Almagor: Prisoner release gives 'tailwind' to terror

Almagor Terror Victims Association appealed to the High Court of Justice Monday morning in a final attempt to stop the third release of Palestinian prisoners.

As part of the framework to negotiations with the Palestinians, 26 prisoners are expected to be released Monday night.

 

The organization said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took back his promise to hold a special deliberation on any further release of prisoners who were Israeli citizens. Five residents of East Jerusalem, with blue Israeli ID cards, are expected to be released Monday evening.

The organization also asked in its petition to the court that it would release an injunction that would indefinitely postpone the release until a final court decision was made. Lawyer Naftali Vertzberger, who is representing Almagor, said "the appeal wasn't submitted lightly, considering the court's perseverance in its stance that it will not interfere in political decisions."

Almagor representatives said they were appealing because the ministerial committee deviated from its outline to release killers that were found guilty of multiple charges of murder, and to release five East Jerusalem residents, ignoring the damage it will have on Jerusalem.

 

'It gives terror a tailwind, which is what happened in the previous releases," they said.

 

The organization's lawyers said in regards to the release of two prisoners, one who was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter and the other with 16 counts of murder, that it was unreasonable that they would be returning home.

 

"The public's endurance in Israel can't take it and doesn't need to accept the early release of those who slaughtered innocent people, time after time," they said. "This low point, to release prisoners for political needs, stains and damages the moral degree of the State of Israel and its judicial system."

Elichai Ben Yishai, the brother of Ruth Fogel, who was murdered with her husband and three of their children in a terrorist attack in Itamar three years ago, came to the court to support the appeal.

 

"I'm embarrassed of our leaders' lack of justice, which is embodied in their tramping on all the State's values, which includes the premise that someone who killed won't walk around freely, and certainly not in the State's territory," he said.

 

"This isn’t just the struggle of victim families, this is being shouted from our mouths and the mouths of those murdered," Ben Yishai said. "I feel that tomorrow they could also let go those who killed my family – the Fogel family. And that would definitely cause a public uproar."

 

Ben Yishai said all of the prisoners who are expected to be released took innocent blood.

 

Yaakov Tobol, the father of Lior Tobol, who was killed by terrorists, said he felt the case was hopeless.

 

"My feeling is that we're standing up against hermetic walls, but we still want to fight," he said. "My son's killer served me food in a steak restaurant in Jerusalem. I'm afraid he's going to wait on me again. I won't be able to stand something like that."

 

'Two birds with one stone'

Almagor CEO Meir Indor said the Palestinian Authority doubly benefited from the release.

 

"The Palestinian Authority killed two birds with one stone," he said. "They get the prisoners back and they get a dramatic change in Israel's stance in regards to a unified Jerusalem. The government is letting the PA in the back door to Jerusalem, sponsoring East Jerusalem residents against the legislation that unified Jerusalem."

 

Israel Police have approved Almagor's protestmarch, which will go from the Prime Minister's Residence to Jaffa Gate. The organization had originally planned to march to the terrorist Ahmed Khaled's house, who is expected to be one of the released prisoners.

The Israel Prison Service is preparing for the release of the prisoners. Similar to past releases, the terrorists will be released 48 hours after their names are published, which won't be before midnight between Monday and Tuesday. The late night release is designed to minimize the picture of a valiant PA, and to prevent large gatherings to welcome back the prisoners.

 

On Monday morning, the prisoners were transferred to Ofer Prison where they will undergo a final security examination.

 

Security representatives said the chances of the prisoners returning to their terror activities is low.  

Ynet news

Second blast in Russia's Volgograd city kills at least 14 on trolleybus

Terror strikes Russian city for second time in less than 24 hours as electric bus explodes. Sunday's blast claimed lives of 17 people in suicide attack at train station

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry says at least 14 people have been killed in a bus explosion in Volgograd, a day after a suicide bombing that killed at least 17 at a railway station in the city.

Russian investigators said they believe a male suicide bomber carried out the attack.

 

"It is now possible to preliminarily say that the explosive device was set off by a suicide bomber - a man whose body fragments have been collected and sent for genetic testing," the federal Investigative Committee said in a statement.

The explosions put the city on edge and highlighted the terrorist threat that Russia is facing as it prepares to host the Winter Games in February. Volgograd is about 650 kilometers (400 miles) northeast of Sochi, where theOlympics are to be held.

 

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee said the bus explosion came from a bomb that most likely had been placed in the vehicle's passenger area, but there were no further details. The Emergencies Ministry said at least 10 people were killed and news reports said anywhere from 15 to two dozen people were hospitalized.

 

The explosion ripped away much of the bus's exterior and broke windows in nearby buildings.

 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for either explosion, which came several months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for new attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Sochi Games.

 

The federal Investigative Committee and other officials initially said a female suicide bomber had blown herself up Sunday after a police officer started to approach her near the metal detector because she looked suspicious.

A Russian website with ties to security agencies, Life News, posted a picture of what it said was the suspect's head.

 

It said authorities had identified her as a resident of Dagestan, the province adjacent to Chechnya and now the centre of a long-running Islamist insurgency, and the widow of two militants who were both killed by Russian security forces.

 

The US State Department issued a statement saying that the United States "condemns in the strongest terms (Sunday's) terrorist attack in Volgograd."

"We send our sincere condolences to the families of the victims and stand in solidarity with the Russian people against terrorism of any kind," it said.

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council both condemned the attack on Sunday and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

Ynet news

BETRAYAL OF THE MURDERED : Ministers release list of 26 Palestinian prisoners to be freed thanks to another of Kerry's 'Deals'

Ministers release list of 26 Palestinian prisoners to be freed in advance of Kerry’s arrival. 

Ministers finalize list of prisoners to be freed ahead of Kerry's return to the region; Peri: 15-25% of settlers would be evacuated in peace deal.

Late Saturday night a ministerial committee approved a list of 26 Palestinian prisoners to be freed overnight between Monday and Tuesday, prior to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s return to the region later this week to advance the peace process.

The names of the prisoners were posted on the Israel Prisons Service website immediately following the vote.

This is the third release out of four, which all told would free 104 Palestinians from Israeli jails over the nine-month negotiating period that ends in April. Of these, 52 Palestinian prisoners have been freed in the two past releases.

Opponents of the release held a rally in Jerusalem outside Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s home on Saturday night, calling on the government to refuse to free the prisoners – most of whom were involved in terror attacks.

They held up photographs of the victims and signs that said, “You should be embarrassed. Only in Israel are killers freed.”

The government has no plans to revisit its initial decision in July to let the prisoners go.

Israel has no choice but to honor its agreement with the US on this score, Science, Technology and Space Minister Yaakov Peri said in Tel Aviv on Friday as he spoke at a StandWithUs event.

Peri, formerly head of Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), is a member of the ministerial committee that decides which prisoners are to be released. He said he had personally been involved in the arrest of many of the 104 prisoners set to go free.

“It was not easy to get them into jail or to prove that they had killed. I know each one of them. But a democratic state that has signed on an agreement has to honor it. It is hard, it is tragic, it is painful and it raises questions that I myself do not even know how to answer,” Peri said.

Once released, they are to be taken to the Mukata presidential compound in Ramallah, where a celebratory ceremony is expected to be held with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.All 26 prisoners have been jailed for 19 to 28 years. There is a small window for a legal appeal before the prisoners are freed.

In conjunction, the government is poised to announce construction over the pre-1967 lines, as it did after the past two prisoner releases. The media has reported that tenders will be published for 600 homes in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo and another 800 in West Bank settlements. But no formal announcement with exact details of the building has yet been made.

Separately, the Justice Ministry has authorized the Defense Ministry to treat illegal Jewish and Palestinian building in Area C of the West Bank as a criminal offense. In the past, the ministry, through the Civil Administration, has only had the authority to demolish illegal buildings. This is the first time it has been authorized to criminally pursue builders.

When he spoke in Tel Aviv on Friday, Peri said it was a “mistake” to link building over the pre-1967 lines with the release of prisoners.

“It is harmful to the bereaved families. How does such building help them?” he said.

Any new building, Peri said, should be in the settlement blocs, which would become part of Israel in any final status agreement.

“Most of the people in Judea and Samaria will be gathered in those blocs. We will have to evacuate a certain percentage, something on the order of 15 to 25 percent,” Peri said.

Israel has insisted that it must maintain a security presence in the Jordan Valley. On Sunday, MK Miri Regev is expected to bring forward a bill to the Ministerial 
Legislative Committee that calls on Israel to annex the area.

The Palestinians have rejected all proposals with respect to the Jordan Valley and have insisted that Israel must withdraw to the pre-1967 lines, except for minor land swaps.

Senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub told Channel 2 on Saturday night that Netanyahu was killing the peace process by continuing to build in the West Bank.

With respect to the Jordan Valley he said: “Why do you have to stay there? Are we neighbors or enemies? If we are neighbors, we will arrange for security with the Americans and the Jordanians. There is no option for the Israelis to stay there. The Jordan Valley is an agricultural project and has no connection to security.”

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Kerry would travel on January 1 to Jerusalem to meet with Netanyahu and to Ramallah to meet with Abbas. Kerry phoned Abbas on Saturday night to discuss the peace process according to the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency.

According to US officials, Kerry wants the sides to agree to a framework for an interim accord ahead of a deal in April, which would launch another year of talks aimed at a full-blown peace treaty. A framework would demonstrate that progress is being made in talks that began in July, the officials said. It would touch on all the main issues, including security, the future of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Nabil Sha’ath, a top Fatah official, told the Ma’an that the Palestinians wish to reach a peace agreement with Israel.

“But what Israel is proposing, including slicing off parts of our land, security control [over the Jordan Valley], rejection of Palestinian sovereignty over Jerusalem and the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state make it impossible to reach a deal,” he added.

Sha’ath stressed that the Palestinians would not recognize a Jewish state.

“We want to ask Kerry, would he agree to our recognition of the US as a Christian state?” he said. “How do they want us to recognize the usurper of our land and cancel our history and presence over this land? How do they expect us to gamble on the presence of one and a half million Palestinians inside [Israel]? This is pure fantasy.”

Sha’ath said he did not expect Kerry to bring anything new during his next visit to the region.

“The negotiations have not stopped and they are continuing,” he said. “We are committed to the conditions of the talks until the end of the nine-month deadline in April 2014. We won’t accept any interim agreement. There will be no new Oslo Accord.”

The PA leadership was proceeding with plans to seek membership in United Nations agencies and organizations should the peace talks with Israel fail, Sha’ath said.

He added that the year 2014 would witness an “activation of the resistance against occupation.” He said that the Palestinians were also planning to seek membership in UN agencies and organizations and to end the Fatah-Hamas dispute.

“We need to resort to a smart, effective and nonviolent struggle so that the world would support us,” Sha’ath, a former PA foreign minister, said. “The negotiations [with Israel] have not moved one step forward and did not achieve the minimum of what was available for us in the year 2000. The US is unable to exert pressure on Israel to give us our rights.”

Story from Jerusalem post

Clashes on the Israel/Lebanon border as Israel defends itself from attack

The IDF fired shells into southern Lebanon in retaliation after five Katyusha-style rockets were launched against the Jewish state on Sunday, officials said.

The Israeli attacks struck uninhabited areas without causing any casualties to civilians or IDF spokespersons said. The IDF carefully Checked its targets to eliminate or minimise any risk to civilians. 

The Israeli shelling came in response to two Katyusha-style rockets fired from Lebanon that struck an open field west of the town of Kyriat Shmona and which were fired with the express desire to inflict casualties on Israeli women and children.

An Israeli spokesman said:

"The Israeli artillery responded to rocket attacks from Lebanon against Israel that left no victims, targeting the area where these projectiles were fired from," 

Israeli army spokesman Peter Lerner tweeted later that "5 rockets (were) launched this morning from #Lebanon, (causing) one confirmed explosion in #Israel," and the military was searching for others.

Tension has spiked on the border between the two countries since Lebanese troops gunned down an Israeli soldier driving near the frontier on December 16.

The United Nations monitoring force on the border, UNIFIL, confirmed the exchange of fire, adding that it had contacted both sides, urging them to "exercise maximum restraint".

"This is a very serious incident... and is clearly directed at undermining stability in the area," UNIFIL chief Paolo Serra said in a statement.

"UNIFIL's first imperative is to ensure that there is no further escalation of the situation."

Lebanese army and UNIFIL forces were carrying out patrols in the area after the exchange of fire, an AFP correspondent said.

Israel's border with Lebanon has been largely quiet since the 2006 war with the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah.

The last time a soldier was killed there was in August 2010, when two Lebanese soldiers and a journalist also died.

In August, four Israeli soldiers were wounded by an explosion some 400 metres (yards) inside Lebanese territory, in a blast claimed by Hezbollah.

Last week, Hezbollah said one of its top leaders was killed near Beirut and blamed Israel for his murder, a charge denied by Israel, which warned against any retaliation.

UN peacekeepers were deployed along the border following the 34-day war in 2006 which killed some 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers.

Report red with help from

AFP news 

Five Palestinians, two IDF soldiers injured in West Bank clashes

Palestinian injuries reported in Silwad, Bilin protests; IDF: Protesters hurled rocks at soldiers who used crowd dispersal means.

Five Palestinians were reportedly injured in clashes Friday with IDF forces near Ramallah in the West Bank, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported, while two IDF soldiers were lightly injured in Bilin, an army spokeswoman said.

Dozens of Palestinian protesters threw rocks at IDF soldiers in the village of Silwad north of Ramallah, who responded with crowd dispersal measures, including tear gas and 022 bullets, an IDF spokeswoman said.

In Bilin, IDF soldiers used rubber-coated bullets and tear gas to disperse a demonstration of some 100 Palestinians throwing rocks at the soldiers, the IDF spokeswoman said.The IDF was still looking into reports of injuries on the Palestinian side.

Ma'an reported the demonstration was to celebrate Christmas and the release of hunger-striker prisoner Samer Issawi.

Palestinians reported that dozens of protesters suffered excessive tear gas inhalation, and photographer Mohammad Yassin, 20, was hit with a rubber-coated bullet.

The IDF said that while it has not received reports of Palestinian injuries, two IDF soldiers were lightly injured from rocks and were taken to hospital for treatment.

These incidents were just the latest in a series of violent clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian terrorists.

Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have intensified recently, as reports increased that the US-mediated peace talks have ground to a halt.

In the past week alone, a Palestinian sniperkilled a Defense Ministry contractor doing maintenance work on the Gaza border fence, a bomb was planted on a bus in Bat Yam, a police officer was stabbed at a West Bank checkpoint, and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip continued trickling into southern Israel.

The IDF struck several terrorist targets in Gazain retaliation to the various attacks, Iron Dome missile defense batteries have been redeployed in the south, and security forces have increased their presence on the Gaza border, in the West Bank and in east Jerusalem.

At least two Palestinians were killed in the retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip, one of them a three-year-old girl, while several others were injured.

Israel's envoy to the US Ron Prosor urged the UN Security Council Friday to join UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in condemnation of the recent flare of violence, and decried the lack of condemnation from Palestinian leadership.

"Two days ago, the UN Secretary-General condemned the violent Palestinian attacks, alas not even a whisper was heard from [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] and his men," hewrote in a letter to the UN Security Council.

Prosor said incitement in the Palestinian Authority was to blame for the spike in Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis.

"The recent wave of violence is proof the Palestinian incitement has deadly results. School bookse, preaching in mosques and the [Palestinian] leadership's rhetoric all inflame hatred, ignorance and intolerance towards Israelis and Jews," he said.

"There won't be peace and calm in our region until we know peace and calm on our borders," rus concluded.

Jeruselam post

As weakness and cowardess infest the White House Top Khamenei aide calls for direct talks with US

As Iran announces technical talks with world powers set to begin anew on Monday, Ali Khamenei's top foreign policy aide calls for direct dialogue. 'We aren't on the right path if we don't have one-on-one talks with the six countries'

The top foreign adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for new direct talks with the United States amid the multilateral negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

 

The remarks Friday by Ali Akbar Velayati signaled a high-level endorsement of the policies of President Hassan Rohani, whom hard-liners have criticized over last month's nuclear deal and other contacts with the US.

 

Velayati says Iran should talk separately with each of the 5+1 powers, which include the United States. "We aren't on the right path if we don't have one-on-one talks with the six countries," he said, according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.

Experts from Iran and world powers will on Monday resume technical talks on implementing a landmark nuclear deal after a Christmas break, both sides said Friday.

 

Abbas Araqchi told the official IRNA news agency that the discussions with the six major world powers are to resume in Geneva.

 

"The technical discussions between Iran and the 5+1 group will resume Monday in Geneva... to define modalities for implementing the agreement" struck on November 24, he said. The negotiations are aimed at setting a framework and a timeline for the nuclear accord.

 

A spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also confirmed that the talks will resume on Monday in Switzerland.

 

"Technical experts meeting with Iran will take place on December 30 in Geneva," spokesperson Maja Kocijancic told AFP via email.

 

Iran has already held two sets of talks with representatives from Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the United States.

 

The last round concluded in Geneva on December 22 after little progress was made, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

 

Araqchi, who is also deputy foreign minister, said at the time the discussions were progressing slowly because of "interpretations" of points of the agreement.

 

Under the Geneva accord, Iran agreed to roll back or freeze parts of its nuclear drive for six months in exchange for modest sanctions relief and a promise by Western powers not to impose new sanctions.

 

Western powers suspect Iran's nuclear activities mask military objectives, despite Tehran's repeated insistence that they are entirely peaceful.

Ynet news

“The Dealers” : American presidents come and go but only those of wisdom follow in the footsteps of those that achieved

American presidents often defer to great predecessors and the founding fathers as a source of inspiration and guidance. So did Abraham Lincoln as well as Ronald Reagan. 

In making his choices regarding a nuclear crises President Obama had at his disposal his predecessors’ experience manifested in two schools of thought: the one represented by the Republican Ronald Reagan and the Democrat John F. Kennedy. Reagan’s tough stance towards the U.S.S.R had reached its pinnacle in the Reykjavik summit of 1986.

 It was this tough and principled position that led only a year later, for the first time ever, to the elimination of an entire class of nuclear weapons and eventually to expediting the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was signed a few years later, during President H.W Bush’s term. 

Kennedy’s tough stance during the Cuban missile crises of October 1962, rolled back the expansion of the U.S.S.R nuclear ambitions from the Americas. 

The Nobel winning President Obama chose to follow another school of thought, the one represented by Presidents Clinton and the Nobel winner President Jimmy Carter (“for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts”), in what might seem a smaller-scale crises. Clinton’s and Carter’s policy (as a former president) of “A Deal” with North Korea in which the North committed to freeze and eventually disarm its atomic capabilities in return for economic and political benefits totally collapsed as North Korea broke all agreements. Not only, ”The Deal” did not contain North Korea, it was North Korea that was instrumental in building, what the international media referred to, as the Syrian military atomic capability reactor. 

According to the international media the reactor was destroyed by Israel in September 2007.

Apparently, “The Deal” that was advocated by President Obama was so bad that the president of France, Holland, had to veto it, which prompted the WSJ in a spurt of self-Irony to hail France as a savior of the West. 

On the “final Deal” Prime minister of Britain David Cameron said In Chanukah reception in the Jewish community “I share your skepticism over the Iran deal” – a strange announcement from one of its chief architects and allies of the US.  

On this deal, one can recall the famous words of the French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier returning from the notorious peace conference in Munich 1938 to the adoring crowd cheering for him in Paris for “The Deal”: Ah, les cons!” (“Ah, the fools!”). Daladier has warned that the Western Powers capitulation will only precipitate the war they wish to avoid, and yet he signed “The Deal”.

It is also important to note the reasoning behind the decision of President Obama. Only last year, it was Obama who said that he was committed that Iran will not be a nuclear state and threatened a use of force if need be. 

However, that was before he got re-elected. The president current reasoning is that he is committed to find a peaceful solution and end the cycle of violence. As if reality and world safety is a story from Alice in wonderland in which the reality is what the president wants it to be. 

Along the same lines secretary of state, John Kerry, warned in Congress that increased sanctions on Iran will lead to war. President Obama and John Kerry are repeating mistakes not only of the appeasement of Hitler but also of British leaders before World War 1. 

In her Pulitzer book Guns of August 1914, two time Pulitzer winner Barbara Tuchman shows how indecisiveness of British politicians resulting from public objection to an involvement in Europe was a major contributing factor in the German plans of operations and calculations on submitting France. 

This public sentiment led the British government to fear commitments and alliances in fear of a threat of war. The same public, unwilling to commit to detering Germany, found it-self burying its young generation in the notorious battles fields of Europe fighting Germany to exhaustion in battles such as the Battle of the Somme in which it is estimated that 1 million people died or were injured.  A war America eventually intervened in.

The stakes in the current Genève accord are not diminished compared to the previous Geneva accord with North Korea. This agreement is not marginal and not limited to the Middle East. North Korea also was not limited to the Korean peninsula. It is important to note that the deranged regime of North Korea has been using the Nuclear weapon to extract economic and other benefits for its dying populations but China has leverage over this regime and is a stabilizing factor. Despite this stabilization only this year North Korea threatened the USA with a preemptive nuclear strike. 

The situation with Iran is even graver. In Iran rules an extreme Islam ideology which believes in its historic role as leaders of the global Islamic revolution and bent, inter alia, upon the destruction of Israel. It is not just the former president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that on numerous times declared publicly that his country commitment to wipe Israel of the map, but it is also the current President Hasan Rouhani, who said: “Israel is ‘a wound on the body of the Islamic world.”

Never Again? In 2006, another Pulitzer Prize laureate, Charles Krauthammer published a chilling article in which he asks: can the world really guaranty that a massacre of 6 million Jews will never happen again? In his, article explains Krauthammer that Israel is a tempting target to those who wish to finish Hitler’s work: “a tiny territory by the Mediterranean, eight miles wide at its waist. A tempting target for those who would finish Hitler’s work.” Krauthammer explains the logic behind the Iranian approach: “Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the presumed moderate of this gang, has declared that “the use of a nuclear bomb in Israel will leave nothing on the ground, whereas it will only damage the world of Islam.” The logic is impeccable, the intention clear: A nuclear attack would effectively destroy tiny Israel, while any retaliation launched by a dying Israel would have no major effect on an Islamic civilization of a billion people stretching from Mauritania to Indonesia”.

Approximately 2500 years ago another law educated man named Themistocles (etymology means glorious supporter/defender of the law) from Athens foresaw the upcoming Persian invasion. He was also from a humble origin but with the foresight resolve and leadership. He persuaded the Athenians to upgrade the navy and enlist the entire Athenians people (and in the process free the Athenians slaves) and eventually he united Greece against the annihilating Persian army. It is this foresight and understanding that made him one of the West great protectors forever.

In a speech to parliament in 1914, Sir Edward Grey, then foreign secretary of Britain, united Britain on the war against the invading German army. 

Lord Grey is probably best remembered for this speech, which is known as: “The lamps are going out all over Europe. We shall not see them lit again in our time”. In this speech Grey quoted a British Prime Minister who was differing to a similar problem of an aggressive Germany trying to devour tiny Belgium in the 19th century. 

Regarding British involvement, Gladstone said and Grey quoted: ““it is found in an answer to the question, whether under the circumstances of the case this country, endowed as it is with influence and power would quietly stand by and witness the perpetration of the direst crime that ever stained the pages of history and thus become participators in the sin”.

Today we have Barack Hussein Obama and we will not hear him make such speeches. He defers mostly to himself. 

He is no protector of the West, nor a true a friend of Israel. Contrary to his many promises he is bent on isolating and breaking Israel (as if for its own good, of course) – this is the international underlining meaning of Global Obamacare.

On this I am sadly reminded with the words of the Swedish leader Axel Oxenstierna, who was the chancellor for Sweden for more than 40 years, in a letter to his son in 1648: “Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?” (in the original Latin An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur?). It is obvious that President Obama has a failed plan and he is bent on executing it, repeating history disasters. The letter of chancellor Oxenstiema of 1648 is probably relevant today as ever.

Times if Israel 

More terrorists due to be released due to Kerry's one-sided pro-Palestinian stance

List likely includes Black Panther cell leader behind the murders of five Israeli and 50 Palestinians. Prison Service to publish official list 48 hours before release

List likely includes Black Panther cell leader behind the murders of five Israeli and 50 Palestinians. Prison Service to publish official list 48 hours before release

Israel is set to free 26 Palestinian prisoners at the start next week, in the third of four staggered waves that will ultimately release a total of 104 Palestinians jailed in Israel since before the 1994 Oslo Accords.

The third release will likely happen after midnight on Sunday. As with the previous two releases, the names of those set to go free will be published by the Israel Prisons Service 48 hours in advance, giving the families of those killed by the terrorists or others a chance to petition against the release.

The releases are a confidence-building gesture agreed upon by Israel ahead of the current negotiations with the Palestinians, which were set in motion by the US during the summer after a break of two years.

The list of the next prisoners to go free likely includes Jamal Khaled Ibrahim Abu Mukhsan, jailed in 1991 for stabbing 76-year-old Shlomo Yehiyeh to death in the town of Kadima; Ahmed Awad Ali Camil from Jenin, a Black Panther cell leader imprisoned in 1994 for the murders of five Israelis and 50 Palestinians; and Salim Suleiman Mohammed and Adam Ibrahim Juma'a, jailed in 1988 for throwing Molotov cocktails at a bus near Jericho, killing and IDF soldier and an Israeli woman and her three children.

Ynet news

AFTER ISRAEL HAS BEEN REPEATEDLY ATTACKED : IDF attacks Gaza targets in response to shooting of Defense Ministry employee

The Israel Air Force struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon in retaliation for the cross-border shooting earlier in the day that resulted in the death of a civilian Defense Ministry employee.

Officials from Hamas, the Islamic group which rules Gaza, and witnesses said IAF aircraft bombed the group's training camps in Khan Younis and al-Bureij. Witnesses said IDF tanks fired shells east of Gaza city.

She was standing with other family members outside their home near the camp and her mother and two of her brothers were wounded, the officials said.Gaza hospital officials said a three-year-old girl was killed by shrapnel during the strike on the Bureij facility.

Salah Shukri Abu Latyef, 22, from Rahat, was working for Shabbat Drilling operating a tractor at the Gaza border when was shot by a Palestinian sniper.

He was airlifted to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba where he later succumbed to his wounds.

"The incident occurred very close to the border," one security source said.

"This was his first day working on the Gaza Strip border and unfortunately it was also his last day of life," Latyef's cousin said.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded soon after the sniper attack, calling it a "very grave incident" that Israel will not let go unanswered.

"Our policy up until now has been to prevent beforehand and to react with force, and this is how we will act now as well," he said.

Netanyahu made his comment as he was just about to fly back to Jerusalem from Sderot, where he went Tuesday to dedicate the new Tel Aviv-Sderot train line.

An IDF spokesman said that the military had limited the access of farmers working in the immediate vicinity of the fence in the aftermath of the attack.

In a separate incident, a Palestinian youth who approached the fence on the border with northern Gaza entered the closed security zone, and ignored calls by soldiers to vacate the area. He was shot in the leg and evacuated to a Gazan hospital by the Red Crescent.

The cross-border shooting comes after a spate of attempts by Palestinians to plant explosivesalong the security fence and to damage the barrier in recent days.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said there was "no direct relation" between terrorist attacks in Israel over the past two days and the cross-border shooting attack.

An Israel Air Force jet Photo: REUTERS

"We view take a most severe view of them. In Gaza, Hamas is sovereign, and we see it as being responsible for today's shooting from the Strip and rocket launches over the past today at Israel. We will not allow a disruption to life in the South, and we will respond decisively and painfully to attacks on our sovereignty and against our civilians and soldiers," the defense minister added.

He advised Hamas "not to test our patience," calling on Gaza's ruling regime to exercise its authority on the ground to prevent further attacks on Israel by other organizations.

"If there won't be quiet in Israel, there won't be quiet in Gaza either," Ya'alon warned.

"Terrorism incidents are the continuation of previous attacks, most of which are the result of a lone attacker, or one who has been influenced by the atmosphere of incitement and hatred that exists in the Palestinian Authority against Israel. This is an intolerable situation from our perspective, and despite the difficulties in dealing with a lone individual incited to murder Jews, we will act with a resolute hand and in various ways to harm anyone who tries to carry out terrorist attacks," Ya'alon pledged.

As long as the PA continues to incite against Israel and its civilians, and fails to promote a culture of peace, Israel will have to deal with attacks that result from this, he added. Ya'alon sent his condolences to the family of the fatally wounded civilian, and wished the policeman stabbed on Monday a swift recovery.

Shortly after midnight, on Sunday, Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket into southern Israel, triggering an air raid siren and sending residents fleeing for cover.

Security forces located the rocket’s remains after sunrise inside an Israeli village, where it fell between homes, failing to cause injuries or damages.

Jeruselam post 

Another attack on an Israeli citizen : Shooting attack near Gaza; one Israeli seriously hurt

Civilian was working on border fence between Israel and Gaza when attack occurred. Victim flown to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba

An Israeli civilian was seriously wounded by sniper fire on Tuesday, in a shooting attack near the Gaza border fence in southern Israel.

 

The attack occurred as the man was working on the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip. He was taken by helicopter to Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba. IDFtroops launched a search of the area in the wake of the attack.  The IDF said in response to the attack that it "maintains the right to protect Israeli civilians and its soldiers."

Moments before the incident, Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu addressed the security situation in southern Israel. "Since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense , the south has been the quietest it has been for years. We will continue to keep the south quiet with a strong hand and determination," Netanyahu said.

Regarding the recent spate of attacks, the prime minister added: "We have recently witnessed an increase in terror attacks. Are we facing a new intifada? We will act with a fierce offensive policy, so that whoever considers attacking us would have to think twice."

The shooting is the latest a string of attacks targeting Israelis in recent days. On Sunday, the quick thinking of a passenger and bus driver prevented what could have been a major attack when they spotted a bomb on a bus in Bat Yam. A police sapper was lightly hurt when the bomb detonated as he was dismantling it.

A little after midnight Sunday, a rocket fired from Gaza struck a residential area in Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, in southern Israel. There were no injuries reported, but light damage was sustained.

Hours later, an Israeli police officer was stabbed in the back in an apparent terror attack near the settlement of Adam. The man suffered moderate injuries.

Ynet news

YouTube blocks PMW video that exposes Fatah publicizing threats to kidnap, kill, and bomb Israelis by terror organization Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - the military wing of Fatah

YouTube did not remove this same video
from Fatah's YouTube account
where it continues to incite to murder

Once again, YouTube has decided to block one of Palestinian Media Watch's videos. Recently, PMW exposed that Fatah, on its official Facebook Page, publicized threats to kidnap, kill, and bomb Israelis by terror organization Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - the military wing of Fatah. 

The following are excerpts from the Fatah video:

"Bombard them with your fire and shoot them... Praise Allah, our Jihad fighters have managed to develop these rockets so they will reach the Zionist depth [Israel]... We in the Al-Aqsa Brigades are preparing to kidnap Zionist soldiers to settle accounts with the Zionist enemy... Be like Yasser [Arafat] - do not fear them. Death is in your cup - make them drink... With these rockets we will crush the Zionist enemy."

[Facebook, "Fatah - The Main Page," Nov. 17, 2013]

Click to view English version of video

Now, YouTube has decided to block PMW's Hebrew version of this video, claiming the video violates YouTube's "policy on depiction of harmful activities."

The irony is that while YouTube removed the video from PMW's YouTube account - where PMW exposed the incitement to murder - YouTube has not removed it from the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades account in Arabic. It still remains on Fatah's YouTube account, where it is intended as incitement to murder.

Click to view the original Fatah video.

PMW does not promote or engage in "harmful activities," but exposes PA and Fatah hate speech, promotion of violence and glorification of terrorists in order to bring about its elimination.

Sadly, this is not the first time PMW's documentation has been impeded by YouTube. In the past, PMW videos have been blocked and PMW's YouTube account has been closed down.

This happened when PMW exposed hate speech voiced by the PA Mufti, who preached that the destiny of Muslims is tokill Jews, and again recently when PMW exposed a PA TV broadcast of a young girl reciting a poem referring to Jews as "Allah's enemies, the sons of pigs," who "murdered children," "cut off their limbs," "raped the women in the city squares" and "defiled Allah's book."

Thanks to some of PMW's readers who contacted YouTube, PMW videos and accounts were later unblocked each time.

Once again, PMW has requested that YouTube return the video. PMW has no direct line of contact with YouTube administrators, other than their standard appeal option on their website. Therefore, we ask anyone who has contacts at YouTube to please help encourage YouTube to make our video accessible again

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

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