RSS
Jamaal Bowman becomes 2nd Democrat who will skip Israeli president’s speech to Congress
(JTA) — New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman has announced that he will join his colleague Ilhan Omar in skipping next week’s address by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Congress.
Bowman’s office told Haaretz that the progressive Democrat would not attend Herzog’s address.
“I don’t think Israel has gone far enough in protecting and uplifting Palestinian rights and Palestinian lives,” a reporter for the Epoch Times, a right-wing anti-China newspaper, said Bowman told him; the reporter tweeted that several other progressive Democrats had declined to say whether they would attend the speech.
Omar’s boycott pledge preceded the official announcement from the White House that President Joe Biden would meet with Herzog while the Israeli president is in Washington. During the visit next Tuesday, Biden will “reaffirm the ironclad commitment of the United States to Israel’s security” in addition to discussing Israel’s ties with its Arab neighbors and the ongoing danger of Iran, according to the White House’s announcement Thursday afternoon.
The announcement also hints at two of the biggest wedges between the United States and Israel right now, as Israel’s right-wing government advances legislation to weaken the country’s judiciary. “President Biden will stress the importance of our shared democratic values, and discuss ways to advance equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and security for Palestinians and Israelis,” the announcement says.
Herzog’s visit is a symbol of the troubled waters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made no secret of his desire to be invited to Washington, but Biden has said that he is concerned about the judiciary changes and is not planning to invite Netanyahu anytime soon. Herzog’s role is ostensibly nonpartisan, though he has criticized the judiciary proposals, saying that they could spark “a civil war,” and sought to broker a compromise.
—
The post Jamaal Bowman becomes 2nd Democrat who will skip Israeli president’s speech to Congress appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Revealed: Palestinian Authority Shows That Hamas Steals Money From Gaza Civilians
Palestinians gather to receive aid, including food supplies provided by World Food Program (WFP), outside a United Nations distribution center, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Aug. 24, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
How ironic is it that while the International Criminal Court (ICC) decided last week to blame Israel for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is placing the blame on Hamas.
A reporter from official PA TV stationed in the Gaza Strip reported that Hamas steals 28% of Gazans’ salaries, as well as other money transfers:
Official PA TV host: “There are other crimes that are being committed against the civilians [in Gaza]. They are being financially extorted through [Hamas’] deduction of part of their money.
In other words, every employee, whether he is a PA employee, a state employee, or works for any other source, or someone who even wants to receive a transfer from his relatives abroad — they must pay a heavy sum…” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Nov. 13, 2024]
Later in the story, a PA reporter revealed that the sum was 28% of employees’ salaries:
Official PA TV reporter in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza: “There is no trade in cash. The cash is worn out in the central and southern areas [of the Gaza Strip], and even in the north.
The [only] ones who have cash are certain groups. If you want to receive your salary in cash of more or less good quality, they [Hamas] deduct part of your salary. The deducted sum is 28%. They deduct more than a quarter of the salary.” [emphasis added]
[Official PA TV, Nov. 13, 2024]
An editorial by the official PA daily also criticized Hamas for continuously stealing the humanitarian aid that Israel is letting in for the benefit of Gazan civilians:
The aid that is arriving there [in the northern Gaza Strip] after many hardships … is exclusively controlled by the Hamas militias and others, until it arrives in the greedy free market of commerce that craves forbidden profit. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 10, 2024]
The editorial pointed out that the survival of the Gazan civilians is no longer connected to “surviving the missiles of the Israeli fighter jets,” but is simply a struggle of “seeking a loaf of bread at a sane price”:
The suffering of our people in the northern Gaza Strip is no longer the suffering of surviving the missiles of the Israeli fighter jets and drones and is not the suffering of seeking refuge, rather it is the suffering of seeking a loaf of bread at a sane price, and a cigarette at the cost of 1 [Israeli] shekel. [emphasis added]
Throughout the 2023 Gaza war, Palestinian Media Watch has exposed Hamas’ unscrupulous theft of international aid meant for Gazan civilians, turning the humanitarian efforts into terror support to sustain its war against Israel.
The author is a senior analyst at Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this article was originally published.
The post Revealed: Palestinian Authority Shows That Hamas Steals Money From Gaza Civilians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
IDF Forces Reach Litani River as Israeli Cabinet Set to Vote on Lebanon Ceasefire
Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an Israeli strike, amid the ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Hadath, Lebanon October 19, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
JNS.org — Israeli troops reached the Litani River on Tuesday, for the first time since the Israel Defense Forces’ withdrawal from southern Lebanon on May 24, 2000, the IDF reported.
Soldiers from the 91st Division carried out intelligence-driven raids on Hezbollah targets, engaged in close-quarters combat with terrorists, and uncovered and destroyed dozens of rocket launchers, thousands of rockets and missiles, as well as concealed weapons storage facilities, according to the military.
The raids near the Litani River involved forces from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, including reservists from the 769th Brigade, the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion, and the Israeli Air Force’s Shaldag commando unit.
In the Wadi Saluki area of southern Lebanon, the Commando Brigade Combat Team carried out a targeted raid on terrorist infrastructure. The troops uncovered hundreds of weapons, underground facilities, and dozens of rocket launchers ready for immediate use.
Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin, the chief of the IDF Northern Command, also visited the Litani River during the operations.
Thirty Hezbollah terror targets struck in southern Lebanon
Since Tuesday morning, the IAF has struck 30 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, the military announced in the afternoon. The strikes targeted weapons storage facilities, anti-tank missile depots, and arms caches belonging to Hezbollah’s Aerial Defense unit in the Bint Jbeil area.
Storage facilities associated with the “Nasser” unit, responsible for many terror attacks against northern Israeli communities and IDF troops, were also targeted, as was the launcher used to attack the Western Galilee area on Monday, according to the military.
Strikes on Dahieh continue
On Tuesday, the IAF targeted six Hezbollah sites in the terror group’s stronghold of Dahieh, south of Beirut. Over the past week, 30 Hezbollah targets have been hit in the Dahieh district, including operational hubs of the terrorist group’s intelligence unit and Unit 4400, which oversees weapons smuggling from Iran to Lebanon via Syria.
The IDF highlighted that, despite Hezbollah’s practice of embedding its infrastructure within residential neighborhoods, using the population as human shields, the military took extensive precautions to minimize harm to civilians. Measures included issuing advance warnings before the strikes.
On Tuesday, the IDF issued evacuation orders for approximately 20 buildings in Dahieh in preparation for strikes on Hezbollah assets.
Lebanese media also reported an Israeli strike in central Beirut on Tuesday, which was carried out without warning, potentially targeting a high-profile individual. The IDF confirmed that it was carrying out strikes on Hezbollah terrorist targets in Beirut, noting that further details would be provided later.
Hezbollah coastal commander killed
The IDF announced on Tuesday that Ahmad Sabhi Hazima, the commander of Hezbollah’s operations unit in the coastal sector, had been killed in an airstrike in the Tyre area.
According to the IDF, Hazima was responsible for orchestrating numerous terror attacks, including plans to infiltrate Israeli territory and launch anti-tank missiles at communities in the Western Galilee prior to the “Northern Arrows” operation.
Previously, Hazima served as deputy to the former coastal sector commander, who was killed on Nov. 17.
“This operation significantly weakens Hezbollah’s ability to plan and execute terrorist activities from southern Lebanon targeting Israeli civilians along the northern border,” the IDF stated.
Israeli Security Cabinet to vote on Lebanon ceasefire
According to the reported terms of a draft ceasefire agreement expected to be approved by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Security Cabinet during its meeting on Tuesday at 5:30 pm local time, all IDF soldiers are to withdraw from southern Lebanon over a 60-day transition period.
Hezbollah will relocate its “heavy weapons” north of the Litani River, while the Lebanese Armed Forces are to deploy near the border areas.
A key unresolved issue is Israel’s insistence on maintaining operational freedom in Lebanon should Hezbollah violate the truce by rearming or attempting to reestablish its forces south of the Litani River.
The agreement reportedly includes a US-led oversight committee to monitor implementation and address violations. Israel has pledged to limit military action against Hezbollah violations to situations where the Lebanese Armed Forces fails to neutralize the threat, and only after consulting with the United States.
United Nations Resolution 1701, which brought an end to the 2006 Second Lebanon War but was never fully enforced, mandated the complete demilitarization of Hezbollah south of the Litani River and prohibited the presence of armed groups in Lebanon except for the official Lebanese Army and UNIFIL.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has launched near-daily attacks on Israel for over a year, firing thousands of rockets, missiles and suicide drones at the Jewish state.
The post IDF Forces Reach Litani River as Israeli Cabinet Set to Vote on Lebanon Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
IDF Soldier Wounded During Hamas Oct. 7 Massacre Succumbs to Wounds
Israeli soldiers respond to an alert of an apparent security incident, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Oct. 10, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
i24 News — The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Tuesday that Sergeant First Class Yona Betzalel Brief, who was wounded fighting Gazan terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, had died after succumbing to his wounds.
The 23-year-old combat medic from from Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut was critically wounded and spent more than a year in hospital care.
The post IDF Soldier Wounded During Hamas Oct. 7 Massacre Succumbs to Wounds first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login