From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Popular Israeli singer wishes death to Obama in new song
(JTA) — The popular Israeli singer Amir Benayoun released a song that wishes for the death of President Barack Obama, whom he refers to as a “treacherous creature.”
Benayoun, who previously has been accused of racism and incitement, posted the song Monday on Facebook. He deleted it after receiving negative feedback on his page.
“I was glad to receive your responses to the song I posted. As an artist, it is important to me to express my opinions fully. But for now, I decided to consider your responses, which I appreciate, and take my thoughts, musings and songs … elsewhere,” he wrote on Facebook.
According to the Times of Israel, the song lyrics include passages such as “I bought myself a crow with a fabulous little mustache, even though there are many like those available for free, Because of my fondness for Obama, I’ll just say that I named him after the ugly president” and “the reason I bought a cruel crow was to try to inject this treacherous creature with a bit of heart, [but] in the meantime, I’ve lost an eye, I suffer from idiocy … and wish for the death of the corrupt creature.”
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Bomb blast targets Hamas security HQ in Gaza; ISIL blamed
A bomb explosion has targeted the security headquarters of Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip after an ISIL-linked Salafi group demanded the release of its members from Hamas’ jails.
The Monday blast took place in Gaza City just prior to dawn and damaged the building’s perimeter wall, the AFP reported citing witnesses.
An online statement issued by a radical anti-Hamas Takfiri group just hours before the blast threatened to “act against chosen targets” if its captive members were not released within 72 hours.
However, it was not immediately clear if the statement and the explosion were linked since the Takfiri elements in Gaza have issued similar threats in the past.
“Hamas and its security forces have 72 hours from the release of this statement to free all Salafist prisoners,” said the statement from a group calling itself the Supporters of the ISIL in al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Click here for the full story
From Russia Today
Hollande admits arming Syrian rebels in breach of embargo – book
Edited time: May 06, 2015 13:06
The French president has admitted delivering weapons to the Syrian rebels during a period of EU embargo, a new book about to be published in France reveals.
The deliveries took place in 2012, before the embargo was canceled in May 2013, according to François Hollande’s last year interview with journalist and writer Xavier Panon. “We began when we were certain they would end up in the right hands. For the lethal weapons it was our services who delivered them,” Hollande told the writer, AFP reports.
Panon used the interview in his book “In the Corridors of French Diplomacy” which comes out in France this month.
READ MORE: Assad: France supporting ‘terrorists’ in Syria, acts as Washington’s satellite
Click here for the full story
From Ynet News
British Jews turn away from Ed Miliband’s Labour Party
New poll also shows dramatic drop in support for Labour, after Jewish leader’s comments on Israel, support for Palestinian statehood vote.
While the outcome of Thursday’s general election in Britain has yet to be decided, one thing’s for sure: The Labour Party has lost the support of many Jews on the isles – and primarily because of Ed Miliband, the party’s Jewish leader.
A campaign underway in recent months among the British Jewish community is calling on its members not only to refrain from voting Labour, but also to cease making donations to the party.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Hezbollah captures Syrian village from jihadists
Terror group takes over border town before expected launch of an offensive against the al-Nusra Front and Islamic State
May 5, 2015, 8:16 pm
BEIRUT — Hezbollah fighters captured a Syrian village near the border with Lebanon on Tuesday after intense fighting with Islamic militants, the group’s television station said, while an activist said battles are concentrating near a strategic Syrian hill.
Tuesday’s fighting in Syria’s Qalamoun region came hours after members of al-Qaeda’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, posted a video showing seven Lebanese troops held hostage by the militants since last year.
The battles also come amid reports in Lebanon that Hezbollah and the Syrian army are expected to launch an offensive against members of the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State group in Qalamoun.
Hezbollah’s al-Manar television station said members of the group captured the village of Hasina on the Syrian side of the border. The station said fighting in the border areas near the Lebanese villages of Brital and Tufeil killed 12 jihadi fighters and destroyed several of their vehicles.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Hezbollah fighters entered Hasina after Nusra Front members withdrew. Abdul-Rahman said the fighting is concentrated near the jihadi-held Moussa Hill, a strategic mountain overlooking wide areas of Qalamoun.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Hamas cracks down on Salafi groups in Gaza Strip
After bombing at Hamas security HQ , terror group sets up checkpoints, destroys makeshift mosque allegedly used by jihadists
May 5, 2015, 5:24 pm
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The ruling Hamas group has launched a crackdown on radical Salafi groups following a series of unclaimed bombings in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas, an Islamic militant group that has ruled Gaza with an iron fist for the past eight years considers the more radical Salafists a threat. Salafists accuse Hamas of being too soft on Israel and failing to adequately impose religious law.
On Monday morning, a bomb damaged a wall at a security site run by Hamas’ armed wing. There were no casualties.
Hamas has deployed masked gunmen in Salafi strongholds, set up checkpoints and destroyed a makeshift mosque that it says was used by Salafists to launch attacks.
The Salafists have demanded that Hamas free all detained supporters, saying “all options are open” if it doesn’t comply.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Mike Huckabee poised to launch second White House bid
Aiming to attract working-class conservatives, ex-governor who makes frequent trips to Israel casts himself as economic populist, foreign policy hawk
May 5, 2015, 1:14 pm
HOPE, Arkansas (AP) — Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is preparing another bid for the Republican presidential nomination, eight years after his first efforts to expand on the support of evangelical Christians helped him win eight states in the 2008 primaries.
The ordained Baptist minister turned politician returns Tuesday to his hometown of Hope, Arkansas — the same small town where former President Bill Clinton was born — to make official what the local newspaper called “the worst kept secret” in the state.
In a strategy aimed at working-class cultural conservatives, Huckabee and his aides say his second run would pitch the candidate as an economic populist and foreign affairs hawk who holds deeply conservative views on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
Huckabee is a frequent visitor to Israel and has positioned himself as a vocal supporter of West Bank settlements, leading several large tours of evangelical Christians around the Holy Land every year, which may set him apart in a field already crowded with staunch Israel supporters.
The candidate, 59, also plans to pitch that he is the best Republican to take on Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination who spent more than a decade as first lady of Arkansas. In a recent campaign video, Huckabee argued that in his more than 10 years as governor, he took on Democrats in “Bill Clinton’s Arkansas” after candidate Bill Clinton won election to the White House in 1992.
Click here for the full story
From the Daily Mail
Hillary supported export of nuke technology to India after Clinton Foundation got cash infusion from Indian politician – and it wasn’t even his own money!
- Amar Singh, then the general secretary of India’s Samajwadi Party, gave between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation in 2008
- Donation came as he traveled to the US to lobby then-Senator Hillary Clinton to vote for allowing US nuclear technology to be sold to India
- Based on Singh’s public disclosure documents, the donation was between 20 per cent and 100 per cent of his entire net worth
- He later admitted that the money wasn’t his – he merely ‘facilitated’ it – but it’s still not clear whose cash went to the Clinton Foundation
- Story was known in 2008 but has new life because of ‘Clinton Cash’ book, which continues to dog Hillary for other apparent conflicts of interest
Hillary Clinton’s family foundation got a seven-figure cash infusion in 2008 from murky sources in India just before she cast a U.S. Senate vote to support ending an embargo on the trade of U.S. nuclear technology on the subcontinent.
The story, well-known at the time, has new life in light of ‘Clinton Cash,’ a book that has dogged the former senator and secretary of state since its conflict-of-interest allegations first surfaced this month.
Peter Schweizer, the book’s author, laid out a scenario Tuesday on the MSNBC program ‘Morning Joe,’ that suggests Clinton was swayed in her vote by the donation of between $1 million and $5 million from Amar Singh, then the general secretary of India’s Samajwadi Party.
Singh, it turned out, was merely a pass-through vehicle for the funds.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Clock on Netanyahu negotiations for new government ticking down
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has until midnight tonight to form a coalition government.
Israeli media reported Wednesday morning that Netanyahu had agreed to concessions including either the Justice Minister or Foreign Minister positions to the Jewish Home Party headed by Naftali Bennett in order to induce him to agree to join the government with his party’s eight seats.
Bennett reportedly has been holding out on joining the government and has made himself unreachable by phone in the last two days of negotiations.
On Monday, the Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, pulled out of coalition talks and joined the opposition. The Yisrael Beiteinu Party ran with Likud on a joint slate in the 2013 national elections.
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Israeli forces arrest five Palestinians in West Bank
Israeli forces have arrested at least five Palestinians during separate overnight raids on a number of houses across the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 10 Israeli military vehicles rolled into Jenin refugee camp early on Tuesday.
The Israeli forces broke into dozens of homes and violently searched them, causing excessive property damage before detaining two Palestinians identified as 35-year-old Majdi Amjad Araqawi and Ayman Sami al-Rukh, 33.
The Israelis also stormed a number of Palestinian houses in the towns of Beita, located 13 kilometers (8 miles) southeast of Nablus, and Tell, situated five kilometers (three miles) southwest of Nablus, arresting two Palestinian men.
Israeli forces took away another Palestinian from the northern West Bank city of Nablus, located approximately 49 kilometers (30 miles) north of al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Israeli court OK’s demolition of Palestinian village
Israel’s supreme court has authorized the regime’s authorities to demolish a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank.
The high court approved on Monday a request from the Israeli civil administration to demolish the tents and houses of Khirbet Susiya Village near the city of Hebron (al-Khalil).
The planned destruction will leave 450 Palestinians homeless.
Nasr al-Nawajaa, a resident of the village, said the court decision was made “under the pretext that there is no infrastructure in the area.”
Jihad al-Nawajaa, the head of the village’s local council, said Israel wants to displace the villagers and build a park for settlers. He said the residents’ houses have previously been demolished several times but the Palestinian residents have not abandoned their land.
Click here for the full story
From Russia Today
France may scuttle Mistral ships rather than fulfill Russian contract
The Mistral helicopters carriers which were supposed to be delivered to Russia are causing the French a headache. However, rather than handing them over, the French government may send them to the bottom of the sea, if the contract is canceled.
France was supposed to have received €1.12 billion ($1.25 billion) from Moscow for the sale of two state-of-the-art warships. However, under pressure from the US and EU the sale was postponed, perhaps indefinitely.
An article in Le Figaro on Wednesday says that Paris may have to resort to sinking the helicopter carriers if the government refuses to honor the contract and deliver them to Russia. The first vessel, the Vladivostok, should have been handed over in November, but French President Francois Hollande said it would be postponed “until further notice.”
“Among the possible course of actions which is being considered by the French government is the possibility of the helicopter ships being destroyed. They will be dismantled, remodeled or sunk in the open sea,” the French newspaper wrote, citing an unnamed officer, who is well informed about the current situation surrounding the warships.
From Ynet News
Jean-Marie Le Pen suspended over anti-Semitic remarks
Former head of French far-right National Front party expelled for comments minimizing Holocaust, praising French Nazi collaborator Philippe Petain. French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen was suspended Monday from the National Front party he built into a political force over four decades after a series of controversial remarks about Jews and Nazis put him on the fast track to disgrace.
The party’s executive bureau met Monday and decided to suspend Le Pen’s membership in the party he co-founded, pending a party-wide vote on abolishing the position of honorary president he’s held for five years.
Click here for the full story
From The Times of Israel
Senior Le Pen says he hopes his daughter loses presidency
Suspended ex-leader of the French National Front accuses daughter Marine of ‘betrayal,’ says she should change her name
May 5, 2015, 5:17 pm
PARIS, France (AFP) — France’s far right patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen viciously turned on his daughter on Tuesday after being suspended by the National Front party which he founded and handed over to her.
A family feud that has rocked the far right party with all the twists and turns of a Greek tragicomedy came to a head on Monday when the 86-year-old, who led the FN for four decades, was suspended by its top officials.
The octogenarian firebrand hit back by saying he no longer wanted to see his daughter win 2017 presidential elections and was ashamed she still carries his name.
“I hope she will drop it as soon as possible. She could do so by marrying her partner … or someone else,” he said.
Marine Le Pen, 46, and other party leaders have put their foot down over the patriarch’s inflammatory statements that represent a view of the FN they are trying to leave in the past: overtly racist, anti-Semitic and too polarizing to win votes.
Click here for the full story
From Russia Today
5-star resort opens for ISIS supporters in Iraq
It may look like any other top resort in Iraq, but the Ninawa International Hotel in Mosul has one major difference. It is the first 5-star hotel for Islamic State jihadists. It includes a swimming pool and tennis court… but no bar.
The battlefield is a place of few comforts, so the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) has decided to re-open a luxury hotel in conquered territory to give its jihadists a bit of R&R. The Ninawa International Hotel in Mosul used to be one of the most luxurious in Iraq, catering to foreign guests and local dignitaries. However, its 262 rooms will now be used by extremist terror group.
From a distance, it may look like any run-of-the-mill ritzy establishment, but a closer look reveals the terrorist organization’s black and white flags flying in multiple locations around the complex.
From Ynet News
Belgian PM promises to confront anti-Semitism
Jewish groups praise Charles Michel’s commitments to provide adequate funding for security measures at Jewish institutions and to adopt a zero-tolerance law enforcement policy on anti-Semitic incidents. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel’s commitments to provide adequate funding for security measures at Jewish institutions and to adopt a zero-tolerance law enforcement policy on anti-Semitic incidents, two policies long-sought by the Belgian Jewish community, have been welcomed by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Michel made the promises in an interview on April 29 with Joods Actueel, a prominent Jewish weekly paper in Belgium.
“For too long, Belgian leaders have paid lip service to concerns of the Belgian Jewish community in the critical areas of security and prosecution of anti-Semitic incidents,” said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman. “Prime Minister Michel announced his government has found both the budgetary resources and the political will to implement these much needed reforms.
From The Times of Israel
Islamic State claims Texas attack, its first on US soil
Jihadist group says ‘soldiers of caliphate’ carried out shooting at event showcasing cartoons mocking Prophet Mohammed
May 5, 2015, 1:45 pm
The Islamic State jihadist group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for its first attack on US soil, a shooting at an event in Texas showcasing cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed that left the gunmen dead.
“Two of the soldiers of the caliphate executed an attack on an art exhibit in Garland, Texas, and this exhibit was portraying negative pictures of the Prophet Mohammed,” the jihadist group said.
“We tell America that what is coming will be even bigger and more bitter, and that you will see the soldiers of the Islamic State do terrible things,” the group announced.
It marked the first time the extremist group, which has captured swaths of territory in Syria and Iraq, claimed to have carried out an attack in the US.
US police said two men drove up to the conference center Sunday in Garland, where the right-wing American Freedom Defense Initiative was organizing the controversial cartoon contest, and began shooting at a security guard, who was wounded in the ankle.
Click here for the full story
