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Report: US notified ahead of Syria strike blamed on Israel

April 9, 2018

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-april-9-2018/

 

A pair of US officials tell NBC News that Israel was behind the deadly airstrike on a Syrian air base earlier today and that the US was notified ahead of the strike.

The NBC News report comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman says the Kremlin was not warned of the attack in advance.

Israelis military officials have refused to comment on the airstrike, which Russia and Syria have blamed on Israel.

France: Soon with No Jews?

April 7, 2018

Official: Escalation may lead to another round of fighting

April 7, 2018

Security official tells Arutz Sheva: The recent Gaza developments may be part of Hamas’ plan to start another round of fighting by May 14.

Ido Ben Porat, 05/04/18 09:39
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/244061
Terror march

Abad Rahim Katib, Flash 90

A security official spoke to Arutz Sheva on Thursday morning about the recent developments in Gaza and the possibility of another war breaking out.

According to the source, who insisted on anonymity, the recent events are part of a larger Hamas plan, which is expected to reach its peak on May 14.

“Hamas is interested in gradually fanning the flames, until May 14,” the source told Arutz Sheva. “And from there, they want to lead an escalation which will bring about another round of fighting in Gaza.”

In February, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot predicted that a new conflict between Israel and the Hamas terror organization in Gaza was likely in 2018 resulting from Hamas’ mismanagement of the Gaza Strip and the correspondingly difficult humanitarian conditions. Hamas is attempting to turn the people’s attention away from the terror organization’s misuse of foreign aid and its rampant corruption by focusing on Israel.

In March, the Palestinian Authority (PA) official in charge of Gaza affairs told Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) that beginning April 1, the PA would stop paying salaries to its employees in Gaza. Such a step, causing tens of thousands of Gaza workers to lose their income, could cause a humanitarian crisis in the Strip, making it all the more expedient for Hamas to target Israel.

Iranian cleric: Tel Aviv, Haifa will be razed to the ground in future Israel-Hezbollah conflict

April 7, 2018

In a speech on Friday, Tehran cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami warned Israel that an attempt to target Hezbollah would lead to the destruction of Tel Aviv and Haifa. “Hezbollah is stronger today, much stronger than it ever was,” Khatami said.

Avital Zippel

http://www.jerusalemonline.com/news/world-news/around-the-globe/iranian-cleric-tel-aviv-haifa-will-be-razed-to-the-ground-if-israel-attacks-hezbollah-35374

Ahmad Khatami Photo Credit: Mostafameraji/Wikimedia Commons

A top Iranian cleric in Tehran has warned Israel that if it “dares” to attack Hezbollah, the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa would be “razed to the ground,” Iranian media outlets reported on Friday. The Islamic cleric referred to recent remarks by Israeli officials concerning the possibility of a potential conflict with the terrorist organization in Lebanon in 2018.

Speaking to a group of worshipers in Tehran on Friday, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami claimed Israel has already attempted to defeat Hezbollah “one or two times,” but the terrorist organization had turned Tel Aviv and Haifa into “ghosts cities” with 70km-range missiles.

“Hezbollah is stronger today, much stronger than it ever was,” Khatami said, as quoted by Iranian news outlets. “I tell the Zionists, if you are willing to see Tel Aviv and Haifa razed to the ground, you can try your chance once again.”

The cleric added that although Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had predicted Israel would not last for 25 years, “maybe the divine ordinance is that they will do something crazy and get eradicated much earlier.” In addition, Khatami addressed the recent statement by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in which he recognized the Jewish people’s right to a homeland, and slammed the royal’s remarks as being “bullshit by a crude young Saudi.”

Palestinians: Abbas Targets Hamas, Then Condemns Israel for Targeting Hamas

April 6, 2018

Khamenei: Israel should be forced to ‘retreat to point of demise’

April 6, 2018
Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei calls on people of Muslim countries to defeat Israel, says negotiations with ‘cheating, lying and oppressive regime’ are ‘unforgivable mistake’; statements come in the wake of The Atlantic interview with Saudi Crown Prince bin Salman, in which he said Israelis were entitled to live peacefully on their own land.
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5220465,00.html

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Wednesday on the people of Muslim countries to defeat Israel. “With an intense and planned struggle, they should force the enemy to retreat toward the point of demise,” he said.

Any move to negotiate with Israel would be an “unforgivable mistake”, the cleric added, after Saudi Arabia’s crown prince said Israelis were entitled to live peacefully on their own land.Supreme Leader Khamenei later tweeted, “On days when escalation of oppression & barbarism by the Zionists, in Gaza has saddened and angered those who care for Palestine, we reiterate the perpetual stance of the Islamic Republic regarding the issue of Palestine.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei called on all Muslims to defeat Israel (Photo: Reuters)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei called on all Muslims to defeat Israel (Photo: Reuters)

“The return of dignity and power to the Islamic nation is exclusively linked to resistance—while confronting arrogant powers and their wicked plots—and the issue of Palestine is at the top of Islam’s international agenda in the face of the arrogant front.”

Saudi Arabia—birthplace of Islam and site of its holiest shrines—does not officially recognize Israel, but Mohammed bin Salman’s comments, quoted in the US magazine The Atlantic, are a further sign of an apparent thawing in bilateral ties.

They come as mainly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia faces off against Shiite Iran in a regional power struggle. Tehran and Riyadh back opposing sides in the conflicts in Yemen and Syria, as well as rival political groups in Iraq and Lebanon.

“Movement toward negotiation with the cheating, lying and oppressive regime (of Israel) is a big, unforgivable mistake that will push back the victory of the people of Palestine,” Khamenei said in a statement posted on his official website.

The statement, which did not explicitly name Saudi Arabia, said it was the duty of all Muslims to support Palestinian resistance movements and it pledged continued Iranian backing for the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
After the crown prince’s comments, his father King Salman reiterated Saudi Arabia’s support for a Palestinian state.

Riyadh has long maintained that normalizing ties with Israel hinges on an Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands captured in the 1967 Six Day War—territory Palestinians seek for a future state.

Saudi King Salman (L) with his son (Photo: MCT)

Saudi King Salman (L) with his son (Photo: MCT)

However, Saudi Arabia opened its air space for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel last month, which an Israeli official hailed as historic following two years of efforts.

In November, an Israeli cabinet member disclosed covert contacts with Saudi Arabia, a rare acknowledgment of long-rumored secret dealings that Riyadh still denies.
Khamenei issued Wednesday’s statement in reply to a letter he recently received from Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh that criticized the support of Arab governments in the region for the United States.
 Hamas, which is sworn to Israel’s destruction, dominates the small coastal strip of Gaza, where this week at least 17 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli security forces.

First published: 04.04.18, 22:11

Is Trump About to Repeat Obama’s Worst Mistake?

April 5, 2018

UK: Funding Textbooks That Teach Children to Blow Themselves Up

April 4, 2018

French troops deploy to Manbij, join Trump’s stop-Turkey line in Syria

April 4, 2018

https://www.debka.com/french-troops-deploy-to-manbij-join-trumps-stop-turkey-line-in-syria/

DEBKAfile Exclusive: French special ops troops have moved into two US Syrian bases, Manbij and Remelin, as the US boosts its lines against Turkey.
While US President Donald Trump was saying Tuesday, April 3, that he would “decide very quickly” to remove US troops from Syria, our exclusive military sources report that US Marines were heading toward the northern Syrian town of Manbij as reinforcements against Turkish inroads. They took up positions along the Sajur River, one of the three tributaries that feed the Euphrates River in Syria from sources in Turkey. This action blocked the Turkish army’s land access to Manbij, its next target after capturing Afrin. The Marine unit is equipped with a large fleet of armored vehicles, heavy artillery and engineering equipment. US military engineers are also building a new facility at the tiny Dadat village 8km east of the Sajur river as a rear base for the new US defense line.
DEBKAfile’s military sources also reveal that on Sunday and Monday, April 1-2, French forces moved into northern Syria, marking France’s first substantial military feed into the Syrian civil war. French troops formed up alongside US marines in Manbij and their jets and battle helicopters landed at the US air base in Remelin to provide air support for the US and French contingents posted in Manbij.

The French units drove into Manbij at the moment on Monday that Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan visited his troops with congratulations on their capture of Afrin from the US-backed Kurdish YPG militia. Clad in the army fatigues of a Turkish general, Erdogan signaled in the speech that the Afrin venture was the start of a major Turkish military campaign against the Kurds in northern Syria and Iraq. It would start next at Manbij and go on to seize Sinjar in northern Iraq.
This time, according to our sources, President Donald Trump moved swiftly to beat the Turkish leader to the draw and snatch away his two main targets in Syria and Iraq. He put to good use the good understanding he has quickly developed with French President Emmanuel Macron for cooperating in a number of international arenas, in contrast to his uneasy relations with most other West European leaders.

As for Erdogan’s Iraq destination, Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi, after being leaned on heavily by the Trump administration, sent the Iraqi Army’s 5th Division to Sinjar province and lined his troops up on the Iraqi-Syrian border to obstruct the Turkish army’s advance from Syria into Iraq. Erdogan was unable to make good on his threat to seize the Iraqi province unless the Kurdish PKK withdrew from its bases there.
President Macron had meanwhile acted to consolidate Trump’s plans for the Kurdish districts of Syria. On March 29, he received a delegation of the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and the Syrian Democratic Army, which led the battle for driving ISIS out of Raqqa. After praising their military feats, he pledged French support for “the stabilization of their security zone in northeastern Syria within the framework of an inclusive and balanced governance to prevent any resurgence of ISIS.”
Erdogan vented his rage on Macron by accusing him of “fraud” and later of conducting “a French military invasion of Syria.” For daring to offer to mediate between Turkey and the Kurds, he accused the French president of interfering with Turkey’s military operations. Instead of answering the Turkish president’s charges, Macron sent French troops to Manbij to support the US military’s counter-offensive against the Turkish army’s plans.
The Trump administration therefore acted through two allies to frustrate Erdogan’s military plans for Syria and Iraq.

 

How the Media Have Misleadingly Covered the Gaza Border Violence

April 3, 2018