From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
American-Israeli behind the JCC bomb threats charged with hate crimes
Michael Kadar, an American-Israeli man accused of making dozens of anti-Semitic bomb threats in the United States and elsewhere, is escorted by guards as he leaves an Israeli court in Rishon Lezion on March 23, 2017. (JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The American-Israeli man accused of making hundreds of bomb threats to Jewish community centers in the United States was indicted for federal hate crimes.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement that it has indicted Michael Kadar, 19, who is under arrest in Israel.
The hoax threats to the JCCs and other Jewish institutions in the first three months of 2017 forced widespread evacuations and raised fears of a resurgence in anti-Semitism.
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From PressTV
West, silent on Damascus shelling, threatens Ghouta action
France has joined the US and Britain in threatening Damascus with possible airstrikes in the event of further chemical weapons use in Syria.
Their threats on Friday came as terrorist groups continued shelling a safe corridor declared by the Syrian government for civilians to leave Eastern Ghouta.
Takfiri terrorists have turned the enclave on the suburbs of Damascus to a launch pad for mortar attacks on the Syrian capital.
The Syrian army is currently in the midst of an operation to drive the terrorists out of Eastern Ghouta, but it is facing a hostile West threatening attacks on Syrian troops which it accuses of targeting civilians.
Western leaders were quick to point the finger at the Syrian government after reports of chlorine release in Eastern Ghouta last week.
For years, foreign-backed militants have appeared to release chemical substances in the areas close to the site of government airstrikes and capture the aftermath on videos.
From PressTV
Pentagon deploys hundreds of US troops in southeastern Syria: Reports
The Pentagon has reportedly deployed hundreds of American troopers in southeastern Syria on the border with Iraq as the United States is virtually occupying tens of kilometers there without the consent of the Syrian government.
Turkish-language daily Yeni Akit reported that 600 troops, including special forces soldiers, have arrived at al-Tanf garrison, which was established two years ago.
The Arabic-language Palmyra Monitor news website, which is sympathetic to foreign-sponsored Takfiri militant groups, also wrote that units of US soldiers have reached the base with armored vehicles over the past few days.
The reports come as an official from Russia’s Security Council told Ria Novosti news agency that the United States has set up around 20 military bases in areas controlled by Kurdish militants it supports in northern Syria.
“The return of peace and stability to Syria is hampered by continued external interference in the Syrian crisis. For example, in the territory controlled by the people’s self-defense units of Kurdistan, some 20 US military bases have been created,” Alexander Venediktov said.
The official also said Washington is supplying the Kurds with the most advanced weapons.
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From PressTV
Lebanon army says ready to confront Israeli military aggression
The Lebanese army has expressed its preparedness to confront any Israeli military aggression or infiltration into its borders amid escalating tensions between the two sides.
“The Army is ready on the southern border to face any Israeli military aggression, or any attempt to nibble at areas of the land or maritime borders,” Lebanese Army chief General Joseph Aoun told a group of officers and soldiers on Thursday.
He also said the Lebanese army was determined “to defend Lebanese rights with all its means and capabilities.”
Aoun further stressed that the army’s readiness was parallel with the monitoring and dismantling of terrorist cells in Lebanon.
Israel launched two wars on Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, in both of which the Hezbollah resistance movement inflicted heavy losses on the regime’s military.
Israeli forces regularly violate Lebanon’s sovereignty and target Lebanese patrol soldiers. Israeli officials have even threatened another war on Lebanon.
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From PressTV
Killing Nasrallah ‘decisive victory’ in next war on Lebanon: Israeli general
An Israeli military official says killing Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, would be a “decisive victory” in the regime’s future war against the Arab country.
“If we manage to kill Nasrallah in the next war, I would see that as reaching a decisive victory,” Major General Yaakov Barak said on Wednesday, Haaretz reported.
Barak claimed that any future war is expected to be very different from previous ones, and that Israeli ground forces are “ready and prepared” to be sent into the Lebanese territory more quickly, widely and deeply than before.
He said that “the next war will not be a war of several days, but it won’t last several months either.”
Barak’s comments echoed remarks by Israel’s military’s chief spokesperson Brigadier General Ronen Manelis, who had said in November that Hezbollah will be a target of assassination in Tel Aviv’s next act of aggression against Lebanon.
“There won’t be a clear victory picture in the next war, though it’s clear that Nasrallah is a target,” Manelis threatened.
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From PressTV
US established 20 military bases in Syria’s Kurdish-held north: Russian official
A top Russian security official says the US has set up around 20 military bases in areas controlled by Kurdish militants it supports in northern Syria, adding that Washington “provoked” Turkey into launching an offensive in those regions by providing the Kurds with advanced weapons.
Alexander Venediktov, an official from Russia’s Security Council, said Thursday that the establishment of peace in war-torn Syria is impeded by external interferences, particularly American meddling, in the conflict, according to Russian media.
“The return of peace and stability to Syria is hampered by continued external interference in the Syrian crisis. For example, in the territory controlled by the people’s self-defense units of Kurdistan, some 20 US military bases have been created,” Venediktov said.
Venediktov also said that Washington provoked Ankara into launching a military offensive on Syria’s Afrin by “boosting” the Kurdish militants with the most advanced weapons.
“The Kurds are being boosted with advanced weaponry. The deliveries of modern weapons and encouragement of separatist sentiments among the Kurds have in fact provoked Turkey into carrying out the military operation in Syria’s northern Afrin region,” the Russian official said.
Turkey launched the so-called Operation Olive Branch in Afrin on January 20 in a bid to eliminate the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
From PressTV
US airstrikes kill at least 29 civilians, injure many more in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr
At least 29 civilians have been killed in the US-led coalition’s latest airstrikes in Syria’s eastern Dayr al-Zawr province.
According to Syria’s official SANA news agency on Sunday, the separate airstrikes targeted residential areas in al-Sha’afa and Dharat Allouni villages.
The number of those killed is expected to rise as dozens of people were also injured, some of whom are in critical condition.
The London-based Airwars organization, which tracks civilian deaths in US-led airstrikes, reported earlier this year that a total of 5,961 civilians had been killed as a result of such attacks in Iraq and Syria.
Read More:
- US-led airstrike claims at least 12 lives in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr
- Over Dozen civilians killed in new US-led strikes in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr
- US in Syria to plunder country’s economic assets: Russia
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on November 23 last year that 2,759 civilians, including 644 minors and 470 women, had been killed in US-led aerial attacks against civilian areas in Syria over the past 38 months.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Labour extends Ken Livingstone’s suspension for saying Hitler supported Zionism
Former mayor of London Ken Livingstone at the 2013 Asia Pacific Cities Summit in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. (Flickr Commons)
(JTA) — The British Labour Party extended its suspension of former London Mayor Ken Livingstone over his 2016 assertion that Adolf Hitler had supported Zionism in the 1930s.
The party’s National Executive Committee decided to prolong Livingstone’s one-year suspension past its April 27 expiration, BBC reported Thursday, until the conclusion of an internal probe into his conduct over allegations that his claims were anti-Semitic or otherwise offensive to Jews.
The move is the second measure applied in recent weeks against a high-profile Labour official accused of anti-Semitism. It follows accusations by leaders of British Jewry that Labour under its left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn is whitewashing and failing to confront what they say is a proliferation of hateful rhetoric on Israel and Jews in the party’s ranks.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Grandson of Munich Olympics terrorist wins California Democrats’ endorsement for House seat
Ammar Campa-Najjar (Screenshot from YouTube)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — California Democrats have endorsed the grandson of an architect of the Munich Massacre for a congressional seat.
Ammar Campa-Najjar, a Palestinian American, won the state party convention’s endorsement last weekend for the June primary in the 50th District, an inland district west of San Diego. Campa-Najjar has forged ties with his local Jewish community.
Duncan Hunter, a Republican, now holds the seat.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Can Jared Kushner navigate Middle East peace without top secret clearance?
Jared Kushner, left, at a U.N. conference in New York with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and his fellow Middle East peace negotiator Jason Greenblatt, Feb. 20, 2018. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jared Kushner has had better weeks.
Kushner, who along with being the son-in-law of President Donald Trump carries the titles of assistant to the president, senior adviser to the president and director of the Office of American Innovation, had his security clearance downgraded. John Kelly, the White House chief of staff, made good on a promise to remove interim top-secret clearance from staffers who have yet to be cleared by the FBI.
What prompted the delay in clearing Kushner has not been disclosed, although the Kushner family real estate business is known to be in debt and have financial entanglements overseas. Perhaps not coincidentally, when news of the downgrade broke Tuesday, the Washington Post quoted U.S. officials as saying that officials in four nations — the United Arab Emirates, China, Mexico and Israel — have said that they see Kushner as “manipulable” through his business interests and inexperience in foreign affairs.
What does this mean for the proposal to revive Israeli-Palestinian talks that Kushner and his team are said to be releasing “soon”?
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From PressTV
Iraqi Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters discover Christian mass grave near Mosul
Iraqi pro-government fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units have found a mass grave in the country’s northern province of Nineveh containing the bodies of dozens of Christians believed to have been executed by Daesh Takfiri terrorists.
An unnamed source from the Syriac Orthodox Church told Arabic-language al-Ghad Press news agency that the volunteer forces, commonly known by the Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, unearthed the mass grave along with security troops in Halila region near the village of Badush, located some 15 kilometers northwest of Mosul.
The source added the mass grave contains the bodies of 40 Christian victims, noting that there are the remains of women and children among the corpses. Some of the victims reportedly had small crosses with them.
The development came only two days after Iraqi army troops found a mass grave of 100 Daesh militants in al-Zarka region of the small town of Ba’aj.
Colonel Ali al-Taan told Arabic-language Basnews news agency that the corpses bore gunshot wounds to their heads and chests.
On December 9, 2017, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against the Daesh terrorist group in the Arab country.
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From PressTV
Aid convoy heading to northern Syria amid clashes with Turkey: ICRC
A Syrian convoy of humanitarian aid has reached the northern district of Afrin, which has been the target of a Turkish offensive for more than a month.
The convoy bringing humanitarian supplies to 50,000 displaced people in the war-torn district, said spokeswoman of The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Iolanda Jaquemet said on Thursday under the supervision of
It is the first time this year that the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) have got agreement from all warring sides to send a convoy to the area, she pointed out.
Syria’s official SANA news agency reported that in Aleppo the convoy including 28 trucks entered the crossing of al-Zyiara heading for Afrin under the supervision of the SARC and the ICRC.
SANA’s reporter said the aid convoy is carrying food and medina and other relief supplies to support the residents of Afrin in the face Turkey’s ongoing act of aggression in the region.
The development comes days after the UN Security Council unanimously voted in favor of a resolution demanding a 30-day truce in Syria “without delay” to allow aid delivery and medical evacuations.
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