Wednesday’s “News in Review” Round-Up

WEEKLY QUOTES

“I believe that bilateral relations between us and the Islamic Republic of Iran are back on track,” —Hamas deputy political leader Mousa abu Marzook. The Hamas leader says the terrorist group patched up relations with Iran after a breach over Syria’s civil war. When the Syrian civil war began, Tehran provided direct support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime as it massacred civilians. Many individual Hamas members sided with Syria’s Sunni rebels. Iran drastically cut its military and financial aid to Hamas, forcing them to turn to Turkey and Qatar for support. “There are many indications that … relations have been resumed in a proper way, as in the past,” Marzook said. (IPT News, Dec. 18, 2014)

“Israel should start the initiative of the Emirates Solution, which I have been preaching for years, to establish Emirates in the Palestinian Authority,” —Dr. Mordechai Kedar. Kedar argues that Israel should start advancing the establishment of eight Palestinian emirates. According to Kedar’s solution, each of the seven major Arab cities in the PA should be an independent emirate and Gaza would also become an emirate, while Israel would hold onto the rural areas of the West Bank and all of Jerusalem “in order to make sure that we don’t have another Hamastan overlooking the whole coastal area to the west, Be’ersheva and Dimona to the South, and Afula and Bet Shaan in the north.” By taking such actions on the ground by establishing the independent Palestinian Emirates, Kedar noted that “the Palestinian state will remain only on paper while on the ground there would be something totally different…The Arab Spring has brought about a much less stable region…Israel can no longer allow the rest of the world to dictate policy that makes it more difficult for the Jewish nation to survive. Israel must declare its own independent solution with regards to the so-called Palestinian movement and militant jihadism that appears to be on the ascendancy. Doing nothing only invites intervention from abroad,” he emphasized. (Jerusalem Online, Dec. 18, 2014)

“These are big hits and eliminating these figures always temporarily disrupts the organization,” — Ahmed Ali, analyst at the Institute of the Study of War. U.S. airstrikes have killed three military leaders of Islamic State in Iraq in recent weeks. Despite those losses, Ali said the killing of senior figures likely “will not end the organization…Hitting Baghdadi [IS leader, also known as “Caliph Ibrahim”] will represent a make-or-break moment for ISIS,” Ali said, “But for now, ISIS leadership bench and command structure are deep.” (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 18, 2014)

“I was taken to Mosul and kept there all the time,” —Randa, a sixteen-year-old Yazidi woman abducted from her home by Islamic State fighters along with her parents and siblings. She told Amnesty International she was given as a “gift” to a man twice her age. “A man called Salwan took me … to an abandoned house. He also took my cousin, who is 13 years old. We resisted and they beat us. He took me as his wife by force. I told him I did not want to and tried to resist but he beat me. My nose was bleeding, I could not do anything to stop him. It is so painful what they did to me and to my family. Da’esh [another name for the Islamic State] has ruined our lives.” In Mosul, an Islamic State hub in northern Iraq where extremists have been terrorizing the country’s Yazidi community, hundreds of women and girls have been captured. Many have been forced into marriage, sold as slaves or given as “gifts” to Islamic State fighters and their supporters throughout Mosul and Raqqa, Syria. It’s a situation that has driven some speak out, some to flee and some to end their own lives, according to a report released Tuesday by Amnesty International called, “Escape from Hell.” It chronicles the rape and sexual slavery, escapes and suicides since the Islamic State’s siege in June. To read the full Amnesty report click the following link. (Washington Post, Dec. 23, 2014)

“There is an awful sense of normalcy in Mosul,” — Juergen Todenhoefer, an author who traveled deep into Islamic State territory, visiting Raqqa and Deir Ezzor in Syria, as well as Mosul. Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was taken by IS in June. “130,000 Christians have been evicted from the city, the Shia have fled, many people have been murdered and yet the city is functioning and people actually like the stability that the Islamic State has brought them.”  Todenhoefer said the enthusiasm the IS fighters showed was one thing that stood out. “When we stayed at their recruitment house, there were 50 new fighters who came every day,” Todenhoefer said. “And I just could not believe the glow in their eyes. They felt like they were coming to a promised land, like they were fighting for the right thing. These are not stupid people. One of the people we met had just finished his law degree, he had great job offers, but he turned them down to go and fight … We met fighters from Europe and the United States. One of them was from New Jersey. Can you imagine a man from New Jersey traveling to fight for the Islamic State?” (CNN, Dec. 22, 2014)

“This is something we cannot accept anymore, and if you continue to target our women and children, then your children will not be safe anymore,” —Khalifa Omar Mansoor, self-proclaimed organizer of the assault last week that killed 132 schoolchildren in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. “We announce that we will not discriminate in our attacks any longer, and will be as unconcerned as you are,” he said. Mansoor appeared in a short video on a site used for distributing propaganda videos. He said the Pakistani Taliban would continue to strike civilians in revenge for Pakistani military operations under way in the country’s North Waziristan tribal area to destroy al Qaeda and Taliban havens. (Wall Street Journal, Dec. 18, 2014)

“The system did not adequately deal with the individual, there is no doubt about that,” —Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Australian authorities have been pressured to explain why the gunman in a siege at a Sydney cafe that left two hostages dead had dropped off a security watch list and was not being monitored despite his criminal record, history of violence, and public airings of his radical views. “We do need to know why the perpetrator of this horrible outrage got long-term residency…We particularly need to know how someone with such a long record of violence, such a long record of mental health instability, was out on bail after his involvement in a particularly horrific crime,” Abbott said. The gunman, Man Haron Monis, had been removed from a government terrorism watch-list around 2009 and granted permanent residency. Monis was facing trial on a number of charges, including being an accessory to the murder of his former wife. He was convicted of harassing the families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan and lost his final appeal in that case three days before he went to the cafe. In April, he was charged in the sexual assault of a woman in 2002. Forty more counts of sexual assault involving six other women were later added to that case. (New York Times, Dec. 17, 2014)

“I am sitting here in Sderot, two months after this summer’s war where terrorists wanted to close our town and make it like a ghost city. In Israel, we are now celebrating the holiday of Hanukkah. The meaning of Hanukkah for us in Sderot is that we must continue to fight for the state and land of Israel. The land belongs to us and we need to stay here and develop our town and our country. We saw, with the recent war, that when Israel became stronger, the war became stronger. The terrorists and Arabs in Gaza want to bring death to the area. I call on them to change their ways — to choose to bring forth life and not death. People are amazed that we continue to live in Sderot, to develop our town. I say that with belief in God and his help, Israel will become stronger. I want to say to everyone, we are now before the New Year and with God’s help, we will be blessed to see only good things come this year. Good things happen, especially in our area, but we know it is not in our hands,” — Holiday message from Alon Davidi, Mayor of Sderot, Israel. (Breaking Israel News, Dec. 23, 2014)

SHORT TAKES

REPORT: HAMAS HAS STARTED REPAIRING TERROR TUNNELS (Gaza) — Four months have passed since the cease-fire went into effect and Hamas has already begun preparing for the next confrontation with Israel. According to Palestinian sources, Hamas is focused on repairing the attack tunnels that were destroyed during “Operation Protective Edge.” According to the report, some of the cement and other building materials that were brought for the purpose of rehabilitating Gaza have been recently sidetracked by Hamas to reconstruct the terror tunnels. Other reports confirmed that Hamas has been conducting tests, lobbing dozens of rockets into the Mediterranean in attempt to reestablish the rocket system that was also damaged during the operation. (Jerusalem Online, Dec. 19, 2014)

IAF GAZA STRIKE TARGETED HAMAS TERROR TUNNEL CONSTRUCTION (Gaza) —Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon addressed the IAF’s strikes on Gaza on Saturday, noting that it was response to a rocket fired at Israeli civilians on Friday that struck the Eshkol region. Ya’alon said the target was a concrete factory being used to repair terror tunnels in and out of Israel, dozens of which Israel destroyed during the summer campaign. “We hold Hamas responsible for what happens in Gaza, and will act forcefully against it if it won’t prevent attacks at Israel,” Ya’alon said. The IAF strike was the first since Operation Protective Edge ended in August. (Arutz Sheva, Dec. 20, 2014)

PALESTINIANS FLEE HAMAS, ASK ISRAEL TO IMPRISON THEM (Gaza) — Over the past two months, more than twenty Palestinians have been arrested while trying to cross from the Gaza Strip into Israel, according to Palestinian sources. The increase in the number of Palestinians who try to infiltrate Israel comes as Egypt continues to keep the Rafah border crossing closed. It also comes as the power struggle between Hamas and Fatah intensifies, hampering international efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip. The situation has become so miserable in Gaza that some Palestinian youths are prepared to endanger their lives by approaching the border with Israel. The Palestinian news website, Al-Watan Voice, interviewed two of the youths who embarked on the dangerous adventure. The two young men said they prefer the “comfort” of Israeli prisons to life in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. (Breaking Israel News, Dec. 14, 2014)

HEZBOLLAH TRIES MOSSAD INFORMANT WHO FOILED ATTACKS (Beirut) — According to the Beirut-based Daily Star, Hezbollah has placed one of its operatives on trial for treason after he informed Israel about various attacks planned by the terrorist group. A Lebanese security source said that Hezbollah arrested the suspected informant, Mohammad Shawraba, who headed the organization’s External Operations Unit.  Hezbollah reportedly caught Shawraba after linking him to five botched attacks on Israeli targets to avenge the 2008 assassination of the group’s commander Imad Mughniyeh. Hezbollah accuses Mossad of carrying out the assassination. (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 19, 2014)

IS DOWNS JORDANIAN JET, CAPTURES PILOT (Amman) — The Islamic State group on Wednesday shot down a warplane from the US-led coalition over northern Syria, a monitoring group said, with the jihadists claiming to have captured a Jordanian pilot. The IS branch in Raqa published photographs on jihadist websites purporting to show its fighters holding the captured pilot, with a caption identifying him as Jordanian and giving his name. Jordan is among a number of countries that have joined the US-led alliance carrying out air strikes against IS. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and Bahrain are taking part in the air strikes in Syria alongside the US. Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and The Netherlands have joined the raids in Iraq. (Times of Israel, Dec. 24, 2014)

FRANCE ORDERS TROOP REINFORCEMENTS AFTER ATTACKS (Paris) — After a string of attacks across France that have heightened concerns about Islamic militancy, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Tuesday that hundreds of additional military personnel would be ordered onto the streets to reinforce a routine deployment of security forces. He indicated that the soldiers’ mission would be to guard against copycat attacks inspired by the three assaults. In Dijon and Nantes, a total of 23 people were wounded when men drove vehicles into crowds of people, with one of the drivers shouting Allahu Akbar (“Allah is great”). In Joué-lès-Tours, a 20-year-old man with a concealed knife entered a police station and attacked three officers before another shot and killed him. (New York Times, Dec. 23, 2014)

PAKISTAN REINSTATES DEATH PENALTY AFTER SCHOOL MASSACRE (Islamabad) — Pakistan plans to execute around 500 militants following the deadliest terror attack in the nation’s history. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reinstated the death penalty for terrorism-related cases in response to last Tuesday’s attack on a school in Peshawar, which left 149 people, including 133 children, dead. Six militants have been hanged since Friday, five of which were reportedly involved in a failed 2003 attempt to assassinate then-military ruler Pervez Musharraf.  (Washington Times, Dec. 22, 2014)

SIX MILITANTS KILLED IN U.S. DRONE ATTACKS IN PAKISTAN  (Peshawar) — Six militants were killed in an American drone strike in Pakistan on Saturday, officials said. A Pakistani security official said two missiles struck a compound in Datta Khel, just three miles from the Afghan border. Also on Saturday, Pakistani military troops raided a compound in Koi Hassankhel nine miles south of Peshawar, killing five militants. Among the dead was the brother of Omar Mansoor, whom the Taliban have identified as the commander behind the school massacre. (New York Times, Dec. 20, 2014)

EX-CABINET MINISTER WINS TUNISIAN PRESIDENTIAL RUNOFF (Tunis) —  Beji Caid Essebsi, an 88-year-old former cabinet minister, won Tunisia’s first free and democratic presidential election in a runoff, the country’s election commission announced Monday. Essebsi received 55.7 percent of the vote, and his rival, the interim president, Moncef Marzouki, got 44.3 percent in the election. Essebsi served as interior minister under Tunisia’s repressive first president, Habib Bourguiba, and as speaker of Parliament under Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in 2011. There were reports of clashes between Marzouki’s supporters and the police in the southern town of El Hamma on Sunday when exit polls indicated that Essebsi was likely to win. (New York Times, Dec. 22, 2014)

HARVARD BOYCOTTS SODASTREAM (Cambridge, MA) — The Harvard University Dining Services has suspended its contract with the Israeli carbonated water machine company SodaStream. SodaStream, you may recall, was targeted by BDS activists because its main factory was located in the town of Maale Adumim, across what BDS supporters call an “Apartheid Line” (the “Green Line”). SodaStream, however, plans to move its operation to an area in which it is still deemed acceptable for Israelis to own property. Ironically,  the move means the loss for many if not all of the company’s 900 non-Israeli Arab workers of their highest possible paying employment. (Jewish Press, Dec. 18, 2014) 

UC AFFIRMS THAT  FACULTY PROHIBITED FROM BRINGING BDS INTO CLASSROOMS (Los Angeles) —  University of California (UC) administrators have publicly affirmed that faculty are prohibited from bringing anti-Israel propaganda and BDS into the classroom. In response to a letter sent from an AMCHA-led coalition earlier this month asking if the UC policies that prohibit graduate student instructors from promoting BDS in the classroom also apply to faculty, UC administrators responded by stating, “I understand … that you are concerned that UC faculty may promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in the classroom and that you are seeking clarification as to whether the Regents Policy on Course Content applies to UC faculty members.  In response to your question, the Regents Policy…does apply to UC faculty members.”  (AMCHA Initiative, Dec. 22, 2014)

AS WORLD TURNS ITS BACK ON ISRAEL, INDIA EMERGES AS ALLY (Tel Aviv) —Since coming to power in May, Indian PM Narenda Modi has met Israeli PM Netanyahu several times. Last week, in honor of Hanukkah, Modi published a holiday greeting in Hebrew. Along with a warming of diplomatic relations, Israel and India are also engaging in new trade, defense, security, technological and cultural relationships. Last month, the two countries conducted a joint missile test on an advanced system, which was hailed by an adviser to the Indian defense minister as “an important milestone in the cooperation between India and Israel.” (Breaking Israel News, Dec. 23, 2014)

CZECH JEWS PROTEST INVITATION OF PUTIN TO HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL (Prague) — Czech Jews are angry over their government’s decision to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to a national Holocaust commemoration being held in Prague next month, citing opposition to Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has already agreed to attend the event marking the 70th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz. The Holocaust has become politicized in the conflict between Russia and its former Soviet subject, with Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar holding a Holocaust memorial in Crimea shortly after its annexation by Moscow which drew harsh condemnations by Jewish leaders in Kiev. (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 21, 2014)

FLEEING CIVIL WAR, THOUSANDS OF UKRAINIANS TAKE REFUGE IN ISRAEL (Tel Aviv) — More than 5,000 Ukrainian Jews have immigrated over the past year, seeking a refuge from the shelling, shortages and anarchy that have characterized eastern Ukraine and decimated the communities of the Donbas region, where Moscow-backed separatists have waged an increasingly violent war against Kiev’s rule. Many have also fled to other cities within Ukraine itself and even over the border to Russia. Some 1,310 Jews have come from Donetsk and Luhansk, the central population centers of Donbas, between January and November, an increase of a thousand percent over the same period in 2013, according to the Jewish Agency. (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 22, 2014)

1,600-YEAR-OLD GLASS BRACELET WITH MENORAH INSCRIPTION DISCOVERED (Tel Aviv) —A fragment from a glass bracelet inscribed with a seven- branched menorah from the Second Temple was discovered at an excavation in Israel’s Mount Carmel National Park. The dig exposed an industrial region and refuse pits that were part of a large settlement in the late Roman and early Byzantine periods, during the end of the fourth century CE and beginning of the fifth. According to Yael Gorin-Rosen, head of the Antiquities Authority’s Ancient Glass Department, glass bracelets and pendants from these periods decorated with symbols of a menorah, lion or different images of gods and animals are well known in Israel, Lebanon and Syria. (Jerusalem Post, Dec. 23, 2014)