Posted tagged ‘Israel News’

Ministers approve bill to extend Israeli law to West Bank, without annexing

November 9, 2014

Ministers approve bill to extend Israeli law to West Bank, without annexing territory

New bill will see West Bank military commander ratify Israeli law as military decrees in territory, thus extending Israel’s law to settlements without formally annexing them; supporters say bill will protect settlers rights, while leftist says ‘its apartheid policy’.

Moran Azulay

Published: 11.09.14, 17:22 / Israel News

via Ministers approve bill to extend Israeli law to West Bank, without annexing … – Israel News, Ynetnews.

 

A new and controversial bill extending Israel’s laws to West Bank settlements without formally annexing the area was approved Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, thus overcoming the first legal obstacle en route to becoming a law.

While settlers living in the West Bank are formally subject to military rule, the bill will see the region’s military commander ratify bills passed in Israel’s Knesset as military decree, thus de facto extending legislation passed in Israel to the occupied territories.

The news comes at a volatile time for Israel, with tensions between Jews and Arabs reaching new heights with violence spearing across the nation, as well as international pressure on Israel growing, with more and more states passing bills vowing to recognize a Palestinian state.

The bill – dubbed The Norms Law – was sponsored by rightists MK Orit Struk (Bayit Yehudi) and MK Yariv Levin (Likud) and saw four ministers object and six vote in favor. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is a committee of ministers charged with choosing which bills go forward with the legislation process.

Justice Minister Livni, who voted against the bill, slammed it, saying “the real goal of this bill is to normalize an abnormal situation – an expanding occupation masquerading as civil rights.”

According to the bill, the IDF’s Central Command – which is the sovereign in the Israeli controlled parts of the West Bank and serves as the area’s governor – will ratify the laws in an ad hoc manner some 45 days after they complete the legislation process.

According to Struk and Levin, the bill will serve both Israelis and Palestinians, however it is far from certain this will be the case, as it is unclear to which areas the law will be extended and moreover, it is not retroactive – and will only pertain to laws passed after the Norms Law is ratified – thus Palestinians will not be given the right to vote, for example.

Meanwhile, the committee chairwomen Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finace Minister Yair Lapid vowed to fight the bill.

“Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) is home to 350,000 Israeli citizens that vote for the Knesset, but their lives are not managed by it because the Israeli law does not apply. This is unacceptable situation which harms residents and undoubtedly infringes on their rights, discriminating against them,” the bill touted.

According to its sponsors, the bill is intended to extend basic rights to settlers, for example, labor laws which currently do not apply to the areas.

The bill also noted that in Judea and Samara there is currently a mix of Ottoman, Jordanian British and Israeli laws which are applied arbitrarily to certain areas, but not to them all: “The new (proposed legal) mechanism will equalize the norms prevalent in the area in an gradual and responsibly manner and stipulated that any bill ratified by the Knesset will be put into effect within 45 days by the IDF military commander’s decree.”

Meretz Chairwomen Zehava Gal-On slammed the bill, saying “The Knesset is attempting to take on the responsibilities of a military commander in the territories, who is the sovereign of an occupied territory, and extend on settlements the norms prevalent in Israel, a sovereign country.”

“This stands in complete contradiction with international law which Israel has accepted. Whoever chooses to live in the settlements knows this is occupied territory. Now they want to conduct a de facto annexation while only extending the law to settlers, which creates a policy of apartheid.

 

Jihadi cancer thrives in London

August 25, 2014

Comment: Jihadi cancer thrives in London

By BEN CASPITLAST UPDATED: 08/25/2014 13:46

We’ve been told that if given welfare, education and comfortable lives that the bog of hatred from Islamic terror will dry, however in London this does not appear to be true.

via Comment: Jihadi cancer thrives in London | JPost | Israel News.

 

ISIS fighter Photo: REUTERS A Hummer at the background how comes ?

To British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond: I read what you wrote when you learned that “Jihadist John,” who decapitated American journalist James Foley, is London-born Majd Abed el-Bary, a British citizen.

According to you, Mr. Foreign Secretary, “sooner or later they will try to attack us on our own land” and you accused that same jihadist of “an utter betrayal of everything the British people stand for.” You added: “It is horrifying to think that the perpetrator of this heinous act could have been brought up in Britain.”

Tell me, Mr. Foreign Secretary, do you live in Britain? And if you do, are you deaf, blind and dumb? Because if you are not, I have to ask myself, what is it that so amazes and horrifies you? If you are indeed familiar with the UK, and take the occasional walk in London and try to walk through the neighborhoods and boroughs that Islamists have occupied in recent years, and try to understand what they are preaching to their congregations in those same mosques that are springing up like mushrooms after the rain, you really shouldn’t be surprised. Incidentally, Mr. Hammond, try doing it dressed like an Orthodox Jew.

I wonder if you’ll survive, and in what condition.

I don’t mean to mock you, Mr. Foreign Secretary, or the UK. Here in Israel we have enormous respect for Britain; because its leadership still knows how to discern between good and bad and I am sure that, in an anonymous poll, both Prime Minister David Cameron and yourself would vote for Israel in its war against Hamas. It would have to be anonymous because otherwise you are liable to pay too heavy a political price in your constituencies.

We can all count and we all know the number of Muslim citizens there are in the UK these days and how influential they are. Here in Israel there are quite a few staunch supporters of Britain; me included. We consider you to be among the more enlightened nations in the world. Not only were you a military and political empire, but you are also responsible for most of the cultural treasures, music, theater, art, innovation, humor and creativity known to man.

Only two months ago the Rolling Stones performed in Tel Aviv (it seems as if it was 20 years ago) and, despite the exorbitant price of tickets, they managed to draw an audience of 50,000 excited fans to Yarkon Park.

But, Mr. Foreign Secretary, the UK has not only cultural heroes, but a surplus of ordinary heroes.

We shall never forget that Britain was the first and only country to step up and look Hitler in the eye and not turn away; to fight Hitler against all odds and to beat him.

Then you had Winston Churchill, a highly admired leader to this day, even among the best of our own leaders. Britain has known strength, determination and survivability.

I wonder if you still have those traits, Mr. Hammond? I refer mainly to survivability. I am not sure.

Medically, there are still signs of life. What then are your chances of surviving the Islamic tsunami and preserving your culture, your character, your personality? I don’t know.

Your spirit lives, still, here and there. For example, a few weeks ago Hamas rockets threatened our international airport and caused panic that resulted in many airlines (led by the US, oddly enough) to cancel flights to and from Israel. It lasted a day-and-ahalf, until everyone realized that Ben-Gurion Airport is the safest in the world.

But in that time, British Airways proved that it is made of the same stern stuff as before and continued flying, did not delay or cancel a single flight, and rightly so. We salute them.

We visit London frequently, Mr. Hammond. Nothing beats British football, nothing like British music, theater, art, humor or the British spirit.

But these visits are becoming increasingly hard. Your streets have changed. You don’t need to be much of a researcher to know how dangerous the penetration of radical Islam is to Europe’s capitals; how overbearing Islam can be; how alien it is to tolerance, to acceptance of the other, to integrate into the existing culture.

Thirty minutes of surfing the Internet, Mr. Foreign Secretary, will reveal to you the horrifying worlds that are flourishing in your backyard.

You’ll see religious preachers, seeped in hatred for everything Western, for everything Jewish, for everything Christian, for everything that does not identify with them.

You’ll see fury in the streets, violence toward everyone who comes to demand the freedom to live as they wish. I especially recommend a video of an ostensibly moderate Muslim preaching his creed to a congregation of seemingly moderate Muslims and, after they have all finished defining themselves “moderate Muslims” he asks all those who support the Islamic laws of punishment – in which women are stoned to death for adultery, for example – to raise their arms. All the hundreds of men present raise their arms as one. And these are moderates.

For decades, we have been told that Islamic terror is the result of ignorance and poverty. Give them welfare, education, comfortable lives and you’ll dry the bog of hatred. Well, that’s not quite true. The al-Qaida terrorists who attacked America 13 years ago were immigrants who enjoyed very comfortable lives in the American democracy. Your own British citizen, Mr. Hammond, who beheaded the American journalist, came from an elegant Maida Vale home and a life of comfort.

It is hate, Philip, and nothing else; education to hate, to hate the other, to intolerance, to a thirst for blood and murder. And here we come to our mutual interests, Mr. Foreign Secretary.

Soon you will understand, for good or for bad, that Israel is not a burden on the West. Israel is not stuck here like a bone in a Muslim throat. Getting rid of Israel will solve nothing. I think you may have already understood that. All you need do is listen to radical Islam. It talks; sometimes in English. It is exact; it is accurate.

It declares and reiterates its real objective – to annihilate the West. To annihilate the infidels.

Not only in Syria, or Iraq, or the Middle East, but everywhere.

There is no need to chart the map of extremism and distinguish between Hamas and Islamic State, for example. They are arms of the same octopus. For 14 years, Hamas has been shooting rockets on women and children, even after Israel withdrew unilaterally from every last inch of the Gaza Strip. Why? Because they want to drive us out of here. How do I know this? They say so every day, explicitly, repeatedly.

So why is the world silent? Good question, Mr. Hammond.

You know that one day your own jihadists will come back home, don’t you? And it’s time to start doing something, isn’t it? To say something. Maybe, next time an incited mob demonstrates in the streets of London and calls for “Murder to Israel,” some brave British politician will stand up and tell these people the truth, in his voice, in his language.

Or, alternatively, imagine, Mr. Hammond, what would have happened if the next generation of Hitler’s murder machine had grown up in your own country, in your London?

Report: US halted transfer of Hellfire missiles to Israel

August 14, 2014

Report: US halted transfer of Hellfire missiles to Israel

Shipment of aerial anti-armor missiles stopped after White House,

State Department learned that IDF requested transfer directly from Pentagon without asking for their approval, according to Wall Street Journal report.

Yitzhak BenhorinPublished: 08.14.14, 08:13 / Israel News

via Report: US halted transfer of Hellfire missiles to Israel – Israel News, Ynetnews.

 

WASHINGTON – The US administration has halted a shipment of Hellfire aerial anti-armor missiles to Israel, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing government sources.

The sources noted that Israel had requested the transfer of ammunition’s directly from the Pentagon, without receiving the approval of the White House or State Department officials.

According to the sources, White House officials were concerned about Israel’s use of artillery, instead of precision-guided munitions in the more densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip.

The paper describes a long line of battles between the administration of US President Barack Obama and the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, noting relations between the two countries have reached another low point.

Obama and Netanyahu reportedly had a “particularly combative” phone call on Wednesday.

US officials are quoted by the Journal as saying the current Gaza conflict has “persuaded them that Mr. Netanyahu and his national security team are both reckless and untrustworthy.”

Meanwhile Israeli officials view the Obama administration as “weak and naive” and are working to bypass the White House, working with allies in Congress and elsewhere in the US administration instead.

An Israeli official told the newspaper that the rift between Israel and the US has now deepened: “We’ve been there before with a lot of tension with us and Washington. What we have now, on top of that, is mistrust and a collision of different perspectives on the Middle East.”

 

Saudi FM: Israel’s only objective is to uproot Palestinian existence

August 12, 2014

Saudi FM: Israel’s only objective is to uproot Palestinian existence

By REUTERSLAST UPDATED: 08/12/2014 18:12

“Israel does not have a right of self-defense as an occupier,” Prince Saud al-Faisal says at meeting of Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

via Saudi FM: Israel’s only objective is to uproot Palestinian existence | JPost | Israel News.

 

Saud al-Faisal Photo: REUTERS

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia told Israel on Tuesday that it must reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians if it is to survive as a nation, and criticized Muslims for being divided and failing to stop the Jewish state attacking its Arab neighbors.

“Israel has to realize that peace is the only solution for its survival,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the world’s largest Muslim body, on the situation in the Gaza Strip.

“As we see, Israel does not shy away from taking its terror to any level, with total disregard to any laws, rules, religious edicts or humanitarian considerations to achieve its goals.

“Its only objective is to uproot the Palestinian existence wherever it is,” Prince Saud told the meeting in Jeddah, attended by Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and ministers from the 56-member OIC.

Saudi Arabia, which regards itself as a leader of the Sunni Muslim world, has played only a background role in the diplomacy to end the fighting in Gaza, leaving its ally Egypt as the main Arab player pursuing a ceasefire – in its second day on Tuesday.

The kingdom’s policy towards Gaza is complicated by its mistrust of the territory’s ruling Hamas, an Islamist movement with close ideological and political links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which Riyadh regards as a terrorist organization.

Saudi Arabia believes the Brotherhood has a region-wide agenda to seize power from established governments, including the al-Saud dynasty, and has quarreled with Qatar over its support for the group.

Gaza hospital officials say 1,938 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed since Israel launched a military campaign on July 8 to quell rocket fire from the enclave. Israel has lost 64 soldiers and three civilians.

Efforts to negotiate a permanent peace deal have failed due to differences over the borders of a Palestinian state, the fate of Arab east Jerusalem and the future of displaced Palestinians and their descendents.

NO RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE

The veteran foreign minister also rejected Western backing of Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas rockets.

“Israel does not have a right of self-defense as an occupier. There is no rule under international law that says an occupier has a right of self-defense. For any country to take that position shows bad intentions towards the region and bad intentions towards peace in the region,” Prince Saud told a news conference after the OIC meeting.

“I don’t think it’s fair to equate the actions of Hamas and Israel, either in scale or in substance. How can you say that Israel has a right to defend itself when it is the occupier and you do not give the same right to Hamas?”

Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, say they are willing to make peace with Israel after it withdraws from all lands it occupied in the 1967 Middle east war. Hamas’ founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel, but its leaders have said in recent years it could live peacefully alongside Israel if Palestinians get back land they lost in 1967.

Prince Saud said the country’s development fund would “continue to abide by the kingdom’s commitments” by contributing $500 million for Gaza’s reconstruction.

Offering 300 million Saudi riyals ($80 million) for medical relief aid, Prince Saud also called for support for Egyptian efforts to end the fighting, saying Muslim divisions had allowed Israel to repeatedly launch wars against Muslims.

“Would it have been possible for Israel to carry out an aggression after another, had the Islamic nation been united?” Prince Saud said.

“What tempts Israel to commit its continuous crimes against the Palestinian people and Muslims as a whole is the weakness it sees in the Muslim nation due to fragmentation and divisions and the spread of sedition within it.”

Saudi Arabia: “Without Negotiations, Israel Will Be Annihilated”

August 12, 2014

Saudi Arabia: “Without Negotiations, Israel Will Be Annihilated”

Israel must realize that a peace treaty is its only chance for survival,” the Saudi foreign minister said in an unusual statement today while negotiations to consolidate a platform for a cease-fire continue in Cairo.

He also leveled grave criticism at the operation in Gaza and claimed that Israel was committing terrorism and disregarding international law.

Aug 12, 2014, 07:00PM | James McIntosh

via Israel News – Saudi Arabia: “Without Negotiations, Israel Will Be Annihilated” – JerusalemOnline.

 

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal Reuters

Against the backdrop of the relative silence that Saudi Arabia displayed during Operation Protective Edge, the regional power sent a message to Israel that it had to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians if it wished to survive as a nation.

In remarks that he made at a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal leveled sharp criticism at the internal conflicts within the Arab world and called to halt Israel’s “Jewish offensive” against its Arab neighbors, as he put it.

“Israel has to realize that peace is the only solution for its survival,” said the Saudi foreign minister. “As we see, Israel does not shy away from taking its terror to any level, with total disregard to any laws, rules, religious edicts or humanitarian considerations to achieve its goals. Its only objective is to uproot the Palestinian existence wherever it is.”

Al-Faisal spoke at a meeting in the Saudi city of Jedda, with inter alia Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and 55 other representatives of Muslim countries participating.

Saudi Arabia sees itself as the leader of the Sunni Muslim world, but it generally acts behinds the scenes. The foreign minister’s statement was an unusual remark for Saudi diplomacy. Reuters News Agency, which quoted the statement, emphasized that the authorities in Riyadh do not trust the Hamas regime and even consider it a terrorist organization due to its affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood sect.

The London-based international Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat had earlier published remarks that sounded slightly more refined, declaring that there was no longer an Arab-Israeli conflict but an Iranian-Turkish-Israeli conflict. “If Israel wants to make a grand deal with the Arabs, now is the time,” it wrote.