Now Isreal

12 February 2013 Last updated at 17:27

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21 February 2013 Last updated at 17:24

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• 
  
  
  
  
  Many injured in West Bank protests over hunger
  strikes
  
  
  The issue of hunger strikers
  has been drawing protests and international attention
  Continue
  reading the main story
  
  Middle
  East crisis
  
• Q&A: UN bid
  
• New Palestinian powers?
  
• Conflict's legality
  
• Palestinian territories
  

More than 60 people have been injured
in clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli army in the West Bank, the
Palestinian Red Crescent has said.

Youths, gathered outside Ofer prison near Ramallah, threw stones and petrol
bombs towards Israeli soldiers.

The soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets. There were reports of live
fire being used.

The demonstrators were calling for the release of four Palestinian prisoners
who are on hunger strike.

The prisoners say they have been detained without charge; Israel argues the
men are a security threat.

One of the hunger strikers, Samer Issawi, has been on an on off strike for
more than 200 days. He is said to weigh less than 50kg.

Continue reading the main story
Palestinian prisoners

• Israel holds 4,517 Palestinians in its jails
  
• 1,031 held until the conclusion of legal proceedings
  
• 178 in administrative detention (without charge or trial)
  
• 170 are under the age of 18
  

(Source: Israel Prison Service December 2012)

For most of his strike, he has been taking only water as
well as vitamins, minerals and sugars.

The three other hunger strikers are Tariq Qaadan, Jafar Ezzedine and Ayman
Sharawna.

A spokesperson for Israel's Prisons Service said earlier this week the four
prisoners were in "satisfactory condition" and receiving medical treatment as
needed, but they had lost the right to family visits when they began their
protests.

As of December 2012, Israel held 4,517 Palestinians in its jails.

Of these 1,031 are being held until the conclusion of legal proceedings, 178
are in administrative detention (without charge or trial) and 170 are under 18
years of age.

Administrative detention is a system under which a military court can order
suspects to be detained indefinitely, subject to renewal every six months by the
court, without trial or charge. The Israeli military says it uses administrative
detention when it fears an immediate risk to security or to protect informants.


The issue of prisoners is an emotive one for Palestinians, who view many of
those incarcerated as heroes of the conflict with Israel.

Syrian refugees 'will not be allowed to cross Israel border'


Refugees from Syria's civil war will be prevented from crossing into Israel,
Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed, a day after seven men injured in the fighting were
allowed passage and treated in an Israeli hospital.








Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has vowed to prevent Syrian refugees crossing into the
country. Photo: RONEN
ZVULUN/EPA





By Robert Tait,
Jerusalem

6:00PM GMT 17 Feb 2013




The men were allowed to cross Israel's frontier with Syria on the Golan Heights
after signalling to Israeli soldiers that they were wounded. Troops administered
emergency first aid treatment before taking them to Ziv Medical Centre in the
northern Israeli town of Safed, where they were detained overnight.


It is believed to be the first time casualties from Syria's two-year conflict
have been treated in Israel.


Mr Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, however said such facilities would
only be extended in "exceptional cases" in future.


"Yesterday, we saw that the fighting is also approaching our border," he
said. "We will continue to guard our border and prevent passage and entry to
Israel, except for exceptional, isolated cases, every one will be considered on
its merits."


It is not known if the men were rebel fighters or belong to forces loyal to
President Bashar al-Assad.



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One was described as being "severely" wounded and was being kept in intensive
care, Dr Oscar Embon, director of the Ziv Medical Centre said.

Israeli officials have repeatedly voiced fears about the security of Syria's
chemical weapons stockpile, amid fears that it could fall into the hands of
militant Islamists fighting Mr Assad's regime or the Lebanese group, Hizbollah.


Separately, at least one Hizbollah guerrilla and five Syrian rebels were
killed on Syrian territory near the border with Lebanon, local residents and
Syrian opposition sources said on Sunday.

Hadi al-Abdallah of the Syrian Revolution General Commission said fighting
broke out on Saturday after Lebanese Hizbollah fighters, who control eight
Syrian border villages, tried to move into three adjacent villages held by the
rebel Syrian Free Army. The events prompted the opposition Syrian National
Council to accuse Hizbollah of entering the conflict on Mr Assad's side.

Palestinian who died in Israeli jail 'was tortured'


A Palestinian prisoner who died in an Israeli jail was tortured to death, a
Palestinian official has claimed, dismissing Israeli accounts of an apparent
heart attack.








Palestinians take cover during
clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Hebron, following the death
of Arafat Jaradat Photo:
AP





9:00PM GMT 24 Feb 2013




Arafat Jaradat's autopsy showed torture resulting from fractures in his body
and skull while his heart was in good condition, said Issa Qaraqaa, the minister
in charge of prisoner affairs, citing a Palestinian doctor who took
part in the autopsy.


"These results prove Israel killed him," Mr Qaraqaa told a news conference.



Jaradat died on Saturday in an Israeli jail from what prison authorities
initially said appeared to have been a heart attack.


The 30-year-old man from Sair near Hebron in the West Bank was arrested last
Monday for alleged involvement in a November 2012 stone-throwing incident which
injured an Israeli, according to Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence
service.


Palestinians said he was a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed
wing of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement.



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Jaradat's body was transferred to a hospital in Hebron late on Sunday after
an autopsy at Israel's national forensic institute near Tel Aviv in which the
Palestinian doctor participated.

He was to be buried at noon on Monday.

An Israeli police spokesman had no comment on the autopsy results or
investigation into Jaradat's death, and would only say that "the subject is
still under examination."

Source: AFP

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1. News»
   

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1. Barack Obama
   

Gaza militants fire rockets as Barack Obama meets Abbas in Ramallah


Hours after militants in Gaza fired two rockets at Israel, President Barack
Obama arrives in the West Bank to meet Palestinian leaders dismayed by his
failure to meet expectations that he could help deliver them a state.








Israeli police officers stand
near the remains of a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza after it
landed in the southern Israeli town of Sderot Photo:
REUTERS/Amir Cohen





Agence France-Presse

8:40AM GMT 21 Mar 2013




Mr Obama met with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah at 0900 GMT
and then Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, on the second day of his visit to Israel,
the West Bank and Jordan, which is dominated by challenges posed by Iran and
Syria.


The president and Mr Abbas will hold a working lunch, followed by a news
conference. Mr Obama and Mr Fayyad will then visit a youth centre in Ramallah.



This morning, two rockets fired by militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip hit
southern Israel.


In only the second such attack since November, the rockets crashed down in
Sderot, a border town often targeted by rockets, which Mr Obama visited in a
previous visit to Israel while a presidential candidate in 2008.


Twitter: Phoebe Greenwood - Palestinian reaction to #Obama "Obama get out" http://t.co/w61YkiBkTy



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Mr Obama was miles away in Jerusalem at the time, preparing to visit the
Israel museum.

Yossi Haziza, a Sderot resident in whose courtyard the first rocket exploded,
was looking at the walls of his home sprayed with shrapnel and shattered
windows.

"I wish this was merely damage to property but my eight year old daughter and
my wife are terrified," Haziza said. "We just want to live in peace. We don't
want to keep having to run to bomb shelters."

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Thursday's attack. Over the
past decade, Gaza militants have fired thousands of rockets and mortar shells at
Israel.

The president, on the first foreign trip of his second term, says he has came
to the Holy Land simply "to listen" to the parties about how to resume peace
talks which have been frozen for two-and-a-half years.
======================
The Americans look to Isreal














He said he decided against coming armed with a comprehensive peace plan that
might not be fit for current political conditions.

"Ultimately, this is a really hard problem," Mr Obama said during a news
conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday.

"It's been lingering for over six decades. And the parties involved have, you
know, some profound interests that you can't spin, you can't smooth over. And it
is a hard slog to work through all of these issues."

Mr Obama's new approach was a stark contrast to early in his first term, when
he declared Israeli settlement building to be illegitimate and promised to
dedicate himself to peace.

He admitted on Wednesday that he had perhaps made mistakes, but argued that
he was not the only US leader to have come a cropper on the issue.

"I hope I'm a better president now than when I first came into office," Mr
Obama said.

"I'm absolutely sure that there are a host of things that I could have done
that would have been more deft and, you know, would have created better optics."


Palestinian peace negotiator Nabil Shaath on Wednesday published an op-ed
message in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, urging Mr Obama to prove his
commitment to a two-state solution by turning pledges into deeds.

"We could have saved lives and political capital if President Obama had shown
the determination to create the right environment for meaningful decisions
leading to a two-state solution," he wrote.

"Now, rather than calling for the resumption of a meaningless 'peace
process,' we Palestinians expect real action on the ground."

Mr Shaath said Mr Obama had disappointed Palestinians who once warmed to his
calls for an end to settlement building.

"President Obama appeared to give up on his goal," he said.

Separately on Wednesday, Palestinian activists set up a protest camp on a
strip of West Bank land east of Jerusalem where Israel has announced
controversial plans to build, demanding an end to Mr Obama's "bias and support
for Israel."

Israel's plan to build thousands of new settler homes in an area called E1
has sparked a major international backlash, with experts saying it could wipe
out hopes for the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.

Mr Netanyahu, however, on Wednesday re-committed to the notion of a two-state
solution for the first time since he was re-elected in January, albeit in a
weaker political position.

"Let me be clear: Israel remains fully committed to peace and to the solution
of two states for two peoples," he said, standing beside Mr Obama.

The Palestinians are hoping Mr Obama will help broker the release of more
than 1,000 prisoners held by Israel and also free up $700 million in blocked US
aid.

At Wednesday's news conference, Mr Obama accepted the Jewish state would not
cede its right to confront Iran's nuclear threat to the United States.

"I would not expect that the prime minister would make a decision about his
country's security and defer that to any other country," he said.

Washington has worried that Mr Netanyahu's hawkish rhetoric on Iran and
warnings Tehran could get most of the way to a nuclear bomb within months - a
shorter timeline than Washington's - have sparked fears of an Israeli strike.


But Mr Obama came to Israel apparently determined to remove all doubt about
his commitment to Israel which have harmed his reputation here, and proven a
thorny political issue at home.

He will return from the West Bank later Thursday to redouble his Israeli
charm offensive by giving a speech to hundreds of young people at a conference
centre in Jerusalem.

Edited by Sarah Titterton


============================================

America looks to Israel as their eyes and ears in the Middle East which is why they support the Country. However, Obama has made a big mistake visiting Israel just when the recent skirmish has died down.

Israel Apologises For Gaza Flotilla Raid




Last Updated: 4:22PM 22/03/2013



The Israeli Prime Minister has apologised for a raid on a Gaza flotilla which resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish activists.

Benjamin Netanyahu announced the restoration of normal diplomatic relations with Turkey and expressed regret during a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
President Barack Obama helped arrange the call shortly before leaving Israel.
In a statement released by the White House said, Mr Obama said: "The United States deeply values our close partnerships with both Turkey and Israel, and we attach great importance to the restoration of positive relations between them in order to advance regional peace and security.
"I am hopeful that today's exchange between the two leaders will enable them to engage in deeper cooperation on this and a range of other challenges and opportunities," he added.
The flotilla incident severely harmed ties between the once-close allies. Turkey withdrew its ambassador from Israel, and diplomatic ties and military cooperation were greatly scaled back.
Mr Netanyahu said the "tragic results" were not intentional and Israel "expressed remorse" for the loss of life. He cited "operational mistakes".
The nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed aboard the Turkish-flagged ship Mavi Marmara on May 31, 2010, after passengers resisted a takeover by Israeli naval commandos.
The flotilla was en route to Gaza in an attempt to bring international attention to Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory.
At the time, the former legal adviser to Israel's foreign ministry, Alan Baker, said it was tragic that lives had been lost, but there was no need for an apology.

• Related Stories
  
• Flotilla Raid: Turkey Expels Ambassador
  
• Israel's Stark Warning To Gaza Aid Ships
  

Israel: Police Arrest Five Women at Wailing Wall


Members of the Women of the Wall protest group were
detained for breaking Orthodox tradition female clothing rules.


12:42pm UK,
Thursday 11 April 2013



Video: Police detained women for
breaking Orthodox tradition clothing rules
Enlarge

• 
  
  A member of the liberal religious group Women of the Wall wearing
  phylacteries and a "Tallit" - a traditional Jewish prayer shawl for men - prays
  at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City.
  
  1 of 8
  
• 
  
  Israeli police officers detain an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man at the Western
  Wall after he burnt a book belonging to the Women of the Wall.
  
  2 of 8
  
• 
  
  Israeli police and border police officers detain Lesley Sachs (C), director
  of Women of the Wall.
  
  3 of 8
  
• 
  
  Five members of the organisation were detained by police during the group's
  monthly prayer at the Western Wall, after covering themselves with prayer shawls
  in contradiction to the holy site's custom.
  
  4 of 8
  
• 
  
  A woman and a man wrapped in a prayer shawl pray together.
  
  5 of 8
  
• 
  
  Women pray on one side of a partition at the Western Wall
  
  6 of 8
  
• 
  
  Concerns have been raised that police-enforced Orthodox controls on women
  worshippers alienate Jews abroad.
  
  7 of 8
  
• 
  
  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to consider liberalising access
  to Judaism's Western Wall, officials said.
  
  8 of 8
  

PreviousNext
Gallery: Women Arrested At Wailing
Wall
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• 
  
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Five women have been arrested by Israeli police at the Wailing
Wall for wearing prayer shawls that Orthodox tradition states should only be
worn by men.

The women were all members of the Women of the Wall group that opposes
police-enforced segregation of worshippers according to sex at the Jerusalem
holy site.

The arrests occurred during a monthly prayer session organised by the
group.

"Police detained for questioning five women who prayed with religious
garments at the Wall," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
A girl watches men praying at the Wailing Wall
from behind a barrier
The group's monthly gatherings at the Western Wall often end with arrests of
women who don prayer shawls or read publicly from the holy scriptures, a rite
also reserved under Orthodox ritual for men.

Jewish modernisers have long called on senior rabbis to relax laws in Israel
preventing men and women worshipping together at the Wall.
Women are not allowed to pray with men at the
Wailing Wall
On Wednesday, officials said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was
considering a plan to convert an old archaeological dig south of the Wall into
an area where men and women would be allowed to mix and worship
freely.





===============

I'm surprised that a young Country like Israel maintains a chauvanist attitude .

Its not 'custom' its Jewish law as enshrined in the Torah. Even the most liberal of Reform Jewish women don't wear Tefillin. Id bet anything that these women aren't even Jewish. They are just out to cause trouble imho. And this article is full of the most atrocious bullshit, I don't even know where to begin.

Iris wrote:Its not 'custom' its Jewish law as enshrined in the Torah. Even the most liberal of Reform Jewish women don't wear Tefillin. Id bet anything that these women aren't even Jewish. They are just out to cause trouble imho. And this article is full of the most atrocious bullshit, I don't even know where to begin.

I don't profess to know Jewish Customs and Law but there was another case recently about Women wanting equality , can't remember which Country.
The problem is Iris that a lot of Middle Eastern Women are more educated , see the Western way of equality and don't want to be subjugated. it's all part of the Arab Spring.

Women in Israel are equal to men under the law.
Women in Gaza aren't even allowed in public swimming pools.

Iris wrote:Women in Israel are equal to men under the law.
Women in Gaza aren't even allowed in public swimming pools.

I didn't know they had any swimming pools left after all the bombing.
Seriously though, most Countries in the Middle East treat their Women like servants , I think it is Jordan which has become more Liberal and Women can divorce their Husbands. It is a fact that more Women in the Middle East are enjoying Education which in time they may be given Government Positions.
With all these Refugee Camps they will breed dissidents and the situation will get worse.

Yes, well the world is misled into believing that Gaza is one big bomb site. It may interest you to know that the poor downtrodden Palestinians have fivestar hotels and Michelin starred restaurants with French chefs and imported truffles. Whilst half their people live in genuine poverty and women tourists are not even allowed in hotel swimming pools. Its all right there on Tripadvisor, don't just take my word for it.

Israel ready to act on Syria weapons, warns
Netanyahu





Benjamin Netanyahu tells Lyse Doucet that arming rebels could
worsen regional conflict

Continue
reading the main story

Syria
conflict

• Proxy war heats up
  
• From peace to war
  
• Sides entrenched
  
• Arms
  debate
  

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has told the BBC that Israel has a right to prevent weapons from
falling into the wrong hands in Syria.

He said that if terrorists seized anti-aircraft and chemical weapons they
could be "game changers" in the region.

There have been growing calls for the international community to arm rebels
fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

But there is increasing concern that Islamist militants could use such
weapons to further their own causes.

Israel has said its policy is not to get involved in the Syrian conflict.

But in recent months it has retaliated following Syrian fire into
Israeli-controlled areas in the Golan Heights.

Israel first occupied the Golan Heights in 1967 and later annexed the
territory in a move that is not internationally recognised.

Mr Netanyahu, in an exclusive interview with the BBC's Lyse Doucet, said
Israel's concern was "which rebels and which weapons?"

"The main arms of concern to us are the arms that are already in Syria -
these are anti-aircraft weapons, these are chemical weapons and other very, very
dangerous weapons that could be game changers," he said.

"They will change the conditions, the balance of power in the Middle East.
They could present a terrorist threat on a worldwide scale. It is definitely our
interest to defend ourselves, but we also think it is in the interest of other
countries."
'Not aggressive'
Asked if Israel would adopt a more aggressive military stance in Syria, Mr
Netanyahu said: "We are not aggressive. We don't seek military confrontation,
but we are prepared to defend ourselves if the need arises and I think people
know that what I say is both measured and serious."

Mr Netanyahu would not confirm what was widely believed to have been an
Israeli air strike on a suspected Syrian government weapons convoy in
January.

It was reported that the convoy had been heading for Hezbollah fighters in
Lebanon.

Mr Netanyahu was in London to attend Baroness Thatcher's funeral and also
held talks with UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

Earlier, President Assad accused Western countries of backing al-Qaeda in his
country.

He warned that they would pay a heavy price in Europe and the US as militants
became emboldened.

Israeli Warplanes Launch Airstrike In Syria


Israeli officials confirm that warplanes carried out a
strike on a shipment of "game changing" missiles in Syria.


9:50am UK,
Saturday 04 May 2013

The airstrike targeted a shipment of advanced missiles in
Syria

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Israeli officials have confirmed its air force carried out an
  airstrike allegedly targeting a shipment of advanced missiles in Syria.
  
  The officials said the target was not chemical weapons, but of "game
  changing" arms bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
  
  The strike took place overnight on Thursday into Friday, just as Israel was
  flying many warplanes over Lebanon.
  
  The US earlier said it did not believe Israeli warplanes entered Syrian
  airspace to conduct the strikes.
  
  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned in recent
  weeks that his country would be prepared to take military action if chemical
  weapons or other arms were to reach Hezbollah.
  
  Earlier this month, Israel admitted carrying out a January airstrike on a
  weapons convoy believed to be carrying anti-aircraft equipment in Syria thought
  to be en route to Hezbollah.
  
  The confirmation of the strike came hours after Barack Obama refused to rule
  out options in dealing with the crisis in Syria but said he did not foresee
  sending in US ground troops.
  Mr Obama, on a trip to Costa Rica, rules out
  US 'boots' on Syrian ground
  Speaking during a visit to Costa Rica, the US President said: "As a general
  rule, I don't rule things out as commander-in-chief because circumstances change
  and you want to make sure that I always have the full power of the United States
  at our disposal to meet American national security interests.
  
  "Having said that, I do not foresee a scenario in which boots on the ground
  in Syria, American boots on the ground in Syria, would not only be good for
  America but also would be good for Syria."
  
  Mr Obama said there was evidence that chemical weapons had been used in
  Syria, but that "we don't know when, where or how they were used".
  
  But if "strong evidence" is found of such weapons being used by the regime of
  President Bashar al Assad, then "that is a game changer for us" because "there
  is a possibility that it lands in the hands of organisations like Hezbollah", Mr
  Obama said.
  
  Mr Obama said if use of chemical weapons in Syria is confirmed, the US will
  present that evidence to the international community, because it concerns the
  entire world.
  
  But he called for caution to avoid unintended consequences, saying: It's
  important for us to do it right."
  
  Meanwhile, warnings of a new "large-scale massacre" in Syria have emerged
  following reports Mr Assad's troops bombarded Sunni areas near the city of
  Bania.
  There have been reports of a 'large-scale
  massacre' in Baida
  The opposition National Coalition accused the regime of "war crimes and
  genocide", citing witness reports of civilians being stabbed to death.
  
  "The Coalition calls on the Arab League and the United Nations to act rapidly
  to save the civilians of Baida, Banias and other villages across Syria," it said
  in a statement.
  
  "Several sources in the village say at least 50 people were killed in summary
  executions and shelling in Baida village,"Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Syrian
  Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP news agency.
  
  Syria's official Sana news agency said troops killed "terrorists" and seized
  arms in an operation targeting rebels.
  
  Regular forces were supported by pro-regime "shabiha" militiamen, said the
  Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground for its
  information.
  
  The Banias region is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of Shia Islam and the
  sect of Mr Assad, while the insurgents battling to topple his regime are mainly
  Sunni Muslims.
  
• Related Stories
  

'Israel Rocket Strike' On Syria Military Site


Heavy explosions are heard in Damascus as Syrian state TV
claims Israeli rockets have struck a military research centre.


6:16am UK,
Sunday 05 May 2013

Unverified footage claims to show rockets hitting the
military building

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

Israeli missiles have struck a military research centre near the
capital Damascus, setting off explosions, Syrian state television has said.

The rockets were said to have struck a military research centre in Jamraya on
the outskirts of the capital in the early hours of this morning.

The building was the target of an earlier Israeli strike in January.

Israel has declined to comment on the latest attack, but a Western
intelligence source said "stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from
Iran to Hizbollah" were the target of the strike.

Video footage uploaded online by activists claims to show a huge ball of fire
rising into the night sky.
More of the unverified footage uploaded by
activists
Meanwhile, hundreds of families are fleeing a Syrian coastal area where
activists say government troops have massacred nearly 200, many of whom were
women and children.

The opponents of Bashar al Assad's regime say that fighters loyal to the
President carried out two massacres last night and on Thursday in a Sunni Muslim
area driving by a policy of ethnic cleansing.

Activists posted a video online of the bodies of 10 people it said were
killed in Ras al Nabaa, in the city of Banias, in an attack overnight.

Half of them were children.

Activists said that the number of dead could be as high as 60.

It comes just two days after pro-Assad militias are alleged to have killed as
many as 100 Sunnis in the nearby village of Baida.
Protests in Banias at the beginning of the
uprising in 2011
Amateur video showed a man and at least three children dead inside a
room.

A baby had burned legs and a body stained with blood. Next to him was a young
girl whose face had been deformed after apparently being hit with sharp
metal.

Other footage from activists showed entire families killed in their beds, a
dead mother cradling her child in her arms, two toddlers lying next to them.

The videos have not been independently verified.

Syria's crisis, that began in March 2011 with pro-democracy protests and
later turned into a civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people, has
largely broken along sectarian lines.

The Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while Mr Assad's
minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, anchors the regime's
security services and the military's officer corps.
Syria's crisis has claimed the lives of an
estimated 70,000 people
Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Mr Assad or stand on
the sidelines, worried that the regime's fall would bring about a more Islamist
rule.

It has been estimated as many as 4,000 people are fleeing from the
predominantly Sunni southern parts of the Mediterranean city of Banias amid
fears of further large-scale killings.

It added that security forces had been checking identity cards and sending
people back to Banias so that things would appear normal.

The US today condemned the May 2 attack. State Department spokeswoman
Jennifer Psaki said: "We strongly condemn atrocities against the civilian
population and reinforce our solidarity with the Syrian people."

Her statement added: "The United States is appalled by horrific reports that
more than 100 people were killed May 2 in gruesome attacks on the coastal town
of Bayda, Syria.

"Regime and Shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire
then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and
children."

It came as Israeli officials confirmed the country's air force carried out a
strike against Syria, saying it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles bound
for the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.

The violence in the coastal region shows the sectarian nature of the two-year
conflict that has killed tens of thousands and sent more than a million Syrians
as refugees to neighbouring countries.
=================================
This is dreadful, innocents being slaughtered just because they have a different faith , it's not just Syria, it's all over the Middle East.

'Israel Rocket Strike' On Syria Military Site


Syria says strikes on targets near Damascus, believed to
have been carried out by Israel, "open the door to all possibilities".


3:49pm UK,
Sunday 05 May 2013




Video: Syria: Rocket Strike (YouTube
footage)
Enlarge

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  Syria says Israeli air strikes against three targets near
  Damascus "open the door to all possibilities".
  
  Information Minister Omran Zoabi spoke after an emergency cabinet meeting
  organised to respond to the attack, believed to have targeted missiles bound for
  Hezbollah.
  
  The rockets hit a military research centre in Jamraya on the outskirts of the
  capital in the early hours of this morning.
  
  The building was the target of an earlier Israeli strike in January
  and Israeli radio has reported the latest attack has been confirmed by a senior
  security official.
  
  A Western intelligence source said "stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in
  transit from Iran to Hezbollah" were the target.
  
  Video footage uploaded online by activists shows a huge ball of fire rising
  into the night sky.
  More of the unverified footage uploaded by
  activists
  Mr Zoabi accused Israel of working with "terrorist groups" and although he
  did not hint at a concrete course of action, he said it was Damascus's duty to
  protect the state from any "domestic or foreign attack through all available
  means".
  
  Sunday's attack is the third Israeli assault this year on Syrian soil.
  Previous strikes on Syria by Israel have not elicited a military response from
  Syria or its allies Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah.
  
  Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al Mekdad told CNN the strike was "a
  declaration of war" by Israel and represented an alliance between Islamic
  terrorists and Israel.
  
  Iran has condemned the Israeli attack and urged countries in the region to
  stand against the action, the Fars news agency reported.
  
  Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not mention the strikes at a
  news conference, but spoke pointedly about his commitment to keeping Israel
  secure.
  Protests in Banias at the beginning of the
  uprising in 2011
  Meanwhile, hundreds of families are fleeing a Syrian coastal area where
  activists say government troops have massacred nearly 200, many of them women
  and children.
  
  Opponents of Bashar al Assad's regime say that fighters loyal to the
  President carried out two massacres on Saturday night and on Thursday in a Sunni
  Muslim area driven by a policy of ethnic cleansing.
  
  Activists posted a video online of the bodies of 10 people it said were
  killed in Ras al Nabaa in the city of Banias, in an overnight attack.
  
  The activists said half of the victims were children and that the number of
  deaths could be as high as 60.
  
  It comes just two days after pro-Assad militias are alleged to have killed as
  many as 100 Sunnis in the nearby village of Baida.
  
  Amateur video showed a man and at least three children dead inside a
  room.
  Syria's crisis has claimed the lives of an
  estimated 70,000 people
  A baby had burned legs and its body was covered in blood. Next to him was a
  young girl whose face had been deformed after apparently being hit with sharp
  metal.
  
  Other footage from activists showed entire families killed in their beds. A
  dead woman is seen cradling a child in her arms and two toddlers lying next to
  them.
  
  The videos have not been independently verified.
  
  The crisis in Syria, which began in March 2011 with pro-democracy protests
  and later turned into a civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people,
  has largely evolved along sectarian lines.
  
  The Sunni majority forms the backbone of the rebellion, while Mr Assad's
  minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, anchors the regime's
  security services and the military's officer corps.
  
  Other minorities, such as Christians, largely support Mr Assad or are
  standing on the sidelines, fearing the regime's collapse would bring about a
  more Islamist rule.
  
  It has been estimated as many as 4,000 people are fleeing from the
  predominantly Sunni southern parts of the Mediterranean city of Banias amid
  fears of further large-scale killings.
  
  The US has condemned the attack on Thursday. State Department spokeswoman
  Jennifer Psaki said: "We strongly condemn atrocities against the civilian
  population and reinforce our solidarity with the Syrian people."
  
  She added: "The United States is appalled by horrific reports that more than
  100 people were killed May 2 in gruesome attacks on the coastal town of Bayda,
  Syria.
  
  "Regime and Shabiha forces reportedly destroyed the area with mortar fire
  then stormed the town and executed entire families, including women and
  children."
  
• Related Stories
  

20 May 2013 Last updated at 17:31 r




Israel bank shooting leaves four dead


Police hurried one woman away
from the bank in Beersheba
A man has shot four people dead in a bank in southern
Israel before turning the gun on himself, police say.

One person was injured, while a woman held hostage for about an hour was
freed before the gunman killed himself.

Police initially described the incident as a robbery, but later said the man
may have entered the bank with the intention of shooting.

Investigators think he was refused a settlement over a 6,000-shekel (£1,070)
overdraft, Israeli media said.

"It appears that we are talking about a lone individual who came to the bank
in the morning hours, sought cover for a debt, a loan, and did not get it," said
Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch.

He told Army Radio that the man found he could not withdraw money from an
automatic cash machine, and came back to the Bank Hapoalim branch in Beersheba
with a pistol before opening fire.

Witnesses were quoted as saying the gunman had killed a security guard at the
bank before shooting three people who were lying on the floor.

"He took a hostage, held her for close to an hour or more," Mr Aharonovitch
said. "The moment the police forces burst in, he killed himself - shot himself
and committed suicide."

Media reports identified the attacker as a Jewish man in his 40s formerly
employed as a paramilitary border guard.

"We are not convinced entirely at this point that we are talking about a
robbery or an attempted robbery," said national police chief Yohanan Danino.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the incident as a "great
tragedy".

"It is not a common event in Israel," he was quoted as saying. "An attack
like this must not [be allowed] to recur."

Israel hits back after Gaza rockets



Continue reading the main story

Mid-East crisis

• Frank words from Obama in Israel
  
• Ending the deadlock
  
• Press sees little point in visit
  
• Palestinians disappointed
  

Israeli warplanes have attacked targets in the Gaza Strip after missiles were fired into southern Israel late on Sunday night.

At least six rockets were fired from northern Gaza, but no damage or injury was reported.

Hours later, Israeli aircraft hit three areas, a BBC reporter said.

The reason for the flare-up is unclear but sources blame tension in Gaza after an Islamic Jihad leader was killed by Hamas police on Saturday.

Raed Qassim Jundeyeih, 32, died after he was shot during a gun battle involving police and members of his family. Unconfirmed reports said he was a commander of the militant group's military wing, the Al-Quds brigades.

Islamic Jihad were believed to have been behind Sunday night's rocket attack on Israel, which came after a period of relative calm.

Sirens blared in a number of areas of southern Israel and Israeli media said two of the missiles, thought to be Grad rockets, were intercepted by the Iron Dome system in the Ashkelon area.

Israeli planes launched an attack in the early hours of Monday. BBC reporter Rushdi Abualouf said they hit three targets belonging to both Hamas and Islamic Jihad and there were no reports of casualties.

The first strike targeted an Islamic Jihad training facility in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The other attacks were on security compounds for the Hamas-run government, our correspondent said.

An Israeli army spokesman said weapons storage sites and a rocket-launching site were among the targets.

EU's decision on Israel like 'a bucket of cold water on the head of a drunk'

The European Union has at last lost patience with Israel's refusal to comply with international law over settlements
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Rachel Shabi

The Guardian, Thursday 18 July 2013

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The number of eviction notices for Palestinians living in the Hebron Hills, in Area C, is rising. Photograph: David Levene


Judging by the comments flying around the Israeli media, government officials are seriously displeased by the EU's decision to get tough about settlements – which are, of course, illegal under international law. Israeli officials have described the new requirement, according to which Israel must promise that EU funding won't flow into settlements, as an "earthquake", a "brutality", "a miserable directive" and "undermining the peace process". Israel's media have referred to the situation as a "crisis".

All the EU has done is put into practice what it has been saying for decades: that the settlements are bad news and agreements between Israel and the EU over funding for education, research and other projects must state specifically that they do not apply to settlements in the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem. But, from the startled Israeli response, it's as though it had assumed that the EU was just bluffing all those years.

And for a long time, it really has looked that way: the EU has, throughout the Oslo years, been diligently bankrolling the Palestinian Authority, saving the Israeli taxpayer the trouble of having to do so – effectively keeping Israel's occupation afloat. Europe has also watched Israel continuously flout international law while expanding settlements and their infrastructure – there are now some 520,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Sure, there have been predictably disapproving words from European officials, but action, penalties, consequences? Not so much. This has been a constant source of frustration to Palestinians, not just because the settlements flout international law and stated international positions on the peace process, but because Palestinians want political solutions, not aid. (There is no reason, other than the Israeli occupation, for professional people- and resource-rich Palestine to be dependent on aid – but it is.)

Now it looks as if the EU has finally lost patience with Israel. As Akiva Eldar, veteran Israeli journalist and writer for Al-Monitor, says: "The Israeli government didn't take the Europeans too seriously and crossed over from just ignoring them to humiliating them. The EU looked at the current cabinet and thought, 'Hey, that isn't rain: they are spitting on us.'"

Just a cursory look at the past few years would show the sources of such growing frustration. Israel's latest assault on Gaza, in November 2012, continued the Israeli practice of razing to the ground projects, buildings and infrastructure that Europe has funded. In a similar vein, Israel has just issued an order to stop work while it considers demolishing an EU-financed sustainability project – hothouses and solar panels – in the South Hebron hills.

There's presumably only so long that European officials can watch such Palestinian projects get desiccated and still think that aid, not political pressure, is a good idea – especially in the middle of a Eurozone crisis and while there are other nations more in need of aid. Meanwhile, the building of settlements is at a seven-year high, while the number of eviction notices for Palestinians living in Area C – the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control – is also rising. And earlier this year, Israel announced plans to build on the E1 part of Palestine – as punishment for the Palestinians upgrading their membership status at the UN. Such construction would put an end to the contiguous Palestinian state to which the EU claims to be committed.

Some will say that none of this matters. Many Israelis relegate the EU to the back seat – while the apparently more reliable US steers the go-nowhere, zombie peace talks with the Palestinians. One Israeli suggested to me that this latest EU stance was simply an attempt to deflect attention from real, critical problems in the Middle East – notably in Syria. Another analyst pointed out that the EU doesn't worry about the small print relating to the occupied territories when the treaties being signed are beneficial to EU countries. Certainly it is deemed an irritant that, while both the US and the EU make their position on settlements clear, only the EU is politically loaded enough to dare to try to bind its agreements to those principles.

That's the trouble, of course: Israel sees international policy on settlements as simply a guideline or position statement, as opposed to actual law. This escalating sense of hubris over settlement expansion – and getting away with it – is what makes the EU move such a shock for Israel: Gush Shalom, Israel's peace bloc, likened the EU decision to "a bucket of cold water poured on the head of a drunk".

The Israeli government may prefer to forget about the Green Line, but this EU directive is a clear reminder that the international community will not. And though it doesn't affect Israel's trade agreements with Europe, it has a financial impact: people attending an emergency Israeli government meeting spoke of adverse effects on the economy, academia, culture and sports.

Most significantly, the move sends a clear message to Israel that refusing to comply with international law does have tangible consequences.

The EEC and then the EU, and indeed the UN, have sat back for the last 65 years and watched Israel - a legitimate, legally created state - being attacked from all sides, and done nothing. Would they have tolerated attacks like that on any other country in the world? And now they are complaining that Israel aren't taking them seriously? Now come on!

Iris wrote:The EEC and then the EU, and indeed the UN, have sat back for the last 65 years and watched Israel - a legitimate, legally created state - being attacked from all sides, and done nothing.  Would they have tolerated attacks like that on any other country in the world?  And now they are complaining that Israel aren't taking them seriously?  Now come on!

Those organisations and the MSM ignored the daily rockets being fired from Gaza into Israel and only got involved when Israel retaliated.

Now this secret plan from Obama. I can't believe anyone would suggest such a thing.

'Secret Obama plan' forfeits Temple Mount to Palestinians

The Obama administration has quietly presented a plan in which the Palestinian Authority and Jordan will receive sovereignty over the Temple Mount while Israel will retain the land below the Western Wall, according to a senior PA negotiator speaking to WND.

The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.


http://www.wnd.com/2013/07/secret-obama-plan-forfeits-temple-mount-to-palestinians/#UAKqrqMWx53pYBPf.99

It will never happen. Every single Jew would sacrifice their own lives before they would let that happen.