Related: Will Israel Assassinate Abbas?
Not a viable option, so they get this instead:
"Israeli airstrike kills 1, wounds 3 in northern Gaza Strip" by Ian Deitch | Associated Press June 12, 2014
JERUSALEM — An Israeli aircraft struck a target in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing one person and wounding three others, in the first deadly violence between the sides since a new Palestinian government took office last week.
The late-night airstrike came hours after Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel, the first such attack since President Mahmoud Abbas formed the new government and took charge, at least formally, of Gaza. Israel has warned it would hold the Western-backed Abbas responsible for any attacks out of the territory, though the rival Hamas militant group maintains de facto control.
Related: The Gaza Rocket Squads
My Zionist MSM tells me they were Palestinian.
Witnesses said the airstrike targeted a man on a motorcycle and also struck a nearby car. Hospital officials said the dead man was in his 20s, but gave no further details on any of the casualties.
The Israeli military said it had targeted ‘‘global jihad-affiliated terrorists,’’ a term it uses to describe Islamic militants who follow the ideology of Al Qaeda.
Oh what a deadly web we weave.... well, you know the rest.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli had carried out a ‘‘precise operation and will continue to act forcefully against those who try to hurt the security of Israel’s citizens.’’
It's always the same old script with these guys, and it's shopworn.
Related:
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
I thought this was reading like an Israeli government statement.
He said he wanted to remind the international community that Abbas had pledged the new government would uphold previous agreements with Israel. ‘‘This means that he is responsible for dismantling Hamas and other terror groups’’ in Gaza, he said.
Uh-huh. Coulda done it another way, without killing someone, but then again we know what this is. This is a blatant attempt to destroy the unity government.
Earlier, Abbas’s office condemned the rocket fire and urged Gaza militants to abide by previous cease-fire deals. Israel dismissed the condemnation as ‘‘empty rhetoric.’’
The threat of violence is one of the many challenges Abbas is dealing with as he tries to unite two territories after a seven-year rift. Hamas seized control of Gaza from Abbas’s forces in June 2007.
That's a LIE! The pre$$ knows Hamas won elections, says so every now and then, but then repeated and repeats the obfuscating falsehood. Thus it is that you do not trust any version provided.
Under last week’s deal, Abbas’s new 17-member Cabinet is to administer both Gaza and parts of the West Bank. Hamas has no formal role in the technocrat government, but it backs the unity government and remains the de facto power in Gaza with thousands of armed fighters.
The United States and European Union have been willing to give Abbas, a strong proponent of nonviolence, a chance.
Yeah, Fatah has really been on the front lines of the nonviolence campaign. I mean, this distortion and deception passing itself off as news sucks.
The United States welcomed Abbas’s condemnation and suggested it was not ready to hold the new unity government responsible for the attack.
That'll tick off Israel.
‘‘We expect the Palestinian Authority will do everything in its power to prevent attacks from Gaza into Israel, but we acknowledge the reality that Hamas currently controls Gaza,’’ US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Thanks.
Militants in Gaza, including members of Hamas, have fired thousands of rockets at Israel over the years, though Hamas mostly observed an informal truce in recent years.
Yeah, a unilateral one! Big difference.
The West considers Hamas a terror group because of scores of deadly attacks on Israel, though Abbas has said the new Cabinet will follow his pragmatic program.
The unity government was meant to end a crippling split between Abbas and Hamas, but the road to reconciliation has been bumpy.
Salary for more than 40,000 government employees hired by Hamas during the past seven years is a key point of contention. Hamas wants them to be paid by the unity government, though donor countries would probably balk at seeing aid go to members of the Hamas security forces.
Hamas kept Gaza’s banks closed for the past week to pressure Abbas to find a solution, but allowed the banks to reopen Wednesday amid rising public anger against the group.
Hamas officials said no solution to the problem has been found and suggested the opening of the banks is temporary.
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Must have been a preemptive strike:
"Israel searches West Bank for 3 missing teen settlers" by Ian Deitch | Associated Press June 14, 2014
JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers searched the West Bank on Friday for three missing teenagers from nearby settlements, one of them a US citizen, who are feared kidnapped by Palestinian militants, authorities said.
Why would they do that when world and public opinion is on their side? JWho would that benefit?
Authorities offered little detail, with local media only reporting that the hitchhiking teenagers left their yeshiva, or religious seminary, on Thursday night and had not been seen since. Soldiers near Hebron combed the rocky hills of the West Bank searching for them Friday.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the disappearances, which occurred after the formation of a Palestinian unity government following the collapse of peace talks.
I think the two are connected, and I think this is another in a long line of Israeli false flags and hoaxes. Sorry.
Two Israeli defense officials said authorities believed the teens were probably kidnapped by Palestinian militants, without elaborating. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not allowed to brief journalists.
‘‘The main mission is to ensure their return,’’ said Brigadier General Motti Almoz, a military spokesman.
Tsuri Tsuf, a spokesman for a settlement where one of the teens is from, told Israel’s Channel 10 television that his community was ‘‘greatly worried’’ and gathered to pray for the safety of the youths. Authorities found a burned-out car during their search that investigators were examining.
Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency initially imposed a gag order Friday morning blocking local media from reporting on the incident. Later, an official familiar with the investigation told the Associated Press that one of the teens was an American and that Israeli authorities notified US Ambassador Dan Shapiro. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to publicly brief journalists.
The three teens are from settlements in the West Bank, territory Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and that Palestinians are demanding as part of their future state along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem.
Yeah, so now Israel has an excuse to go in there!
If Palestinians abducted the teens, it would be the first serious incident to challenge relations with Israel since the formation of a Palestinian unity government earlier this month, led by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and backed by the Islamic militant group Hamas. The West and Israel consider Hamas a terror group because of its deadly attacks targeting civilians.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry called Abbas to talk about the missing teenagers and will probably call Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as well, a senior State Department official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Oh, then this is serious.
Netanyahu told the teens’ families that Israel is ‘‘making every effort’’ to find them, his office said in a statement. He earlier said the Palestinian Authority is responsible for the teens’ safety.
--more--"
I'm wondering how the teens are enjoying the Tel Aviv hotel rooms.
"3 Israeli teens taken by terror group" by Ian Deitch | Associated Press June 15, 2014
JERUSALEM — A terror group abducted three teens missing from the West Bank, Israel’s prime minister said Saturday, as soldiers combed the rocky terrain and searched homes to try to find them.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again blamed the Palestinian Authority for the Thursday night disappearance of the teens, one of them a US citizen. Palestinian officials say they are assisting Israeli forces, who pored over surveillance footage Saturday and arrested more than a dozen Palestinians.
Netanyahu said an ‘‘intensive operation’’ was underway to prevent the teens from being taken to the Gaza Strip or elsewhere.
‘‘Our children were kidnapped by a terror group,’’ he said. ‘‘There is no doubt about that.’’
That right there is a reason to doubt it all, and the timing and goals of this hoax couldn't be more obvious.
The Israeli military identified the teens as Naftali Frenkel, 16, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19. Israeli television station Channel 10 named Frenkel as the US citizen whom officials had mentioned earlier.
Their kidnapping is the biggest abduction by militant groups in recent memory in the West Bank.
Israeli-Palestinian tensions already were strained at the time of Thursday’s kidnapping, in part because of the recent formation of a Palestinian unity government that has the backing of the Islamic militant group Hamas.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Saturday that Israel has thwarted more than a dozen kidnapping attempts by Palestinian militants so far this year.
*****************
Hamas, branded a terror group by the West for its attacks aimed at civilians, has been involved in kidnappings of Israelis in the past. The group routinely claims responsibility if involved in an attack but has not claimed taking the teens.
Palestinian officials also rejected Israel’s attempts to blame Abbas, noting that Israel retains overall security control in the West Bank.
Despite the charged rhetoric, Palestinian security forces were cooperating with Israeli counterparts in trying to find the teens, a Palestinian official said.
Abbas has said security coordination in the West Bank between Israel and the Palestinians, usually aimed at tracking down Islamic militants, will continue despite the unity government.
Meanwhile, three different claims of responsibility emerged in the West Bank, though it’s not clear whether any were authentic.
That says it all. This is another Israeli false flag.
In one leaflet, a group portraying itself as a branch of an Al Qaeda splinter group said it kidnapped the three to avenge the killing of three fighters by Israeli security forces earlier this year.
Yup.
Hamas, along with other militant Palestinian groups, frequently calls for the abduction of Israelis.
Israel’s military has warned soldiers and civilians not to accept rides from strangers, but hitchhiking remains common.
(Blog editor just shaking his head at this bull-oney)
An Israeli intelligence official said more than 50 kidnapping attempts were thwarted at various stages of execution in 2013 alone. Palestinians have kidnapped Israelis before, but this would be the first time they abducted three civilians at the same time.
The FBI said they thwarted how many set-up patsy plots, bow, bow, bow?
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"Netanyahu says Hamas to blame in kidnappings" by Jodi Rudoren | New York Times June 16, 2014
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday squarely blamed the militant Palestinian movement Hamas for the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, as Israel’s military closed off part of the southern West Bank after arresting 80 people overnight, many of them Hamas activists.
The agenda becomes clearer as Netanyahu reaches a strident crescendo!
“The kidnapping was carried out by Hamas members,” Netanyahu said in a rare English statement aimed at galvanizing international attention. “We know that for a fact.”
OH! Uh-huh!
The prime minister said the “attack should surprise no one,” because “Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and to carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians — including children.” Israel holds President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority responsible, Netanyahu said.
The charge doesn't surprise.
The huge Israeli military mobilization in the southern West Bank to search for the three teenagers threatened to further destabilize Israeli-Palestinian relations, which were strained by Abbas’s formation of a new government this month after reconciling with the Islamist Hamas.
The "disappearance" of the kids looking like a real flimsy excuse!
Related: #BringBackOurBoys Campaign For 3 Israeli Teens
OMG!
See: Nigeria
The missing israeli teens another staged and scripted fraud!
Though the Palestinian Authority’s security forces have cooperated with Israel in the search for the kidnappers, Hamas’s leaders have been celebrating the abduction as an act of resistance against Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
Or is that just a mistranslation? Or worse?
The teenagers, Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frankel, both 16, were last heard from Thursday night as they tried to hitchhike home from Jewish settlements in the West Bank where they study in yeshivas.
Ridiculous!
In an emotional statement broadcast Sunday on the radio, Frankel’s mother, Rachel Frankel, spoke directly to her son, who holds both Israeli and US citizenship.
I won't type the expletive I had intended here.
***************
Netanyahu did not publicly cite evidence for his definitive assertion that Hamas was responsible for the kidnappings.
In a Facebook post, a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, called the accusation “stupid” and said that the arrests “are meant to weaken Hamas but they will never succeed.”
Yasser Abed Rabbo, secretary of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and an aide to Abbas, said Netanyahu only wanted to “seem as the victim for the international community.”
They do it all the time. Cue the maudlin violins.
“Now he wants to hold us responsible for something we’re definitely not responsible for,” Abed Rabbo said on the Voice of Palestine radio station after Netanyahu’s statement Sunday morning. “No one in the world believes that the PA or the reconciliation government is responsible. Everybody knows who is responsible and continues to ignite fire in the region.”
We all do.
Israel has roundly rejected the new Palestinian government as “backed by Hamas,” and has criticized the United States and Europe — which like Israel consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization — for continuing to work with and finance the authority despite the reconciliation pact.
“You remember that Israel warned the international community about the dangers of endorsing the Fatah-Hamas unity pact,” Netanyahu said Sunday, referring to Abbas’s secular Fatah faction. “The dangers of that pact now should be abundantly clear to all.”
It is.
He said that there had been an increase in “terrorist activity emanating from the West Bank” since the April reconciliation, and that “this increases the likelihood that Hamas will take control of the Palestinian Authority.”
“This will not advance peace; it will advance terror,” he added.
Rabid!
But Qadura Fares, the Palestinians’ former minister of prisoner affairs, said that “the kidnapping is the result of the peace-process stalemate,” and that both Netanyahu and Hamas leaders were trying to use it to “make political gains.”
In a statement issued Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that Hamas appeared to have had a role in the kidnapping.
“We are still seeking details on the parties responsible for this despicable terrorist act, although many indications point to Hamas’ involvement,” Kerry said.
!!!!!!! I think EVEN KERRY KNOWS this is a SET-UP!
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"Israel demands Palestinian leader’s help after abductions" by Jodi Rudoren | New York Times June 17, 2014
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel told President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority on Monday that he expected his help in finding three kidnapped Israeli teenagers and capturing their abductors.
You have been getting it!
A telephone conversation, initiated by Abbas, came after Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man overnight as they continued an aggressive campaign across the West Bank, arresting a total of 150 people, most of them leaders of the militant Islamic movement Hamas.
Among those detained in the latest sweep was the Hamas-affiliated speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, which has not met in years.
This after they released all those prisoners earlier. Talk about a revolving door.
Netanyahu and other Israeli officials insist the kidnapping is the work of Hamas, despite claims of responsibility from other groups, but hold Abbas accountable because of his April reconciliation with Hamas, which led to the formation of a new Palestinian government that Israel has urged the world to reject.
Yeah, Israel doesn't care about the facts or anything else; it's all their preconceived ideas and agenda that must be advanced no matter what!
“The consequences of the partnership with Hamas must be understood,” Netanyahu told Abbas, according to a statement from his office. “It is bad for Israel, bad for the Palestinians, and bad for the region.”
Oh, we understand.
Abbas’s office on Monday condemned both the kidnapping and the Israeli military campaign that followed it, according to Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.
“The presidency also stressed again the importance of not resorting to violence by any side,” Wafa said, and “praised the efforts” of the Palestinian security forces “to maintain calm and order.”
Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Abbas’s spokesman, said the Palestinian president had called Netanyahu on Monday because he “wanted to assure the Israelis that we don’t accept these kinds of actions,” referring to the kidnapping.
“The political connection between the two men is very important at this point,” Abu Rudeineh said in a telephone interview.
“It’s very important that Israelis are willing to cooperate with Abbas on these issues,'’ he said. “We are not going to say who is responsible. We are looking, together, to finish this issue peacefully, and that’s the important thing. The message is the two authorities are taking the right decisions and working together.”
You don't have to.
Many of the arrests are not directly connected to the search for the missing teenagers but aimed at applying pressure on Hamas.
Could it BE any more OBVIOUS what is going on?
Israeli ministers were due to convene Monday afternoon to consider further measures against Hamas, including the deportation of members to the Gaza Strip, the destruction of activists’ homes and cutting off funding of affiliated charities and organizations.
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the secular Fatah faction, issued a statement overnight claiming responsibility for the kidnapping, saying the three teenagers were “in safe hands and outside the Hebron area.”
It also demanded the release of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli prisons, but that statement’s veracity was in doubt. Two little-known groups had previously taken credit for the abduction. Hamas has denied culpability.
I'm not believing any claims I read in the Jewish War Daily I call a paper.
“We warn the Zionists against committing any more stupidities, including their violations of international laws by the arresting of the Parliament speaker,” Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas official, said in a statement Monday morning.
Don't see that word often in my Zionist-controlled propaganda pre$$.
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Related: Palestinians must accept Jews as neighbors
There it is again, used by a Zionist.
"Israel leader seeks world pressure on Palestinians" by Karin Laub and Josef Federman | Associated Press June 18, 2014
JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister on Tuesday urged the international community to demand the Western-backed Palestinian president break off ties with the militant Hamas group over the abduction of three Israeli teens, the latest sign that Israel’s massive five-day-old search in the West Bank has broader objectives than finding the missing.
Do I even need to type chi bono?
Israel said it also wants to destroy the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank and apparently hopes to reclaim international support after the latest failure of US-led peace efforts.
Forget the second thing; perfectly capable of doing the first.
Israel has launched its most significant military ground operation in more than five years since the three Jewish seminary students went missing last Thursday at a West Bank hitchhiking junction.
Troops have arrested more than 200 Palestinians, most of them Hamas activists, blocked roads, and searched homes.
There has been no sign of life from the missing or demands issued by purported kidnappers.
Except for that phone call saying we were kidnapped.
Couldn't track the call or phone, huh?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has alleged that Hamas was behind the abductions, but has offered no proof, while the Islamic militant group has praised the deed, but not claimed responsibility.
The abductions, accompanied by wall-to-wall Israeli media coverage and prayer vigils, have created unexpected diplomatic openings for Netanyahu, who only last week had found himself increasingly isolated in the international arena.
So this is obviously a false flag or hoax, complete with Zionist spin.
At the time, the United States and Europe were ignoring Netanyahu’s appeals to shun the Palestinian unity government, a 17-member Cabinet of technocrats largely loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, but backed by Hamas.
Do I even need type it?
The Israeli leader had also lost international good will after the latest failure of talks on Palestinian statehood, with Israel held partially responsible because of its ongoing settlement expansion.
Since the kidnappings, Israel has been able to crack down on Hamas in the West Bank — in the context of the search for the missing teens — without an international outcry or drawing allegations that it is provoking unnecessary confrontations with the Palestinians.
It looks to me like even the $LAVI$H MEDIA KNOWS this is a RUSE!
Netanyahu has also used the episode to try to discredit the Palestinian unity government.
And in doing so he has only discredited himself and Israel.
The international community ‘‘has to condemn Hamas for its terrorist activities and . . . must call on President Abbas to end his pact with Hamas,’’ Netanyahu said in a meeting with Mideast envoy Tony Blair.
That's what that mass-murderer is up to?
‘‘Anybody who supports peace must tell the Palestinian Authority that they cannot build a government that is backed by the kidnappers of children and the murderers of innocents,’’ he said.
Why not? Israel has!
Abbas, meanwhile, is finding himself increasingly boxed in.
So all this -- according to my jewsmedia -- means Netanyahu is now free of the box and Abbas is in it?
Pffft!
Reconciliation with Hamas had provided him with an alternate strategy after it became clear in April that there is not enough common ground between him and Netanyahu to reach a peace deal.
The unity government also was to give Abbas a foothold in the Gaza Strip, the territory Hamas had seized in 2007 and where it remains the de facto power. Even before the abductions, reconciliation efforts were off to a bumpy start, with key issues unresolved.
They won elections and repelled a coup attempt, but why bother anymore? We know what this is: an Israeli government handout dressed up as a news report.
--more--"
"Palestinian leader defends cooperation with Israel" by Josef Federman and Karin Laub | Associated Press June 19, 2014
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian president on Wednesday defended his policy of security cooperation with Israel in a politically risky speech to senior Arab officials, even as Israeli forces escalated their most extensive West Bank crackdown in years in response to the apparent abduction of three Israeli teenagers.
President Mahmoud Abbas’s comments were quickly condemned at home and shined a light on one of his most controversial policies — working with the Israeli military to keep the Hamas militant group, which Israel accuses of carrying out the kidnapping, in check.
Well, it has been known for a long time he is a Zionist tool, slapped around when he gets out of line.
The three youths, Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship, disappeared late Thursday while hitchhiking home from Jewish seminaries in the West Bank.
In IDF-controlled territory, thus making it difficult if not impossible for Palestinians to be involved.
But don't let that spoil the propaganda narrative by any means.
Accusing Hamas of being behind the apparent abduction, Israel has launched a widespread crackdown on the group, arresting scores of members while conducting a feverish manhunt for the missing youths.
In a speech to Muslim leaders in Saudi Arabia, Abbas condemned the kidnapping, saying it had caused heavy damage to the Palestinians and that his forces were helping search for the missing teens.
‘‘We are still looking and searching to find out who carried out such an act,’’ Abbas said. ‘‘He who committed such an act wants to destroy us.’’
Where is the U.N. on this anyway? Haven't seen a peep.
Abbas said he hoped to rescue the teens ‘‘because these youths are human beings, and we want to protect human lives.’’ While accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of exploiting the crisis to inflict pain on the Palestinians, he also said the coordination with Israel is a Palestinian interest as well.
‘‘We don’t want to go back to chaos and destruction, as we did in the second [Palestinian] uprising,’’ he told the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. ‘‘I say it openly and frankly. We will not go back to an uprising that will destroy us.’’
His comments were remarkable because of his audience and because security coordination is widely unpopular among Palestinians. They also put additional strains on the new unity government that Abbas formed earlier this month with backing from Hamas.
The government was meant to end a rift stemming from Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip from Abbas seven years ago. But tensions remain, and Hamas is still in control of Gaza, while Abbas governs from the West Bank.
It wasn't a.... never mind!
Abbas’s comments quickly drew condemnation from Hamas. ‘‘These comments are based on the Zionist narrative,’’ said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.
I call it a newspaper, but....
In Washington, Abbas’s words won praise from the State Department. ‘‘We were encouraged by President Abbas’s strong statement to the Arab and Islamic foreign ministers today in Saudi Arabia,’’ spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Makes you wonder how far up his Abass they have their hand.
She said the United States has been in touch with both sides, urging restraint and continued security coordination.
Meaning they approve of Israel's actions.
Coordination between the sides was strengthened after Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, leaving Abbas only in control of the autonomous areas of the West Bank.
They didn't.... sigh.
Abbas subsequently launched a crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank, to prevent a Hamas-led coup there.
I can't take this rank-rot propaganda anymore, folks.
In the past seven years, forces loyal to Abbas have shut down many Hamas-linked charities and schools and have tried to dry up sources of Hamas funding.
Hamas, an offshoot of the regionwide Muslim Brotherhood, is deeply rooted in Palestinian society. The movement’s political goal is an Islamic state in all of historic Palestine.
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"Palestinians, Israeli troops clash in search for teens" by Ian Deitch | Associated Press June 20, 2014
JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinians during an arrest raid early Thursday in the most violent confrontation so far in the weeklong search for three missing Israeli teens believed to have been abducted in the West Bank.
The military said about 300 Palestinians took to the streets when the soldiers entered the West Bank town of Jenin overnight. Some opened fire while others threw explosive devices or rocks at the soldiers, who responded with live fire, it said.
Google Jenin massacre sometime.
There were no serious injuries reported on either side.
Israel has blamed the Islamic militant group Hamas for the apparent abductions, without providing evidence, and has launched a widespread crackdown on the group, arresting scores of members while conducting a feverish search for the missing youths.
Hamas has praised the abduction of the teenagers but has not claimed responsibility for it.
The crisis has escalated already heightened tensions between Israel and the new Palestinian government, which is headed by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas but supported by Hamas. Israel, along with the West, considers Hamas a terrorist group because of its long history of attacks on Israeli civilians. Hamas has abducted Israelis before.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Palestinian unity agreement Thursday at a press conference at a military base.
‘‘I expect Abu Mazen (Abbas) to expel this murderous terror group from his government,’’ Netanyahu said. ‘‘I think that’s important for our common future,’’ he said.
‘‘Hamas have called time after time to abduct Israeli civilians,’’ he said.
The teens — Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship — disappeared late last Thursday while hitchhiking home from Jewish seminaries in the West Bank.
Families of the teens prayed Thursday at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, a remnant of the biblical Jewish Temple compound, and the holiest site where Jews can pray.
‘‘We know today more than we did a few days ago but there is still a way ahead of us and we need to be patient,’’ Netanyahu said.
Translation: we are going to milk this false flag hoax for all it is worth.
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The new face of Israel:
"Hardliner Rivlin chosen to become 10th president of Israel" by William Booth | Washington Post June 11, 2014
JERUSALEM — Israelis, who are quite familiar with rough-and-tumble politics, were taken aback to see the race for president — a strictly ceremonial post in this parliamentary system, with lots of red carpets, windy toasts, and wreath laying — turn into a political brawl.
After weeks of anonymous smears and unflattering leaks, and after two of seven candidates dropped out because they were suddenly subjects of criminal investigations, the Parliament on Tuesday chose hard-liner Reuven ‘‘Rubi’’ Rivlin as the 10th president of Israel. He will replace nonagenarian Shimon Peres.
The president is Israel’s face to the world. On Sunday, the courtly and cerebral Peres — a peacenik by Israeli standards — met with Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, at a prayer summit with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
Rivlin, 74, a veteran politician, also has pleasing manners, friends and critics say, and was a famously evenhanded speaker of Parliament who tangled repeatedly with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a fellow Likud party member.
But unlike Peres, Rivlin is a hard-right native son who is opposed to the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state and who envisions a ‘‘Greater Israel,’’ a Jewish homeland stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, with Jerusalem as its undivided capital.
Rivlin beat his opponent, centrist Meir Sheetrit, by a secret ballot of 63 to 53 in a second round of voting in the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament.
‘‘He is a hawk and a democrat,’’ said Gideon Rahat, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. ‘‘He supports a Greater Israel, but he also supports giving Palestinians not a state but full and equal rights.’’
Of course, none of this is supposed to matter. The Israeli president has no real powers and is expected to remain above the political fray.
‘‘The President’s Residence is a place for dialogue, partnership, and compromise,’’ Rivlin wrote in a recent editorial. ‘‘In this sense, the presidency constitutes the ‘additional soul’ of the democratic system.’’
Still, Netanyahu variously sought to recruit someone, anyone, to beat back Rivlin’s candidacy, including Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, who is not even an Israeli citizen. Wiesel declined the offer.
After that setback, Netanyahu sought to abolish the office of the president. When that seemed impossible, he pushed for a delay in the election.
Netanyahu and Rivlin crossed swords when the latter served as speaker of the Knesset. Rivlin has also sparred with Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman.
‘‘Since Netanyahu never gives interviews to the Israeli press, we haven’t heard from him directly, so all we have is rumors, and rumors are that Netanyahu’s wife doesn’t like Rivlin and that Rivlin is too democratic for Netanyahu’s taste,’’ said Tal Schneider, a political blogger. Meaning: Rivlin sought to curb the power of Netanyahu’s premiership.
Israeli analysts say that the Peres presidency was unique because Peres, as one of the founders of the state of Israel, was a world-class figure comfortable on the international stage — hosting showy conferences, getting serenaded by Barbra Streisand for his birthday, being pals with Bill Clinton, and huddling with Secretary of State John F. Kerry.
Related: The Gold Medalist
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Also see: Avraham Shalom, ran Israeli security service; at 86
"Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian boy" June 21, 2014
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian boy in clashes during West Bank raids Friday, hospital officials said, as a search for three Israeli teens feared abducted in the territory entered its second week.
They have killed at least three during the search and preemptive strike.
Three other Palestinians were seriously wounded by army gunfire during raids in four towns and refugee camps.
The death of the boy, 13, raised to two the number of Palestinians shot dead by Israeli soldiers during search operations this week.
The three Jewish seminary students disappeared June 12 while hitchhiking in the West Bank. Israel has blamed the Islamist militant Hamas group for the apparent abduction, but has offered no proof.
Hamas has praised the abduction but has not claimed responsibility for it.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE:
You do understand what a blank space means, right?
Don't let any of that spoil the party:
"100,000 party at Israel pride parade" Associated Press June 14, 2014
JERUSALEM — Shirtless Israeli men, colorfully dressed drag queens, and others partied Friday through central Tel Aviv as tens of thousands of people took part in the city’s annual gay pride parade, the largest event of its kind in the Middle East.
Tel Aviv is one of the few places in the Middle East where gays feel free to walk hand-in-hand and kiss in public. The city has emerged as one of the world’s most gay-friendly travel destinations in recent years, in sharp contrast to the rest of the region.
One more reason to never visit.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said more than 100,000 people took part. Loud music blasted along the parade’s route, thick with people dancing to the beats and waving rainbow flags. Drag queens wearing heavy makeup, dresses with sequins, and high heels bounced along to the music alongside scantily clad men and women.
Yes, what a positive portrayal of protest by my agenda-pushing jewspaper.
Tel Aviv’s openness to gays stands in contrast to conservative Jerusalem, just a short drive away, home to some of the holiest sites to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Still, Jerusalem has a small gay scene and an annual pride parade, albeit on a smaller scale.
Gay people serve openly in Israel’s military and Parliament, and many popular artists and entertainers are gay. However, leaders of the gay community say Israel still has far to go in promoting equality.
Officially, there is no gay marriage in Israel, primarily because there is no civil marriage of any kind. All Jewish weddings must be conducted through the Jewish rabbinate, which considers homosexuality a sin and a violation of Jewish law. But the state recognizes same-sex couples who marry abroad.
But nobody makes a big deal about Zionist Jew bigots, certainly not my Jewish-controlled pre$$.
--more--"
Related:
My Two Dads
Also see:
Boston Gay Men’s Chorus will tour the Middle East
City Council’s transgender vote is a brave move
Mass. to cover range of transgender medical care
Presbyterian leaders OK gay nuptials
Gay marriage opponents set to rally in D.C.
