Deal in the works for Israel to return bodies of eastern Jerusalem terrorists
(JNS.org) Senior Palestinian sources confirmed Monday that a deal is being negotiated to return the bodies of eastern Jerusalem terrorists killed in recent months to their families for burial.
Israel, which currently holds the remains of 10 Palestinian terrorists, has conditioned their return on low-key funerals, as the services held for terrorists killed since the current surge in violence erupted in October have often turned into public spectacles of incitement.
According to one Palestinian official, the families had agreed to hold nighttime funerals for their sons, attended by close relatives only. Palestinian media quoted several Ramallah officials as saying a deal has been reached.
According to reports, Israel was expected to release the bodies of two terrorists, both residents of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, to their families on Tuesday night. Should the families keep their word and hold low-key funerals, the bodies of eight other terrorists will also be returned.
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Hamas operative killed in another tunnel collapse
(JNS.org) A Hamas operative was reportedly killed in Gaza on Monday in the third deadly tunnel collapse to occur in the coastal enclave in less than two weeks. According to Palestinian sources, the tunnel was located under the border with Egypt and collapsed due to flooding caused by the Egyptian military.
According to other sources, the collapse was caused by dirt ramparts being built by the Egyptian military along the border with Gaza.
Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) recommended during a recent cabinet meeting that Israel carry out a military operation to combat Hamas’s underground tunnel threat instead of waiting for the next round of hostilities with the Palestinian terrorist group.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon rejected the idea. A statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office said, “We do not comment on cabinet discussions in general and on the IDF’s operational plans in particular.”
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3 Arab Knesset members suspended for meeting with terrorists’ families
(JNS.org) Three Arab members of the Israeli Knesset—Haneen Zoabi, Basel Ghattas, and Jamal Zahalka, all of the Joint Arab List party’s Balad faction—were suspended by the Knesset Ethics Committee for meeting with the families of late Palestinian terrorists who murdered Israelis during the current wave of violence.
Zoabi, who has a long history of anti-Israel actions and has faced Knesset discipline before, will be suspended for four months along with Ghattas, while Zahalka will be suspended for two months. Despite the bans, the Knesset members will still be able to vote at the Israeli legislature.
“We will not accept a situation in which members of Knesset support the families of the murderers of Israeli civilians, and stand in memory of those who murdered our children. There’s a limit,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Knesset upon the announcement of the suspension.
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Bernie Sanders cites J Street, Arab American Institute as Mideast policy advisers
(JNS.org) Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) cited the liberal Jewish lobby group J Street and the Arab American Institute as Middle East foreign policy advisers.
“We’ve talked to people like Jim Zogby, talked to the people on J Street to get a broad perspective of the Middle East,” Sanders said Sunday on the NBC program “Meet the Press.”
J Street and the Arab American Institute, which is headed by James Zogby, have frequently criticized Israel and mainstream pro-Israel groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for their stances on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While J Street says it has a “pro-Israel, pro-peace” mission, it has been accused of collaborating with anti-Israel groups, such as through event co-sponsorships on college campuses.
Sanders recently sparked a controversy by calling for the normalization of U.S. relations with Iran, a position that his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, swiftly opposed. Despite brokering last summer’s Iran nuclear deal, the Obama administration has also not called for normalization with Iran.
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Former Gaza aid activist linked to Islamic State executioner ‘Jihadi John’
(JNS.org) A British man who in 2009 traveled to Gaza with an aid convoy led by far-left British politician George Galloway has been identified as a member of an execution cell that was formerly led by Islamic State’s “Jihadi John.”
“Thirty-two-year-old Alexanda Kotey has been identified by British and American intelligence services as one of four ISIS guards, collectively known as the ‘Beatles,’ who are responsible for beheading 27 hostages,” a joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and the Washington Post revealed. “The guards were given their nickname by hostages because of their British accents.”
Kotey traveled to Gaza in 2009 as part of the Galloway-led “Viva Palestina” convoy, which supposedly carried £1 million ($1.44 million) worth of aid to the Palestinian coastal territory.
According to the investigation, Kotey—who is half Ghanian and half Greek Cypriot, and converted to Islam after meeting a Muslim girl—had fallen in with the London Boys, a network of extremists in western London that included Mohammed Emwazi, who was known as “Jihadi John.” Emwazi and Kotey also attended the same mosque, London’s Al-Manaar, where investigators believe they were radicalized.
In January, Islamic State confirmed that “Jihadi John” was killed by a November 2015 drone strike in Syria.
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Oscars celebrity gift bag to include $55K trip to Israel
(JNS.org) Actors and directors nominated for an Oscar this year will received a voucher for a $55,000, all-expenses-paid trip to Israel as part of the $200,000 gift packaged typically awarded to Academy Award nominees.
Each voucher covers first-class flights and hotel accommodations for two people. According to The Daily Beast, which first reported the VIP trip to Israel, the celebrity visitors to the Jewish state can stay in hotels like the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem, which was recently ranked the seventh-best hotel in the world and the best in Middle East, and where a top suite costs as much as $2,000 a night.
The voucher is more expensive than the 15-day walking tour of Japan ($45,000) that is also awarded in the Oscars gift package. Both country trips will be given to nominees along with $45,000 of Audi car rentals, $31,200-worth of skin cream supplies, several fitness and training packages totaling around $8,000, and more. This year’s Academy Awards will be held Feb. 28.
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U.K. Jewish schools receive bomb threats
(JNS.org) The British security organization Community Security Trust (CST) said that bomb threats were received by Jewish schools in the United Kingdom on Monday.
The threats came in the form of voice messages claiming that the schools would be bombed, with Arabic music in the background. Six schools, including both Jewish and non-Jewish schools, received the threats on Monday. The Metropolitan Police Service checked all the schools and found no evidence of explosives.
In the past month, a number of other schools received such threats in various parts of the U.K., in addition to five schools in Paris. Although British police are not calling these threats credible, CST still advised Jewish schools receiving such messages to implement their security procedures and searches. CST reported that 2015 saw the highest-ever number of anti-Semitic incidents in one year in the U.K.
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11-year-old Israeli Jewish boy stabbed in Ramle
(JNS.org) An 11-year-old Jewish boy was stabbed and wounded on Monday in the central Israeli town of Ramle by a terrorist the boy identified as an Arab teenager.
The boy said he had been walking down the street when the teenager asked him if he had a lighter. When the boy responded that he did not, the youth stabbed him with a knife. The Jewish boy ran home, where his mother called an ambulance.
According to the Magen David Adom emergency response organization, the boy was hospitalized with moderate injuries. Police arrested a 17-year-old Arab youth on suspicion of carrying out the attack.
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