Israel arrests members of Islamic State-linked terror cell in Hebron
(JNS.org) Israel security forces arrested three Arab men who were attempting to set up an Islamic State-linked terror cell in Hebron with plans of carrying out different attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.
According to Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Ahmed Shahada, 22, admitted to setting up the cell with two other men and plotting terror attacks, including a failed bomb attack on Israeli soldiers that did not result in any injuries.
“They planned to murder an IDF soldier and use his weapon and uniform to carry out a shooting attack,” the Shin Bet said.
The other two men were identified as Muhammad Zaro, 21, and Qassai Div Masawada, 23. The Shin Bet said all three men confessed to being part of the cell, with Masawada also admitting he planned to murder an Israeli at the Ein Abraham spring in Hebron and steal his weapon.
According to Israeli officials, Islamic State and other global jihadist groups like al-Qaeda have a minimal but growing presence in the West Bank and Gaza.
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Abbas plans to resubmit Palestinian statehood resolution at U.N. Security Council
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he is in discussions with Jordan on plans to resubmit a resolution calling for Palestinian statehood to the United Nations Security Council.
“We didn’t fail,” Abbas said, referring to the Security Council’s rejection of a Palestinian statehood resolution in a Dec. 30 vote, Reuters reported. “The U.N. Security Council failed us. We’ll go again to the Security Council. … We are studying it and we will study this with our allies and especially Jordan, because they are close to us and they care about us. … We will not give up until the Security Council gives us admission.”
While Jordan remains on the Security Council, several countries with revolving membership joined the Council for the start of 2015. The United States is a permanent member and has threatened to veto any unilateral Palestinian statehood measure.
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Japanese prime minister plans to visit Israel in mid-January
(JNS.org) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is scheduled to visit Israel later this month as part of a regional tour.
The visit, which has not been officially announced, comes after the Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved a plan to strengthen ties between the Jewish state and Japan by investing “tens of millions of shekels” over the next three years, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Israel’s trade relationship with Japan, the world’s third-largest economy behind the U.S. and China, has stagnated in recent years, with trade only amounting to around $720 million.
But as Israel’s ties with the European Union, the Jewish state’s largest trading partner, grow more strained over increasing calls in Europe for Palestinian statehood and sanctions against Israel’s presence in the disputed territories, Israel is turning towards new markets for growth.
“In the last two years, I have met with the leaders of China, Japan and India as part of a comprehensive policy of turning to major markets including Latin America and Africa,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
As part of the measure approved by the Israeli cabinet, Israel plans to open a trade office in Osaka, increase commercial attaches in Tokyo, and increase research with and tourism to Japan.
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British activists launch lawsuit over Gaza flotilla ‘war crimes’
(JNS.org) Pro-Palestinian activists who were aboard the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla that attempted to breach the Gaza blockade are looking to launch a British investigation into the Israeli military’s conduct during the interception of the flotilla.
The British newspaper The Independent reported that the activists have approached the Greater London Metropolitan Police Service to investigate whether Israeli soldiers committed war crimes during the raid. The activists reportedly provided investigators with the names of five Israeli commanders who took part in the raid. According to the report, the lawyers representing 13 of the 34 British citizens aboard the flotilla say that some of the Israeli commanders have visited England since the incident, and now that police have been provided with alleged evidence of war crimes, the commanders could be arrested if they visit again.
In May 2010, militants on board the Mavi Marmara attacked Israeli soldiers, after which point the soldiers fatally shot nine Turkish militants.
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Jordan suspends talks on $15 billion Israeli gas deal
(JNS.org) Jordan has suspended negotiations on a 15-year, $15 billion natural gas deal with Israel.
Jordanian MP Jamal Qammouh, the head of the Lower House Energy Committee, told the daily newspaper Al-Ghad that the talks were suspended due to a disagreement between the Texas-based company Noble Energy and Israel. The disagreement followed recent moves by Israeli authorities to break up what they termed a “monopoly.”
“We were informed that there are differences between Israel and Noble Energy and we cannot proceed with talks until we know which side will develop the gas field in Israel,” Qammouh told Bloomberg News.
Israel’s antitrust regulator is reconsidering a decision to allow a group led by Noble develop the country’s two biggest natural gas fields. Inbar Dovev, a spokeswoman for the company, declined to comment.
Last month, Israeli Antitrust Commissioner Prof. David Gilo informed Israel’s Delek Group and Noble Energy of his decision to revoke the licensing agreement pertaining to their holdings in the Leviathan offshore gas field. The companies, which also control the Tamar, Tanin, and Karish gas fields, have effectively formed a cartel, which the Antitrust Authority said it seeks to dissolve.
In September, partners in Israel’s Leviathan field were in talks to supply 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over the course of 15 years to Jordan’s National Electric Power Company. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the parties, but the deal was never finalized.
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Study: IDF is Israeli public’s most trusted institution
(JNS.org) The 2014 Israeli Democracy Index study, which was published Sunday and submitted to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, showed that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is the country’s most trusted institution.
In the Israel Democracy Institute’s study, the IDF earned the trust of 81.1 percent of Israeli Jewish respondents, followed by the president of Israel (71.2), the High Court (62), the Israel Police (45.1), the government (37), the Knesset (35.2), the Chief Rabbinate (29.1), and the media (28.4).
Two months before Knesset elections, more than 50 percent of the Israeli public agreed with the statement that “no matter who I vote for, it will not make a difference,” while 75 percent agreed that “politicians are more concerned about their personal interests than the public’s.”
“A lack of faith in public services and the system of governance constitutes a potentially fatal blow to democracy,” Rivlin said. “Proper management, transparency upon transparency, ethics of the elected and public officials—these are the key to restoring public faith in the system.”
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Israel halts tax transfer to Palestinians in response to International Criminal Court bid
(JNS.org) The Israeli Finance Ministry will halt the scheduled transfer of $127 million in tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in response to PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s decision to apply for Palestinian membership in the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that Israel would “not idly by” while the PA opts “for a confrontation with the state of Israel.”
“We will not allow them to drag IDF soldiers and commanders to the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Netanyahu said. The prime minister added that instead of Israeli officials, it is “the heads of the Palestinian Authority who struck an alliance with the Hamas war criminals who should be held accountable” by the ICC, referring to the unity agreement Abbas’s Fatah faction reached with the Hamas terrorist group last spring.
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FM Lieberman: Israel’s biggest challenge is Europe, not Palestinians
(JNS.org) The biggest diplomatic challenge Israel faces in 2015 will be Europe’s view of Israeli policies, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday during a meeting with the Israeli envoys to the European Union.
Lieberman was quoted by Israel’s Channel 2 as saying, “I’m not sure devoting so much time to the Palestinian issue is in Israel’s best interest. … If I have to analyze all the challenges we face, I would have to say that our biggest diplomatic challenge is not the Palestinians or the Arab nations, but the West.”
Lieberman leveled harsh criticism at the support lent by the European Union to the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral moves in the international arena—especially the decision of several U.N. Security Council members, including France and Luxemburg, to back a Palestinian resolution calling for Israeli withdrawal from the disputed territories by 2017.
“Some European nations’ conduct is reminiscent of 1938, just before the Munich Agreement,” Lieberman said, evoking the deal negotiated between European powers and Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II. “The conduct by countries like Sweden and Ireland (who both recently supported unilateral Palestinian statehood, Sweden on the government level and Ireland in its legislature) is reminiscent of how [European powers] abandoned Czechoslovakia to its fate. Now they are making all kinds of excuses to abandon Israel, even though we are the only country in the Middle East to represent Western values.”
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Arab Knesset member waves Palestinian flag during Temple Mount parade
(JNS.org) Ahmad Tibi, an Arab member of the Israeli Knesset from the Ra’am-Ta’al party, waved a Palestinian flag during a parade held this weekend to celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.
“I wanted to symbolize the Palestinians’ right to an independent state with a capital in east Jerusalem,” Tibi said.
After the incident, attorney Yossi Fuchs, chairman of the Legal Forum for Israel, asked Israeli Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to order a criminal investigation against Tibi.
The Jerusalem District Police reported that Tibi had not given any advance notice that he would participate in the parade.
“The police take any actions that could cause disturbances on the Temple Mount very seriously,” the police said.
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Leader of world’s largest Islamic group to visit Temple Mount
(JNS.org) The secretary-general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, an umbrella group representing 57 Muslim countries based in Saudi Arabia, was scheduled to visit the Temple Mount on Monday. Iyad bin Amin Madani also planned to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, OnIslam.net reported.
Madani’s first Temple Mount visit comes as Muslim-Jewish tension simmers over control of the holy site, contributing to an uptick in Palestinian terrorism in and around Jerusalem.
Last May, Madani urged Muslims from around the world to visit the Temple Mount in order to “confirm that this mosque is a part of their faith,” in reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque located there. Many Muslims maintain an informal boycott of visiting Al-Aqsa in protest of Israel’s control of the Temple Mount. Israel, however, bans Jewish prayer at the site.
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U.S. lawmakers warn Palestinians of repercussions of joining International Criminal Court
(JNS.org) Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers warned Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas that there would be consequences for his decision to join the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Calling the move “destructive,” U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) asked Congress to block funds to the PA and any U.N. body that recognizes Palestinian statehood. The U.S. provides roughly $400 million annually to the PA.
“Congress must do everything in its power to block funds to the PA and to any U.N. entity that recognizes a non-existent State of Palestine to make it clear to Abu Mazen (Abbas) that there will be consequences to his schemes at the United Nations and other international organizations like the International Criminal Court,” Ros-Lehtinen said.
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) called Abbas’s decision “deeply frustrating” and a move that set peace further back.
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Israel summons French envoy to express disappointment in U.N. vote
(JNS.org) The Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned French Ambassador to Israel Patrick Maisonnave to express displeasure in France’s decision to support the Palestinians’ failed United Nations Security Council resolution for unilateral establishment of statehood.
“The only way to reach progress with the Palestinians is through direct negotiations, not through unilateral announcements or a unilateral policy,” Aviv Shir-On—the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s deputy director-general for Western Europe—told Maisonnave, Haaretz reported.
The Palestinians’ Security Council resolution called for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank by 2017. According to Maisonnave, France’s decision to support the resolution was not aimed at Israel, but rather was an attempt to prevent the Palestinians from pursuing other unilateral steps.
“That’s exactly what happened after the Security Council rejected the proposal, and the Palestinians went to [join the International Criminal Court at] The Hague,” Maisonnave said.
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