Posted tagged ‘Arabs’

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One killed in Dimona as southern Israel comes under heavy rocket fire from Gaza

July 19, 2014

One killed in Dimona as southern Israel comes under heavy rocket fire from Gaza

Four others hurt in Dimona strike; rockets strike open areas in Dimona, Sdot Negev; building catches fire in Eshkol region after rocket strike;

Ashdod targeted in overnight salvo; 4 rockets intercepted.

Natan Tzuri, YnetnewsLatest Update: 07.19.14, 12:44 / Israel News

via One killed in Dimona as southern Israel comes under heavy rocket fire from G… – Israel News, Ynetnews.

 

One person was killed and four others wounded in Dimona at around noon Saturday by a rocket barrage from the Gaza Strip. This is the second Israeli fatality in rocket fire since the start of the IDF Operation Protective Edge 12 days ago.

Israel’s southern residents have been under heavy rocket fire throughout Saturday, with sirens wailing every few minutes, and the Iron Dome missile defense system repeatedly in action.

Four rockets also fell in open areas of Dimona, causing no injuries.

In Eshkol Regional Council, a rocket struck a building at around 11am, causing a fire to break out.

Also Saturday morning, a rocket fell in an open area in Sdot Negev. Another hit a chicken coop in Hof Ashkelon.

The attacks came hours after Ashdod residents were targeted in an overnight attack . The coastal city was awakened by the Code Red siren at around 2:55am, The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted four rockets. A fifth rocket exploded on a road in a residential area, causing light damage. No one was hurt in the attack.

 

Rocket damage in Ashdod (Photo: Gil Solomon)
 

Earlier, the Code Red siren was sounded in Sdot Negev and the Hof Ashkelon regional councils. The residents of Hof Ashkelon were also awoke to the sound of the Code Red alert on Saturday morning.

 

Rocket damage in Ashdod (Photo: Gil Solomon)
 

Since the beginning of the IDF’s ground offensive in Gaza on Thursday night, 135 rockets have been launched at Israel, among them 48 intercepted.

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Foreign Policy Guru Elliot Abrams Asks: What the Heck is Kerry Doing?

July 19, 2014

Foreign Policy Guru Elliot Abrams Asks: What the Heck is Kerry Doing?

Pans Kerry’s Push To Make Qatar Mediator Between Israel and Hamas

7.18.2014 Israel RevoltJeff Dunetz

via Foreign Policy Guru Elliot Abrams Asks: What the Heck is Kerry Doing? | Truth Revolt.

 

 

ecretary of State Kerry has been reaching out to Qatar, one of the major financiers of Islamist terrorism, to mediate between Israel and Hamas in an attempt to gain a cease-fire. Elliot Abrams, who has served in foreign policy roles for Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, expostulated, “What is Kerry doing?… We should be trying to marginalize the Qatari role, not preserve it or enhance it.”

The State Department’s latest annual Country Reports on Terrorism, covering 2013, refers to the “significant terrorist financing risk” of Qatar-based fundraisers. This diplomatic language downplays the common perception among U.S. experts that Kuwait is “the epicenter of fundraising for terrorist groups in Syria,” and that Qatar is “a permissive terrorist financing environment,” as articulated in a March 4 speech by David Cohen, the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

Elements in Qatar are known to provide financing for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and ISIS, which is one of the reasons Abrams wrote the post below for the Council on Foreign Relations:

Sympathy and support for Hamas are much lower in the Arab world than in past Israeli-Hamas conflicts–except in Qatar, whose government has a special relationship with Hamas. Indeed Hamas’s political leader Khaled Meshal spends most of his time in Qatar’s capital, Doha. Qatar has poured money into Hamas-ruled Gaza.

So what’s the American position on the negotiation of a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas? Do we want Egypt, with its hostility to the terrorist group and desire to weaken it, to be the negotiator, or Qatar? The answer should be obvious: we want Egypt to play this role, because Egypt will push Hamas harder, show it less sympathy, and try to ensure that it emerges from the war without any gains.

But that has not been the American position. Secretary of State Kerry has happily kept the Qataris in the loop from the start, as if whether they or the Egyptians play the key role is a matter of indifference to us. Israeli and Egyptian officials have noticed and have been at a loss to understand his position. “What is Kerry doing?” has been the tone of the comments. The United States should be insisting that Egypt, with its long border with Israel and its border with Gaza, must be the mediator.

“What is Kerry doing?” is, on this point, a fair question. We should be trying to marginalize the Qatari role, not preserve it or enhance it.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Israel’s government agrees with Abrams:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, however, is wary about any role for Qatar as a go-between with Hamas since Israeli officials believe the island state funds some of the most radical Sunni militant groups fighting in neighboring Syria. Israel also believes Qatar is one of the primary sources of financing for Hamas.

“We don’t associate Qatar as being a responsible actor,” a senior Israeli official said.

Qatari officials have said they view Hamas as a legitimate nationalist movement that deserves the support of Arab states.

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Verdict on UN Security Council Emergency Session? Not Terrible.

July 19, 2014

Verdict on UN Security Council Emergency Session?

Not Terrible.Friday’s emergency session of the UN Security Council ended with the news that Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will fly to the region in an effort to broker a ceasefire.

By: Lori Lowenthal MarcusPublished: July 19th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Verdict on UN Security Council Emergency Session? Not Terrible..

 

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Photo Credit: VOA
 

The United Nation Security Council held an emergency session on Friday to address the escalation of violence between Gaza and Israel.

U.N. Undersecretary Jeffrey Feltman spoke at the beginning of the session. He announced that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will be arriving in the region tomorrow, Saturday, July 20, in an attempt to help rein in the hostilities.

Feltman also mentioned several points raised by acting leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. He said Abbas believes the PA should be ensuring security along the Philadelphi corrider, and that there has to be one entity in charge of both all Palestinian Arabs, including those in Gaza.

At the conclusion of his statement, Feltman waxed rhapsodic about the holy grail of the “peace process:” the creation of a Palestinian State so that the “Two State Solution” can herald the dawning of the era of peace and harmony.

And then, as if cynics were writing the script instead of people who actually believe this malarky, the U.N. ambassador from “Palestine” spoke, making it crystal clear that the Palestinian Arabs have no interest in anything like peace with Israel.

The representative from “Palestine,” Riyad Mansour, launched into an invective-filled diatribe accusing Israel of intentionally causing the murder of Arab babies, and insisting that the brutal occupation by the savage Israelis is the root cause of every problem in the region.

Mansour even stated that Israel “cynically used the deaths of three Israeli teenagers” as an excuse to restart its war machine in order to inflict the greatest harm possible on the poor Gazans who are in a stranglehold due to the illegal embargo and closure of its borders.

Not content to use every bloodthirsty adjective to describe Israel, Mansour also spent a good portion of his speaking time reading names and ages of children he claimed have been killed by Israel.

For his part, Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor seized the opportunity to engage in rhetorical warfare, although of a far more subtle type.

“Hamas lives by violence and celebrates death. I want to be clear, our forces are fighting in Gaza, but they are not fighting the people of Gaza,” Prosor said.

Prosor also took the opportunity to castigate the nearly immediate, nearly universal international support for the Palestinian unity government. He said that simply allowed a fig leaf for Hamas to continue its violence and reign of terror against Israelis.

Neither of the parties’ spokespeople struck a surprising note. Perhaps the biggest surprise to wary observers was the statement made by U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power.

Power’s brief statement was emphatic about the need to de-escalate the violence. However, she did not spin any fairy tales about how it is only the lack of a Palestinian State which is blocking the peace train from rolling through the region. Nor did Power equate the two parties to the conflict. Power said the indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza into Israel had to stop, and she called on both parties to try their utmost to reduce civilian casualties.

At least at this point, given that there were no marches in the aisles of the U.N. demanding Israel cease so that Hamas can continue firing (a joke Prosor employed during his remarks), it was not an altogether terrible day for Israel at the United Nations.

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As Israel prepares wider campaign on Gaza, US signals limited support

July 8, 2014

As Israel prepares wider campaign on Gaza, US signals limited support

By MICHAEL WILNER07/07/2014 23:08

Amid onslaught of rocket fire from Gaza, State Department condemns “deliberate targeting of civilians by terrorist organizations” while urging restraint from government in Jerusalem.

via As Israel prepares wider campaign on Gaza, US signals limited support | JPost | Israel News.

 

Rocket from Gaza lands in Lachish region. Photo: POLICE SPOKESPERSON’S UNIT
 

WASHINGTON – The United States issued a message of support for Israel on Monday amid an onslaught of rockets on its south, condemning “the deliberate targeting of civilians by terrorist organizations” in the Gaza Strip.

“We support Israel’s right to defend itself against these attacks,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, while calling for restraint from the government in Jerusalem.

The focus of the call “was on reiterating our concern about escalating tensions,” Psaki said, adding that “more needs to be done” on both sides to calm the crisis.

But the message, consistent with previous US responses after rocket barrages from either Lebanon or Gaza, was coupled with a strong urge of restraint against escalating the conflict. The Obama administration fears a wider Israeli military campaign against Hamas in Gaza might destabilize political control in the Palestinian Authority, with riots in the West Bank reminding many of past intifadas.

US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu this weekend, reiterating Washington’s concern over an escalation in the conflict – exacerbated by the murders of Israeli and Palestinian teenagers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Since that weekend call, more than 90 projectiles have been fired from the coastal Palestinian territory into Israeli towns. One Israeli has been reported injured.

“We look to both the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to take all necessary steps to prevent acts of violence, bring perpetrators to justice, and protect the innocent,” State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez added. “We are concerned about the safety and security of civilians on both sides – in Israel and in Gaza – and urge the protection of civilians.”

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Arab-Israeli Admits He Murdered Jewish Girl

July 7, 2014

Arab-Israeli Admits He Murdered Jewish Girl

US Media fails to cover murder of Jew by Arab-Israeli, instead focusing on Jewish extremists

7.7.2014 Israel Revolt Daniel Mael

via Arab-Israeli Admits He Murdered Jewish Girl | Truth Revolt.

 

The murder of 19-year-old Israeli Jew Shelly Dadon has been solved. According to Israel’s Shin Bet, Yousef Hussein Halifa murdered Dadon on May 1st. The police said that the attack was “nationalistically motivated.”

According to Ynet news, Dadon was stabbed 17 times by Halifa, who was her taxi driver.

The mainstream US media largely overlooked Sunday’s news that Dadon’s killer had been identified, instead focusing on the murder of a teenage Palestinian at the hands of Jewish Israelis. The discrepancy was highlighted on Legal Insurrection by William Jacobson:

There will be no such soul searching not just over the murder of the kidnapped Israeli teens, but over the murder of Shelly Dadon (Featured Image).

Dadon, an Israeli Jew, was stabbed to death on May 1 on her way to a job interview in northern Israel. Yesterday the police announced the arrest of an Israeli Arab taxi driver in the crime, which the police believe was driven by “nationalistic” motives, i.e., terrorism.

Yet there is almost no press coverage. As of this writing, a Google News search does not reveal any major non-Israeli newspaper coverage of the arrest in Dadon’s murder.

Arabs have continued rioting in the streets, throwing Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces. Arabs also destroyed the Shuafat stop on the Israeli light rail which connected the Arab suburb to other parts of Jerusalem, prompting experts to note that the ruined transit system is a self-imposed form of apartheid.

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Israeli Officials: If Rockets Don’t Stop, Hamas Leaders Will Die

July 6, 2014

By: Meir Halevi SiegelPublished: July 4th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Israeli Officials: If Rockets Don’t Stop, Hamas Leaders Will Die.

 

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh Photo Credit: Wissam Nassar/FLASH90
 

An unnamed Hamas official said the terror group has been negotiating with Israel via Egyptian intelligence services, according to BBC News. The report said terrorists would stop firing missiles at Israeli civilians “within hours.” Israeli officials have not responded to the report.

The report linked the rocket fire – dozens over the past week, including more than 50 on Thursday alone – to Israel’s manhunt for the killers of Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Sha’ar and Naftali Fraenkel, and to the Arab rioting in Jerusalem over the the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. The network did not mention the fact that more than 300 rockets have been fired from Gaza since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense in November, 2012.

Hamas has threatened to “open the gates of hell” if Israel invades the Gaza Strip, where the terror group has ruled since 2006. Since the beginning of the Oslo War in September, 2000, terrorists have fired more than 12,000 rockets over the Gaza border at civilians inside Israel, some reaching as far as the outskirts of Jerusalem, 90 kilometrers away.

Israel continued Thursday night to mass troops on the Gaza border ahead of a possible operation to reign in the rockets.

Gershon Baskin, a veteran left-wing activist who claims to have negotiated the 1,027 terrorist-for-Gilad Shalit deal, wrote on his Facebook page that he had warned the Hamas leadership that Israel is committed to “taking firm decisive military action against Hamas leaders, even though it was known that Hamas was not shooting the rockets” (how,exactly, Baskin knows this is unclear). Baskin also indicated he had information that Israel would resume targeted killings of Hamas leaders if the rockets do not stop.

“A senior Israeli official who I spoke with at the 4th of July party at the US Ambassador’s residence, told me last evening (knowing that I would pass the message to Gaza) that Israel was extremely serious and that if the rockets did not stop, senior Hamas leaders would pay with their lives. Last evening one of the Hamas leaders sent me a message stating that they (Hamas) were doing everything in their power to stop the rockets and that their mission was not easy,” Baskin wrote.

Not that the warning helped, at least in the initial term: Palestinian terrorists from Gaza fired multiple rockets at Israeli communities early Friday morning.

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Bus Ambush: This is How It Looks from Inside

July 6, 2014

Bus Ambush: This is How It Looks from Inside

Rare video footage shows the panic inside a bus after driver was hit by a rock thrown through the window.

By Gil RonenFirst Publish: 7/6/2014, 7:27 PM

via Bus Ambush: This is How It Looks from Inside – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

 

Rare video footage shows the panic inside an Egged 174 bus after driver was hit by a rock thrown through the window.

The bus was ambushed by Arab terrorists armed with rocks on Saturday night. The driver suffered wounds to the head and lost consciousness, according to passengers. Apparently, however, he successfully brought the bus to a stop before passing out. A passenger said that the bus had been traveling down an incline and if the driver had not functioned as he had, all of the passengers could have lost their lives in the crash that would have resulted.

Rock ambushes have become exceedingly common on the roads of Judea and Samaria and are widely ignored despite the great danger they pose.

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60% of Palestinian Arabs Say Five-Year National Goal is to Destroy Israel

July 6, 2014

60% of Palestinian Arabs Say Five-Year National Goal is to Destroy Israel

VIDEOJuly 3, 2014 9:19 am

via 60% of Palestinian Arabs Say Five-Year National Goal is to Destroy Israel VIDEO | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com.

 

A chart of a study conducted by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Photo: Elders of Ziyon.
 

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy recently commissioned a survey of Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza. The results prove yet again that Palestinian Arab attitudes towards Israel are anything but peaceful.

The clear majority of Palestinians polled – 60 percent, including 55 percent in the West Bank – say that their five year national goal should be “to work toward reclaiming all of historic Palestine from the river to the sea.”

Yes, despite the insistence of biased “experts” who claim that Palestinian Arabs support a two-state solution and only want peace with Israel, the fact is that a convincing majority explicitly say that the real goal is to eliminate Israel altogether.

Only 27 percent said the goal should be to “end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to achieve a two-state solution,” and 10 percent said, “The goal should be to work for a one-state solution in all of the land: a state in which Arabs and Jews will have equal rights in one country, from the river to the sea.”

What about the supposedly peaceful Palestinian Arabs who told other pollsters that they want a two-state solution? What exactly do they mean?

As in one previous survey, this poll confirms that the majority of Palestinians regard the “two state solution” as a Trojan horse, a mere stage in the ultimate goal to destroy Israel.

Sixty-four say that after a peace deal is signed with Israel, “resistance should continue until all of historic Palestine is liberated.” And 65 percent say that the Palestinian Arab leadership agrees; that any negotiated solution “would be part of a ‘program of stages,’ to liberate all of historic Palestine later.”

This is about as explicit as can be. The conventional wisdom that a majority of Palestinian Arabs want a permanent peace with Israel is a baseless myth. It is based on flawed surveys which do not list the alternative of an Arab-only state from the river to the sea.

The survey, released June 25, was all but ignored in the media. Besides Zionist media, I cannot find a single mention of the survey anywhere else. The reason is simple: the mainstream media and pundits are ideologically wedded to the two-state solution and this involves willful blindness towards the majority of Palestinians who see it, at best, as a stage in destroying Israel.

The same thing happened with a similar survey released in 2011, the first one to actually dig deeper into the answers that Palestinian Arabs give to pollsters. That one even went further to expose Palestinian Arab antipathy towards real peace, as I showed in this video:

The scandal isn’t that Palestinian Arabs have these attitudes. Anyone with an open mind and research skills knows that already.

The scandal is the conspiracy of silence to suppress this information.

The scandal is the millions of dollars being spent to pressure Israel to accept a “peace” that would be anything but peaceful.

The scandal is that over 20 years after Oslo, there is no credible attempt on the part of the international community to encourage Palestinian Arab acceptance of Israel as a permanent neighbor.

The scandal is that as a result of the willful blindness – or malicious intent – of politicians and media “experts,” the world has exactly the wrong impression as to who wants peace and who wants to destroy the other side.

That’s why this survey was buried, while the polls that use flawed questions get coverage.

Burying the truth is the biggest scandal of all.

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Gaza Terrorists Fire 12 More Rockets into Israel

July 6, 2014

Gaza Terrorists Fire 12 More Rockets into Israel

Rockets start a fire inside southern town.

Over 110 rockets fired in current round of hostilities.

By Gil RonenFirst Publish: 7/6/2014, 5:21 PM

via Gaza Terrorists Fire 12 More Rockets into Israel – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva.

Hole caused by a rocket fired from Gaza Flash 90
 

The terrorist rocket fire from Hamas-controlled Gaza continued Sunday afternoon. Twelve rockets struck Israel in total in the latest salvo, and landed in the Eshkol and Shaar Hanegev regions. One of the rockets exploded inside a Jewish community and caused a fire to break out. No one was hurt.

Terrorists have fired a total of more than 110 rockets at Israel in the escalation that took place in recent weeks, following the abduction and murder of three yeshiva students and the subsequent IDF operation against Hamas in Judea and Samaria. Most of these rockets struck empty spaces. Ten rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome system.

A military source rejected the criticism of the IDF’s policy of restraint vis-a-vis the escalation in Gaza. A military source said that the IDF has the capacity to carry out any operation in Gaza, including its reconquest, but “the circumstances, conditions and consequences” must be examined.

The source said that the IDF is raising its level of preparedness, but that Israel prefers to avoid escalation and prevent “a general conflagration.”

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Barrage of rocket fire hits South amid calls for Gaza operation

July 6, 2014

Barrage of rocket fire hits South amid calls for Gaza operation

Sha’ar Hanegev, Eshkol and Ashkelon Coast areas battered with rockets; residents instructed to stay in fortified shelters.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JPOST.COM STAFFLAST UPDATED: 07/06/2014 16:26

via Barrage of rocket fire hits South amid calls for Gaza operation | JPost | Israel News.

 

A neutralised Gaza rocket displayed by police after it landed in a house (back) in Sderot July 3, 2014. Photo: REUTERS
 

A barrage of rocket fire hit southern Israel on Sunday afternoon amid calls from within Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition for a wide-scale mission in the Gaza Strip.

The Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council area was battered with ten rockets from Gaza. Residents of the communities in the Sha’ar Hanegev area were instructed to remain in fortified shelters.

Three rockets hit the Eshkol Regional Council area , one of which started a brush fire, and an additional two rockets landed in open territory in the Ashkelon Coast Council region.

At least 150 rockets have landed in Israeli territory since June 14 when the West Bank operation to find three Israeli teens kidnapped and murdered by Hamas commenced , the IDF said Sunday.

While Economy Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman have called for a wide-scale operation in Gaza, Israel has thus far limited its response to air strikes on select terror targets.

Netanyahu said at Sunday’s cabinet meeting that Israel must act “with composure and responsibly,” and not with “militancy or rashness.”

Israeli warplanes struck rocket-launching targets in the Gaza Strip before dawn on Sunday, the army announced.

According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, IAF aircraft hit 10 targets in central and southern Gaza.

Palestinians in Gaza fired Grad rockets at Beersheba and Ashkelon on Saturday evening, escalating their ongoing attacks on the South.

Iron Dome anti-rocket batteries intercepted one rocket over Beersheba for the first time since Israel clashed with Hamas in November 2012, and soon afterward, three more rockets were intercepted over Ashkelon. Several additional rockets hit open areas in the Sha’ar Hanegev and Ashkelon regions.

On Saturday evening, the Israel Air Force struck in Gaza, targeting a terrorist who was about to fire a rocket, the military said. The terrorist had fired rockets at Ofakim in recent days, the IDF added.

Palestinian rocket and mortar fire continued to target southern communities throughout the weekend, with some 30 projectiles striking areas close to the Gaza border on Friday and Saturday.

A soldier was wounded by shrapnel from a projectile in the Eshkol region on Saturday.

Paramedics evacuated him to the hospital.

Earlier in the day, the Iron Dome system intercepted a projectile over the town of Ofakim.

The regions of Sdot Negev and Eshkol came under regular projectile fire throughout the day. The air force struck three Hamas targets in southern Gaza.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz visited the northern Gaza border region on Saturday and met with military forces operating in the sector. Gantz spoke with infantry and tank unit commanders and examined preparations under way for a possible escalation.

Gantz was accompanied by OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Sami Turgeman, as well as the commanders of the Planning Branch and C4I (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence) Branch.

Gantz said Hamas bears responsibility for rocket firea, and the IDF is prepared to provide any necessary response to ensure residents of the South can lead routine lives.

“We’ll know how to respond with great force if quiet isn’t returned to the area,” he said.

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