Israel suspends EU projects in Judea and Samaria
(JNS.org) In an apparent response to the European Union’s recent decision to impose financial sanctions on Israeli communities located beyond the pre-1967 lines, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Thursday ordered Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot to suspend several joint Israeli-EU projects across Judea and Samaria and to deny EU officials the permits needed to travel freely between Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Jerusalem sources stressed that the restrictions will affect only low-level officials in Brussels’ mission to Israel, and that Israel will continue its dialogue with the EU over its pre-1967 lines measure, Israel Hayom reported. The EU mission in Israel was unavailable for comment.
The EU’s directive, which was passed last week, calls on its principal institutions and member nations to limit or suspend their economic, social and academic cooperation with Israeli institutions that operate beyond the pre-1967 lines, which include Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The new funding guidelines, which could cost Israel billions of dollars, take effect in 2014.
Hamas shuts two Arab media bureaus in Gaza
(JNS.org) Hamas has closed two Arab media bureaus in Gaza over their coverage of the Palestinian terror group.
Ismail Jaber, Hamas’s Attorney-General, told the Associated Press that the group had closed down the bureaus of the Saudi Arabian owned Al-Arabiya and the West Bank-based Ma’an News Agency because they “spread fabricated rumors” that “harm the Palestinian national interest and resistance movements.”
But a Ma’an correspondent told the Associated Press that Hamas was upset with Ma’an reports that Hamas terrorists were contributing to the chaos in the Sinai Peninsula.
Hamas has been feeling increasing pressure since the ouster of neighboring Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in early July.
Hamas, which is an offshoot of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood party, is concerned about Egypt’s military crackdown on Islamic extremists in the Sinai Peninsula.
According to the New York Times, the crackdown has resulted in the destruction of around 80 percent of the illegal smuggling tunnels that run beneath the Egypt-Gaza border. Hamas depends on the tunnels for the smuggling of weapons and rockets into its territory, as well as for construction and other goods for Gazan residents that it taxes.
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Syrian Christian describes religious cleansing of city by Islamic extremists
(JNS.org) In a recent visit as part of a humanitarian aid mission to Syria, Dr. John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International (CSI), met with a Syrian Christian man from the city of Qusayr who described the religious cleansing of his home by Islamic extremists.
According to CSI, before the civil war the city of Qusayr, located in eastern portion of Syria near the Lebanese border, had around 40,000 people, including 7,000 Christians.
“In late 2011, the Sunni townsmen came and told us to either join us in anti-regime demonstrations or leave the town. If we didn’t, we would be killed,” Fadul Abu Yohanna Kasouhah, a Christian resident of Qusayr, described to CSI.
According to Fadul, the Sunni Islamists in his village used the loudspeakers from the Mosques to name the Christian families by name and told them to leave.
Fadul told CSI how his cousin was gunned down by Sunni extremists for refusing to leave.
“My cousin Bater said, ‘We will not leave. This is our town, our land.’ He was recently married, and his wife was seven months pregnant. They shot him to death as he was going to work on his motorbike,” Fadul said.
Eventually, the local Sunni extremists were joined by foreign Islamic jihadists and cleansed the town of Christians, according to Fadul.
“In March 2012, many foreign jihadis came to Qusayr and surrounded Christian Street. They were joined by a mob of local Sunnis… The next day, all the Christians did leave Qusayr—870 families. Only two or three very old Christians stayed. Most left with nothing. No one helped us.”
According to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, more than 100,000 Syrians have been killed as part of the conflict, while more than 1.7 million Syrians have been displaced.
Poll: Most Israelis against releasing prisoners
(JNS.org) A poll of 500 adult Israelis showed that 80 percent of secular Jews in Israel are against releasing Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israeli jails for their crimes as a gesture toward the renewing of Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations. Among more religious Jews, more than 95 percent are against such a move.
The Smith Research poll was conducted Wednesday for the terror victims organization Almagor. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s announced last week that Israelis and Palestinians have reached a new “basis” for peace negotiations, and Israel was asked to release 85 Palestinian terrorists imprisoned before the 1993 Oslo Accords in order to start the negotiations.
On Saturday, Israeli International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz said the prisoner released will include “heavyweight prisoners who have been in jail for dozens of years” and have been convicted of violent crimes against Israelis, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“It will not be simple, but we will make that gesture,” Steinitz said.
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Dagestan Chabad rabbi in serious condition after being shot in Derbent
(JNS.org) The Chabad-Lubavitch emissary and chief rabbi of Derbent in the Republic of Dagestan was shot near his home and remains in serious but stable condition after undergoing emergency surgery.
Rabbi Ovadia Isakov, 40, was leaving his car after having performed the ritual slaughter for kosher meat when he was shot, sustaining a gunshot wound to his right lung and liver.
Initial conflicting reports indicate that there were between one and three assailants who escaped from the crime scene. Rabbi Isakov’s Jewish appearance “is among the possible motives investigators are considering for the attack,” said Russia’s Investigative Committee in a statement, according to Chabad.org.
Dagestan is a predominantly Muslim Russian territory bordering Azerbaijan. The attack was condemned by the acting head of the region and blamed on “extremists and terrorists.” Israeli Army Radio reported the attack was most likely criminal, not terrorist.
Israeli doctors and medical assistants were on their way to assist with Rabbi Isakov’s treatment.
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