has endured and survived political hardships. And at a time when Israel is feeling increasingly isolated, it is very welcome. Voices calling for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against the Jewish State grow louder around the world, but the ties binding us to Africa grow stronger.
It seems almost natural that African countries would seek to build bridges with Israel. Many countries have a historical and political trajectory that mirrors that of the Jewish State.
They share the same tragic pasts, having endured multiple wars and having struggled for independence against foreign powers who ruled their historical homelands. Sudanese Jew Makes Her Way to Pesach FreedomA modern "exodus" story took place in recent months, as one of the last Jews in Sudan managed to make her way to Israel – more than 30 years after she had planned to make it.
Takla's story (her real name is a secret, for her safety's sake) begins in 1980, when as an 18 year old girl she began a trek from her native Ethiopia to Israel, joining thousands of others of the Beta Israel community in making their way to the Land of Israel.
To get to Israel, the land trek required passing through Sudan, and while most of the Ethiopian olim were able to pass through that country without incident, Takla was waylaid – and forced to marry a Muslim man and remain in Sudan. Thirty four years later, Yedioth Ahronot reporter Dani Adino Ababa discovered, Takla had five children with her Sudanese husband, with none of them having any awareness of their Jewishness. (h/t Zvi) Kerry Vows to Fight Israeli Visa Rejection TrendKerry announced the move in a letter Thursday, published by Al-Monitor, to House Representative Nita Lowey (D - NY). The letter acknowledges that the US has rejected more and more visa requests from young Israelis aged 21-26, and vows to "do more to encourage and assist young qualified Israelis to visit the United States."
Kerry stresses in the letter that there has been a disturbing trend of rejecting Israeli visa applications - but that the US government is also not specifically targeting Israelis.
"We reviewed data on refusal rates for tourist visas for Israelis from the ages of 21-26 and found that visa rejection rates have doubled from 16% to 32%," Kerry admits. "We know that despite a two-thirds approval rate, this increase has led to the perception by some that young Israelis are unwelcome to travel to the United States." Naomi Wolf Attacks Me as a Zionist Agent for Criticizing Brandeis FeministsWolf claims that I, among other writers, have failed to disclose that I receive funding from "pro-Israel advocacy groups."
First, let me point out that I do disclose all funding to the government and acknowledge funding for my published academic research.
Second, is my crime "failure to disclose" or is it taking money from...Zionists? Is it a crime--a thought crime--that I do not receive or accept funds from the Democratic Party and that unlike so many feminists, including Wolf herself, that I am not a Democratic Party operative?
Let it be known: No government, no political party, and no individual Zionist has to pay me to express my views. I am not for sale. I do not exercise my First Amendment rights merely for money.
I would never bother asking Wolf publicly about her funding sources. But now that Wolf has opened this door—I fear I must also walk through
it. Famed Jewish Architects Slam RIBA Anti-Israel MotionThe most renowned Jewish architects in the world are coming out to protest a motion to suspend Israeli architects from the International Architects Union, the UK's Architect's Journal reported on Thursday.
The sector magazine featured statements from Daniel Libeskind, who designed both the Berlin and Copenhagen Jewish Museums; Richard Meier, who created the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center and the Getty Center, both in Los Angeles; and Rick Bell, executive director of AIA New York who worked in the public sector before heading the AIA national staff association, CACE, and representing it on the AIA national board.
The architects were protesting a motion approved by the Royal Institute of British Architects, and condemned last month by Jewish human rights group The Simon Wiesenthal Center for allowing "itself to become the victim of an extremist group of spoilers that use tactics redolent of the Nazis' 1930s boycott campaign, 'Kaufen Nicht bei Juden' – 'Do Not Buy from Jews.'" (h/t Zvi) Update: Cornell anti-Israel divestment resolution still tabled after 2 hour protestAs mentioned last night, and as expected, there was a protest by student groups seeking divestment from companies doing business in Israel in reaction to last week's 15-8-1 decision of the Cornell Student Assembly to table indefinitely the proposed divestment resolution.
About 75 protestors attended the Student Assembly meeting. I heard one of them refer to hundreds, but it was not that many, and many drifted out after a while.
Here's a video of the pro-divestment students walking from their gathering area to Willard Straight Hall, where the Assembly meets. You can see there just weren't that many, certainly not hundreds. A disappointing turnout considering the priority the anti-Israel groups place on the protest. Would Stanley Cohen really rather spend 18 months in prison than dine with a Zionist?A change.org petition drive has started seeking 10,000 signatures to keep him out of jail. It's not clear who's behind the petition, but it is being heavily promoted not only on Cohen's Twitter account, but also by various "Anonymous" type Twitter accounts and anti-Israeli boycotters.
That's a hard sell, considering the breadth of his disregard for even the most basic tax reporting requirements over a long period of time, as detailed in our prior post. The petition is not off to a fast start, with under 500 signatures of the 10,000 sought.
One thing I didn't realize was the complete depth of Cohen's hatred of Israel. Among his tweets since his conviction is bravado that he'd rather serve the 18 months in prison than dine with a Zionist: Guardian contributor blames 1929 Arab massacre of Jews on Zionist provocationsIn an otherwise unproblematic 2010 Guardian review (that we just came across) of a book by Martin Gilbert, titled 'In Ishmael's House: A History of Jews in Muslim Lands', there was the following remarkable claim:
Leaving his specious claim about Sharon and the intifada aside, its first important to point out that the '1929 Riots' refers to several massacres that year - one in Jerusalem that the author is referring to, one in Hebron and one in Safed.
Regarding the Jerusalem incidents, to blame "Zionist activists at the Wailing Wall' for the Arab massacres is nothing but a propagandistic historical fabrication. Catherine Philp names a suspect in the Passover attack on Jewish family: The 'settlements'Catherine Philp's story on the lethal attack, quite callously, never names the victim – referring to Mizrachi alternately as "a policeman", even though he wasn't on duty or in uniform at the time of the attack, and "the driver" – and focuses almost entirely on news from the day before regarding four Jewish families who moved into Hebron consistent with a Supreme Court ruling determining the property was purchased legally.
Remarkably, by the third paragraph Philp already establishes causation between the two events, without one iota of actual evidence and before, let's remember, the culprits have even been apprehended or interrogated. JPost Editorial: Hungary and the JewsWhy would Hungarians support a party and a prime minister that legislate policies that hurt their weak economy and threaten their fragile democracy? It seems the crude populist messages of Fidesz and Jobbik – suspicion of the EU and foreign business interests, distaste for migrants and a pride in Hungarian separatism – strike a deep chord.
Unsurprisingly, the declining situation of the Jewish community – at more than 100,000 one of the largest in Europe – is collateral damage of Hungary's turn to the Right. Attacks on Jews in times of crisis have been a theme in Europe throughout history, and the situation in Hungary is no different.
The latest controversy is over a series of public ceremonies and other events planned this year in commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Germany's invasion of Hungary. Hungary's fascist government played a prominent role in the annihilation of half a million Jews. This fact will be played down, however, if not erased. Scientists: Romanian troops behind 1941 massacre of JewsForensic scientists from Bucharest concluded that 36 bodies found at a mass grave near Iasi belonged to Jews who were murdered by Romanian troops.
The investigation into the mass grave at Vulturi Forest ended last month and determined that soldiers of the Romanian army's Regiment 6 perpetrated the murders in June 1941, the Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania announced Wednesday.
The institute's director, Alexandru Florian, said the finding was "a legal document proving the Holocaust in Romania." Passed over in 1936, Jewish Olympians to be honored in BerlinNancy Glickman was a teenager when she heard the story about her father at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin: Marty Glickman and another Jewish sprinter, Sam Stoller, were replaced as members of the 400-meter relay team for the US squad on the morning of the event.
Maccabi USA, the Philadelphia-based branch of the Maccabi World Union sports federation, is hoping members of the Glickman and Stoller families will go to Berlin in July 2015 when the European Maccabi Games are held in the German capital and the memories of the two track stars are honored.
It will be the first time Berlin hosts the games, which started in 1929. Top 10 Futuristic Technologies Made In IsraelTen years ago, the notion of a world run by touch-screen phones, wireless internet and battery-powered cars was reserved for fans of science fiction.
This light-speed pace at which technology is being advanced begs the inevitable, and sometimes worrying question of what the future has in store.
Well, for answers to much of that question, look no further than Israel, the tiny country which seems to be on a perpetual step ahead of much of the rest of the world when it comes to futuristic technologies.
Here is a look at ten Israeli companies researchers whose futuristic innovations will shape days to come. Israel Daily Picture: Why Was a Ton of Matza Delivered to the US Army's 77th Division in France during World War I?The Jewish tradition of eating matza (unleavened bread) on Passover is so profound that the armed services of several countries provide Passover supplies to their soldiers even at the front. That's the practice in Israel, for sure, but the archives of several libraries provide pictures of Jewish soldiers observing Passover in the British and American armies during World War I, almost 100 years ago.
The 77th Division was made up of draftees from the New York City area, one of the first draftee units deployed in combat in World War I. They assumed the name of the "Metropolitan Division" or the "Statue of Liberty Division." Many of the men had lived a tough hardscrabble life on the streets of New York, perhaps a factor in their surviving a hard-fought battle in the Argonne Forest in October 1918 where the Division's "Lost Battalion" was surrounded by German troops and held out for a week without food and water. In a 2001 film about the "Lost Battalion," the men were described as Irish, Italian, Jewish, and Polish "gangsters."
Of the battalion's 550 men, almost 200 were killed and 150 were captured or missing.
A Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Lee J. Levinger, served in France during World War I and wrote that the 77th Division had "thousands" of Jewish soldiers -- for whom the matza in the picture was intended.  |
| How did Jews build a state without tons of money from the EU and NGOs? Posted: 18 Apr 2014 01:00 PM PDT Here is an entire article from official PA news agency Wafa: A public information coordination committee to oversee a group of sub projects funded by the European Union in support of the livestock subsector was recently formed, under which the communication efforts between the institutions implementing projects in the Livestock-based Livelihoods (LbL) programme, said a press release on Thursday.
The full LBL project, worth approximately EUR 11 million, was launched in 2013 in order to support the development of the Palestinian the livestock subsector. This committee will work in parallel with the project coordination framework and Project Steering Committee, which includes the Ministry of Agriculture and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) and CARE and Oxfam Italia in addition to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Union (EU).
The three sub-projects constituting the LbL programme are ; (i) 'Moving herders from aid dependence to self-sustaining growth through livestock husbandry development and market expansion (SULALAH)', implemented by UAWC and the consortium (ii) 'Strengthening Livestock Holders' Livelihoods in Area C (Rawasi)' implemented by CARE International and the consortium; and (iii) 'Support Livestock-based Livelihood Programme of Vulnerable Populations in the oPt, the Institutional Level Component' (LbL-i) implemented by FAO. In addition to, (IV) 'Regional Bedouin Governance (RBG) implemented by Oxfam IT, which is also made possible by the generous support of the EU.
The committee will organize and arrange the strategic implementation of visibility and communications efforts between the projects, to export a unified message to reach the largest possible audience, in addition to publishing news that reflects the joint work between the projects. So a communications committee is being formed to coordinate between three or four disparate EU-funded programs to help the Palestinian Arabs raise livestock. The EU is pouring millions of euros into these initiatives, which seem vitally important. Now, how did a bunch of Jews manage to build an entire state without having the equivalent of such wonderful institutions as the Public Information Coordination Committee? Somehow, with limited knowledge of farming and raising animals, Jews managed to put together a modern, relatively efficient agriculture-based state during the first 20 years of Israel's existence, while at war with every neighboring state, with little or no support from NGOs and governments. Here we are, 20 years after Oslo, and about 18 years after the PA first gained autonomy to govern its own day to day life, and they somehow cannot survive for a week without huge injections of aid for so many projects that new projects have to be created to coordinate the older projects! Now, how could the Jews (who we are constantly being told were outside colonialists with no ties to the land), without outside help, manage to build their infrastructure under British rule and catapult from there into creating an impressive, modern state in so little time? And how could the Arabs (who we are constantly told are indigenous to the area) not know how to even raise livestock without serious injections of cash and having their hands held every step of the way?  |
| 04/18 Links Pt1: Kansas JCC holds service; Examining Extremism in the Wake of the Kansas JCC Violence Posted: 18 Apr 2014 11:00 AM PDT From Ian:
Kansas JCC holds 'unity service' after shooting attack"Why would such a tragedy befall three good souls? Why do bad things happen to good people? We don't know," said Rabbi Arthur P. Nemitoff of Congregation B'nai Jehudah. "God did not cause this pain. But like us, He is weeping."
Those were among the first words uttered at the Service of Unity & Hope, held at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City on Thursday, four days after the neo-Nazi activist Frazier Glenn Cross shot and killed Dr. William Lewis Corporon and his grandson Reat Griffin Underwood there. Terri LaManno, the third victim, was shot dead minutes later at Village Shalom, just up the street.
The JCC was overflowing with more than 1,500 people who came together in a gathering of faith and love. Among the crowd were hundreds of the local clergy and dignitaries from Overland Park, Leawood and Kansas City, Kansas, as well as officials from as far as Washington, DC. Examining Extremism in the Wake of the Kansas JCC ViolenceWhen Anti-Zionism Bleeds into Anti-Semitism - In the Wake of the Deadly Kansas City Shootings It was revealed that the Neo-Nazi killer in Kansas had praised Max Blumenthal on the neo-nazi forum that he frequented
Israel Forming Super PAC to Attack Paul & Obama
This is some big dookee, yaw'll. http://runronpaul.com/interviews/isr...on-paul-obama/ Jew journalist Max Blumenthal exposes and explains this attempt by a foreign government Israel, to buy the presidential election for the neo-con, war-mongering republican establishment. Like I've been saying, the kikes simply do not trust a lame-duck black president with the name Hussein. A few weeks prior, Max had re-tweeted a neo-nazi's rant about "Jewish Supremacism in the 20th Century," the same 20th century which saw the Holocaust, the worst genocide of the Jews in history.
However that same user, whose rant about "Jewish Supremacism in the 20th century" Max Blumenthal retweeted, had also tweeted this shocking anti-Semitic abuse at a Jewish twitter user
It was revealed that the Neo-Nazi JCC shooter had wanted to publicize what he described as the hateful anti-gentilism of the Talmud:
One of Max Blumenthal's collaborators, David Sheen, is an avowed Judeophobe who in a series of shocking tweets revealed his hatred of Judaism and the Torah and the Talmud, believing them to be anti-gentile. David Sheen features prominently in Max Blumenthal's new book, Goliath, as well as Blumenthal's videos. David Sheen also has a penchant for ranting against what he calls, "Jewish supremacists." Previously, such hateful language and Judeophobia had been seen mostly on the far-right neo-nazi forums where the JCC killer became radicalized.
In the wake of the deadly shooting, Max wrote an article on Mondoweiss attempting to link the gunman's Nazi ideology to Zionism. The post quickly garnered over 100 comments. Almost all the commentators at Mondoweiss used the Nazi targeting of the JCC as an occasion to lash out at Zionism and Israel. An official editor at Mondoweiss with thousands of posts, Annie Robbins, sought to portray the anti-semitic shooting as an Israeli Mossad conspiracy acted out through the Israeli Foreign Ministry. This was in response to another regular Mondoweiss commentator, bilal a, who has had thousands of comments on Mondoweiss. "Bilal a" implied that the shooting may have been carried out by the Zionists since only Christians died, and it was on Passover eve, and the blood libel teaches that Jews use Passover as a time to sacrifice non-Jews. White Supremacist Website Linked to Nearly 100 Murders WorldwideNearly 100 murders around the world in the last five years can be traced back to users of the biggest white supremacist forum on the Internet, a hate-group watchdog said Thursday.
The majority of those killings were committed by Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian extremist best known for the massacre of 69 people, most of them teenagers, at a summer camp outside Oslo in 2011.
But, in common with other killers, he frequented Stormfront.org, which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) branded a "racist forum" in a study that comes on the heels of Sunday's triple murder at two Jewish sites in Kansas. Kansas Mayor Faces Impeachment After Speaking Kindly of Jewish Center KillerClevenger added that Miller was "very fair and honest and never had a bit of problems out of him. He was always nice and friendly and respectful of elder people. He respected his elders greatly, as long as they were the same color as him."
A month ago, a Marionville resident drew attention to a 'Letter to the Editor' Clevenger sent to a local newspaper nearly a decade ago in which he described himself as "a friend of Frazier Miller helping to spread his warnings." Clevenger also decried the "Jew-run medical industry" and the "Jew-run government backed banking industry," KOLR said.
Clevenger later tried to defend himself in a letter sent to the Aurora Missouri Advertiser days before Marionville's April 8 election. He denied being a racist, saying that he "only pointed out the corporations responsible for destroying the United States are run by Jews." Palestinians Need More Than BordersEven if one were to dismiss and explain away the Palestinian Authority's blatant hostility to the state that it is supposed to be making peace with—as Western leaders routinely attempt to—there is no getting around the shambolic failure of the Palestinians to govern. The rioting that took place in Hebron today, and the terror attack perpetrated against a visiting Israeli family in that same city just before the Passover holiday, is just the latest and most visceral reminder of this refusal to run internal Palestinian affairs responsibly. Despite the unprecedented levels of international aid that is poured into the Palestinian areas, the PA's spiraling debt is now so out of control that it no longer even seems able to pay the ballooning 850 million shekel electricity bill that it owes the Israelis, while at the same time the authority has been struggling to pay its employee's wages. Yet somehow there is always enough money to make large payouts to Palestinian terrorists and their families.
Those such as president Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry who claim that the Palestinians are ready for statehood, or that we are on the verge of witnessing the emergence of a harmonious two-state arrangement, are living in fantasyland. Abbas is now so weak that under public pressure he has simply ceased to dispatch his forces to neutralize Hamas and Islamic Jihad opponents in places like Jenin and Nablus. This hasn't always been the case; the PA has stacked up a shocking record of human rights abuses in the course of its crackdowns on Islamist rivals. No doubt Abbas would still wish to keep these militants at bay–and not for Israel's sake but rather for the security of his own faction–but it seems the Palestinian public will no longer tolerate such actions. The constant fear of overthrow is real for Abbas and Fatah. Netanyahu loses majority for deal to extend talks with PalestiniansThe deal had a majority among the 23 members of the cabinet, thanks to support from Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, all of the Likud, five ministers from Yesh Atid, two from Hatnua and two from Yisrael Beytenu.
But Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch of Yisrael Beytenu surprised Netanyahu's associates when he told Army Radio that he opposes extending the negotiations if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas does not publicly condemn Monday's terrorist attack that killed senior police officer Baruch Mizrachi. Hamas looks to scuttle talks while PA can't make up its mindThe pictures from Wednesday morning show that the incident on the Temple Mount wasn't spontaneous. Inside the al-Aqsa mosque, there were enough stones and fireworks gathered to make the site look, and especially sound, like a war zone. Hamas doesn't want nine more months of talks between Israel and the PA, and is trying to shake up the situation in the West Bank in the hope that it might lead to the dissolution of the PA and the weakening of Fatah.
This is where the blatant attempts to sabotage the talks through incitement around al-Aqsa come from. Several Islamist groups operate on the Temple Mount, the Northern Branch and Hamas being the most dominant. They are the ones who called out slogans of support for ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, and they are also those who likely stand behind the recent attacks in an attempt to ignite the Temple Mount.
On the other side, the PA continues to suffer from a split personality regarding the negotiations. On the one hand, they want to continue the talks as much as Israel does. This is the clear interest of PA decision-makers, who understand that an implosion of the talks could lead to a serious escalation, endangering the PA — just what Hamas wants. On the other hand, the line the PA is taking in the Palestinian press against Israel sounds nationalist and militant. Israelis, Palestinians to hold separate talks with US envoyIndyk was due to hold talks with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in the West Bank city of Jericho from 08:00 GMT, the source said, but he had no details of the US-Israeli meeting and Israeli officials did not respond to requests for information.
Thursday's talks, in a Jerusalem hotel, were "very difficult," the source said. "The gap… is still wide."
Officials in Jerusalem said Friday that no progress had been made in peace talks that took place between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators the night before, and that the two sides would meet again next week after the Passover holiday. PA Official: Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State is 'Fantasy'On Thursday, PA official Mahmoud Khalifa called Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman's demands that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish state a "fantasy," and claimed Israel is "running away from the implementation of the peace process, and conditions which would cover up [its] crimes of [building] settlements and land theft."
Khalifa also said that Israel's operations against terrorism in PA-run areas constitute "aggressive and unilateral actions which show clearly that Israel is skirting the peace process."
He then accused both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Liberman of power-mongering - and murder. Palestinian Authority Flags Replace Israeli Flags in Tel AvivIsraeli flags were replaced by Palestinian Authority (PA) flags on Friday morning at the Yafo (Jaffa) Port, located at the southern end of Tel Aviv.
Walla! reported the flags had been waving at the site for several hours, and that despite a number of requests to Tel Aviv police, officers or Municipality workers had not rushed to take them down.
The flags were put up after Israeli flags at the site were removed; the whereabouts of those flags and the perpetrators of the switch remain unknown. Palestinians clash with IDF in Hebron over prisonersIn the southern West Bank city of Hebron, some 2,000 people marched, carrying photos of prisoners and waving Palestinian flags, and another 1,000 protested in the northern city of Nablus.
"We support our prisoners!" read banners.
Palestinian Authority security forces were unable to prevent the marchers from drawing close to the Jewish enclave in Hebron and dozens of demonstrators began throwing rocks at an IDF post in the area.
Israeli security forces used tear gas, stun grenades, and other riot control methods in an effort to push the rioters back. Likud Minister Says Terror has Won on the Temple MountMinister of Transport Yisrael Katz (Likud-Beytenu) called on his own government to allow Jews to freely ascend to the Temple Mount, and denounced the Muslim rioting on the Mount.
"All red lines have been crossed at the Temple Mount," Katz stated Thursday, and added that Hamas has taken over the Mount, "carried out military parades and planted its flags on the mosques. The entry of Jews to the site, meanwhile, was barred again." Police Place Limits on Temple Mount for MuslimsFollowing intelligence information received by Jerusalem police on plans by Muslim visitors to the Temple Mount to disrupt the public order at the end of their prayers, entrance to the holy site was limited to Muslim visitors.
The decision to only allow Muslim men over the age of 50, and women of any age, to pray at the site was made by Jerusalem police commander Nitzav Yossi Pariente.
Further, only Muslim visitors with blue teudot zehut (identification cards), held by Israeli citizens and residents, are to be allowed in. IDF Blog: How We Are Preparing to Defend Israel Against HezbollahThe lessons of the Second Lebanon War continue today. In that confrontation with the Lebanese Shiite militia in 2006, the emphasis was put on cooperation between the different branches of the military in order to achieve maximum effectiveness against terrorists embedded within the civilian population.
"The forces on the ground, fighters in tanks, helicopters and fighter planes are more ready than ever and trained to work with the IDF Intelligence Corps in emergency situations," the northern comander said.
Throughout the interview, the northern commander insisted on the professionalism expected from soldiers on the ground. This professionalism results from hours of training, preparing the soldiers for all the circumstances they could face with the enemy, including: civilians in the combat zone, ambushes and attempted abduction. It is this value of maximum preparation that will ultimatly ensure Israel's safety. The Golan Heights, where al-Qaeda fights HezbollahMost of the Syrian Golan has fallen to the opposition. Along the entire Syrian-Israeli border, there are only two areas still under the rule of the Assad regime in Damascus — Quneitra in the central Golan; and Khader, the Druze area in the northern heights.
Groups affiliated with al-Qaeda maintain a strong presence here. What's more, Jabhat al-Nusra, the group created as the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda in Iraq (until it began fighting with the leaders of The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) now controls the southern Syrian Golan Heights. Syrian Airstrikes Close to Israeli BorderSyrian fighter jets struck villages and sites associated with the opposition forces late Friday morning, in the Quneitra region of the Golan Heights.
The attacks on Quneitra, the only crossing along the Israeli-Syrian border in the Golan Heights, raised concerns in Israel, reports Channel 10.
In response, the IDF stepped up preparations along the border, and sent out IAF planes to provide an air presence in the area and deter any encroachments on Israeli sovereign airspace. Abbas' Office Scrambles to Deny Reports He Condemned Passover Terror AttackThe office of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday rushed to deny reports – given to media outlets by a delegation of opposition Israeli lawmakers who had just returned from Ramallah – that the Palestinian leader had condemned a deadly Monday terrorist attack on an Israeli family, a day after Abbas's silence on the matter had been blasted by Jerusalem as deeply complicating efforts to sustain flagging peace talks. Terrorists had riddled the family's car with bullets, killing the male driver and wounding his wife and child.
Abbas and other figures from his Fatah faction had through the week remained conspicuously silent on the matter, amid celebrations of the murder by other groups, triggering a harsh condemnation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Gaza's Pro-Terror 'Arab Idol' To Perform in NazarethMohammed Assaf of Gaza, who won the "Arab Idol" singing contest last June, is scheduled to perform in the Israeli-Arab city of Nazareth on April 27. The grassroots Zionist group "Im Tirtzu" is working to block the performance given Assaf's repeated attacks on Israel.
Im Tirtzu notes that Assaf dedicated his contest victory to the "shaheeds", or "martyred" terrorists, and the "prisoners," or Arab terror convicts in Israeli jails.
Assaf similarly sang songs in the contest referring to several Israeli cities not over the 1949 Armistice lines, including Nazareth, where he is to perform, as well as Tzfat, Haifa and others, as being part of "Palestine." Pharell Williams' "Happy" the Gaza Concentration camp editionVariations of Pharell Williams' feel-good anthem "Happy" have been going viral all over Youtube. Nearly 800 different versions of Williams' song have been uploaded to Youtube from over 90 countries. Check out the latest- the Gaza Concentration camp edition. Note the broad boulevards, the swimming pools, discotheques, and the fully stocked grocery stores.
This is Gaza, the world's largest open air prison. Iranians carry 'death to Israel' signs as Rouhani tells crowd he supports dialogueChanting "God is Greatest", troops paraded missiles carriers, some bearing banners saying "Death to America" and "Death to Israel", armored personnel carriers and unmanned surveillance aircraft as well as small submarines with men wearing aqua-lungs alongside.
Unlike hardline predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rouhani did not use his speech to lash out at the United States and Israel, which Tehran refuses to recognize.
"We told the world during the (nuclear) talks and we repeat that we don't support any aggression ... We support dialogue," Rouhani said in the live broadcast. NYT: "Extensive Disagreements" Suggest West May Lack Leverage to Bring Nuke DealIran is obligated by binding United Nations Security Council resolutions to roll back – and in the case of its atomic program, to dismantle – infrastructure across all of those programs.
Continued Iranian intransigence is likely to fuel concerns that Western negotiators lack sufficient leverage to extract meaningful and robust concessions.
Mark Dubowitz and Rachel Ziemba – respectively the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the director of emerging markets at Roubini Global Economics - on Thursday published analysis concluding that "a variety of key macroeconomic indicators" all converged on the conclusion that Iran is experiencing an economic recovery, in part due to American and Iranian officials having undervalued the sanctions relief provided by the interim Joint Plan of Action (JPA). In light of the analysis, Dubowitz suggested that the White House should stop agreeing with Iran's lowball estimations of the relief. US releases $450 million of frozen Iranian fundsState Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said that "all sides have kept the commitments made" under the agreement. She said that "as Iran remains in line with its commitments," the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China, Russia and the European Union "will continue to uphold our commitments as well."
The report by the U.N. nuclear agency showed that Iran had -- as stipulated under the November 24 agreement -- diluted half of its higher-grade enriched uranium reserve to a fissile content less prone to bomb proliferation. Tehran has also continued to convert the other half of its stock of uranium gas refined to a 20 percent fissile purity, the IAEA report said. Miserable Syrians in Jordan say they'd rather go homeWith Syria's war now in its fourth year, many of the 100,000 refugees in the sprawling desert Zaatari camp in northern Jordan feel the world has forgotten their struggle to survive.
"Syrian refugees would rather go home and face inevitable death than swallow the bitterness of displacement," Abu Isam, 52, told AFP before his cousins and other refugees boarded a bus back to Syria.
"Nobody cares about Syrian refugees — the world has fooled us. They said our crisis will not last long. Now I feel a solution to our dilemma is impossible," he said. UN rights chief slams 'rampant' torture in SyriaUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says her office has documented a "broad pattern of torture and ill-treatment" in government facilities and some run by rebel groups.
Pillay said in a statement Monday that the report draws on detailed testimony from victims and witnesses.
The abuses include rape, beatings and burning, sometimes leading to death.
Pillay's office has documented widespread abuses by the government and rebel groups in Syria's three-year civil war, prompting calls for war crimes inquiries. Turkey 'seeking free trade deal with Iran'Turkey has started to work on a deal with Iran to ease business between the two nations with the ultimate goal of having a full free-trade agreement, Turkey's Development Minister has said.
Speaking at a business forum in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Wednesday, Cevdet Yilmaz said: "The two countries complement each other. Turkey is the gateway for Iran to the west and Iran is to the east for Turkey.
"If the two nations cooperate more, it has the potential to affect the entire region. We can use this potential more accurately by not only increasing trade between two nations, but also by increasing mutual investments - especially in the fields of tourism and services." Western Companies Pressure Turks to Cancel Rogue Missile-Defense Deal with ChinaTurkey's Hurriyet Daily News disclosed on Wednesday that figures from European and U.S. defense firms have been heavily lobbying their counterparts in Turkey's defense industry for help in blocking a controversial move by Ankara – announced last September, only to be met with immediate pushback by the West – to purchase a missile defense system from a Chinese company blacklisted by Washington for violating anti-proliferation measures: Turkey approves law to expand spy powersTurkey's parliament approved a controversial law on Thursday expanding the powers of the national spy agency and setting prison terms for publishing leaked information as the government fights back against a widening corruption scandal.
The new legislation, passed after a heated debate in parliament, is the latest ammunition being deployed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as he seeks to push back against the greatest challenge yet to his 11-year rule.  |
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