Abbas: No U.N. resolution, no more cooperation with Israel
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to break off ties with Israel if the Palestinian-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution demanding Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank by 2017 fails.
Speaking to reporters in Algeria, Abbas said that the Palestinians are “determined to restore their rights, including the right of return for refugees and the release of all Palestinians from Israeli prison,” the Algerian Press Service reported.
“If we fail, we will halt all dealings with the Israeli government and ask it to assume its responsibilities as an occupation state,” added Abbas.
Yet the PA’s draft resolution has raised objections from Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that rules Gaza. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement that the U.N. measure “doesn’t represent the consensus of the Palestinian people.” Abu Zuhri called on Abbas to withdraw the resolution, saying “we believe in Hamas that this draft resolution doesn’t cover [all] Palestinians and here [in Gaza there] is a large factional opposition.”
Hamas has traditionally opposed working with international institutions like the U.N. to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, preferring violence. The U.S.—which holds veto power in the U.N. Security Council—has indicated it will veto any PA resolution that supports unilateral actions outside of negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
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Syrian group: U.S. strikes have killed more than 1,000 jihadis
(JNS.org) More than 1,000 members of the Islamic State and other jihadist terror groups have been killed in U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria since September, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
“Since the beginning of the strikes [on Sept. 23] at least 1,171 people, including 1,119 militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front, were killed by Arab and international strikes in Syria,” the Observatory said in a statement, AFP reported.
Meanwhile, recent reports indicate that Islamic State has been looting Christian churches and other ancient artifacts to fund its terror operations. According to a report in the U.K.-based daily The Times, Islamic State is “selling today artifacts worth millions of dollars directly to collectors in the West,” said Willy Bruggeman, a former director of Europol and president of the Belgian federal police council, who has been investigating an illegal Islamic State smuggling ring that has been traced to black-market routes and buyers in Europe.
“Islamic State elements use bulldozers in order to get gypsum and wall paintings from old churches, which brings them a lot of money,” the report said.
Earlier this year, the Iraqi Intelligence Services reported that Islamic State was able to collect roughly $36 million from the sale of Christian artifacts in the Syrian city of Nabaq.
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CIA allegedly circumvented Israeli airport security
(JNS.org) A secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) document released Sunday by WikiLeaks includes a manual for American agents on how to avert suspicion while going through airport security, singling out Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport as one of the toughest to navigate.
“With the exception of Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport and a few others, immigration inspectors conducting primary screenings generally lack the time and tools to conduct in-depth examination of travelers,” the 15-page document says.
Specifically, the manual guides agents how to circumvent “secondary screening”—which it called “a potentially lengthy and detailed look by airport officials at passengers not passing initial scrutiny”—at Ben-Gurion.
“At Ben-Gurion airport in Israel, the secondary screening room contains trace-detection equipment for explosive residue; tools for dismantling passengers’ personal items for inspection, particularly items unfamiliar to security officers; and a disrobing area, divided by privacy curtains, to conduct strip searches of individuals, if necessary. … Consistent, well-rehearsed, and plausible cover is important for avoiding secondary selection and critical for surviving it,” the document says.
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French Muslim driver rams crowd with autombile
(JNS.org) A second French driver in as many days shouted “Allahu Akbar” (Arabic for “God is greater”) while intentionally driving into a crowd on Monday.
In the latest attack, a 37-year-old driver plowed into a Christmas market in the city of Nantes in western France, injuring 11 and subsequently stabbing himself several times. French Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the driver “deliberately crashed into the crowd,” but local prosecutor Brigitte Lamy said the incident was “not a terrorist act.”
On Sunday in the eastern French city of Dijon, a 40-year-old driver also shouted “Allahu Akbar” as well as “this is in the name of the children of Palestine” while driving into a crowd, according to witnesses. The driver, who was reportedly known to police for prior minor offenses, wounded 13 people. He “fit the profile of someone with mental problems,” French police said, AFP reported.
Though authorities are downplaying the possibility of terrorism, the French vehicular attacks mirror two recent Palestinian terror attacks in which drivers rammed their cars into light rail stations in Jerusalem.
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India rethinks pro- Palestine votes at U.N.
(JNS.org) India is weighing dropping its pro-Palestinian stance at the United Nations.
“Like other foreign policy issues, the [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi government is looking at India’s voting record at the United Nations on the Palestinian issue,” a government source told The Hindu, an Indian daily newspaper, adding that the U.N. policy change only needs an “administrative nod.”
The report indicates that India would shift from voting for the Palestinian cause to one of abstention. India and Israel have enjoyed increasingly close military and economic cooperation over the past two decades. With the election of Modi earlier this year, many speculated that Israel-India ties would grow due to Modi’s personal and business ties with the Jewish state, dating to his time as chief minister of one of India’s wealthiest and industrialized states.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Modi met for the first time last September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York to discuss bilateral ties and Iran’s nuclear program. Last week, Modi also sent out Hanukkah greetings to his “Jewish friends” via his Twitter account.
“May this Festival of Lights and the festive season ring in peace, hope, and well-being for all,” Modi wrote.
The move by India comes as the Palestinians have indicated their intent to push for unilateral statehood recognition in several international bodies. At the same time, several of Israel’s long-standing allies in Europe have passed non-binding legislative resolutions calling for recognition of Palestinian statehood.
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Czech Jews oppose Putin invitation to Holocaust commemoration
(JNS.org) The Czech Republic’s Jewish community has expressed anger over the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin to a Czech Holocaust commemoration ceremony next month in Prague that will mark the 70th anniversary of the Red Army’s liberation of Auschwitz.
Czech Jewish leaders oppose the invitation because of their opposition to Russia’s actions in neighfboring Ukraine, notably Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March and its continuing support of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
“The regime Putin established and embodies doesn’t respect international treaties, is aggressive and uses its power to occupy the territory of a neighboring state,” the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic said in a statement, according to Bloomberg News.
“I hope that [Putin] will not come, but this is only my personal hope,” said Czech Chief Rabbi Karol Sidon, the Prague Post reported.
Yet the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, told The Jerusalem Post that ironically, “On the one hand you have Russia acting like Nazi Germany in the 1930s and seizing territory; on the other hand they are the ones who are fighting for the accuracy of the historical record of World War II and the Holocaust.”
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Israel explores ties with Cuba
(JNS.org) Israel is exploring the future of its relationship with Cuba following the recent American announcement of restored diplomatic ties with the Caribbean country.
“Israel supported the American Cuba policy in international forums in the context of the strategic alliance between the two countries and because of Cuba’s critical line on Israel in these forums,” Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon told The Times of Israel. “In light of the change we are studying the [U.S.] decision and stand in contact with American authorities.”
Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama announced the re-establishment of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic ties after more than 50 years, including the easing of some travel and trade restrictions. The news coincided with the freeing of Jewish-American contractor Alan Gross, who had been held in Cuban prison for several years.
While the communist regime of Fidel Castro initially had a warm relationship with Israel shortly after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cuba unilaterally cut ties with the Jewish state in 1973 as Castro sought to increase ties with third-world countries in the Non-Aligned Movement, including Arab nations opposed to Israel’s existence.
Since then, a combination of Cuba’s harsh stance on Israel in international forums, ties with Iran and Venezuela, and the U.S. embargo on Cuba led to little contact between Cuba and Israel. Nevertheless, Israelis often visit Cuba and have contact with the country’s small Jewish community.
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