From PressTV
Israeli chief rabbi calls black people ‘monkeys’
Amid Israel’s controversial policy of forcing African migrants back to the continent, one of the regime’s chief rabbis calls black people “monkeys.”
Footage released by Israeli media shows Yitzhak Yosef used a derogatory Hebrew word to refer to black people and went on to call them “monkeys” during his weekly sermon.
The racist comments drew sharp criticism from rights activists.
New York-based Anti-Defamation League reacted in a tweet, saying the “racially charged comment made by Israeli Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, comparing people of color to ‘monkeys,’ is utterly unacceptable.”
This is not the first time Yosef attracts controversy. Last May, he suggested that secular women behaved like “animals.’
In March 2016, he urged Israeli forces and illegal settlers to kill Palestinians, whom they suspect of planning attacks on Israelis.
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From PressTV
Israel admits to launching military attack on Syria in 2007, warns region of more
Israel has formally admitted that it had attacked and destroyed a site in eastern Syria back in 2007, warning the region of more such assaults.
The announcement by the Israeli military through declassified documents came on Wednesday about “Operation Out of the Box” against what Israel claims to be a nuclear reactor in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.
For over 10 years, the Israeli military had prohibited discussions about the already well-known and widely reported secret.
The new declassified materials included photographs and cockpit video said to show the moment that an airstrike targeted Syria’s Al-Kubar facility.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the Mossad confirmed the existence of the Syrian site in March 2007. In the months that followed, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tried to pressure former US President George W. Bush to attack the site.
In July 2007, after Bush refused Israel’s demands, Olmert convened his security cabinet, which ultimately concluded that the alleged reactor had to be destroyed.
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From PressTV
Israeli jets target Hamas positions in Gaza Strip
Israeli jets have carried out several airstrikes in the Gaza Strip just hours after its tanks targeted Palestinian Hamas resistance movement positions in the coastal sliver.
During the Saturday night airstrikes a factory and several buildings belonging to Hamas were targeted by the Tel Aviv regime’s warplanes. There have been no reports of casualties yet.
The Israeli army has confirmed the attacks, claiming they were carried out in response to the explosive device that went off next to a border fence.
Earlier in the day, at least one Palestinian man sustained injuries after Israeli battle tanks targeted the eastern part of the Gaza Strip.
The Arabic-language Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported that three rounds of shell struck an observation post belonging to the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement east of al-Shujaya neighborhood in Gaza City, injuring a civilian who was taken to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City to receive treatment.
The Israeli military frequently bombs the Gaza Strip, with civilians being the main target of such attacks.
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From PressTV
US training Syria militants for false flag chemical attacks: Russian cmdr.
A high-ranking Russian military commander has warned that the United States is training foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists in the hope that they would launch false flag chemical attacks in southern Syria to provide a pretext for Washington to carry out airstrikes on Syrian government troops and infrastructure.
“We have reliable information at our disposal that US instructors have trained a number of militant groups in the vicinity of the town of At-Tanf to stage provocations involving chemical warfare agents in southern Syria,” Russian General Staff spokesman General Sergey Rudskoy said at a news briefing in Moscow on Saturday.
He added, “Early in March, the saboteur groups were deployed to the southern de-escalation zone to the city of Dara’a, where the units of the so-called Free Syrian Army are stationed.”
“They are preparing a series of chemical munitions explosions. This fact will be used to blame government forces. The components to produce chemical munitions have been already delivered to the southern de-escalation zone under the guise of humanitarian convoys of a number of NGOs,” Rudskoy commented.
The senior Russian military further noted that the planned provocations would be widely covered in Western media outlets, and would ultimately be used as a pretext by the US-led coalition to launch strikes on Syria.
Rudskoy warned that another false flag chemical attack was being prepared in Syria’s northern province of Idlib by members of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, in coordination with the White Helmets.
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From PressTV
US, British, French forces directly involved in Syria war: Russia FM
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says US, British and French special forces are “directly” engaged in the war on Syria and operating on the ground in the crisis-stricken country.
“There are special forces on the ground in Syria from the US – they no longer deny it – the UK, France and a number of other countries,” Lavrov said in an interview to the Kazakh state broadcaster published on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website on Saturday.
“Thus, it’s not so much of a ‘proxy war,’ but rather a direct involvement in the war,” the Russian top diplomat said.
He further said the US-led coalition in Syria, which is purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri group, is “illegitimate” from the standpoint of international law and the UN Charter.
“But we are realistic and understand that we wouldn’t fight with them. So we coordinate actions at least to prevent unintended clashes,” said Lavrov.
Moscow, he added, is in “permanent dialogue” with the US General Staff commanders and communications officers “who actually lead the operation on the ground.”
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From PressTV
For first time, Indian airliner uses Saudi Arabia to reach Israel
Saudi Arabia has opened its airspace to Air India flights to and from the Israeli-occupied territories, adding concrete evidence to the long-running reports of warming Riyadh-Tel Aviv relations.
On Thursday night, an Air India passenger jet became the first commercial flight to Israel to transit Saudi airspace.
“We will be flying non-stop from New Delhi to Tel Aviv from March 22 over Saudi airspace,” Air India spokesman Praveen Bhatnagar told the agency.
There will be three flights weekly in each direction, ending a decades-long Saudi ban on the use of its airspace for commercial flights to Israel.
Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz, who was on the tarmac when the flight landed at the Ben Gurion airport, said “it is the first time that there is an official connection” between Riyadh and Tel Aviv.
“This is a historic moment,” he added.
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From PressTV
US approves $1 billion in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia
The United States has formally approved weapons sales to Saudi Arabia totaling more than $1 billion, despite growing pressure from rights groups to halt arms deals with Riyadh.
The US State Department confirmed on Thursday it had authorized a $670 million deal for anti-tank missiles, a $106 million contract for helicopter maintenance and $300 million for ground vehicle parts.
A US official said the deals were in the planning process since President Donald Trump announced more than $100 billion in potential new arms contracts on a visit to Riyadh last year.
“This proposed sale will support US foreign policy and national security objectives by improving the security of a friendly country,” the US Defense Department said in a statement.
In theory, the US Congress could still block the latest deal, but on Tuesday the Senate voted down a bill to halt US support for the Saudi-led military coalition against Yemen.
Amnesty International slammed the United States, Britain and other Western countries on Friday for their continued arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as their forces wage a brutal war in Yemen.
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From PressTV
17 killed or wounded in fresh Saudi strikes on Yemen’s Sa’ada
At least 17 civilians, including women and children, have been killed or wounded when Saudi warplanes targeted residential areas in Yemen’s northern province of Sa’ada as the Riyadh regime presses ahead with its deadly bombardment campaign against
According to Yemen’s al-Masirah television network, the Saudi-led airstrikes hit residential buildings in the Ghamar district of the mountainous province of Sa’ada early on Thursday.
The development came just a day after Yemeni air defense forces, backed by fighters from allied Popular Committees, reportedly intercepted and shot down a Saudi F-15 fighter as it was flying in the skies over Sa’ada Province.
Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.
At least 13,600 people have been killed since the onset of the campaign. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country’s infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.
The Saudi-led war has also triggered a deadly cholera epidemic across Yemen.
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From PressTV
Senators block bi-partisan resolution to end war in Yemen
The US Senate has voted against a resolution seeking to end American support for Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Yemen.
The upper chamber of Congress voted 55 to 44 on Tuesday against the measure introduced by anti-war senators.
The resolution would have forced US President Donald Trump “to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in or affecting the Republic of Yemen,” except operations against al-Qaeda or affiliated forces.
The US has been providing intelligence and logistical support for the Saudi-led military coalition against Yemen.
During Senate debate before the vote, some backers called the three-year-long conflict in Yemen a “humanitarian catastrophe,” which they blamed on the Saudis.
US Defense Secretary James Mattis traveled to Congress on Tuesday to encourage members of both parties to block the resolution.
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From PressTV
Congress to limit US aid to Palestinians over ‘martyr payments’
The US Congress is set to pass legislation to sharply reduce the annual $300 million in American aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it takes steps to stop making what US lawmakers described as payments that reward violent crime.
The measure, known as the Taylor Force Act, is expected to pass the US House of Representatives and Senate this week as part of a massive spending bill unveiled on Wednesday.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, introduced the new anti-Palestinian legislation. Graham, like most US lawmakers, is strongly pro-Israel due to the influence of the powerful Israel lobby in the US Congress.
The act is intended to stop the Palestinian Authority from paying stipends to the families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned by Israeli forces.
More than 300 Palestinians have lost their lives at the hands of Israeli forces since the beginning of October 2015.
The Israeli regime and the administration of US President Donald Trump have recently increased pressure on the Palestinian Authority to halt payments to the families of martyrs.
From PressTV
Palestinian teenage activist gets 8 months in Israeli jail
An Israeli military court has sentenced a teenage Palestinian girl, who was filmed kicking and slapping an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank, to eight months in prison.
Ahed Tamimi’s lawyer Gaby Lasky said on Wednesday that the 17-year-old girl agreed to the sentence as part of a plea deal that allowed her to avoid years-long prison terms.
Under the deal, she was also fined the equivalent of about $1,400.
“No justice under occupation!” Tamimi, handcuffed and shackled, shouted out to reporters at the court in the Ofer military prison near the Palestinian city of Ramallah.
In a statement following Tamimi’s conviction, Amnesty International condemned the sentence as “disproportionately harsh.”
“The Israeli authorities must stop responding to relatively small acts of defiance with such disproportionately harsh punishments. By ruthlessly targeting Palestinians, including children, who dare challenge Israel’s oppressive occupation, the authorities are neglecting their responsibilities under international law as an occupying force,” Amnesty said.
From PressTV
Czechs mull moving embassy under Israeli pressure: Report
The Czech Republic is under pressure from Israel to follow in US steps and move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds, Israel’s Channel 10 has reported.
The broadcaster cited a classified cable by Israel’s Ambassador to Prague Daniel Meron, saying that Israeli pressures following decisions from the US and Guatemala to move their embassies have made the Czech Republic more open to following suit.
Prague “has begun a quiet internal staff evaluation to examine the possibilities and risks regarding the transfer of its embassy,” the cable written to the Israeli foreign ministry last week said.
The decision will ultimately be made by Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who is seen as particularly risk averse, Channel 10 said.
US President Donald Trump recognized Israel’s claim to Jerusalem al-Quds as its so-called “capital” last December, and set in motion a frozen plan to relocate the American embassy there.
The announcement triggered an international storm and later that month, more than 120 countries voted at the UN General Assembly in favor of a resolution calling for the United States to drop the recognition.
