Report: Israel to ask for U.S. military action on Syrian arm shipments to Hezbollah
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli leaders intend to ask U.S. President Barack Obama to act militarily to stop Syrian arm shipments to Hezbollah, the British newspaper The Guardian reported on Sunday. In return, the U.S. president will likely ask Israel to make progress in the peace process, the newspaper reported.
“Israel will use President Obama’s visit on Wednesday to try to persuade the U.S. to carry out air strikes on Syria if there is evidence that Syrian missiles are to be handed over to Hezbollah in Lebanon,” the report said.
The report said Israel would, at the very least, seek an American green light “for Israeli military action” to stop game-changing weapons from reaching Hezbollah.
American officials have recently stated that the U.S. will intervene in Syria only if the country’s biological or chemical weapons are used by the regime or fall into the hands of terrorists.
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Israeli wounded in drive-by shooting in latest ‘lawlessness on the roads’
(JNS.org) An Israeli man was wounded in the leg on Monday morning in what appeared to be a drive-by shooting attack at a hitchhiking post near the Kedumim junction in Samaria, Israel Hayom reported.
The man, around 70, was lightly to moderately wounded and treated by paramedics. It is believed the man was wounded by shots fired from a passing vehicle. Upon receiving a report of the shooting around 10:30 a.m., police and military personnel rushed to the scene.
The vehicle from which the shots were fired apparently fled toward the nearby Palestinian village of Jit.
Last Thursday, a 2-year-old Israeli girl was critically hurt in a road accident on Route 5 in Samaria that was caused by Palestinians throwing rocks at vehicles. Kedumim Council head Hananel Durani said on Monday that in light of recent events, he had asked the Israel Defense Forces to increase security on roads in Samaria and act with more force against terrorists.
Samaria Regional Council leader Gershon Mesika said, “We must stop the lawlessness on the roads. I call on the incoming defense minister [Moshe Ya’alon] to convene an emergency meeting and to stop the terrorism that the Palestinian Authority is trying to renew on the roads of Judea and Samaria.”
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Israel appoints Ya’alon as new defense minister amid growing threats
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has selected Likud MK (Member of Knesset) Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon as the next defense minister, amid the numerous growing threats—including Iran’s nuclear program, the Syrian civil war, the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise in Egypt, and Palestinian terrorism—facing Israel today.
The 62-year-old Ya’alon, who replaces Ehud Barak, brings considerable security experience to Israel’s defense ministry. A veteran of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Ya’alon later served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) elite Sayeret Matkal special forces unit. He was appointed head of military intelligence in 1995 and eventually served as IDF chief of staff from 2002-2005, during the height of the Second Intifada.
In 2005, Ya’alon retired from the military because of disagreements over Israel’s disengagement from Gaza with then-Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz. Following his military retirement, Ya’alon served as an expert for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and later joined the Likud party list in for the 2009 elections. After entering the Knesset, he served as Vice Premier and Minister of Strategic Affairs in Netanyahu’s government.
Known for his strong positions on security and defense, Ya’alon considers Iran’s nuclear program to be Israel’s top security threat.
“The most dangerous threat today is the nuclear threat on the part of Iran, which is working to achieve regional hegemony,” Yaalon said in a recent interview, according to the Associated Press.
“It is impossible to deal with the Middle Eastern instability without dealing with this threat,” he said.
Ya’alon is also skeptical of peace with the Palestinians; he does not consider Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to be a viable partner for peace.
“The goals of Abbas are the same as the goals of Hamas [which wants to eradicate Israel, according to its charter],” Ya’alon has told Israel Hayom.
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British leaders debate Palestinian hate incitement and funding of PA
(JNS.org) Leaders in the British Parliament recently held a debate examining Palestinian hate incitement and the funding their country provides to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Several British MPs (Members of Parliament) used documentation provided by Palestinian Media Watch to point to examples of Palestinian hate incitement during the debate.
Conservative MP Gordon Henderson pointed to several instances where PA television aired broadcasts depicting Israel as an ogre with a Star of David skull cap that impales and eats Palestinian children in Gaza; a video glorifying terrorist Ibrahim Hamid, who planned a series of suicide bombings that killed 46 Israelis; and a video of a mother dressing her son as a suicide bomber.
“It is clear that a culture of hate has wormed its way into the very fibre of Palestinian society…Incitement takes many forms. It ranges from the denial of Israel’s right to exist to the abhorrent glorification of violence and infamous Palestinian terrorists,” MP Henderson said, according to PMW.
Additional concern was raised by the MPs over funding of the PA. They cited British Prime Minister David Cameron’s position of denying funds to support hate incitement.
PMW, however, claims that funding provided by Britain to the PA’s general budget has supported PA-sponsored events glorifying terrorists.
“Contrary to PM Cameron’s assertion that ‘Britain will never support’ anyone who glorifies terror, it is supporting the PA, which glorifies terror almost daily,” PMW wrote.
Responding to the debate, Alistair Burt, Britain’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, took a different tone, acknowledging the problem but arguing that hate incitement is a symptom, not a problem, according to PMW.
“Some material was shocking and offensive,” Burt said. “It has no place in any political or historical discourse in which any credible democratic authority has a part. But my deep and genuine worry is that this incitement is not simply a cause of separation between peoples and hatred; I am afraid that it is a symptom of it.”
The issues of Palestinian hate incitement and funding of the PA have also been debated in Norway recently following a Norwegian television news report highlighting PMW’s findings there.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org