Tag Archives: West Bank

“This is an anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists, rapists and murderers”

anti-Israel secretary general

Important Takeaways:

  • The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) met on Wednesday following Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel, but overshadowing the meeting was Israel’s announcement that it had banned the U.N. secretary-general due to his failure to condemn Iran.
  • “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said about the decision to declare U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as persona non grata.
  • “This is an anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists, rapists and murderers,” Katz argued. “Guterres will be remembered as a stain on the history of the U.N. for generations to come.”
  • Guterres on Tuesday issued a brief statement following Iran’s attack, calling it the “latest attacks in the Middle East” and broadly condemned the conflict as “escalation after escalation.”
  • He also slammed Israel for its actions in Gaza and the West Bank, claiming that Israel has “conducted in Gaza the most deadly and destructive military campaign in my years.”
  • “The suffering endured by the Palestinian people in Gaza is beyond imagination,” Guterres said. “At the same time, the situation in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, continues to deteriorate, with Israeli military operations.”
  • “This is a secretary-general who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on Oct. 7 and has not led any resolutions to declare them a terrorist organization,” Katz continued.
  • “Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres.”

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Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen hiding in a mosque in the West Bank including a top commander

West-Bank-refugee-camp-of-Al-Faraa (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Important Takeaways:

  • Israeli forces killed five Palestinian gunmen overnight who were hiding in a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, including a local terror leader, the Israel Defense Forces, police and Shin Bet security agency said on Thursday morning.
  • Among the dead in the mosque was Muhammad Jaber, known as Abu Shuja’a, who Palestinian media had previously reported to be the commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s local wing in the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem.
  • The detained terror operative in the building adjacent to the mosque was identified by Palestinian media as Mohammed Qassas, a founding member of Islamic Jihad’s local wing in Tulkarem.
  • The large operation, involving the Kfir Brigade, the Duvdevan Commando Unit, combat engineers, and Border Police, was expected to last at least several days, military sources said Wednesday.
  • The ongoing operation was focused on dismantling a Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror network in the Tulkarem area, as well as in Jenin and the Far’a camp near Tubas.
  • The large-scale operation was also launched in part following an intended suicide bombing in Tel Aviv earlier this month.
  • Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,850 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,960 affiliated with Hamas.

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IDF raid in Jenin as Iran tries to establish a terrorist front in the West Bank

Screenshot-USA-Today-News

Important Takeaways:

  • The Israeli military conducted a massive military operation in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, killing at least nine people in a string of fierce gunbattles across Jenin and other major cities as tensions heightened in the war that already has laid to waste most of Gaza.
  • Katz accused Iran of trying to establish an eastern terrorist front against Israel in the West Bank “according to the Gaza and Lebanon model,” by financing terrorists and smuggling weapons from Jordan.
  • Israel said the Wednesday’s military operation followed a sharp rise in militant activity there in recent months.
  • “We must deal with the threat just as we deal with the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian residents and whatever steps are required,” Katz said. “This is a war for everything and we must win it.”

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Evidence Biden Administration is playing both sides: US donates $896 million to Hamas After October 7th massacre

Important Takeaways:

  • Since October 7…. the total of US taxpayer funds donated to Gaza as a reward since the massacre on October 7 to $896 million, or close to a billion dollars.
  • A lawsuit, brought in December 2022 and updated in March 2024, by Rep. Ronny Jackson and victims of terror attacks in Israel, alleges that President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken “knowingly and unlawfully” provided more than $1.5 billion in aid to Gaza and the West Bank since taking office. Biden and Blinken have “known for years” that the US aid is providing “material support” for Hamas’ “tunnels, rockets, weapon procurement, and command and control infrastructure,” among other terror structures, the lawsuit stated.
  • The Biden administration has sought to have the case dismissed twice but failed. On June 28, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas ruled that the lawsuit can proceed, and that there is evidence the Biden administration continued awarding taxpayer cash to UNRWA even after Congress blocked funding to that group due to its support for Hamas’s military infrastructure.
  • In short, the Biden administration has donated less to Sudan and DRC Congo combined, where a total of nearly 50 million people face starvation, than to Gaza, where 2 million people face no such thing. What is going on? And where is Congress?
  • According to FBI director Christopher Wray, “the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called caliphate years ago.” Iran, officially labeled the world’s leading sponsor of state terrorism by the 2023 US annual Terrorism Report, calls the US “the Great Satan” and continues to vow “Death to America.”
  • Blinken casually announced in a July 19 interview that Iran had reduced the time it would need to create sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon “to one to two weeks.” He then went on to gaslight the audience by claiming that the Biden administration has been “maximizing pressure on Iran across the board.”
  • Why is the Biden administration, under the pretense of “humanitarian aid,” drowning these terrorist enemies of America in US taxpayer money? And what, if anything, is Congress going to do about it?

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On June 8th Alarabiya News shed some light on what concessions Israel might be giving up

Important Takeaways:

  • The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine
  • This proposed enlarged kingdom would include present-day Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank (areas populated by Palestinians attached in a contiguous manner and physically connected to Jordan, i.e., not broken up into islands). Israeli arguments as to the need to retain the Jordan Valley become moot since the valley will now be controlled by a Jordanian government with a reliable record of maintaining peace with Israel. The convenient argument that Israel has no “peace partner” will now also be eliminated.
  • Jerusalem, despite the fact that neither Arabs nor Muslims have a hope of dislodging Israel from it, is, given its symbolism, a key bargaining chip in Palestinian hands. The formal relinquishment of any claims to Jerusalem (with an appropriate arrangement for the holy places) can be an important concession used to secure the foregoing terms. The Palestinians, after all, are the only party who can do this and, hence, completely legitimize Israel in the eyes of the region and the world.

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Israel’s largest West Bank operation in 20 years “Extensive counter-terrorism effort”

Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

Important Takeaways:

  • Israel attacks Jenin in biggest West Bank incursion in 20 years
  • Israel has launched a major aerial and ground offensive into the West Bank city of Jenin, its biggest military operation in the Palestinian territory in years, in what it described as an “extensive counter-terrorism effort”.
  • At least eight Palestinians were killed and 50 injured, 10 seriously, in the attack that began at about 1am on Monday, and the death toll is likely to rise, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
  • Launching at least 10 drone strikes on buildings, a brigade of Israeli troops – suggesting between 1,000 and 2,000 soldiers – backed by armored bulldozers and snipers on rooftops entered the city and its refugee camp, encountering fire from Palestinians, after Israel informed the White House of its plans.

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IDF response to Anti-Aircraft missile entering its air space

Zechariah 12:3 “ And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.

Important Takeaways:

  • IDF: Syrian anti-aircraft missile explodes over Israel, no interception needed
  • An anti-aircraft missile fired from Syria exploded in the air over northern Israel early Wednesday morning, setting off warning sirens in the town of Umm al-Fahm and communities in the northern West Bank, the army said.
  • Shrapnel landed near the Homesh outpost, causing a small fire, according to Rescuers Without Borders, a Jewish emergency service operating in the West Bank
  • The anti-aircraft missile had apparently been fired in response to an Israeli airstrike on sites near Damascus
  • The IDF said that in response to the Syrian anti-aircraft missile entering Israeli airspace, Israel struck several Syrian air defense batteries inside Syria, including the “Syrian radar and anti-aircraft batteries that launched missiles at IAF aircraft.”
  • “The IDF will continue to protect Israel’s airspace and security,” the military’s statement said.

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Uncommon blast of snow in Jerusalem

Luke 21:25,26 “There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Important Takeaways:

  • Jerusalem blanketed in white after rare snowfall
  • Main highways to Jerusalem and its major arteries were shut, and schools and businesses closed for the day as municipal snowplows worked to clear streets.
  • Israel Police also closed major highways in the mountainous West Bank due to the hazardous road conditions.
  • Snowfall in the hills around Jerusalem is uncommon, occurring perhaps once per winter.

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Israel moves ahead with thousands of settler homes despite U.S. opposition

By Jeffrey Heller and Maayan Lubell

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel moved forward on Wednesday with plans to build some 3,000 homes for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, defying the Biden administration’s strongest criticism to date of such projects.

A senior Palestinian official said the decision showed that Israel’s new government, led by far-right politician Naftali Bennett, was “no less extreme” than the administration of the veteran leader he replaced, Benjamin Netanyahu.

An Israeli defense official said a planning forum of Israel’s liaison office with the Palestinians gave preliminary approval for plans to build 1,344 housing units and its final go-ahead for projects to construct 1,800 homes.

It will be up to Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a centrist in Israel’s politically diverse government, to give the nod for construction permits to be issued, with further friction with Washington looming.

“This government is trying to balance between its good relations with the Biden administration and the various political constraints,” a senior Israeli official told Reuters.

The United States on Tuesday said it was “deeply concerned” about Israel’s plans to advance thousands of settlement units. It called such steps damaging to prospects for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said it strongly opposes settlement expansion.

Washington desisted from such criticism when President Joe Biden’s Republican predecessor Donald Trump was in office.

A senior U.S. State department official said Secretary of State Antony Blinken had discussed the issue with Gantz on Tuesday. Their phone call was first reported by the Axios news website, which cited Israeli officials as saying the chief U.S. diplomat voiced U.S. opposition to the settlement plan.

The latest projects, as well as tenders published on Sunday for more than 1,300 settler homes, amounted to the first major test case over settlement policy with the Biden administration that took office in January.

“The behavior of the Israeli government under Bennett is no less extreme than what it had been under Netanyahu,” Bassam Al-Salhe, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Reuters.

“The U.S. administration has words, and no deeds, to change the policy that had been put in place by Trump,” Salhe said.

There was no immediate comment from Washington on Wednesday.

TIGHTROPE

Walking a political and diplomatic tightrope, Bennett has been facing calls from settler leaders to step up construction. Such projects are likely to be welcomed by his ultranationalist constituents, who share his opposition to Palestinian statehood.

But along with the prospect of straining relations with Washington, Bennett could also alienate left-wing and Arab parties in a coalition governing with a razor-thin parliamentary majority, if they view settlement plans as too ambitious.

Most countries regard the settlements Israel has built in territory it captured in a 1967 Middle East war as illegal.

Israel disputes this and has settled some 440,000 Israelis in the West Bank, citing biblical, historical and political ties to the area, where 3 million Palestinians live.

Palestinians seek to create a state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza and Humeyra Pamuk, Simon Lewis and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller)

Israel says it will loan Palestinians money after highest-level talks in years

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel will lend the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority more than $150 million after the sides held their highest-level meeting in years, Israeli officials said on Monday, while playing down prospects of any major diplomatic breakthrough.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who has overall responsibility for the Israeli-occupied West Bank, travelled to the Palestinian self-rule area of the territory for previously undisclosed talks on Sunday with President Mahmoud Abbas.

A source close to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the premier had approved the Gantz-Abbas meeting and deemed it a “routine” matter. “There is no diplomatic process with the Palestinians, nor will there be one,” the source told Reuters.

U.S.-sponsored talks on founding a Palestinian state stalled in 2014. The Gantz-Abbas meeting took place as Bennett, a nationalist who opposes Palestinian statehood, returned from his first talks with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington.

PA official Hussein Al Sheikh said the talks with Gantz included “all aspects” of Palestinian-Israeli relations.

Abbas coordinates West Bank security with Israel. Both sides are wary of Hamas Islamists who seized the Gaza Strip, another Palestinian territory, from Abbas in 2007.

But Israel chafes at stipends the PA pays to militants jailed or killed in attacks on Israelis. In a protest measure, the Bennett government last month withheld $180 million from 2020 tax revenues it collected on behalf of the PA. A Gantz spokeswoman said that policy was unchanged.

The 500 million shekel ($155 million) loan was meant to help “with vital PA functions” and would be repaid in 2022 out of future tax revenues collected by Israel, the spokeswoman said.

A White House statement said Biden, during his talks with Bennett on Friday, reiterated his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “underscored the importance of steps to improve the lives of Palestinians”.

Bennett did not mention Palestinians in public remarks at the White House that focused largely on arch-enemy Iran’s nuclear program.

Gantz, a centrist in Bennett’s coalition government, has called in the past for resumption of a peace process with the Palestinians, who aspire to a state of their own in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Middle East war.

But any renewed movement on the issue could shake the foundations of Bennett’s government of left-wing, rightist, centrist and Arab parties that in June ended the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year run as prime minister.

In a sign of friction within the coalition, Mossi Raz, a legislator from the left-wing Meretz party, said dismissal of prospects for renewed peace talks by the Bennett source was “outrageous.”

“A peace process is an Israeli interest,” Raz wrote on Twitter.

(Additional reporting by Dan Williams and Ali Sawafta; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Howard Goller)