WarSclerotic

IAF strikes 7 Gaza terror targets in response to evening rocket fire – Ynet.

Despite Islamic Jihad’s announcement of a ceasefire, ‘Code Red’ sirens were heard in the south, and rockets continue to rain down.

The Israel Air Force attacked seven Gaza terror targets on Thursday night – three targets in the north of the Strip and four in its south – after 17 rockets were fired by Gaza terror groups towards southern Israel following Islamic Jihad’s announcement on a truce with Israel.

The Iron Dome missiles-defense system was deployed in Beersheba and near Ashdod on Thursday evening to stop grad rockets from reaching the populated cities.

 ‘Code Red’ sirens were heard shortly before 7:50 pm Thursday in the Shaar HaNegev and Sdot Negev Regional Councils and in Sderot, followed by three rocket falls. Two of the rockets fell in open areas in the Shaar HaNegev Regional Council and another fell in Sderot.

 Another barrage of rockets was fired at around 8:30 pm, two of them intercepted by the Iron Dome missile-defense system. The rest fell in open areas. At around 9:05 pm, ‘Code Red’ sirens were heard for the third time in Sderot and Shaar HaNegev. Around 10:45 pm, another rocket fell in an open field in the Eshkol Regional Council. There was no ‘Code Red’ siren beforehand.  

 Earlier in the day, a rocket fell in an open area in the Ashkelon region, shortly after Islamic Jihad’s announcement of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire with Israel. The organization denied that it was behind the attack.

 After over 60 rockets were fired at southern Israel on Wednesday evening, rocket fire from the Gaza Strip resumed Thursday morning, with sirens sounding in the towns of Yavne, Rehovot, Ashdod and Ashkelon. In light of the wake in rocket fire, Kerem Shalom Crossing has been closed, as well as Erez Crossing, which will only remain open for humanitarian emergencies.

 At least one rocket fired at Ashkelon was neutralized by the Iron Dome missile defense system, the IDF confirmed. Two rockets landed in open fields between Ashkelon and Ashdod.

The Israel Air Force struck targets in southern Gaza Strip in response to the morning rocket fire. Palestinian sources in Gaza reported that the IAF struck two targets in Rafah: A smuggling tunnel and a cached launching pad.

Mattan Tzuri and Yoav Zitun contributed to this report.

Saeed Abedini, US pastor held in Iran, denied treatment after prison beating – FoxNews.

(Shows us the pure EVIL and barbarism of the mullah regime. Like the Iranian weapons ship this poor man’s fate will most likely be ignored by the P5+1 in order to strike a deal. To our American readers: Please do whatever is in your power, even if that is only writing a letter or an email, to help him. – Artaxes)

By Lisa Daftari / Published March 13, 2014 / FoxNews.com

Kerry: ‘Jewish state’ demand ‘a mistake,’ Times of Israel, March 14, 2014

(Yielding on the Jewish state issue would leave only a few more of Israel’s core demands. How about the “right of return?” Can’t Israel be reasonable, finally? Or something, like the Palestinians? Secretary Kerry needs an Israeli – Palestinian peace deal so that he can settle all Middle East conflicts. If not Israel, who? If not now, when? — DM)

Issue shouldn’t make or break Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations, US Secretary of State tells Congress.

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on Thursday, March 13, 2014. (photo credit: AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Israel’s insistence that the Palestinians officially recognize Israel as a Jewish state is a mistake, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday, adding that the issue should not be a critical factor in whether the current round of Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations succeed or fail.

Speaking to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Kerry put the kibosh on the demand, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made central to peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

“I think it’s a mistake for some people to be, you know, raising it again and again as the critical decider of their attitude towards the possibility of a state and peace, and we’ve obviously made that clear,” Kerry said.

Kerry noted that the “Jewish state” issue was addressed by UN Resolution 181 in 1947, which granted international recognition to the fledgling state of Israel. There are “more than 40 — 30 mentions of a ‘Jewish state’” in the resolution, Kerry said, and added that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat “confirmed that he agreed it [Israel] would be a Jewish state” in 1988 and in 2004.

After bringing the two sides back to negotiating table and ending a three-year freeze, Kerry has been focused on trying to hammer out a framework deal which is due to set out the end goal of the talks plus guiding principles on each of the core issues.

On Wednesday, Kerry told lawmakers that the two sides were still far from coming to an agreement.

“The level of mistrust is as large as any level of mistrust I’ve ever seen, on both sides,” he said.

Decades of negotiations have been bedeviled by some of the toughest disputes separating the two sides, such as the fate of Palestinian refugees and the designation of Jerusalem claimed by both sides as a capital.

In recent months Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been insisting that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas recognize Israel as “a Jewish state” — something Palestinians are refusing to do, believing it would irrevocably torpedo chances for the return of refugees living in exile.