Turkey urges Islamic world to unite against Israel, calls summit

A protester holds a placard reading “Al-Quds (Jerusalem) belongs to the Muslims” as he shouts slogans among people holding Palestinian flags while they all take part in a protest march at the Istikilal avenue in Istanbul on May 14, 2018 (Photo by AFP)

 

Turkey has urged Islamic countries to review their ties with Israel after dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on the Gaza border.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told his ruling party in parliament that Ankara would call an extraordinary summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

“Islamic countries should without fail review their relations with Israel,” Premier Yildirim said, adding, “The Islamic world should move as one, with one voice, against this massacre.”

Yildirim said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the body, called the OIC summit on Friday.

Iran Guard simulates capture of Al Aqsa Mosque

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Thousands of paramilitary forces from the country’s powerful Revolutionary Guard have held a war game simulating the capture of Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque from Israeli control.

Iran’s state media reported Saturday that the forces stormed and “liberated” a replica of the mosque in the exercise. They say that 120 brigades from the Basij, the paramilitary unit of the Guard, participated in Friday’s exercise outside the holy city of Qom in central Iran.

Israelis Turn to Self-Defense as Anxiety Rises Over Knife Attacks

An armed man walks in the centre of Jerusalem October 19. A recent spate of knife attacks has made residents uneasy. Reuters/Ronen Zvulun

 

Updated | Business is booming at the Haboleshet Spy Shop in central Tel Aviv. Mor, who has worked for six months at the self-defense store, says customers laugh when he tells them that the shop’s stock of pepper spray, tasers and batons is sold out. The past two weeks have been the “craziest and busiest time,” Mor says in a phone interview with Newsweek.

The shop, one of the only stores that stocks self-defense equipment in Israel’s largest city, is selling 20 to 40 batons and 50 to 100 canisters of pepper spray a day, Mor says. In previous times, that would have amounted to three weeks’ worth of stock.

Palestinians torch Joseph’s Tomb in West Bank as unrest continues

 

Hundreds of Palestinian rioters set fire to the site revered by some Jews as the tomb of the Biblical patriarch Joseph in the West Bank city of Nablus early Friday, ahead of an emergency United Nations Security Council session to discuss the ongoing violence.

Palestinian security forces extinguished the blaze early Friday before Israel Defense Forces could arrive on the scene, according to the Jerusalem Post. There were no injuries in the fire, but the tomb suffered severe damage.

Obama admits to bias against Israel

During his speech last week at a Washington, D.C. synagogue, President Obama admitted that his treatment of Israel is based on bias against the Jewish State. He didn’t put it that way, of course. Instead, he said he has “high expectations” for Israel — higher than for other foreign nations. As discussed below, that’s an admission of a bias that operates to the detriment of Israel.

Pope calls Palestinian leader “angel of peace” during visit

After the official recognition of the ‘state of palestine’, you can see just how corrupt the Vatican is. Israel is running out of choices to whom it can rely on. The United States under Barack Obama has been throwing it under the bus and bolstering its enemies for years now. As the Vatican now thumbs its nose in Israeli affairs, the best choice it has at the moment is Germany for protection. This will be the new trend.

 

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis praised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as an “angel of peace” during a meeting Saturday at the Vatican that underscored the Holy See’s warm relations with the Palestinians.

Francis made the compliment during the traditional exchange of gifts at the end of an official audience in the Apostolic Palace. He presented Abbas with a medallion and explained that it represented the “angel of peace destroying the bad spirit of war.”

Former European leaders call on EU to up pressure on Israel

Letter sent to EU foreign policy chief urges labeling of settlement products, refers to Netanayahu as an obstacle to peace

A group of former high-ranking European officials is set to send EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini a joint letter Wednesday calling on the union to adopt a proactive and more aggressive attitude to pressure Israel on the Palestinian issue.

The letter, which was obtained by the news site Ynet, is addressed to Mogherini and the foreign ministers of EU countries, with copies to US Secretary of State John Kerry, European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Parliament President Martin Schulz.

Iran militia chief: Destroying Israel is ‘nonnegotiable’

The commander of the Basij militia of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that “erasing Israel off the map” is “nonnegotiable,” according to an Israel Radio report Tuesday.

Militia chief Mohammad Reza Naqdi also threatened Saudi Arabia, saying that the offensive it is leading in Yemen “will have a fate like the fate of Saddam Hussein.”

World bows to Iran’s hegemony

The problem with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress March 3 was not the risk of offending Washington, but rather Washington’s receding relevance. President Barack Obama is not the only leader who wants to acknowledge what is already a fact in the ground, namely that “Iran has become the preeminent strategic player in West Asia to the increasing disadvantage of the US and its regional allies,” as a former Indian ambassador to Oman wrote this week.

For differing reasons, the powers of the world have elected to legitimize Iran’s dominant position, hoping to delay but not deter its eventual acquisition of nuclear weapons. Except for Israel and the Sunni Arab states, the world has no desire to confront Iran. Short of an American military strike, which is unthinkable for this administration, there may be little that Washington can do to influence the course of events. Its influence has fallen catastrophically in consequence of a chain of policy blunders.

Report: Saudis might help Israel attack Iran in exchange for progress in peace process

In private talks with European sources, the Saudis have expressed their willingness to cooperate with Israel on Iran, including use of Saudi air space by the IDF for a possible air strike, according to a report by Channel 2.

Cooperation with Saudi Arabia would not come free, however. According to the report, the Saudi officials said they would need to see progress between Israelis and Palestinians before having enough legitimacy to allow Israel to use their air space.

‘Obama army’ deploys to Tel Aviv to topple Netanyahu

Not only did the Obama administration invent a controversy, they’re now showing us their end game.

 

The conservative blogosphere is reporting Jeremy Bird, national field director for Obama’s 2012 campaign, is now working for a new non-profit group, V15, that is running an effort to defeat Netanyahu in the upcoming election.

A closer look at Bird’s consulting firm as well as its working relationship with the Israeli groups finds he is just one of scores of former senior Obama election campaign staffers now working on the anti-Netanyahu effort.

…

The left-leaning Haaretz daily in Israel reported V15 is “trying to replace Israel’s government” and cause “nothing less than an electoral upset” in elections here in March.

Iran Begins Arming Palestinian Terrorists

Promises ‘the annihilation of the Zionist regime’

Iranian military leaders say that they have begun weapons deliveries to Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank and elsewhere in the region after months of promising increased military support for Israel’s enemies, according to regional reports.

A top Iranian military commander confirmed that weapon shipments to the West Bank have already begun and that more will be sent to other “Palestinian resistance groups.”

“Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,” Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of Iran’s volunteer Basij force told the state-run Fars News Agency on Wednesday.

Israel threatens Hamas with massive retaliation as cease-fire enters final day

Netanyahu told his cabinet ministers that Hamas was mistaken if it thought that it could cover its military defeat over the last month with a diplomatic achievement.

A day before the midnight expiration of a five-day ceasefire, Israel sent out clear messages on Sunday that it will respond massively to any type of fire from Gaza and not tolerate a long-term “war of attrition.”

“It is not clear whether there will be an agreement,” a senior diplomatic official said as the Israeli and Palestinian delegations held indirect talks in Cairo.

If no agreement is agreed upon, the official said, there are two possibilities. The first is that no cease-fire extension or agreement is reached by Monday at midnight, and Hamas renews its firing. “If that happens,” he said, “Israel’s response will be strong.”

Netanyahu’s dilemma: Back Obama’s save Hamas policy, or fight for its downfall with Egypt and Saudis

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu entangled himself Saturday and Sunday, July 26-27,  in the net he had cast to blur the effect of the unanimous decision by the security-political cabinet of Friday to turn down the ceasefire proposals proposed by US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The two diplomats and their partners, a brace of European ministers and Qatar and Turkey, who met in Paris to concoct a peace framework for Gaza, were privately dubbed by wags in Jerusalem the “Save Hamas Squad.”

Netanyahu tried to present the flat cabinet “no” to the ceasefire as a “no, maybe.”

His purpose was to leave an opening for the US and UN to ginger up their pro-Hamas framework for ending hostilities in the Gaza Strip by incorporating elements that Israel’s security needs half way. If that was done, Israel, he indicated, would be amenable to joining lengthy ceasefire accords with Hamas, or even making unilateral halts in violence.

Ex-Israeli Security Chief Diskin: ‘All the Conditions Are There for an Explosion’

In an interview with SPIEGEL, Yuval Diskin, former director of Israel’s internal security service Shin Bet, speaks of the current clash between Israel and the Palestinians, what must be done to achieve peace and the lack of leadership in the Middle East.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Diskin, following 10 days of airstrikes, the Israeli army launched a ground invasion in the Gaza Strip last week. Why now? And what is the goal of the operation?

Diskin: Israel didn’t have any other choice than to increase the pressure, which explains the deployment of ground troops. All attempts at negotiation have failed thus far. The army is now trying to destroy the tunnels between Israel and the Gaza Strip with a kind of mini-invasion, also so that the government can show that it is doing something. Its voters have been increasingly vehement in demanding an invasion. The army hopes the invasion will finally force Hamas into a cease-fire. It is in equal parts action for the sake of action and aggressive posturing. They are saying: We aren’t operating in residential areas; we are just destroying the tunnel entrances. But that won’t, of course, change much in the disastrous situation. Rockets are stored in residential areas and shot from there as well.