September 13, 2018
Netanyahu Praises ‘Correct Decision’ By US To Shut PLO Mission In Washington
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (11th) praised the Trump administration for its decision to shut the Palestine Liberation Organization mission in Washington DC, saying it was the correct decision.
“The US took the correct decision,” Netanyahu said in a statement at the end of the Rosh Hashanah holiday. “Israel supports these actions that are meant to make it clear to the Palestinians that refusing to negotiate will not bring about peace.”
Earlier Tuesday (11th), the Palestinian envoy to Washington said his staffers have been given a month to pack-up after the US ordered the mission closed.
Husam Zomlot, until recently posted to DC as the Palestinian envoy, told The Associated Press the closure would not deter Palestinians from seeking a state with east Jerusalem as the capital.
“We lost the US administration, but we gained our national rights,” said Zomlot, who was recalled back to Ramallah in the spring amid tensions between Washington and the Palestinian leadership.
The US State Department confirmed Monday (10th) it was ordering the closure of the Washington mission of the PLO, saying the Palestinians were not supporting peace talks with Israel.
“We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians since the expiration of a previous waiver in November 2017,” said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.
“However, the PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel…To the contrary, PLO leadership has condemned a US peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the US government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise. As such, and reflecting congressional concerns, the administration has decided that the PLO office in Washington will close at this point.”
(israelnn.com; ap.com)
Three Arrested For Suspected Arson Attack On Nature Reserve Close To Dead Sea
Police on Tuesday (11th) said they arrested three people on suspicion of causing a blaze at a nature reserve close to the Dead Sea, amid reports that 123 acres of vegetation had been damaged at Einot Tsukim, including rare species of plants.
According to a statement from police, they gave chase to a vehicle after officers observed it “traveling suspiciously” around 2 a.m. The driver refused to stop the vehicle.
After the car was finally brought to a stop and searched, a strong smell of fuel was coming from the car and it’s occupants clothes. Funnels were also found and the three were arrested on suspicion of starting the fire.
Two of the suspects are residents of east Jerusalem and one is from the West Bank town of Azariya – all are in their 20s.
According to Hebrew-language news sites, 16 firefighting teams, water tankers, military firefighters, police helicopters and firefighting planes were all deployed to the fire scene.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis visited nature reserves across the country Tuesday (11th) to mark the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
(ynetnews.com; timesofisrael.com)
Salehi: ‘Consequences Will Be Harsh’ If Iran’s Scientists Harmed
Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday (11th) in Tehran that the “consequences will be harsh if there are any new attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear scientists.
A string of bombings, blamed on Israel, targeted a number of scientists beginning in 2010 at the height of Western concerns over Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel has never assumed responsibility for the assassinations Iran attributed to it.
In 2010 Iran’s parliament speaker said it had received information that Israeli and US intelligence intended to carry out “terrorist acts” in Tehran after the killing of scientist Professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi. He worked for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In the same year, former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United Nations of complicity in the murder of a nuclear scientist Majid Shahriyari, days before talks aimed at defusing a nuclear standoff.
“In these kinds of terrorist acts, undoubtedly the United Nations is in cahoots with Zionists,” the former president stated.
(ap.com)
Hariri Calls For Justice At Trial Of Hizbullah Men Suspected Of Killing Father
Lebanon’s incoming prime minister called for “justice” on Monday (10th) as a UN-backed tribunal into the huge bombing that killed his father Rafiq Hariri in 2005 entered its last stage.
Saad Hariri was in court in The Netherlands as closing arguments began in the trial in absentia of four Hizbullah suspects over the attack that changed the face of the Middle East.
Prosecutors said the suicide bomb, which also killed 21 other people and wounded 226, was a deliberate attempt to create “horror,” and that billionaire former premier Rafiq Hariri was assassinated because he opposed Syrian control of Lebanon.
“There is no doubt that this day is difficult for me, as the son of Rafiq Hariri,” Saad Hariri told reporters, outside the Special Tribunal for Lebanon in Leidschendam, a suburb of The Hague.
“From the start, we demanded justice because we believe that justice and the truth protect Lebanon,” added Hariri, recently designated for a third term as prime minister.
The tribunal is unique in international justice because it is trying the four suspects despite the fact that they are not present, as the Hizbullah terror group has refused to hand them over.
The four Hizbullah suspects have been on trial since 2014.
(afp.com)
Speaker At UK Labour Conference Reportedly Called To Kill Israeli MKs
A woman scheduled to speak at a UK Labour Party conference later this month once called for attacks against the Knesset and Israeli lawmakers, The Times reported Tuesday (11th).
According to the report Ewa Jasiewicz, 40, British-Polish anti-Israel activist, is scheduled to speak about the future of trade unions at the Momentum Festival organized alongside Labour’s annual conference.
The Times said it had unearthed a report from Jasiewicz, written in 2002 when she was living and working in Jenin in the West Bank at the height of the Second Intifada, in which she suggested that terror groups should target Israeli MKs instead of civilians.
According to The Times, Jasiewicz wrote that the son of the family she was staying with “went and opened fire on some Israeli civilians in a market somewhere a few months ago,” adding: “I don’t get why activists can’t go and do the Knesset or something, or do a sophisticated politician bump-off like the PFLP does?”
She was referring to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terror group that has conducted numerous attacks against Israel and Israeli citizens since it was formed in 1967, including the assassination of then-tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi in 2001.
Jasiewicz has a long history of anti-Israel activity and was deported from Israel in 2004, reportedly for aiding terror groups.
The announcement that Jasiewicz was set to speak at the Labour event initially drew outrage after it was revealed that she had in 2010 vandalized a remaining wall of the Warsaw Ghetto, spraying it with “Free Gaza and Palestine” graffiti.
The wall was built in 1940, when Nazi Germany occupying Poland closed the area of Warsaw they called the “Jewish district.” The wall was 13 feet high topped with barbed wire.
Most of the ghetto’s 450,000 residents died of hunger and disease there or in the gas chambers of the Treblinka death camp.
(thetimes.co.uk)
