Israel
7/5/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Flotilla a 'stunt' and nothing else
OneNewsNow
A pro-Israel advocacy organization says the flotilla about to set sail from Athens with 34 Americans onboard is a "hypocritical and dangerous publicity stunt."
The ship Audacity of Hope is part of an international fleet of ships carrying anti-Israeli activists and will sail to the Gaza Strip to offer humanitarian aid. Commentators say the flotilla is a guise to challenge Israel's naval blockade of an area controlled by Hamas.
StandWithUs is a Los Angeles-based education and advocacy group. Roz Rothstein is the group's co-founder and CEO. "[To] the person who says this is a pro-Palestinian boat, I would say no, it's an anti-Israel boat -- that's all it is," she states. "They are trying to make Israel look bad...that's their goal."
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7/1/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Greece officially bans flotilla ships from departing
Jerusalem Post
'Audacity of Hope' organizers say Greek authorities approach ship shortly after leaving port; unclear how moves will affect overall flotilla plans.
The Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection on Friday issued a statement saying that the Minister, C. Papoutsis, decided to prohibit the departure of ships flying either Greek or foreign flags "to the maritime area" of Gaza.
"By orders of the Hellenic Coast Guard Head Quarters to all local Hellenic Coast Guard Authorities, all appropriate measures are taken for the implementation of the said decision,"| the statement said
The statement said that the "broader maritime area of eastern Mediterranean will be continuously monitored by electronic means for tracking, where applicable, the movements of the ships allegedly participating" in the Gaza flotilla.
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6/29/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Anti-Semitic Apple app axed
OneNewsNow
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has agreed to the request of an Israeli official to pull an iPad app that encourages anti-Semitism.
Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, Israel's minister of public diplomacy and Diaspora affairs, wrote a letter to Jobs, asking him to take action against an app that called for a "third intifada." The app, which was also compatible with iPhones, encouraged Muslims to violently attack Israel.
"Any promotion of hate or violence should always be removed," contends Gary Ratner, senior development professional for StandWithUs. "iPad users should always assist to ensure that this is the case."
The organization that created the app also launched a Facebook group earlier this year that was removed when the social networking site discovered the group's purpose.
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6/28/2011 | Iran, Israel
Iran test fires long-range missiles capable of striking Israel, U.S. bases
Reuters
Iran's Revolutionary Guards tested 14 missiles on Tuesday, the second day of war games intended a show of strength to the Islamic Republic's enemies in Israel and Washington.
The Iranian-made surface-to-surface missiles, with a maximum range of 2,000 km (1,250 miles), were fired simultaneously at a single target, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division emphasized Iran's preparedness to strike Israel and U.S. interests in the event of any attack on Iran.
"The range of our missiles has been designed based on American bases in the region as well as the Zionist regime," Commander Amir Ali Hajizadeh told the semi-official Fars news agency.
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6/21/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Obama warns of new US tactical spats with Israel
Breitbart
President Barack Obama warned that new "tactical" disagreements loomed between Israel and Washington, but vowed to leverage his administration's "creative powers" in the cause of peace.
Obama, who has had a testy relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke at length on the stalled peace process at a fundraiser for his 2012 reelection campaign grouping Democratic friends of Israel.
He said that as a difficult, challenging time loomed in the Middle East over the next few years, one inviolable principle was that the bond between the United States and Israel "isn't breakable."
"What is also going to be true is that both the United States and Israel are going to have to look at this new landscape with fresh eyes," Obama said, arguing the Arab Spring had changed the context of regional diplomacy.
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6/7/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Syria warns of more marches on Israeli border
Associated Press
A Syrian government newspaper says marches to the border will continue and warns Israel the day will come when thousands of Syrians will return to their occupied villages.
Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinian and Syrian protesters Sunday, killing as many as 23 people who tried to cross into the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
The Tishreen newspaper said the march was only an "introduction" adding Syrians and Palestinians were now determined to recover their territory through resistance.
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5/24/2011 | Foreign Policy, Israel
Netanyahu: Israel ready for painful compromises
Associated Press
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Tuesday to make "painful compromises" for peace with the Palestinians but said he would not agree to any deal that threatens Israel's security or its identity as a Jewish state.
Speaking before a wildly receptive joint session of Congress that showered him with more than two dozen sustained standing ovations, Netanyahu said Israel wants and needs peace but repeated his flat rejection of a return to what he called the "indefensible" borders that existed before the 1967 Mideast war. He also restated Israel's refusal to entertain the return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their families to land in Israel. And, he maintained that Jerusalem, claimed by both sides as their capital, could not be divided.
"Israel will never give up its quest for peace," Netanyahu said, adding that he is "willing to make painful compromises to achieve this historic peace."
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5/19/2011 | Foreign Policy, Israel
Obama Endorses 1967 Borders for Israel
The New York Times
Seeking to harness the seismic political change still unfolding in the Arab world, President Obama for the first time on Thursday publicly called for a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that would create a non-militarized Palestinian state on the basis of Israel’s borders before 1967.
“At a time when the people of the Middle East and North Africa are casting off the burdens of the past, the drive for a lasting peace that ends the conflict and resolves all claims is more urgent that ever,” he said.
Although Mr. Obama said that “the core issues” dividing Israelis and Palestinians remained to be negotiated, including the searing questions of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees, he spoke with striking frustration that efforts to support an agreement had so far failed. “The international community is tired of an endless process that never produces an outcome,” he said.
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5/17/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Palestinians test tactic of unarmed mass marches
Associated Press
Palestinian activists are calling it a preview of new tactics to pressure Israel and win world support for statehood: Masses of marchers, galvanized by the Arab Spring and brought together by Facebook, descending on borders and military posts — and daring Israeli soldiers to shoot.
It could prove more problematic for Israel than the suicide bombings and other deadly violence of the past — which the current Palestinian Authority leadership feels only tainted their cause.
After attempted border breaches from Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Gaza left 15 Palestinians dead Sunday, Israeli officials openly puzzled over how to handle an unfamiliar new phase.
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5/6/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Muslim Brotherhood urges review of Israel ties
Financial Times.com
The Muslim Brotherhood opposition group in Egypt has called for a review of the 1978 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel and says it should be resubmitted to a “freely elected” parliament for approval.
Regarded as the best-organised political group in Egypt, the Brotherhood is poised to play an influential role in politics in the country after the fall of the regime of Hosni Mubarak, the former president.
Egypt is due to hold parliamentary elections in September and the group is likely to emerge with the largest bloc in the assembly. It said this week that its candidates would compete for half the seats in parliament.
The Brotherhood, banned for most of its 80-year history, has begun to set up a political party to be named the Freedom and Justice party.
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5/5/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
U.S. aiding Hamas-Fatah alliance
OneNewsNow
A conservative activist and former presidential candidate finds it disturbing that Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas has agreed to reconcile with the terrorist group, Hamas.
In a ceremony at the Egyptian intelligence headquarters in Cairo, rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas recently proclaimed a landmark Egyptian-mediated reconciliation pact to end their four-year rift and provide for the creation of a joint caretaker Palestinian government before next year's national elections.
Gary Bauer 2 (American Values)"It's yet another in a string of very disturbing developments, not only for the security of Israel but for the position of the United States in the Middle East," warns Gary Bauer, president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families.
But Bauer is encouraged that members of both parties are calling for the U.S. to cut its aid to the Palestinians.
"Under U.S. law, no organization can receive money that has failed to officially renounce terror, and Hamas certainly fits into that category," the American Values president notes. "So when Fatah and Hamas joined in this way, I think you have a situation where continuing to give aid would be a clear violation of U.S. law."
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4/27/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Egypt gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan explodes
BBC News
A pipeline carrying gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan has exploded after an attack by an armed gang in the north Sinai area of Egypt.
A tower of flames shot into the air and forced the pipeline to be shut down, Egyptian security officials say.
It is the second such attack in a month on the pipeline, south of the town of el-Arish, just 30 miles (50km) from the border with Israel.
On that occasion, when gunmen planted explosives, they failed to detonate.
"An unknown armed gang attacked the gas pipeline," an unnamed security source told Reuters, adding that the flow of gas to Israel and Jordan had been hit.
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4/26/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Egyptians Cool Toward U.S.; Want to Scrap Peace Treaty With Israel
CNS News
A new survey of Egyptians’ attitudes two months after President Hosni Mubarak’s departure depicts a society in which the Muslim Brotherhood is broadly popular, the United States is not, and more than half the country would like to scrap Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.
Muslim respondents in the poll, conducted by the Pew Research Center, were almost equally divided between those who say they agree with Islamic fundamentalists (31 percent) and those who say they do not (30 percent).
Sixty-two percent said Egypt’s laws should strictly follow the teachings of the Qur’an, while only five percent said laws should not be influenced by Qur’anic teachings. Another 27 percent favored another option – that laws should follow the values and principles of Islam but should not strictly follow the teachings of the Qur’an.
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4/8/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Iron Dome intercepts first rocket
Ynet News
Residents in Ashkelon reported Thursday seeing Israel's new Iron Dome defense system intercept a Grad rocket fired towards the southern city from the Gaza Strip. IDF officials called the interception a "historical moment", saying it was the first of its kind in the world.
Two intercepting missiles were fired at the rocket, but the first succeeded in hitting it, an army official said.
Eyewitnesses told Ynet they saw the rocket explode in midair and realized that the system had intercepted its first rocket.
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4/5/2011 | Israel, UN
Judge’s Retraction Could Unravel Campaign to Send Israel to International Court
CNS News
A judge’s startling retraction of the most damaging aspects of a U.N. report he authored accusing Israel of war crimes could begin the unraveling of a process that the Palestinian Authority had hoped would land Israel before the International Criminal Court.
But first Judge Richard Goldstone will have to request that the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC), which commissioned the fact-finding mission that resulted in his 575-page report, withdraw it.
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3/23/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
Terrorist attack in Jerusalem
Associated Press
Israeli police are blaming Palestinian terrorists for a bomb attack at a crowded bus stop in central Jerusalem. The blast occurred near the main entrance to Jerusalem and was heard throughout the city. At least one person is dead.
Yitzhak Aharonovich, Israel's minister of public security, says terrorists planted the one-kilogram (2-pound) device in a bag on the sidewalk. The blast blew out the windows of two crowded buses. Rescuers were removing bloodied people from the area on stretchers.
Authorities say about 25 people were wounded, several critically, in Wednesday's attack. State-run Israel Radio says a woman has died from the blast.
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3/22/2011 | Israel, UN
House Foreign Affairs Chairman: U.S. Must Withdraw from U.N. Human Rights Council
CNS News
The chair of the U.S House Foreign Affairs Committee said Monday she will introduce legislation that makes U.S. funding for the United Nations contingent on reform. It also calls for the U.S. to withdraw from the Human Rights Council.
Describing the Obama administration’s attempts to reform the HRC as a failure, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said the U.S. should quit the HRC and “explore credible, alternative forums to advance human rights.”
The Florida Republican’s statement came as the Geneva-based HRC began the final week of a month-long session in which it will adopt up to six resolutions condemning Israel.
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3/18/2011 | Israel
Israeli PM Criticizes Palestinian Unity Effort
Associated Press
Israel's prime minister criticized Palestinian efforts for national unity in an interview with the U.S. cable news channel CNN, suggesting Palestinian moderates must choose either peace with Israel or reconciliation with Hamas militants.
Benjamin Netanyahu's comments late Thursday came a day after the Palestinians' Western-backed president, Mahmoud Abbas, offered to visit Hamas-ruled Gaza and form a new government with his bitter rivals from the Iran-backed group.
"How can you be for peace with Israel and peace with Hamas that calls for our destruction?" Netanyahu said. "Can you imagine a peace deal with al-Qaida? Of course not."
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3/9/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam, UN
U.N. Body Condemns Israel’s Treatment of Palestinian Women, but Ignores Plight of Women in Iran and Libya
CNS News
A U.N. policy-making body dedicated to “gender equality and the advancement of women” adopted a resolution accusing Israel of holding back the advancement of Palestinian women, but it took no action on the emergency in Libya or the legally enshrined discrimination faced by women in Iran.
The only country-specific resolution passed by the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at its recent session in New York was one condemning Israel over the Palestinian issue.
Libya is a member of the 45-country CSW, and Iran has just taken up a seat on the body for the next four years.
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2/17/2011 | Israel, Radical Islam
‘Prepare to Invade Israel,’ Hezbollah Leader Tells Followers
Associated Press
Hezbollah's leader told his Shiite guerrilla group Wednesday to be prepared to invade northern Israel, a day after Israel's defense minister warned that the quiet along the tense border could erupt into violence.
The comments by the two sides illustrate the fragile situation along the frontier since they Israel and Hezbollah fought a bitter, six-week war in the summer of 2006. The war ended in a U.N.-brokered truce but officials on both sides of the border believe it is only a matter of time before hostilities resume.
"I tell the holy warriors of the Islamic Resistance to be ready for a day when, if war is imposed on us, your command might ask you to control the Galilee area," Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech Wednesday. The Galilee refers to land in northern Israel.
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