Report: U.S., U.N. gave Israel incorrect information on cease-fire with Hamas
(JNS.org) New details emerged Tuesday about an Aug. 1 cease-fire violation by Hamas, revealing that the agreement’s chief mediators—U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon—provided Israel with incorrect information on Hamas’s intentions.
The 72-hour cease-fire deal, one of 11 cease-fires violated by Hamas during the recent Gaza conflict, ended when Palestinian terrorists emerged from a tunnel opening and attacked an IDF Givati Brigade infantry patrol in Gaza.
While the U.S., the U.N., and Israel said Hamas violated the cease-fire, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal claimed the terror group never accepted the deal’s principle of restraint against Israeli forces inside Gaza during those 72 hours. In retrospect, Israeli officials confirmed that Mashaal in fact never promised to accept the IDF presence in Gaza, despite U.S. and U.N. assurances to the contrary.
An Israeli official told Army Radio on Tuesday that Israel had “asked the Americans for two things: a cease-fire and full freedom to act against the tunnels, without the threat of Hamas opening fire.”
“We asked for a written document that Hamas accepts these conditions and we indeed [received that], along with public media declarations,” the official said.
At the time, Kerry told reporters that Israel and the Palestinians were prepared for a 72-hour cease-fire without conditions, and a spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general said the IDF would maintain its positions inside of Gaza.
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Al-Qaeda targeting Israelis in India, authorities warn
(JNS.org) Indian authorities are warning of the possibility of a terror attack against Israeli tourists in India over the High Holidays, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.
According to the report, Indian authorities believe al-Qaeda terrorists will try to attack Jewish and Israeli centers in Mumbai, Delhi, and Dharamsala, among other cities.
The Counter-Terrorism Bureau in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has not issued a travel warning in response to the report. Following the report, the Indian Interior Ministry recommended increased security at Israeli sites in India and advised Israelis planning on spending the next several weeks in the country to take additional security precautions.
The sites that Indian authorities are concerned about include the Israeli embassy, consulates, synagogues, Chabad houses, and Jewish community centers. The warning comes shortly after it was reported that al-Qaeda had established a cell in India.
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Israel providing U.S. with satellite intelligence on Islamic State
(JNS.org) Israel is providing the U.S. with satellite images of Islamic State positions, as well as intelligence information on individuals with western passports who have joined the terrorist organization, Reuters reported.
Israeli spy satellites—which fly over Iraq and are able to detect frequencies and angles that U.S. satellites cannot—are helping the U.S. “fill out its information and get better battle-damage assessments” after American airstrikes on Islamic State targets, an anonymous diplomat said.
“The Israelis are very good with passenger data and with analyzing social media in Arabic to get a better idea of who these people are,” said the diplomat, who added that the intelligence information is being provided “with the Hebrew and other markings scrubbed out” in order to avoid antagonizing Arab nations that are also adversaries of Islamic State.
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Israel’s newest cutting-edge submarine due to arrive Sept. 23
(JNS.org) Israel’s fourth submarine, the Dolphin-class INS Tanin, has departed Germany en route to Israel and is slated to anchor at the Haifa port on Sept. 23.
A team under the command of a lieutenant-colonel in Israel’s submarine fleet is manning the vessel on its 4,000-mile journey. When the Tanin is 270 miles off the coast of Haifa, the submarine is slated to pause at the site where Israel’s INS Dakar submarine sank in 1968, for a memorial ceremony for the Dakar crew. The Tanin will then pull into the Haifa port, where it will be welcomed in an official ceremony.
The anticipated arrival of the Tanin marks the culmination of a seven-year joint submarine project between Israel and Germany. Dolphin-class submarines are considered versatile vessels with varied capabilities that make them adaptable to different types of missions. They are 223 feet long, weigh 2,300 tons, are able to dive 656 meters deep, and cost around $500,000.
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Jack the Ripper was Jewish immigrant from Poland, book claims
(JNS.org) The infamous Victorian-era London serial killer Jack the Ripper was a Jewish barber from Poland, a new book on the 125-year-old mystery claims.
Russell Edwards, author of the book and a self-confessed “armchair detective,” claims that Aaron Kosminski, a 23-year-old Polish-Jewish immigrant, was “definitely, categorically, and absolutely” the man behind the grisly murders of five women in London in 1888.
“I’ve got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case,” Edwards said, The Guardian reported. “I’ve spent 14 years working on it, and we have definitively solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was.”
Edwards said that a blood-stained shawl he bought in 2007, originally taken from the crime scene of one of Jack the Ripper’s victims, contained DNA evidence that eventually led him to Kosminski, who had been questioned by London police during their search for the killer.
Kosminkski and his family moved to England in 1881 and lived in the Mile End district of East London. He was eventually admitted to several “lunatic asylums” and died in 1899 of gangrene.
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Lebanese Christians arm themselves against possible Islamic State invasion
(JNS.org) Christian militias have started to arm themselves for the first time in decades as Lebanese military leaders urge unity in the face of the jihadist threat.
“ISIS is a cancerous tumor that surfaced at first in parts of Iraq and Syria and it’s still contained to a certain point and this can be removed only if we join our efforts via an international Arab alliance,” Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea said Sept. 6, the Daily Star reported.
In the face of the threat posed by Islamic State, Christians from groups such as the Free Patriotic Movement political party are arming themselves for the first time since the bloody Lebanese Civil War ended in 1990, the Associated Press reported.
Lebanon, where Christians make up 35-40 percent of the population, has been a popular destination for Christians fleeing from Iraq and Syria.
“We all know that if they come, they will slit our throats for no reason,” an armed villager from the Christian town of Qaa near the Syrian border told the Associated Press.
Several Islamic State messages have recently appeared on churches in Tripoli, the Daily Star reported.
“The Islamic State will break the cross,” read a message painted on the wall of the Mar Elias Church. Another message stated, “We came to slaughter you, you worshippers of the cross.”
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Brussels Jewish museum shooter reportedly planned major terror attack in Paris
(JNS.org) Mehdi Nemmouche, the former Islamic State terrorist behind last May’s shooting that killed four people at the Brussels-based Jewish Museum of Belgium, reportedly planned a major attack in Paris on Bastille Day.
According the testimony of four freed French journalists who were held hostage by Nemmouche and others in Syria earlier this year, Nemmouche revealed that he planned a major attack in Paris on July 14, the French daily Liberation reported.
Nemmouche reportedly wanted to target the iconic Parisian landmark Champs-Elysees in an attack “five times bigger” than those carried out in 2012 by Mohammed Merah—who killed seven people, including three Jewish children and a rabbi in the city of Toulouse.
One of the freed journalists, Nicolas Henin, recently described how Nemmouche severely beat him and tortured other prisoners, including the raping and killing of a young mother before beheading her baby.
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