Facebook shutters account of Hamas leader for seventh time
(JNS.org) The American social media giant Facebook has closed the account of Hamas politburo member Ezzat al-Rishq for the seventh time.
“I condemn Facebook’s administration for closing my personal account for the seventh time in a row, and I consider the [decision] bias in favor the occupation and its dictates and against the struggle of our people for the sake of freedom,” Rishq, who is a close confidante of Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, said on Twitter, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The move by Facebook follows a lawsuit filed by the NGO Shurat HaDin against Facebook for allowing Hamas to use the social media site to facilitate terror activities.
“This lawsuit should be no surprise to Facebook, which has knowingly provided its social media platform and services to Hamas, its leaders, and affiliates for years,” Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin said in a press statement.
“Facebook must now be held accountable for its role in facilitating Hamas’s terrorist activity, including the terror attacks that injured and killed the victims in this lawsuit,” she added.
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Overall terror attacks down, growing threats in Judea and Samaria, Shin Bet chief says
In his first briefing before the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Argaman warned that the motivation among Palestinian terrorist groups to attack Israeli security forces and civilians remains high.
Argaman said that since the current wave of terrorism erupted last fall, “over 300 significant terrorist attacks and attempted attacks” have taken place, and security forces “foiled 240 significant attacks.”
The Shin Bet’s data shows that over the past few months there has been a dramatic decrease in the number of terrorist attacks from last fall. October 2015 saw 600 terrorist attacks, 81 of them classified as major, compared to 103 terrorist attacks in June 2016, of which nine were classified as significant.
Argaman also warned that the “calm on the Gaza Strip border is deceptive.”
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Stop playing Pokémon Go, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum asks visitors
“Playing the game is not appropriate in the museum, which is a memorial to the victims of Nazism,” the museum’s communications director, Andrew Hollinger, told the Washington Post. “We are trying to find out if we can get the museum excluded from the game.”
Pokémon Go, a mobile game based on the popular Nintendo title that was first released in 1996, uses a phone’s GPS and camera to detect Pokémon characters using a technology called “augmented reality,” which mixes the real world and the virtual world. The game has become a global sensation that is on the verge of overtaking Twitter in terms of active users.
Pokémon figures have also been spotted at other historically sensitive sites such as Auschwitz, the former Nazi death camp in Poland.
Niantic Labs, the company that produced the popular game, has since removed the Pokémon from these types of locations.
“After we were made aware that a number of historical markers on the grounds of former concentration camps in Germany had been added, we determined that they did not meet the spirit of our guidelines and began the process of removing them in Germany and elsewhere in Europe,” Ninatic said in a statement.
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Israel’s Danon to U.N.: Hezbollah transforming Lebanon into ‘terror stronghold’
During his speech, Danon presented an aerial photograph to the Security Council of the Lebanese village of Shaqra, which he said has been transformed into a “terrorist stronghold.”
“The village of Shaqra has been turned into a Hezbollah stronghold with one out of three buildings used for terror activities including rocket launchers and arms depots,” Danon said. “Hezbollah has placed these positions next to schools and other public institutions putting innocent civilians in great danger. We demand the removal of Hezbollah terrorists from southern Lebanon.”
According to Danon, Hezbollah was in possession of roughly 7,000 rockets in 2006, and the Lebanese terror group now has more than 120,000 missiles aimed at Israeli cities.
Hezbollah has “more missiles below ground in Lebanon then the European NATO allies have above ground,” Danon said.
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Republicans exclude language on ‘two-state solution’ in party platform
On Monday, the national security subcommittee of the Republican Platform Committee approved an amendment dropping support of a two-state solution, CNN reported. An earlier version of the draft had included support for “two democratic states,” but had removed any references to the Palestinians that was included in the 2012 platform.
“The U.S. seeks to assist in the establishment of comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East, to be negotiated among those living in the region,” the approved amendment said. “We oppose any measures intended to impose an agreement or to dictate borders or other terms, and call for the immediate termination of all U.S. funding of any entity that attempts to do so.”
The platform committee unanimously approved the measure in a vote in Cleveland on Tuesday. Earlier, the Republicans had reinstated a reference to an “undivided” Jerusalem that had been previously included in the party’s 2008 platform, but was removed in 2012.
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World’s leading breast cancer researchers meet in Israel
Thirty researchers were brought together by the Soroka Medical Center and the Israel Healthcare Foundation to address whether the Ashkenazi Jewish community—for whom the gene mutation is more prevalent—and the general population should be routinely tested for genetic predisposition to breast cancer.
Current testing for inherited mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 human genes is restricted to individuals with a history of breast cancer. Thus, half of those who could have the BRCA mutation are not being tested.
“We were gratified to hear much agreement among a diverse group of experts from the U.S., Europe, and Israel, all key regions in this issue. We found that if you are in certain groups that not having a family history does not mean that you should not be tested since you might have a cancer-causing mutation. Indeed, testing all Ashkenazi Jews, as an example, finds twice as many people with mutations as testing just those with family histories,” said Dr. Larry Norton, medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center of Memorial Sloan Kettering Medical Center in New York City.
“This indicates that the rules for testing need to be changed. It also means that the psychological, medical, and economic consequences of broader testing needs to be evaluated,” said Norton, who also chaired the conference.
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The Anti-Defamation League issued this statement {see 5th story from top}:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed the Republican Party draft platform for affirming the GOP’s unwavering support for Israel’s security and for its unequivocal rejection of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. However, ADL expressed disappointment with the platform draft’s departure from longstanding GOP support of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a position that differs from the stated position of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and prior GOP platforms.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO, issued the following statement:
We are pleased that the platform draft affirms the GOP’s unwavering support for a strong and secure Israel with Jerusalem as its capital and unequivocally rejects the BDS movement. Both party platform drafts reflect and reinforce the broad bipartisan consensus in favor of strong U.S. support for Israel that has endured for decades.
We are disappointed that the platform draft departs from longstanding support of a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict – and the shared vision of successive American presidents and prime ministers of Israel, including the current leadership in both countries, who believed it was the only viable way to secure Israel as both a Jewish and democratic state. We hope the delegates will reconsider and reaffirm this pillar of U.S. policy toward Israel in the final platform.