Israel to cut off Palestinian Authority payments to imprisoned terrorists
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israeli Diplomatic-Security Cabinet decided Thursday to actively counter Palestinian Authority policies through which terrorists imprisoned in Israel are eligible for monthly wages. In 2012, Ramallah’s payments to terrorists exceeded $19 million.
The ministers have instructed Israeli intelligence agencies to gather information about the nature of such transactions, so that Israel may prevent the funds from reaching their destination, either by intercepting wire transfers or by seizing the funds from the terrorists and their families.
Palestinian Authority payments are usually done by wire transfer to either the terrorist’s bank account or that of a family member. In some cases, funds are physically delivered to terrorists’ homes, and Israel has knowledge of instances when funds were even delivered to terrorists imprisoned in Israel.
The Ramallah-based government, it appears, determines terrorists’ wages according to the length of their prison sentence, and the longer the sentence, the higher the wages.
According to Palestinian law, a terrorist serving three years or under in Israeli prisons is eligible for a monthly payment of about $370, a terrorists serving up to 15 years is paid $1,600 a month, and those sentenced to life in prison are paid $3,100.
“This is an absurd situation that has been going on for years as part of the incitement apparatus Israel constantly warns the international community against,” Immigrant Absorption Minister Zeev Elkin said Thursday. “I’m glad that we’re finally putting a stop to it.”
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Netanyahu invited to visit India
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with visiting Indian President Pranab Mukherjee in Jerusalem on Thursday. According to a Prime Minister’s Office statement, Netanyahu and Mukherjee discussed bilateral cooperation in the fields of security, technology, innovation, and agriculture.
Other topics of discussion included counterterrorism and advanced policing methods. Netanyahu and Mukherjee agreed to bolster bilateral cooperation between Israel and India, including ministerial visits. Mukherjee also invited Netanyahu to make an official visit to India. Netanyahu thanked Mukherjee for the invitation and said he would be happy to accept it.
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Gun license applications soar as Israelis seek protection
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A day after Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan authorized a series of measures to ease the process of obtaining a firearm license, around 8,000 Israelis contacted the Public Security Ministry on Thursday to request a license.
On a normal day, only around 150-200 applications are made. But the ongoing wave of Palestinian terrorism has prompted Israelis to seek ways to protect themselves. Given the surge of demand for firearm licenses, the Public Security Ministry has extended its hours of operation and bolstered its staffing levels.
Under the new regulations, military officers with the rank of lieutenant or higher, noncommissioned officers with the rank of master sergeant currently serving in the IDF full-time or as reservists, and members of other security branches who hold equivalent ranks will all be eligible for licenses to carry firearms. Previously, the minimum rank required for a firearms license was a military major.
“In recent weeks many civilians have helped the Israel Police neutralize terrorists,” Erdan said. “Civilians who are trained in the use of firearms double the forces combating terrorism, which is why I acted to ease restrictions right now.”
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Terrorist who was victimized by Abbas admits to wanting to stab Jews
(JNS.org) Ahmed Manasrah, the 13-year-old Palestinian terrorist who went on a stabbing spree on Monday and who Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of “executing in cold blood,” confessed to his crime from his hospital bed.
“I went there to stab Jews,” Manasrah told police at Hadassah hospital, where he is being treated for wounds sustained during the attack, the Times of Israel reported.
Manasrah—along with his 15-year-old cousin, who was shot dead by police after attempting to stab the officers—stabbed two Israelis, including a 13-year-old boy, in the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood of Jerusalem on Monday.
“I came with my cousin Hassan,” Ahmed Manasrah reportedly said. “He brought the knives and I agreed to join him.”
The terror attack became a major point of contention between Israel and the PA when Abbas accused Israel of executing Manasra in “cold blood.” Despite Abbas’s claims, Manasrah is recovering in an Israeli hospital and is listed in light-to-moderate condition.
“We will not give up to the logic of brute force, policies of occupation and aggression practiced by the Israeli government, and the herd of settlers who are engaged in terrorism against our people, our holy places, our homes, our trees, and the execution of our children in cold blood as they did with the child Ahmed Manasrah and other children from Jerusalem,” Abbas had said.
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Russia and Israel establish Syria ‘hotline’
(JNS.org) The Russian military announced that it has established a “hotline” with Israel in order to avoid any inadvertent clashes in Syria.
In a statement, the Russian military said that “mutual information-sharing on the actions of aircraft has been established through a hotline between the Russian aviation command center at the Hmeimim air base and a command post of the Israeli Air Force.”
“The first stage of training was conducted yesterday on cooperation between Russian air forces and the Israeli air force to avoid dangerous incidents in the sky above the Syrian Arab Republic,” the statement added.
News of Israeli-Russia cooperation on Syria comes as Russia disclosed on Wednesday that one of its fighter jets had come within a few miles of a U.S. aircraft over Syria last weekend.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Moscow Sept. 21, shortly before Russia began its military campaign in Syria. After the meeting, Netanyahu announced the formation of a “joint mechanism” to coordinate activities in Syria.
Russia began airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 30 against alleged Islamic State targets. But the U.S. has said that Russia has mainly been targeting other rebel groups fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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Porn star Jenna Jameson tweets for Israel
(JNS.org) With Israel under assault from Palestinian terrorists once again, supporters of the Jewish state are taking to social media to defend the country—including Jenna Jameson, once dubbed “the reigning queen of porn.”
Jameson, who rose to fame in the 1990s for her pornographic films, has posted a series of messages on her Twitter feed this week defending Israel and offering support to Israelis facing a barrage of Palestinian stabbing attacks.
“Imagine if you had to fear your child being stabbed,” Jameson tweeted Wednesday, including the letters IL (Israel’s country code) with the colors of the Israeli flag.
This past June, Jameson announced that she is converting to Judaism, and she is reportedly engaged to 41-year-old Israeli man Lior Bitton.
Jameson added on Twitter that she is a “very outspoken supporter of Israel,” saying that she has family there and that violence is a “constant worry.”
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Fatah and Hamas glorify terror against Israelis
(JNS.org) The Palestinian Fatah faction, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, tweeted a threatening cartoon showing a masked man playing a knife as a violin and using a key instead of a bow against the backdrop of Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, with text referring to terror attacks against Israelis as “a symphony of love for Jerusalem.”
“A symphony of love for Jerusalem. If the occupation wants to hear it again and again, it should continue invading Jerusalem, attacking our noble women and desecrate our Noble Sanctuary (i.e., the Al-Aqsa mosque plaza) and our Jerusalem,” the text states, implying that the terror attacks are likely to continue, Palestinian Media Watch reported.
Another recent tweet by Fatah showed a picture of a masked Palestinian with a rock in his hand and the wording “rock, rock, a rock in my hand, and my blood on my second hand. With them I have defeated death and fate…#the_rage_of_Jerusalem.”
Meanwhile, the West Gaza branch of the Islamic Bloc, a student movement of the Gaza-ruling terror group Hamas, published a video on Facebook re-enacting a Jerusalem stabbing and shooting attack on Tuesday in which two Israelis were killed.
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.