PA being as uncompromising as usual: " No Palestinian state without east Jerusalem as its capital"

No Palestinian state without east Jerusalem as its capital, no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, says Abbas spokesman.

The Palestinian Authority won’t accept anyframework agreement that does not accept the Palestinian and Arab positions, which are based on international legitimacy, presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said on Thursday.

Abu Rudaineh’s remarks came as PA President Mahmoud Abbas and US Secretary of State John Kerry met in Paris for the second time in 24 hours to discuss the latter’s proposed framework agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

Kerry had set nine months for the two sides to complete the peace talks. PLO Ambassador to France Hayel Fahoum said that Kerry proposed extending the peace talks with Israel for several months.

The deadline expires in late April.

Fahoum told the Voice of Palestine radio station that Abbas did not oppose the idea of extending the peace talks, on condition that real progress is achieved.

Fahoum said that Kerry still hasn’t presented Abbas with a draft of a framework agreement. He said that the discussions focused on “certain ideas.”

Abu Rudanieh, reiterated Abbas’s “firm and permanent” position regarding any agreement with Israel, saying there would be no Palestinian state without east Jerusalem as its capital and no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

Abbas’s positions, that all settlements are illegitimate, that a Palestinian state should be established on the pre-1967 lines, that all Palestinians be released from Israeli prisons and that the issue of the refugees be solved in a just way, were also restated.

Abu Rudaineh said that Abbas clearly relayed his position to Kerry during their discussions in Paris.

A PA official in Ramallah said that Abbas had sent two letters to US President Barack Obama since last December, outlining the Palestinian position regarding a peace agreement with Israel The official said that Abbas made it clear in his letters that the issue of the refugees should be solved on the basis of UN General Assembly Resolution 194, while granting them the right to choose whether they want to return to Israel, live in the pre-1967 lines, stay where they are today, move to another country or receive compensation.

Abbas’s letters to Obama said that Israel must withdraw from all the “1967 occupied territories in line with UN [Security Council] Resolution 242.” He also demanded the establishment of a sovereign and independent Palestinian state in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 181, with the possibility of land swaps.

Abbas also insisted that east Jerusalem become the capital of a Palestinian state and that no settlements remain in a future Palestinian state, the official said.

Abbas did not rule out the possibility that a third party would be deployed to maintain security for Palestinians and Israelis.

Jerusalem post

NO WAY! Palestinian Authority is demanding that even the Western Wall

Not satisfied to win control of "Muslim" holy sites alone, the Palestinian Authority is demanding that even the Western Wall, globally reocognized as Judaism's holiest site, must come under its sovereignty as part of any peace deal with Israel.

"Every piece of land Israel occupied in 1967 belongs to the Palestinian state. The Buraq Wall, too, will be under Palestinian sovereignty," Palestinian Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud al-Habash said in an interview with Israel's Channel 10 News.

Al-Habash went on to assert that under Palestinian sovereignty, freedom of religion would be protected and Jews would be permitted to continue praying at the site without fear of persecution.

Buraq Wall, the term used by Al-Habash to denote the Western Wall, is the Muslim term for the western retaining wall of the Temple Mount. In its later years, Islam claimed that this was the place where the Prophet Mohammed tied his magical horse Al-Buraq after being transported from Mecca to Jerusalem.

In a 2008 interview with Azzam Khatib, then-director of the Islamic Trust (or Waqf) that safeguards the mosques that sit atop the Temple Mount, we were told that when the Muslims first arrived in Jerusalem 1,400 years ago, the Temple Mount area was barren, and no hard evidence of previous structures remained.

"When the Muslims came here they never found any standing building or any culture still alive, so they never threatened any standing building," said the Waqf director. "We are not going to entertain theories about buildings that may or may not have been here before."

Always a fount of contradiction, the Muslim officials later negated their own claims that the Temple Mount was empty in A.D. 600 with their stories of Muhammad's midnight visit to the Al Aksa Mosque that today towers over the southern end of the raised compound.

Pointing to the massive western retaining wall, which if the Muslim officials are to be believed should also not have existed 1,400 years ago, a Waqf guide pointed out for us the exact spot where Al-Buraq was supposedly secured.

Israel today 

25 facts and 25 points worth considering

Much of the media cover the so called peace process and portray it either as Israel being the bad guy or even as both sides kind of being 'equals' when in reality Israel is a modern civilised democratic country while the Palestinian camp is a barbaric, backward and bloodstained. The PA and Hamas want the same thing -PERIOD! And Gaza, the shining example of what happens when Israel is forced to give up its land, is a warning of what is to come if any further land is stolen from the Jewish people. 

Please share this as a warning to what is Kerry's intentions and what he is planning on an even larger scale. The rocket attacks on Israel WILL increase massively if further Jewish land is lost and the blame lies not on Israelis for handing their land over, but instead thousands of miles away in a White House dominered by the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Here are 25 facts about Hamas and 25 things worth considering while the present 'peace talks' are underway :

1. Hamas takes its name from an acronym that means “Islamic Resistance Movement” in Arabic.

2. Hamas refuses to recognize the State of Israel’s right to exist as an independent, sovereign nation, and is totally opposed to any agreement or arrangement that would recognize its right to exist. At the beginning of its charter there is a quotation attributed to Hassan Al-Bana, the Muslim Brotherhood’s founder, that “Israel will arise and continue to exist until Islam wipes it out, as it wiped out what went before.”

3. Hamas is committed to jihad. Its charter stresses the importance of jihad (holy war) as the main means for the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) to achieve its goals: An uncompromising jihad must be waged against Israel. Jihad is the personal duty of every Muslim.

4. Hamas is an anti-Semitic organization. According to its charter, the Jewish people have only negative traits and are presented as planning to take over the world. The charter uses myths taken from classical European and Islamic-based anti-Semitism.

5. The Hamas Charter includes anti-Semitic myths taken from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (mentioned in Article 32) regarding Jewish control of the media, the film industry and education (Articles 17 and 22). The myths are constantly repeated to represent the Jews as responsible for the French and Russian revolutions and for all world and local wars: “No war takes place anywhere without the Jews’ being behind it” (Article 22). The charter demonizes the Jews and describes them as brutally behaving like Nazis toward women and children (Article 29).

6. Hamas is the local Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, which recently took control of the Egyptian government.

7. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States, Canada, the European Union and Japan.

8. Although members of the international community have proposed treating the political and military wings of Hamas as separate entities, the Hamas infrastructure places the political wing at the command of the military wing. As Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin stated in 1988: “We can not separate the wing from the body. If we do so, the body will not be able to fly. Hamas is one body.”

9. Hamas’s first ever suicide bombing took place on April 16, 1993 when a suicide bomber detonated the car in which he was driving at the Mehola Junction near Beit El.

10. On January 27, 2002, the first female Palestinian suicide bomber, Wafa Idris, blew herself up on Jaffa Street in the heart of downtown Jerusalem, killing one person and injuring about 100 more. Hamas claimed responsibility.

11. Hamas has been responsible for many appalling acts of terror including the suicide bombing in the Park Hotel in the coastal city of Netanya, in the midst of the Passover holiday seder with 250 guests. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack in which 30 people were killed and 140 injured – 20 seriously.

12. In December 2011, Hamas “celebrated” its 24th anniversary, boasting that it had killed 1365 “Zionist soldiers” since 1987. Hamas does not differentiate between Israeli soldiers and civilians.

13. Hamas won a four year term at the head of the Palestinian Legislative Council in 2006 but remains in office indefinitely.

14. In June 2007, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip through a violent coup, killing numerous Palestinians, some by pushing them off of tall buildings in Gaza. The Red Cross estimated that at least 118 people were killed and more than 550 wounded during the fighting in the week up to June 15.

15. Hamas members use Palestinian children as human shields when carrying out attacks on Israeli soldiers.

16. On April 16, 2001, Hamas launched its first rocket into Israel from Gaza.

17. Since the beginning of 2012, over 1,800 rocket hits have been identified in Israeli territory.

18. Hamas deliberately targets Israeli civilians, firing rockets indiscriminately while hiding among its own civilian population – a “double war crime.”

19. Hamas is a Sunni group while it’s primary patron over the years has been the Shi’ite Iran.

20. Iran aids and supports Hamas in the following ways: by transferring enormous sums of money to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip and to the Hamas movement; by training Hamas operatives in military skills in Iran; by smuggling arms into the Gaza Strip, including the long-range rockets recently used to attack Israeli cities; by transmitting technical-operational know-how used to manufacture and improve the weapons in Hamas’s possession, including increasing the destructive power of the IEDs and homemade rockets used to attack Israel.

21. Hamas’s annual budget was estimated to be some $70 million according to the Council of Foreign Relations.

22. Hamas routinely misinforms its followers. This week, Khaled Meshal falsely claimed to the Palestinian public that Hamas had destroyed Ehud Barak’s home in Tel Aviv. In reality, Israel destroyed the home of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.

23. Although Hamas has complained of product shortages in the Gaza Strip, it has focused on smuggling thousands of rockets into the area.

24. Hamas and Fatah have been holding reconciliation talks intermittently since 2008, but have yet to reach a sustainable agreement.

25. “Palestine from the river to the sea, north to south is our land. Not an inch can be conceded. The liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine is a duty, a right and a goal. Holy war and armed resistance are the real and right path to liberation and recovery of rights.” – Khaled Meshal speaking at this week’s Hamas 25 anniversary “celebrations.”

Hamas is not interested in peace or compromise with Israel – the facts speak for themselves.

Abbas now wants to be 'Occupied' : is this guy on drugs?

Here's an interesting development:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has suggested that a US-led NATO force remain in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in a future Palestinian state in order to ensure Israel's security.

Hang on, we thought, or have been told, that it's all about 'occupation' and not anti Semitism? But surely then if they're being 'occupied' at present then allowing NATO troops there would in effect be swapping one 'occupying' force for another? 

This anti Semite hate monger has proven that it's not about 'occupation' but more about his and his fellow PA Authorities inbred hatred of Jews. If this were not so and he genuinely believed it was about 'occupation' despite the FACT that it's Jewish land being disputed, he wouldn't want ANY 'foreign' power there as 'occupiers.'

The PA president said that the NATO force can stay "for a long time, and wherever they want, not only on the eastern borders but also on the western borders, everywhere ... For a long time, for the time they wish. NATO can be everywhere, why not?” he stated.

Following the withdrawal of Israeli forces, Abbas said that they should be replaced indefinitely by the NATO troops, who would secure the area along with Palestinian security forces and police. 

He states this because he knows his own shabby and third rate security would in no way be able to secure any possible future 'Palestinian' state. 

He's so insecure about his own authority that he is now requesting to be 'occupied.' 

If this wasn't real it could be a clip from a comedy.

The idiot Abbas then goes on to state:

"The Israelis are occupiers and they want to stay forever. When they say they want to stay for 40 years, it means they will not go out from our territory.”

But then this idiot requests to be 'occupied' by NATO troops compromising of armies from many nations. 

We're wondering if Abbas will want these NATO troops vetted to make sure none are Jewish? 

Is he on drugs? 

Stab in Israel's back: Kerry promises Palestinians an IDF-free state, on assurances of course. Bit like the ones prior to the Gaza handover

At Davos conference, US Secretary of State says 'West Bank occupation' will end when Israel is assured new state is not launchpad for terror

(What like the assurances prior to Gaza?)

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday told an annual conference of international business and political leaders that a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians would include the complete removal of Israeli troops from Palestinian territory.

"Palestinians need to know that at the end of the day their territory will be free of Israeli troops – that occupation ends," Kerry said in a speech at the global economic forum in Davos, Switzerland. But, he added, that day would not come until Israel was certain that the territory from which they withdrew would not be used as a launch pad for attacks on its citizens.

 

"The Israelis rightfully will not withdraw until they know the West Bank will not become another Gaza," the secretary of state clarified.

There had been some tensions between Israel and the US over the security plans included in the current US-driven negotiations. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, a former head of the IDF, caused controversy earlier this month when he dismissed Kerry as "obsessive" and his security provisions as "not worth the paper they're written on."

Kerry peppered his speech with assurances that Israel's security was paramount to the success of the negotiations. "Israel has to be strong to make peace, but we also believe that peace will make Israel stronger."

 

And he reiterated: "There cannot be peace unless Israeli security needs are met."

 

The secretary of state expressed great hope that the current round of negotiations would bear long sought-after fruits, but warned both parties of the high costs of peace and the high risks of failing in this endeavor.

 

Now or never

The Palestinians, he said, must understand that the current round of talks could be their last chance at a negotiated resolution for the foreseeable future.

 

"If (the Palestinians) fail to achieve statehood now, there is no guarantee they will any time soon." He added: "If talks fail, Palestinians will be no closer to being masters of their own fate, and no closer to resolving their refugee crisis."

 

After delivering those stern warnings, Kerry pivoted to positive arguments for peace: "Imagine this time next year if Palestinian businessman and government leaders from the state of Palestine are able to pitch the world's largest investors (at Davos)."

 

Kerry reassured the Israeli public as well of the benefits of peace: "For Israel, the benefits of peace are enormous and perhaps even more significant."

 

He expressed hope that the 20 Arab states which currently refuse to recognize and trade with Israel will change their policy once they see concrete steps made towards a final-status agreement.

 

He told both sides of the conflict: "It is past time that the people of this region are known for what they create, not the conflict they perpetuate."

 

Kerry also set out to assuage fears of an American withdrawal from involvement in the Middle East.

He concluded with a wide assurance to all states in the region that, despite Obama's public pivot to Asia, the United States was not considering considering a change in its hands-on approach to the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

 "President Obama and his administration will remain engaged in the long-run. We dare not – and I assure you – we will not miss this moment," he said.

 

Earlier on Friday Kerry met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for about 90 minutes on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to push a framework for a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Ynet news

SURPRISE SURPRISE : Arab League nixes American proposal to let IDF stay in West Bank in peace deal

The Arab League on Saturday rejected US proposals that would allow Israeli soldiers to be stationed on the eastern border of a future Palestinian state, underscoring the challenge facing a US effort to wrap up a peace deal by April.

But a resolution he read at the end of the meeting did not repeat the harshly critical language of a report circulated to the Arab delegates ahead of the gathering.At an emergency meeting called at the request of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday, Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby said there could be not one Israeli soldier in the territory of a future Palestine.

The report, seen by Reuters, said the US security proposals "achieved Israeli security expansionist demands, and guaranteed (Israel's) continued control of (the Jordan Valley) on the security pretext."

It also described them as "an American retreat."

Palestinian sources have detailed a US plan to allow a continued Israeli military presence for the next 10 years in the Jordan Valley. Israel says its troops have to remain there to prevent arms and militants entering the West Bank.

Abbas has rejected the idea of Israeli troops being stationed along the Jordan Valley, but says he could accept the deployment of US troops there.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been shuttling between Israelis and Palestinians, has said the United States has presented "some thoughts" on security arrangements, but given no details.

The Arab League report said the United States and Israel were linking talks on political issues to the Palestinians' consent to "the American security solution". "This is what the Palestinian side rejects," it said.

Israel and the Palestinians resumed direct peace negotiations in July after a three-year break, but there has been little public sign of progress.

Jerusalem post

MORE TERRORIST MURDERERS TO BE FREED : Kerry: Next group of Palestinian prisoners to be released as planned at end of month

Disgustingly U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that the third group of Palestinian prisoners will be released as planned on December 29.
     
Speaking at a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv before departing to Vietnam, Kerry said the U.S. is "not talking at this point about any shifts (in the schedule)."

   
Kerry had offered the Palestinians that the fourth group of prisoners will be released sooner so more than 60 Palestinian prisoners will be released at the end of January at once.

 Kerry had wanted the prisoner release to take place at the same time as the presentation of the "framework agreement" which he plans to formulate with both sides in the coming weeks.
     
The Palestinians as could be predicted rejected Kerry's offer and claimed it was a violation of the agreements that were reached in order to restart the peace talks. The Palestinians stressed that if the prisoner release would not take place on the date planned they would see themselves as free to pursue unilateral moves in the United Nations.
     
Kerry's press conference came after a three-hour meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Thursday night and another meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Friday morning. Kerry's visit in Jerusalem and Ramallah proved to be a difficult operation due to the heavy snowstorms in the area.
     
In the press conference, Kerry emphasized that there is no plan to extend the nine-month timeframe that has been given to renewed peace talks. "Our goal remains a final status agreement. Not an interim agreement," he said.
     
Kerry praised Netanyahu and Abbas on their serious intentions regarding the peace talks and said a final agreement "will make Israelis and Palestinians more secure and prosperous." Many Israelis and indeed non-Israelis are angered that these releases are to take place considering the murders recently attributed and committed in the name of the 'Palestinian movement.

 

Source of help Haaretz. com

 

All terrorists stick together - Palestinian leaders: Mandela is asymbol of freedom from 'Israeli occupation'

PA president says former South African president's goals have not been reached as long as "Palestinians are not free."

Palestinian leaders are saying Nelson Mandela's difficult journey is a symbol of Israeli "occupation,"and if he was victorious in his fight for liberation, the Palestinians can be as well, AFP reported on Friday.

World leaders mourned the loss of former South African President and human rights advocate Mandela , who died at the age of 95 on Thursday.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday paid tribute to Mandela following the announcement of his death, calling him a "symbol of freedom from colonialism and occupation."

"The Palestinian people will never forget his historic statement that the South African revolution will not have achieved its goals as long as the Palestinians are not free," AFP quoted Abbas saying. 

"Apartheid did not prevail in South Africa, and apartheid shall not prevail in Palestine," wrote incarcerated Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti in an "open letter" to Mandela, according to AFP.

Barghouti is currently serving five life sentences in prison for masterminding a series of terror attacks against Israelis, and has been referred to by journalists as the "Palestinian Nelson Mandela" in his fight for a Palestinian state.

"You said: 'We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians," Barghouti wrote. "And from within my prison cell, I tell you our freedom seems possible because you reached yours." 

Hamas spokesman Mussa Abu Marzuq reportedly described Mandela as "one of the most important symbols of freedom and one of the most important supporters of the Palestinian people's cause."

Jeruselam post

Police: 5 suspects admit 'hatred of Jews' motivated J'lem stoningattack that wounded toddler

Suspects admit to and reenacted stoning in capital's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood; set to face remand hearing.

Police arrested five Arab youths from east Jerusalem suspected of carrying out theThursday stoning attack that injured two-year-old Abigail Ben-Zion in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood, it was revealed Tuesday after a gag order was lifted.

According to police, the suspects, arrested on Monday, admitted to throwing stones at the vehicle carrying the toddler and reinacted the incident. The suspects told investigators that they were motivated by hatred of Jews, according to Israeli media reports.

Immediately after the stoning incident, police began searching the area for the attackers. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that stones were thrown at a number of vehicles in the area on the same night.The suspects were expected to have their remands extended at the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court on Tuesday evening.

Police chief Insp.-Gen. Yohanan Danino praised Jerusalem Police investigators for locating the suspects: "Their professional work brought about the quick cracking of the case, the apprehension of the suspects and their being brought to stand trial."

Danino said that "stone-throwing is an act of terror in every way, and the police treat it as such."

Security forces have noted an increase in incidents dubbed "stone terror" in recent weeks. Last Tuesday a woman was lightly wounded from stones thrown at her vehicle near the Mount of Olives, and in the past two months several other similar incidents have been reported in the area, which did not cause injuries.

Last march, another toddler, Adele Biton was seriously wounded in a car accident caused by stones thrown at her family's vehicle.

Jeruselam post 

Extremist Salafi jihadists threaten to exploit a power vacuum in the territories.

A day after special forces killed three members of a Palestinian Salafi-jihadi terrorist cell near Hebron, senior security sources said Wednesday that the extremist movement that drove the gunmen to act remains a marginal force, but one that could grow in scope and danger if it exploits a power vacuum in the West Bank.

The terror cell that was intercepted and found to be in possession of explosives and firearms on Tuesday night was planning a kidnapping attack on IDF soldiers, according to security sources.

The armed men, from the village of Yatta, also planned on attacking the Palestinian Authority, security sources said.

“Salafi jihadism is an idea, not an organization,” one source said. “According to this idea, everything that is a state but not ruled according to Islamic law is an infidel entity. For them, this holds true of the Palestinian Authority and Israel,” he said.

“To say that it’s a phenomenon is going too far. But the idea is spreading.” the source said. The internet plays a large role in the indoctrination, according to security assessments.

The IDF arrested five suspected accomplices on Tuesday, before special forces got into a firefight with three members of the cell, in which the gunmen were killed.

The discovery of the terror cell has however set off warning bells in the defense establishment, since it represents the first major threat posed by individuals who adopted Salafi jihadi ideas and decided to act on them in the West Bank.

The cell was not linked to a wider organization, but does represent a break in the trend of lone-wolf attackers that emerged in recent months.

“There was no organization here, but there was a localized group,” a source said.

The group left enough of an intelligence footprint to be picked up by Israel, in time to stop the attack.

Other Palestinians have adopted extreme Salafi ideas, but have refrained from taking action thus far, according to assessments. “The West Bank is a safer place now after the counter-terror raid,” another source said.

The IDF views the raid as evidence of a firm Israeli intelligence grasp over the territories.

That intelligence, combined with an ability to quickly dispatch forces to intercept cells anywhere, is the formula to keeping Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Salafi jihadis at bay in the West Bank.

“They intended to hit soldiers, but civilians might have been next on the target list, in light of the weapons in their possession,” an army source said.

Until now, Salafi-jihadis focused on social and religious activities, holding occasional meetings, but not attempting to organize terror attacks. “We don’t know if this is the first among others. It does lead to concerns about the future of this movement in the sector,” a third security source said.

In the wider picture, the decline of Hamas’s influence due to its isolation in Gaza, and the parallel decline of Fatah, which is in survival mode, leaves a vacuum for Salafi jihadis to grow into. This trend is enhanced by the growing influence of Salafi-jihadis in the Arab world.

In such a vacuum, elements that were once marginal can take a more central role. If however they begin challenging the Palestinian Authority in the territories, Palestinian security forces will likely be sent to disband them.

“On the one hand, others could try to imitate this cell. On the other, our action was a first-class signal to others who want to go in this direction. It’s a risky decision,” the source said.

The search of a car in which two gunmen were killed on Tuesday turned up two handguns and two explosive devices. A subsequent search in a hideout used by the cell found a Kalashnikov and ammunition, five car batteries, gun powder, sulfur, a car alarm system that could be used as a bomb trigger, fireworks covered in gun powder and a bomb hidden in a fire extinguisher. 

IDF soldier stabbed to death on a bus named

A Palestinian teen from the West Bank stabbed an IDF soldier to death Wednesday morning inside a bus at the Afula bus station.

The soldier was named as 18-year-old Pvt. Eden Atias, a resident of Upper Nazareth. He was on his way back to his base and, according to some reports, was asleep in his seat when he was murdered.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the soldier was critically wounded at the scene and taken to the Emek Medical Center in Afula, where he died shortly thereafter. Rosenfeld added that the attack is being treated as ideologically-motivated, as the man told investigators he stabbed the soldier because he has a relative in an Israeli prison.Thousands of mourners attended the funeral, which took place at the military cemetery in Upper Nazareth at 11 p.m. on Wednesday. Atias’s father, who is currently in prison, was brought to the funeral in his prison uniform accompanied by Prisons Service guards.

Sec.-Lt. Yitzhak Maimon, an IDF officer who first arrested the Palestinian youth who carried out the deadly knife attack, told how he arrived at Afula’s central bus station, when he saw an incident unfolding on a bus. He described boarding the vehicle, moving to the back seats, and seeing “a terrorist who seconds earlier stabbed a soldier. Within seconds, when I understood that this is a terror attack, I took responsibility for the incident. I directed my weapon at the terrorist, cocked the gun, and the terrorist froze and gave himself up on the spot.”

Maimon then led the Palestinian to security guards at the bus station.

“I share the family’s grief and pain,” Maimon added. “As an IDF commander, I’m confident we’re doing our best to safeguard the lives of citizens.”

Magen David Adom paramedics said that at 8:38 a.m.

they received a call that a young man had been stabbed inside a bus at the Afula bus station.

When they arrived they said they found the victim in critical condition.

MDA quoted paramedic Hadar Bachar as saying that when they arrived at the scene they found the victim sitting in a seat near the back door of the bus, with wounds across his body and in great pain. He was then taken to the medical center, where later police announced he had died.

The attacker is a 16-year-old Palestinian from the Jenin area, according to security services. The Prisons Service stated after the killing that two of his cousins are in prison in Israel.

One of them, Muhammed Juwadra, is serving three life sentences for the murder of Cartiso Radikov and Amos Mantiu, a Bezeq employee shot dead in the village of Baka al- Gharbiya in 2003 during the second intifada.

The other cousin is serving a 12-year-sentence for attempted murder.

In response to the stabbing, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said peace cannot occur if this type of Palestinian incitement continues.

“Surrounding the murderer is an education system, official Palestinian Authority newspapers, mosques and other places in Palestinian society that are full of incitement,” Netanyahu said. “If we want real peace, the incitement has to stop.”

Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz agreed, saying that the “horrible” anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement in the Palestinian Authority is “also responsible” for the soldier’s murder.

Steinitz said while he was confident that the PA “will condemn it, sooner or later, in English as they often do,” the PA cannot exonerate itself because of the “terrible, horrible anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incitement that has become a culture of hatred in the Palestinian Authority, sponsored by the government and President Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas].”

Steinitz, whose ministry is responsible for monitoring Palestinian incitement, said the message young Palestinians are being fed on a daily basis in the official PA media and in the schools is that “sooner or later Israel should be destroyed, or the Jews killed or expelled.”

“This terrible idea that Jews are horrible creatures is also responsible for this act of terror, while we are negotiating a peace deal,” he said at a speech hosted by the Jerusalem Press Club.

According to Steinitz, the incitement and culture of hatred that it leads to is the “main obstacle for peace.”

And incitement, he added, was sponsored not by “zealots or some members of parliament,” but by the Palestinian Authority.

In light of this incitement, he said, many Israelis are asking themselves whether at the end of any diplomatic process they will get “genuine peace, or only a piece of paper.”

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon sent his condolences to Atias’s family, and said that the “war against terrorism, with much sorrow, has casualties, but we will continue our firm struggle against terrorism, those who perpetrate it and carry it out.”

“We’ll act aggressively against organizations that seek to activate institutionalized terrorism against us,” Ya’alon vowed.

He added that attacks by lone individuals “stems mainly from incitement by the Palestinian Authority, which, even as we sit with its representatives for talks, continues to educate the next generation to idolize terrorists and murder Jews, preaches hatred and is unwilling to recognize our right to exist in any borders.”

President Shimon Peres, speaking Wednesday night at the swearing in of Karnit Flug as the Bank of Israel governor, paid tribute to the memory of Atias.

“I am certain that the government and the state will do all in their power to prevent incidents of this kind from recurring in the future,” he said.

Earlier that day, lawmakers in Netanyahu’s party called for him to stop peace talks.

“The talks are deluding both the Israeli public and the Arabs,” Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said. “We must stop this predictable crash course immediately.”

Danon also called to stop the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely said “the Palestinian Authority’s well-oiled incitement system continues to claim victims.”

“Mahmoud Abbas has a tactic of indirectly harming Israel.

Jews aren’t killed by PA officials but by the ‘Palestinian street,’ which is fed each day by anti- Israel propaganda. We cannot continue talking peace while the PA is talking terror,” Hotovely added.

Meanwhile, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni sent her condolences to the soldier’s family and wrote on Facebook that now is not the time for political arguments.

However, she added that “violence will not bring diplomatic achievements. We will fight terror and extremism without compromise.”

Opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich said that her heart goes out to the soldier’s family and that she trusts the IDF in its fight against terror.

The Labor leader called on Netanyahu not to use the attack “to continue sabotaging negotiations, which anyway are bruised and battered taking place under the shadow of a crisis with the US.”

Bayit Yehudi MKs spoke out against concessions in negotiations, with Knesset Finance Committee chairman Nissan Slomiansky saying the stabbing “is a direct result of Israel’s policy of freeing terrorists.”

“We make difficult concessions for which we pay in human lives, while the Palestinians only talk,” he stated.

“The current situation endangers our sons and daughters while the PA celebrates the release of murderers. This is intolerable and must stop immediately.”

MK Mordechai Yogev (Bayit Yehudi) said the attack was a result of the IDF not doing enough to stop Palestinians from illegally entering Israel.

“When PA incitement teaches hatred of Jews and calls to destroy us... our security forces must enforce the law and realize that they can prevent the next murder,” he remarked.

Almagor Terror Victims Organization chairman Meir Indor said “we cannot ignore what is behind the recent chain of terror attacks. It is encouraged by the American government, which threatens the obedient Israeli government if they do not release terrorists.”

“The lives of Jews are not as important to [US Secretary of State] John Kerry as the residents of Boston. He wouldn’t have released the Chechen terrorist,” Indor added, in reference to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspected Boston Marathon bomber.

Kerry's True Nature Revealed in Support for Anti-Israel Activists?

Kerry's true colors showing & they are very grimy. 

From his open adoption of Palestinian positions to his public belittling of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's awareness of the Iran threat, US Secretary of State John Kerry has of late been somewhat more hostile than the Jewish state is used to from senior American officials.

When he was appointed as America's next secretary of state earlier this year, critics warned that when it comes to Israel, Kerry is a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Evidence has recently surfaced that suggests those critics were not exaggerating.

Towards the end of 2009, when Kerry was still a US senator, radical left-wing anti-Israel groups decided to enter the Gaza Strip en masse to break the "Isralei siege."

The original idea was to march with thousands of people via the Egyptian Sinai and into Gaza. 

The umbrella group Gaza Freedom March succeeded in obtaining letters of support from various leading public figures, including Kerry.

Israeli journalist Ben Dror Yemini this week provided photographic evidence of Kerry's support (Hebrew) on the website of Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv.

Alas, the march was prevented from entering Gaza, not by Israel, but rather by Egypt, which didn't care one bit who was supporting the effort.

But that didn't stop the groups and individuals participating in the Gaza Freedom March, many of whom went on to take part in theill-fated May 2010 "Free Gaza Flotilla".

The Obama Administration would later put heavy pressure on Israel to apologize to Turkey over the deaths that resulted from stopping the flotilla.

What is most troubling to Yemini about Kerry's behavior is not his signed support for an ostensibly humanitarian effort, but rather his legitimizing of groups and individuals that openly endorse the anti-Israel positions of terrorist groups.

The big names in the Gaza Freedom March were the leaders of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and Code Pink, a radical feminist group with venomous anti-Israel views.

"The letter calls into serious question not only Kerry's political orientation, but especially his discretion when it comes to dealing with issues like Iran and the Palestinians," wrote Yemini.

"The US is Israel's most important friend," the journalist concludes, wondering how one of its most senior officials can "provide legitimacy for groups that support the likes of Hamas, Ahmadinejad and regularly spout hostility toward both Israel and the US."

Israel today 

Kerry warns Israel or is it 'Do as we say or they'll be trouble?"

Stop fueling the PA Mr. Kerry.

Kerry's recent warnings below in the Jerusalem post come at a volatile time in the so-called peace talks and many believe he is simply working to the plan of the PA. His warnings we feel are a threat or if you like bribe - "Do it our way or bear the consequences.

US Secretary of State John Kerry painted a very bleak picture of what would be the result of a break-down in the current Israeli-Palestinian talks, warning on Thursday of a third intifada and international isolation of Israel

Kerry's warnings, or threat, came in an unusual joint interview with Channel 2's Udi Segal and Maher Shalabi of Palestine TV.

The Secretary of State's warnings of a third intifada came two days after a poll conducted by the Arab World For Research & Development showed that only 29% of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians said they would support a third intifada, though 60% believe one is possible."The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos," Kerry said. "Does Israel want a third intifada?"

Kerry's dire warnings echoed comments he made in Jordan after meeting King Abdullah II, and before a second meeting in two days with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

In a signal that the three-month old talks were indeed in a troubled spot, Kerry extended his visit another day and is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday morning, for the third time since Wednesday. A meeting the two held Wednesday evening, following Kerry's first meeting with Abbas, went on past midnight, Israeli officials said.

"I believe that if we do not resolve the issues between Palestinians and Israelis, if we do not find a way to find peace, there will be an increasing isolation of Israel, three will be an increasing campaign of the de-legitimization of Israel that has been taking place on an international basis," he said in the interview..

"If we do not resolve the question of settlements, and who lives where and what rights they have; if we don't end the presence of Israeli soldiers perpetually in the West Bank, then there will be an increasing feeling that if you cannot get peace with a leadership that is committed to non-violence, we may wind up with a leadership that is committed to violence," he added.

In a press conference alongside Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh in Amman on Thursday, Kerry reiterated this theme. "What is the alternative to peace?" he asked. " Prolonged continued conflict. The absence of peace really means you have a sort of low-grade conflict, war."

He said that "as long as the aspirations of people are held down one way or another" and as long as the conflict continued without a solution, the "possibilities of violence" increase.

He did say, however, that both Netanyahu and Abbas "reaffirmed their commitment to these negotiations despite the fact that at moments there are obviously tensions."

Following his scheduled meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Friday, Kerry is to continue his regional visit with trips to the United Arab Emirates, Algeria and Morocco. He has already visited this week – in addition to Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan – Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Jerusalem post