Al-Qaeda threat prompts U.S. to shut diplomatic posts, including Israel
(JNS.org) The United States is temporarily shutting embassies and consulates across the Middle East and Asia on Sunday as a precautionary measure due to a terror threat related to Al-Qaeda.
“The Department of State has instructed certain U.S. embassies and consulates to remain closed or to suspend operations on Sunday, August 4th,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters.
Although not specified by the State Department, CBS News reported that U.S. intelligence “has picked up signs of an Al-Qaeda plot against American diplomatic posts in the Middle East and other Muslim countries.”
The diplomatic posts to be temporarily shuttered include Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mauritania, Sudan and Djibouti according to CBS News.
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Iran president-elect Rouhani calls Israel an ‘old wound’ that must be removed
(JNS.org) Just days before being sworn in as Iran’s next president Hassan Rouhani called Israel a “old wound” that must be removed at a pro-Palestinian rally.
“The Zionist regime has been a wound on the body of the Islamic world for years and the wound should be removed,” Rouhani was quoted as saying by the semi-official ISNA news agency during a speech at an Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally, an annual Iranian celebration in show of support for the Palestinians, theAssociated Press reported.
Rouhani’s remarks echo similar threats made by previous Iranian leaders. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that this should serve as a “wake up” to the world about any illusions they hold on Rouhani, who has been called a moderate by some.
“The real face of Rouhani has been exposed earlier than expected,” Netanyahu said, according to the Associated Press. “This is what the man thinks and this is the Iranian regime’s operational plan… A country that threatens to destroy Israel must not be allowed weapons of mass destruction.”
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Hezbollah ‘better armed, better trained and more cautious,’ IDF general says
(JNS.org) At a memorial service for Israeli soldiers who died during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Northern Command Major General Yair Golan warned against the growing threat of the Lebanese-based terror organization Hezbollah.
“With regard to the situation seven years ago, Hezbollah is better armed, better trained and more cautious,” Maj. Gen. Golan said, according to the IDF website. “It is facing internal challenges, fighting inside Syria, continues to be a central pillar in the axis of evil and continues to see Israel as a devil that must be exorcised from the world. Hezbollah is deterred, very deterred, but is still intent on evil.”
In the summer of 2006, Israel and Hezbollah fought a bloody month-long battle that largely resulted in the status quo ante bellum. According to the IDF, since 2006 Hezbollah has amassed nearly 60,000 rockets and missiles that can reportedly strike at any of Israel’s civilian centers, including Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city.
“The Northern Command today is a strong command, trained and skilled,” Golan added. “We have learned the lessons of war and we’ve adjusted our training.
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Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations ‘dangerous,’ Palestinian NGOs say
(JNS.org) A group of 133 Palestinian NGOs based in the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, and Jerusalem released a statement Wednesday that renewing Israeli-Palestinian conflict talks would be “dangerous” after a three-year hiatus.
The Palestinian NGO Network believes renewed negotiations are unwise because Israel has refused to return to its pre-1967 lines, freeze construction in Judea and Samaria, and release Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israel jails. The Israeli cabinet, however, agreed on Sunday to free 104 Palestinian terrorists imprisoned before the 1993 Oslo Accords as a goodwill gesture for the start of negotiations.
“Negotiations act as a cover for Israel’s expansionist and racist policies in a blatant exploitation of the so-called political process, in order to dispel the goals of the national Palestinian struggle,” the Palestinian NGO Network statement said, according to Middle East Monitor.
Prof. Gerald Steinberg, who heads Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told JNS.org that the Palestinian NGO Network’s “blunt attack against the resumption of negotiations has again highlighted the contrast between the rhetoric of peace and the immoral demonization, BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and lawfare campaigns that continue the rejectionist agenda of the Arab leaders from November 29 1947 until today.”
“While the EU and member states proclaim their support for peace, they give tens of million of Euros to the member organizations of the anti-Israel and anti-peace Palestinian NGO Network,” Steinberg said.
As peace talks in Washington, DC resumed, rocket fire has also resumed from Gaza into southern Israel, with the latest rocket reported to have been launched on Tuesday. An air-raid rocket siren was also activated in the Golan Heights on Thursday, though no confirmation of a missile launch has yet been announced.
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Spy indictment issued against member of anti-Zionist Jewish sect
(JNS.org) A 47-year-old Israeli man who belongs to the anti-Zionist Orthodox Jewish sect Neturei Karta has been charged with allegedly serving as an Iranian spy, according to an indictment released Thursday. Members of Neturei Karta, who oppose the establishment of a Jewish state until the coming of the Messiah, are known to have met with Iranian leaders while visiting Iran.
The indictment said the man contacted the Iranian embassy while in Germany in 2011 and offered to gather intelligence about Israel. An Iranian diplomat allegedly gave the man an email account for correspondence.
The Israeli suspect—who was not named in the indictment—has been accused of treason, Fox News reported.
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Egypt Coptic Christians have one of their ‘worst months’
(JNS.org) The ongoing persecution of Egypt’s Coptic Christians—including the unprecedented attack on St. Mark’s Cathedral, among other incidents—is highlighted in the latest monthly report by the Gatestone Institute on the global persecution of Christians.
According to the report, April was “one of the worst months for Christian Copts.” On April 5, six Christians were killed near Cairo after a dispute between local Muslims and Christians escalated. Afterwards, what the report called a “collective punishment” spree against Christians resulted in “the injury of at least 20 other Copts, an Evangelical church being set on fire, and an attack on a Coptic church.”
“Two days later, St. Mark’s—Coptic Christianity’s holiest site—came under assault by Muslim protestors and even state security forces, resulting in the deaths of two more Coptic Christians,” Raymond Ibrahim wrote for Gatestone.
Additionally, the report documents further attacks against Coptic Christians in April, including the attack on Amir Ayad, who was nearly beaten to death during a protest against the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as the abduction of several Christian children who were held for ransom. Six-year-old Cyril Yusuf Sa’ad was killed despite his family’s paying a ransom of 30,000 Egyptian pounds.
Gatestone also reported that there were several noteworthy verbal and physical attacks against Christian churches worldwide in April, including in the Central African Republic, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkey. Notably, the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, the top Islamic official in the country, declared that it is “necessary to destroy all churches in the region.”
Meanwhile, in Turkey, officials there declared that a 13th-century church, the Hagia Sophia of Tabizon, would become a mosque again after having been a museum for decades.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org