Recently in Israel Category

This man wants you to submit to Sharia

This is an attempt to bring the Sharia blasphemy law to Israel. This is the kind of law that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) wants to impose on the U.S., with willing aid from American "journalists" such as Eric Posner, Sarah Chayes, and a man whose mainstream acceptance is emblematic of the decay of our public square: the Travis Bickle of jihad enablers and my personal stalker, the egregious bottom feeder and gutter thug Nathan Lean (aka "Garibaldi"), Reza Aslan's gunsel.

Sarsour, by the way, forgot that he was an oppressed member of an apartheid state and somehow ended up in the Knesset.

"MK Sarsour seeks to outlaw Muhammad cartoons," by Lahav Harkov in the Jerusalem Post, May 29 (thanks to Suneil):

Drawing caricatures ridiculing Muhammad – as well as Moses and Jesus – should be illegal, MK Ibrahim Sarsour said Tuesday.

The UAL-Ta’al MK submitted legislation on Monday that would outlaw cursing, defaming and publishing pictures or caricatures of holy books and prophets, including Muhammad, Moses and Jesus.

It includes, according to Sarsour, “any offense in any form – speaking, drawing – that harms people’s religious sentiments, whether directly or indirectly.”

Sarsour explained that, although there have not been any offensive caricatures of Muhammad disseminated in Israel recently, he would like to prevent it from occurring in the future. He also pointed out that soccer fans often chant things about Muhammad that are offensive to Muslims.

“There is no difference between religion and a prophet, and a law like this is necessary regardless of whether the phenomenon exists, because it can exist,” he said.

The current law, which outlaws “grossly offending” religions is not strong enough, Sarsour added, and the time has come for the punishment to be greater, in the form of high fines and jail sentences, so it deters people from insulting religion.

Sarsour saw no issue of free speech with the legislation, saying he makes “a clear difference between the right to express opinions and harming religious sentiment. That is a red line, and there is no justification to cross it.”

The bill is unlikely to pass, as it does not have support from any MKs outside of UAL-Ta’al or in the coalition.

Hizballah resuming its jihad? "Rocket fired from Lebanon towards Israel: residents," from Reuters, May 26:

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A rocket was fired from south Lebanon towards Israel on Sunday, Lebanese security sources said, and residents of a northern Israeli town reported hearing a blast.

"An explosion was heard. Soldiers are searching the area. The cause is still being investigated," an Israeli military spokeswoman said. A second Israeli military source said the explosion was probably caused by a mortar.

The incident came amid heightened tensions in the region over Syria's civil war. Damascus has said it will respond to Israeli air strikes earlier this month against suspected Iranian missiles in Syria destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The rocket launch could be heard from the Lebanese town of Marjayoun, about 10 km (six miles) from the Israeli border, residents in the Lebanese town said....

Setting the historical record straight. "Naqba — Commemorating a Self-Inflicted Tragedy," by Daniel Mandel in Algemeiner, May 19:

Today, Palestinians and their supporters, as they have done increasingly over the years, mark what they call the naqba (Arabic for catastrophe). It was on this day 65 years ago that Israel came into existence upon the expiry of British rule under a League of Nations mandate.

That juxtaposition of Israel and naqba in not accidental. We are meant to understand that Israel’s creation caused the displacement of hundreds of thousand of Palestinian Arabs.

But the truth is different. A British document from early 1948, declassified only weeks ago, tells the story: “the Arabs have suffered a series of overwhelming defeats…. Jewish victories … have reduced Arab morale to zero and, following the cowardly example of their inept leaders, they are fleeing from the mixed areas in their thousands.”

In other words, Jew and Arabs, including irregular foreign militias from neighboring states, were already fighting and Arabs fleeing even before Israel had sovereign existence.

Thus, on May 15, what is now called the naqba consisted, not of an Israeli act of forcible displacement of Arabs, but of neighboring Arab armies and internal Palestinian militias responding to Israel’s declaration of independence and Britain’s departure with full-scale hostilities. Tel Aviv was bombed from the air and the head of Israel’s provisional government, David Ben Gurion, delivered his first radio address to the nation from an air-raid shelter.

Israel successfully resisted invasion and dismemberment — the universally affirmed objective of the Arab belligerents — and Palestinians came off worst of all from the whole venture. At war’s end, over 600,000 Palestinians were living as refugees under neighboring Arab regimes.

So the term naqba is misleading. Indeed, it smacks of falsehood, inasmuch as it implies a tragedy inflicted by others. The tragedy, of course, was self-inflicted.

As Israel’s UN ambassador Abba Eban was to put it, “Once you determine the responsibility for that war, you have determined the responsibility for the refugee problem. Nothing in the history of our generation is clearer or less controversial than the initiative of Arab governments for the conflict out of which the refugee tragedy emerged.”

However, the Palestinians do not mourn today the ill-conceived choice of going to war to abort Israel. They mourn only that they failed....

"Palestinians mark the Nakba, or catastrophe of the founding of Israel, every May 15." Forgotten (of course) in all their murderous and simultaneously self-righteous posturing is that it was Muslim leaders who exhorted the Muslims to leave their homes, promising that they would be able to return in a matter of weeks when Israel was destroyed. Also, the "Palestinian" state that is supposed to solve everything was turned down by the local Muslims, who were not yet "Palestinians," when the UN offered it to them in 1948. "Islamist group says Hermon mortars fired to avenge ‘Nakba,’" by Elhanan Miller and Michal Shmulovich for the Times of Israel, May 16:

A previously unknown Islamist group took responsibility Thursday for the firing of two mortar shells at Mount Hermon a day earlier. It was the first time since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising that the area was targeted, and it led authorities to shut down the tourist area for several hours.

In a message posted online, the self-described Abdul Qader Husseini Battalions of the Free Palestine movement said it “attacked an observatory of the Zionist entity on the occupied Golan Heights with missiles on the anniversary of return, May 15, 2013, avenging the martyrs of return [who died] last year.”

The group was likely referring to clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinian refugees in Syria on Nakba Day in 2011 that left 13 dead after the border fence was breached.

Palestinians mark the Nakba, or catastrophe of the founding of Israel, every May 15.

“We do not celebrate, but rather avenge our martyrs as we tell the Zionist enemy that this is a battle of score settling,” the group wrote. “The operation included two missile barrages and was carried out at 5 a.m. Long live liberated Palestine.”

A video posted on Youtube on Wednesday purports to show the group firing the rockets.

There were no reported injuries or damage from the mortar fire. The area in the Hermon, the mountain range that straddles the Lebanese-Syrian border and the Golan Heights, was promptly closed to hikers for several hours on the Shavuot holiday.

Israel lodged a complaint over the attack with UNDOF, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, which oversees the buffer zone between Syria and Israel established by the Security Council in the wake of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.

On Wednesday, Israel Radio reported that Tehran had approached Damascus about letting Lebanese terror group Hezbollah open a new front against Israel from Syrian territory.

The Lebanese daily al-Akhbar suggested last week that Iran had “reached a final decision” to respond to reported Israeli airstrikes on a weapons transfer in Syria by “turning the Golan into a new Fatah-land. The front has become open to Syrians and Palestinians and anyone who wants to fight Israel.”

A "final decision," eh? Is that like a "final solution"?

Mortar shells fired from within Syria have landed in the Golan Heights several times in previous months, and Israel has often returned fire.

Last Monday, two shells hit the Israeli Golan Heights near the town of Ramat Magshimim, but no injuries or damage were reported. The next day, another mortar hit the southern Golan Heights as a result of the spillover from fighting in Syria, again without casualties or harm caused during the incident.

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is staging an anti-Israel rally in Cairo to protest Israeli airstrikes in Syria and the detention of a Muslim cleric.

Chants of “the people want destruction of Israel” rang out Friday inside Al-Azhar mosque, the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning.

The rally is the first such protest by the Brotherhood, from which Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi hails, since it gained prominence after 2011 uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

Group officials say they are protesting the Israeli detention of top Palestinian Muslim cleric in the Holy Land in a rare crackdown on a leading religious figure that drew fierce condemnation from Palestinians. The demonstrators also were denouncing Israeli airstrikes in Syria that targeted alleged shipments of advanced Iranian missiles thought to be bound for Hezbollah.

Clearly the Jews were chairophobes. Islamic Tolerance Alert from Jerusalem: "Muslim Cleric Probed Over 'Throwing Chairs at Jews' in Jerusalem," from Israel National News, May 8 (thanks to Twostellas):

Israeli police were questioning Jerusalem's most senior Muslim cleric on Wednesday for suspected involvement in a disturbance on the Temple Mount, a spokesman said.

Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammed Hussein was taken from his home by detectives and was being questioned at a police station "on suspicion of involvement in a disturbance that took place yesterday (Tuesday) on Temple Mount," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

"Some chairs were thrown at a group of Jews on the Temple Mount," which Muslims refer to as Al-Haram Al-Sharif, Rosenfeld told the AFP news agency of the previous day's incident....

The Iranians are boasting that Hizballah will obliterate Israel in the next round of jihad. Here is a bit of disconfirming evidence. "Israeli strike on Syria targeted weapons shipment," by Lolita C. Baldor and Ryan Lucas for the Associated Press, May 4:

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Israeli airstrike against Syria was targeting a shipment of advanced missiles believed to be bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Israeli officials confirmed Saturday.

It was the second Israeli strike this year against Syria and the latest salvo in its long-running effort to disrupt Hezbollah's quest to build an arsenal capable of defending against Israel's air force and spreading destruction inside the Jewish state.

The strike comes as the U.S. considers how to respond to indications that the Syrian regime may have used chemical weapons in its bloody civil war. President Barack Obama has described the use of such weapons as a "red line," and the administration is weighing its options — including possible military action.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned in recent weeks that Israel would be prepared to take military action if chemical weapons or other arms that would upset the balance of power with Hezbollah were to reach the Islamic militant group.

The Israeli officials said the attack took place early Friday and was aimed at sophisticated "game-changing" weapons, but not chemical arms. One official said the target was a shipment of advanced, long-range ground-to-ground missiles but was not more specific.

They did not say where the attack took place, or whether the air force carried out the strike from Lebanese or Syrian airspace....

But don't be concerned. Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, said: "There is constant and in-depth dialogue with the Egyptians."

"Militants in Egyptian Sinai Fire Rockets Into Israel but Do No Damage," by Isabel Kershner for the New York Times, April 17:

JERUSALEM — Two rockets fired from the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula struck the southern Israeli resort of Eilat on Wednesday, causing no damage or injuries, according to the Israeli military. The first such attack on that city in a year, it underscored the continuing threat from militants operating across the desert border.

But rather than serving as a new source of tension between Israel and Egypt under President Mohamed Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the attack prompted Israeli officials to speak of close cooperation between the countries over what they view as a joint interest.

“There is constant and in-depth dialogue with the Egyptians,” Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli Defense Ministry official, told Israel Radio after the attack. “Egypt considers any kind of terror to be a threat to Egypt, and it is very committed to the peace agreement with us. This commitment has improved and is more intensive.”

Mr. Gilad added: “The rocket fire is meant to kill and to cause panic and to complicate our relationship with Egypt. We will make every effort to prevent this.”...

And I am sure that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood regime will make every effort as well.

Possibly fired from Egypt. "Jihad Terror Group Claims 'Credit' for Eilat Rocket Attack," by Chana Ya'ar for Israel National News, April 17:

A Salafi Muslim jihadist group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday morning’s rocket attack on the Israeli Red Sea resort city of Eilat.

“The lions of the Mujahedeen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem managed to target occupied Eilat with two Grad rockets on the morning of April 17, and withdrew safely,” a statement posted on jihadist web sites said. There were no details indicating the site from where the rockets had been launched, AFP reported.

However, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Force said the rocket fire had been traced to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, a region which has become a hotbed of terrorist activity since the fall in 2011 of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian military said it was still checking the source of the rocket fire. “We are still investigating to see if they were delivered from Egyptian territories but nothing is confirmed yet,” a senior military official told AFP.

The two rockets slammed into the city of Eilat at about 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, one exploding in the back yard of a private home, the other landing in an open area.

Although a number of people suffered severe anxiety and shock as a result of the attack, no one was physically injured and no property damage was reported.

Authorities ordered a temporary closure of the local Eilat airport as a safety precaution, and a flight to the area from Ben Gurion International Airport was canceled. However, schools in Israel’s southernmost Negev city remained opened despite the rocket fire....

The Qur'an allows for the owning of sex slaves -- and slaves, by definition, must act at their master's behest, whether or not they wish to perform the action or not. So sex slavery is essentially an Islamic justification for rape. The Qur'an says:

If you fear that you will not act justly towards the orphans, marry such women as seem good to you, two, three, four; but if you fear you will not be equitable, then only one, or what your right hands own; so it is likelier you will not be partial. (Qur'an 4:3)

This verse is the basis for Islamic polygamy, allowing a man to take as many as four wives, as long as he believes he is able to “deal justly” with all of them. But justice in these circumstances is in the eye of the beholder. Ibn Kathir says this the requirement to deal justly with one’s wives is no big deal, since treating them justly isn’t the same as treating them equally: “it is not obligatory to treat them equally, rather it is recommended. So if one does so, that is good, and if not, there is no harm on him.”

The verse goes on to say that if a man cannot deal justly with multiple wives, then he should marry only one, or resort to “what your right hands own” – that is, slave girls.

The Qur'an commentator Maulana Bulandshahri explains the wisdom of this practice, and longs for the good old days:

During Jihad (religion war), many men and women become war captives. The Amirul Mu’minin [leader of the believers, or caliph – an office now vacant] has the choice of distributing them amongst the Mujahidin [warriors of jihad], in which event they will become the property of these Mujahidin. This enslavement is the penalty for disbelief (kufr).

He goes on to explain that this is not ancient history:

None of the injunctions pertaining to slavery have been abrogated in the Shari’ah. The reason that the Muslims of today do not have slaves is because they do not engage in Jihad (religion war). Their wars are fought by the instruction of the disbelievers (kuffar) and are halted by the same felons. The Muslim [sic] have been shackled by such treaties of the disbelievers (kuffar) whereby they cannot enslave anyone in the event of a war. Muslims have been denied a great boon whereby every home could have had a slave. May Allah grant the Muslims the ability to escape the tentacles of the enemy, remain steadfast upon the Din (religion) and engage in Jihad (religion war) according to the injunctions of Shari’ah. Amen!

This is by no means an eccentric or unorthodox view in Islam. The Egyptian Sheikh Abu-Ishaq al-Huwayni declared in May 2011 that “we are in the era of jihad,” and that as they waged jihad warfare against infidels, Muslims would take slaves. He clarified what he meant in a subsequent interview:

...Jihad is only between Muslims and infidels….Spoils, slaves, and prisoners are only to be taken in war between Muslims and infidels. Muslims in the past conquered, invaded, and took over countries. This is agreed to by all scholars--there is no disagreement on this from any of them, from the smallest to the largest, on the issue of taking spoils and prisoners. The prisoners and spoils are distributed among the fighters, which includes men, women, children, wealth, and so on.

When a slave market is erected, which is a market in which are sold slaves and sex-slaves, which are called in the Qur’an by the name milk al-yamin, “that which your right hands possess” [Qur’an 4:24]. This is a verse from the Qur’an which is still in force, and has not been abrogated. The milk al-yamin are the sex-slaves. You go to the market, look at the sex-slave, and buy her. She becomes like your wife, (but) she doesn’t need a (marriage) contract or a divorce like a free woman, nor does she need a wali. All scholars agree on this point--there is no disagreement from any of them. [...] When I want a sex slave, I just go to the market and choose the woman I like and purchase her.

Right around the same time, on May 25, 2011, a female Kuwaiti activist and politician, Salwa al-Mutairi, also spoke out in favor of the Islamic practice of sexual slavery of non-Muslim women, emphasizing that the practice accorded with Islamic law and the parameters of Islamic morality.

...A merchant told me that he would like to have a sex slave. He said he would not be negligent with her, and that Islam permitted this sort of thing. He was speaking the truth….I brought up (this man’s) situation to the muftis in Mecca. I told them that I had a question, since they were men who specialized in what was halal, and what was good, and who loved women. I said, “What is the law of sex slaves?” 

The mufti said, “With the law of sex slaves, there must be a Muslim nation at war with a Christian nation, or a nation which is not of the religion, not of the religion of Islam. And there must be prisoners of war.”

“Is this forbidden by Islam?,” I asked.

“Absolutely not. Sex slaves are not forbidden by Islam. On the contrary, sex slaves are under a different law than the free woman. The free woman must be completely covered except for her face and hands. But the sex slave can be naked from the waist up. She differs a lot from the free woman. While the free woman requires a marriage contract, the sex slave does not--she only needs to be purchased by her husband, and that’s it. Therefore the sex slave is different than the free woman.”

While the savage exploitation of girls and young women is an unfortunately cross-cultural phenomenon, only in Islamic law does it carry anything approaching divine sanction. Here is yet another human rights scandal occasioned by Islamic law that the international human rights community and the mainstream media cravenly ignore.

"Lawyer: Recognize Victims of ‘Terrorist Rape,’" by Maayana Miskin for Israel National News, April 10 (thanks to all who sent this in):

There is a clear trend of Arab men sexually assaulting Jewish girls and women as a form of anti-Israel terrorism, attorney Roni Sadovnik said Wednesday, speaking to Arutz Sheva.

Israel’s courts prefer to treat such crimes as solely criminal in nature rather than as crimes motivated by nationalist hate, she said. Changing the status of such crimes would give victims a wider array of services and assistance.

Currently, victims of sex crimes perpetrated by Palestinian Authority men are left to handle the trauma without special help from the state, she explained.

Sadovnik noted a particularly extreme case in which four PA resident teenagers grabbed a 13-year-old Jewish girl from the side of a road north of Jerusalem, beat her and raped her. The girl managed to escape after throwing sand in the eyes of one of her attackers.

The four rapists were convicted, but each will serve just two years in prison due to their young age.

Details of the case, including the attackers’ focus on humiliating their victim, show that the attack was motivated by anti-Jewish hate, Sadovnik said. The crime should have been treated as terrorist attacks are, she added.

Another example is the brutal rape last May in the Gan Ha'Ir mall in Tel Aviv, she said. In that attack, a PA resident man who had entered Israel illegally attacked two Jewish youths over the course of four hours, beating the male and beating and raping the female.

Again, the particular focus on humiliation shows that the motive “was clearly hatred between the peoples,” she said.

When such cases come to court, it is the girls and women who were attacked who are called on to prove that the attack was motivated by nationalism, she said. Prosecutors reach plea bargain arrangements with rapists and other sex attackers which do not include a confession of the attackers’ motives – a confession which could lead to the recognition of the victims as victims of terrorism.

Sadovnik noted that there is a conflict of interests at play. The State Prosecution is essentially part of the government, she said, and the government would be required to fund additional help for victims if the prosecution were to recognize them as victims of terrorism.

There is international precedent for recognizing rape as a crime of war, she said. Regarding the theory that the state may be deliberately reducing prosecution of PA residents for diplomatic reasons, Sadovnik said that she, too, believes it is time for peace – but that peace must not come at the expense of girls and young women attacked by rapists.

Rape has been an element of Arab attacks on Jews in the Land of Israel dating back to the 1929 Hevron Massacre and even earlier. Harassment of Jewish women has become a major issue in the Negev and in parts of Jerusalem, among other places.

In recent years several gang rapes committed by Israeli Arab men have been found to have been motivated by anti-Israel hate. Terrorists who murdered an American Christian female tourist in Israel were found to have committed rape in a separate attack.

The issue of Muslim rape of non-Muslim women has caused controversy outside Israel’s borders as well, including in Norway, where a stormy public debate erupted after police revealed that Muslim immigrants were responsible for nearly all rapes in Oslo.

Never again.

The suicidal endorsement by the Left of the jihad against free people extends even to the front lines of that jihad, Israel. We saw yesterday yet another example of this, and of how Leftists turn against their own when one of them dares to step off the reservation and criticize jihad and Islamic supremacism. And now we see that the Israeli Left has just as much of a taste for authoritarianism and violence as the American Left. Given how viciously Haaretz has gone after counter-jihad freedom fighters like Pamela Geller in the past, this is really no surprise.

#MyJihad in Israel: 2-year-old Israeli girl in critical condition, mother wounded after Muslims throw stones at car -- Jihad Watch, March 19, 2013

"Everybody must not get stoned," by Joshua Davidovich for the Times of Israel, April 4:

Say what you will about Israeli journalism, there exists a certain camaraderie among the corps of journalists doing their job everyday to get the news out and make sure no source goes named (zing!). Yet when Haaretz Palestinian affairs columnist/reporter Amira Hass called on Wednesday for Palestinians to exercise their right to throw stones at Israeli soldiers, writers from both Maariv and Israel Hayom unsheathed their fangs.

Both papers report the news that the Yesha settlers council is looking to sue Hass for incitement, especially as her words came just hours after a court found a Palestinian man guilty of murder for throwing stones at a car that overturned, killing Asher Palmer and his infant son, and while a 3-year-old girl remains in intensive care following a similar attack three weeks ago.

Israel Hayom features both Dror Eydar and former peace negotiator Yossi Beilin calling out Hass for her endorsement of violence. “Am I the only one that understands that Hass is teaching the killers of Fatah and Hamas to keep their knives and guns, bombs and suicide belts ‘just’ for soldiers,” Eydar asks rhetorically. “Dear mothers — the compassionate nurse Hass is encouraging her allies to harm ‘only’ your sons and daughters serving in the IDF. All this is written in a Hebrew-language paper on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.”

Beilin, on the other hand, takes a softer, but still biting, stance against Hass.

“I have a lot of appreciation for Amira Hass,” he writes. “She is a very brave woman, not afraid to find herself in the minority and open to criticism, and doesn’t bend on her values. The column from yesterday was surprising and saddening.… It’s also not smart. The greatest blow to the peace camp in Israel after the Rabin assassination was the breakout of the Second Intifada, in the middle of the most serious talks to date between Israel and the Palestinians. None of us in the peace camp were able to explain why the provocative visit by then-opposition head Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount justified, in the Palestinians’ eyes, that violence.”

Maariv goes even more directly for the jugular, asking in its headline “Whose Haaretz is this” (a play on words, as ‘Haaretz’ means “land”) and running a big picture of a girl covered in blood after being the victim of a stone-throwing attack. The paper also enlists Adva Bitton, the mother of the aforementioned seriously injured 3-year-old girl, to write a column addressing Hass directly.

“Amira, a stone does not discriminate between blood and blood and not between a grown man and a 3-year-old girl,” she writes. “A stone kills. A stone is a weapon of death in every way. Three weeks ago, I experienced on my own flesh how one stone can overturn a whole family.”...

This demonstrates how disastrously foolish it was for Israel to have succumbed to Obama's pressure and apologized for defending itself. Now some of the money that Israel will pay to the "victims" will go to the jihad against Israel.

"Mavi Marmara victim to donate compensation to Hamas, Islamic Jihad," from the Hürriyet Daily News, April 3 (thanks to Joshua):

One of the victims of the Israeli raid on the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla has announced that he will donate the compensation to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israel apologized to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara raid in which nine Turkish nationals died and agreed to pay compensation to the families of the victims.

Activist Mehmet Tunç said he would donate the compensation to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine himself, adding that he would not touch even “one Turkish Lira” of it at a press conference today.

Tunç had been a volunteer on the Mavi Marmara ship traveling to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. He told reporters that nine of his friends had been martyred by the Israeli forces in a raid he called “against international law.”

Abdullah Demirel, Tunç’s lawyer, said the Israeli government had apologized for the first time in its history and that it was a “huge development.” Demirel also said they had been informed by the Turkish Foreign Ministry on the compensation issue.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu hosted the families of the Mavi Marmara victims late April 2. The ministers informed the families at a dinner about the recent reconciliation process between Turkey and Israel, which was started by an Israeli apology for the losses in the Mavi Marmara incident. The lawyers of the families were also present at the meeting.

The families have not yet made their final decision as to whether accept the compensation that will eventually be offered by Israel and withdraw from cases against Israeli soldiers, according to sources.

Arınç said yesterday that the families had said that “any words about compensation would sadden them. The core of the issue is the apology and lifting of the embargo [on the Gaza Strip]. The government’s work on compensation would be right for them as well.”

The lifting of the embargo would mean the free flow of arms to the jihadists in Gaza.

The jihadists are claiming that Israel broke the agreement -- by fighting back after they fired rockets into Israel earlier. The Zionists have no right to defend themselves, you see.

"2 rockets fired from Gaza explode in southern Israel," from the Times of Israel, April 3:

Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip struck southern Israel Wednesday morning, hours after Israeli planes bombed targets in the Hamas-controlled territory for the first time since November’s ceasefire took effect.

No damage or injuries were reported in either incident....

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon tweeted earlier Wednesday morning that Israel considers Hamas responsible for any rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, and that “we will under no circumstances allow a situation of sporadic fire at our citizens and troops.”

Ya’alon, a former IDF chief of staff who took the reins of the Defense Ministry last month, added that Israel also refuses to tolerate cross-border fire on the northern frontier with Syria, and that it would respond in kind to any such incidents in the Golan Heights.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz also said Wednesday that Israel “would not allow the reality which existed before Operation Pillar of Defense to return.”

“The south is strong and stable, everything is under control,” he said.

Israeli planes carried out bombing sorties over the Gaza Strip late Tuesday night, responding to rocket attacks out of the Palestinian enclave earlier in the day.

The bombings were the first Israeli attack on Gaza since an informal ceasefire between Jerusalem and Hamas went into effect last November, following Operation Pillar of Defense, an eight-day campaign to stem Gazan rocket fire which also saw hundreds of missiles launched into Israeli territory.

Hamas charged in a tweet from its official account that Israel broke the ceasefire by carrying out Tuesday night’s airstrikes, which followed rocket fire from Gaza earlier Tuesday.

Ihab Ghussein, the Hamas government spokesman, accused Israel of using the airstrikes to “divert the attention” from unrest in Israeli prisons. “They think that through escalation on Gaza front they can hide the truth,” he said, and urged Egypt, the guarantor of the cease-fire, to intervene....

What will Egypt do? The Muslim Brotherhood government wants war with Israel, but knows that it risks losing American aid if it goes to war. Will Obama, whose policies have been consistently anti-Israel despite his protestations to the contrary, give them a quiet green light?

No one would dare suggest that the "Palestinians" have no corresponding obligation to rein in the genocidal rhetoric on Palestinian television. Keep that jizya flowing, dhimmi! "Israel to resume money transfers to Palestinians," by Mohammed Daraghmeh for the Associated Press, March 25:

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israel said Monday it would resume regular monthly transfers of about $100 million in taxes and customs it collects for the Palestinian Authority, a step bound to ease but not end the protracted cash crisis of the self-rule government in the West Bank.

Israel has repeatedly halted the money transfers over political disputes, most recently after the Palestinians' successful bid in November to win U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine in lands Israel captured in 1967.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad accused Israel of withholding the funds illegally, saying the money belonged to the Palestinians. Israel has released some money since the U.N. recognition, but not on schedule.

Israel's decision came just days after President Barack Obama met separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a visit to the region. Obama said stabilizing the Palestinian Authority, which is buckling under mounting debt, is key to U.S. peace efforts.

The transfers are an important part of the budget of the Palestinian Authority, which administers 38 percent of the West Bank. In recent months, the Palestinian Authority has struggled to pay the salaries of tens of thousands of civil servants — the backbone of the local economy — and repay its debt to the private sector.

The financial crisis began in 2010, with donors — mainly Arab countries — not meeting aid pledges, Fayyad has said. In 2013, the Palestinian Authority will have an anticipated budget deficit of $1.5 billion, out of an overall spending plan of $3.5 million, Fayyad told reporters.

The Palestinian Authority has operating costs of about $300 million a month, with more than half spent on the government payroll. The Israeli transfers are critical to keeping the Palestinian Authority afloat.

Meanwhile, wide gaps remain on the terms of renewing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that broke down more than four years ago. Obama heard from both sides during his visit and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is making a new push to restart the talks.

The Palestinians say Israel must freeze settlement building in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, the lands it captured in 1967, before any negotiations can resume. Israel says the issue of settlements can be addressed during negotiations.

Obama has sided with the Israeli view, and it is not clear how the U.S. can bring the Palestinians back to the table without a settlement freeze.

Arab countries are now being asked to help, said Yasser Abed-Rabbo, a top official in the Palestine Liberation Organization.

"U.S. efforts will increase in coming weeks and will include other Arab parties, such as Jordan and Egypt," Abed-Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio Monday, adding that an Arab League delegation is to visit Washington as part of these efforts.

However, he said there would be no flexibility on Palestinian demands for a settlement freeze.

"For us, the important thing is the substance, such as the full settlement freeze and the recognition of the 1967 borders," he said....

Here is more indication that this apology was a disaster for Israel -- one that will cause it untold problems when it tries to defend itself in the future.

"Billboards in Ankara: 'Israel apologized, thank you Erdogan,'" from Ynet News, March 25 (thanks to Joshua):

Large billboards were put up by the Ankara municipality on Monday to thank Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan following Israel's apology for the deadly 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound ship.

"Israel apologized to Turkey. Dear prime minister, we are grateful that you let our country experience this pride," the billboards read.

Israel and Turkey began talks Monday on compensation for the families of victims of the raid, for which the Jewish state apologized last week, ending a near three-year diplomatic rift.

"Officials delegated by the two sides will work on the compensation issue. We gave the kickstart for it today," Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.

Ties between Israel and Turkey plummeted in May 2010 when Israeli commandos staged a pre-dawn raid on a six-ship flotilla to the Gaza Strip, killing nine Turkish nationals.

The assault triggered an international outcry and a bitter diplomatic crisis between Turkey and Israel, with Ankara demanding a formal apology and compensation for the families of the victims.

Until last week, Israel had refused. But on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey for the raid - a breakthrough brokered by US President Barack Obama during his visit to the Jewish state.

"This is a big success of Turkish foreign policy," Arinc said....

As I said here: "This apology sets a bad precedent -- one which jihadists are certain to exploit every time Israel defends itself in the future." And now it is already happening.

"Arab diplomat: We may seek Israeli apology over 'Palestinian killings,'" from Ynet News, March 24 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

The Turkish news agency reported that an Arab diplomat said that "Arab states are considering the possibility of demanding that Israel apologize for the killings of Palestinian territories and in Lebanon in the same way that they apologized to Turkey for the Marmara."

The issue was raised at an Arab League meeting held on Saturday in Qatar. The diplomat added: "The Israeli apology to Turkey was seen as a positive move by the Arab nations." (Roi Kais)

This apology sets a bad precedent -- one which jihadists are certain to exploit every time Israel defends itself in the future. Their objective will be to intimidate Israel into ultimately not being able to defend itself at all. "Navy commando: We did nothing wrong," by Yoav Zitun for Ynet News, March 24 (thanks to Joshua):

"I don’t think we've done anything wrong," said N., a Navy combatant who was involved in the raid on the Mavi Marmara in 2010. "We did the right thing. I'm not ashamed of it and we have nothing to apologize for."

"This apology doesn't imply anything," N., who sustained injuries in the raid, added. "It's meant to promote reconciliation. On a personal level there's no need for apologies, but on a national perspective… it seems like the right thing to do."

A former combat soldier with the Navy told Ynet he was ambivalent about the apology. "On the one hand, there's something very unfair in this – when you're in battle, you fight. And we did nothing wrong. But on the other hand, maybe it's time to end this saga."

As for the decision to compensate the families of the Turkish citizens who were killed in the raid, many Navy soldiers were outraged, saying that IDF soldiers who sustained injuries in the incident have yet to be compensated.

Former Navy commander Eliezer Marom, who was the commanding officer of the 2010 raid told Ynet he was against the Israeli apology. "We must back IDF soldiers. If you start apologizing for combat errors, where will it end? An IDF soldier must be backed.

"I ask myself how this may affect the soldiers," Marom added, that's what bothers me."

"I might be joining politics soon," the former commander admitted, noting that he was aware of "the prime minister's right to make such a decision – to sacrifice support for the soldiers in order to advance national interests that mean nothing."...

"Our understanding is that it wasn't stray fire." That makes it likely to have been the jihadists. "Israel fires into Syria after Golan attack on troops," from Reuters, March 24:

(Reuters) - Israel said it fired into Syria on Sunday and destroyed a machinegun position in the Golan Heights from where shots had been fired at Israeli soldiers in a further spillover of the Syrian civil war along a tense front.

It was not immediately clear whether Israel held Syrian troops or rebels responsible for what a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said had been a deliberate attack on Israeli patrols in the occupied territory.

Israeli forces "destroyed a Syrian machine gun nest that fired twice in the last 24 hours on Israeli patrols operating to safeguard the border," the spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, said on his Twitter page.

Shells have fallen several times inside Israeli-controlled territory during Syria's civil war. Some of the incidents have drawn Israeli return fire.

Syria's southern provinces bordering Jordan and Israel have become an increasingly significant battleground as the capital Damascus - in Syria's south - comes into play and President Bashar al-Assad's forces fight hard to prevent rebel advances.

The Israeli military said one of its vehicles was hit late on Saturday by shooting from across the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire line on the Golan Heights, but no one was hurt.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner, said, "Our understanding is that it wasn't stray fire."

After a second incident on Sunday, Israeli soldiers "responded with accurate fire toward the Syrian post from which they were fired on", the military said....

"Of course, Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with anyone who is dedicated to its destruction. But while I know you have had differences with the Palestinian Authority, I believe that you do have a true partner in President Abbas..." -- Barack Obama, March 21, 2013

"As far as I am concerned, there is no difference between our policies and those of Hamas." -- Mahmoud Abbas, March 15, 2013

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it" -- Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, as quoted in the Hamas Charter

"Killing Jews is worship that draws us close to Allah" -- Hamas's Al Aqsa TV

Of course, we featured that last quote in one of our AFDI jihad truth ads. Help us keep these ads going: CONTRIBUTE HERE!

More on this story. "PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: EU Can Remove Hamas from Terror List, No Difference between Our Policies and Theirs," from MEMRI, March 15:

Following are excerpts from an interview with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, which aired on Russia Today TV on March 15, 2013.

Interviewer: It is said that the EU plans to remove Hamas from the list of terror organizations. Do you view this as a step toward complete recognition of the legitimacy of the [Hamas] government?

Mahmoud Abbas: I do not think that they will acknowledge the legitimacy of the Hamas government. After what happened, and given that Hamas has honored the truce, and has declared that it supports peaceful popular resistance… As far as I am concerned, there is no difference between our policies and those of Hamas. So why are they labeled as terrorists? In my opinion, [the EU] can remove Hamas [from the list], why not?

Interviewer: But you do not fire missiles at Israel.

Mahmoud Abbas: Neither we nor Hamas fire missiles. Since the end of the second Intifada, we have committed ourselves to refrain from using weapons. We say this out in the open. It’s no secret. We don’t hide this under the table. We say loud and clear that we have no intention or desire to violate… or rather, to engage in an armed Intifada with Israel. I say this loud and clear.

Hamas declared [the same], but then there were skirmishes once or twice. Hopefully, that was the end of it.