From PressTV
US may recognize Israel’s annexation of Golan Heights within months: Minister
Emboldened by the American embassy’s recent relocation to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds, Tel Aviv is now pressing the US administration to recognize the occupied side of Syria’s Golan Heights as Israeli territory.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters on Wednesday, Yisrael Katz, Israel’s intelligence minister, said the subject is “topping the agenda” in talks with Washington, which has already recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied Palestinian city.
He also claimed that America’s recognition of Israel’s annexation of occupied Golan would serve as a message of warning to Iran and bolster the latest wave of anti-Iran efforts by the US administration under President Donald Trump.
Israel is deeply angered by Iran’s military advisory assistance to Syrian armed forces in their operations against the terrorist groups, which have the backing of Tel Aviv and its allies.
“This is the perfect time to make such a move. The most painful response you can give the Iranians is to recognize Israel’s Golan sovereignty – with an American statement, a presidential proclamation, enshrined (in law),” Katz said.
“I reckon there is great ripeness and a high probability this will happen,” the Israeli intelligence minister pointed out, predicting that the decision could be made later this year “give or take a few months.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israeli planes strike Syrian airport manned by Hezbollah, militia says
(JTA) — Hezbollah said that Israeli warplanes struck a military airport in Syria manned by its fighters.
Al-Akhbar, the official newspaper of the Shiite Islamist group, reported Friday that the previous night’s attack near Homs occurred as Syrian anti-aircraft missiles engaged the planes launching missiles at the airport. Israeli aircraft returned fire, according to the report.
Earlier this month, Israel said it struck Iranian rocket launchers in Syria after more than 20 of them were fired toward Israel.
The Al-Akhbar report did not say whether anyone was killed in the strike. It said some missiles exploded at the airport. but did not specify which facilities or areas that were hit. The base is under the control of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose army has been fighting Sunni rebels since the outbreak of a civil war in 2011 that has claimed 500,000 lives.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israeli jets hit Gaza targets in response to attack on military outpost
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli jets attacked a Hamas terror tunnel in northern Gaza and two boats allegedly seeking to break an Israeli naval blockade.
The airstrikes early Wednesday morning were in response to the torching the previous day of an Israeli military outpost near the border with Gaza by a group of Palestinians who cut through the border fence and infiltrated into Israel, the IDF said in a statement. The attacks also were in retaliation for ongoing attempts to harm Israel using drones and kites carrying explosive material.
The targeted boats were due to depart from the Gaza port to meet other vessels in an attempt to break the naval blockade on Gaza, Haaretz reported citing Palestinian reports.
The IDF “views these continued attacks with great severity, specifically Hamas’ daily attempts to damage Israeli security infrastructure and threats to the safety of Israeli civilians. The IDF is determined to fulfill its mission to protect Israeli civilians,” it said in the statement.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
PA asks International Criminal Court to open investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes
International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda at the ICC in 2015. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
(JTA) — The Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Minister asked the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open an “immediate investigation” into alleged Israeli war crimes against the Palestinians.
PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki met on Tuesday in The Hague with Fatou Bensouda, the ICC chief prosecutor.
The complaint asks the ICC to investigate Israel’s policies in Gaza, the West Bank, and eastern Jerusalem since 2014, when the Palestinians joined the ICC, the Associated Press reported, citing Malki.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Mike Pompeo: ‘You have my word’ on filling anti-Semitism monitor post
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged to take action on naming an anti-Semitism monitor.
“You have my word, we’ll move on that,” Pompeo said Thursday during his appearance testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.
Pompeo had been pressed on the issue by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., who helped author the 2004 law creating the position. The monitor tracks and reports on anti-Semitism worldwide, and makes representations to foreign governments about U.S. concerns regarding anti-Semitism in their lands.
The position has not been filled since January 2017, when Donald Trump became president, and the office shut down in July of that year. Since then, Jewish groups and lawmakers have been pressuring the Trump administration to fill the post.
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From PressTV
US envoy labeled ‘a terrorist’ after posing with poster of obliterated al-Aqsa
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman has come under fire for posing with a doctored aerial photo of Jerusalem al-Quds, which replaced the al-Aqsa Mosque — Islam’s third holiest site — and the Dome of the Rock, known as al-Haram al-Sharif, with an imaginary temple.
Friedman received the poster as he was visiting Bnei Brak, a city located just east of Tel Aviv, during a tour organized by a radical Jewish organization on Tuesday.
The controversial image soon made the rounds on the social media, prompting widespread fury.
Egypt’s Al Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world’s foremost religious institution, condemned the move on Thursday, calling it ” inappropriate and irresponsible.”
In a statement, the organization blasted Friedman and the Israeli organization, Achiya, for continuing “the policy of the Zio-American provocation and damaging the feelings of a billion and a half Muslims around the world.”
Referring to the city’s status as the capital of a future Palestinian state, the statement stressed that the move “will not change history and al-Quds will remain the capital of the Palestinian people.”
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From PressTV
Syrian air defenses intercept missiles near Homs
Syrian air defense systems have repelled a missile attack on an airport near the western city of Homs, less than a day after US-led coalition jets targeted several Syrian military positions in the country’s eastern Dayr al-Zawr province.
“One of our military airports in the central region was exposed to a hostile missile attack, and our air defense systems confronted the attack and prevented it from achieving its aim,” Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported on Thursday night.
The news agency had earlier said that sounds of explosions were heard near Dabaa airport, which lies about 20 kilometers southwest of Homs near the Lebanese border.
There have been no immediate reports of possible casualties, but Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “six missiles” had targeted the Syrian military airport, which it said stationed fighters from popular defense groups allied with government forces.
“The missiles would have been fired by Israel,” the so-called monitoring group added.
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From PressTV
US warplanes hit Syrian army bases in Dayr al-Zawr province
US-led coalition warplanes have targeted several Syrian military positions in the country’s eastern Dayr al-Zawr province.
“Some of our military positions between Albu Kamal and Hmeimeh were hit this morning in an aggression by American coalition warplanes,” the Syrian official news agency, SANA, quoted a military source as saying on early Thursday.
The source added that no casualties were caused by the attacks that only resulted in “material damage.”
The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.
Read More:
- US-led coalition undermining Syria territorial integrity, prolonging crisis: Damascus
- US-led strikes on Syria’s Hasakah leave over two dozen civilians dead
- NATO-made arms cache in Syria shows US support for terrorists: Russian MP
The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.
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From PressTV
UN condemns Israel’s deadly actions on Gaza fence
The United Nations Middle East envoy has stressed that “Gaza is on the verge of collapse.”
Nikolay Mladenov gave the warning while addressing the UN Security Council on Wednesday, where he called for urgent action to relieve the suffering of Gaza’s “increasingly desperate” people.
He added that people of Gaza were living with “crippling Israeli closures and with diminishing hopes for an end to the occupation and a political solution.”
“Gaza’s infrastructure teeters on the verge of total collapse, particularly its electricity and water networks as well as its health system,” he noted.
Mladenov further called on the international community to join “in condemning in the strongest possible terms the actions that have led to the loss of so many lives in Gaza” since March.
Israeli forces killed at least 62 Palestinians during protests near the Gaza fence on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (Day of Catastrophe), which coincided with Washington’s embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.
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From PressTV
US presence in Iraq amounts to occupation: Sadr’s adviser
A senior adviser to Iraqi cleric Seyyed Muqtada al-Sadr tells Press TV that the presence of US troops in Iraq is regarded as occupation.
Diyaa Assadi, who is a senior adviser to Iraqi cleric, al-Sadr said that “the US was still being seen as an occupying country.”
Responding to the presence of American forces, he stressed that US troops would be dealt as occupying force until their full withdrawal from the country. “There are still troops in Iraq,” he said.
Also earlier this year, a senior commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), said now that the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group had been defeated in the country, there was no need for the presence of US troops.
Touching upon the recent elections in Iraq, the senior adviser said that Sadr’s Sa’iroun (Marchers) political bloc was open to hold talks with all stakeholders and partners except those who could not meet the “requirements and conditions.”
He also predicted that the incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has a “good opportunity” to run for a second term.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Argentinean newscaster fired for on-air anti-Semitism after complaints
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA) — An Argentinean newscaster was fired after coming under criticism for for anti-Jewish remarks.
Santiago Cuneo, the host of the daily “1+1=3” program aired by the cable news channel Cronica TV, made a number of remarks deemed to be anti-Semitic in his broadcasts last week. Among them, Cuneo made reference to the Andinia Plan, a conspiracy alleging a Jewish plan to create a Jewish state in parts of Argentina and Chile, and he questioned the loyalty of the Argentina’s Jewish leadership. Cuneo also criticized President Mauricio Macri for a planned visit to Israel, describing the Argentine government as a “political associate of international Zionism” and alleging Macri will “hand over Patagonia” to the Israelis.
Late last week, Argentina’s Jewish political umbrella, the DAIA, accused Cuneo of anti-Semitism and announced that it planned to file a lawsuit against him. The DAIA said Cuneo “highlights the most execrable and classic anti-Semitic typology of international conspiracy theories, associations of Jews with money and imperialist intentions, the reinstatement of the Andinia plan, the demonization of the State of Israel, the foreignization, the accusation of double loyalty and the impairment of dignity of an entire community.”
On Friday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center asked Cronica TV to fire Cuneo. That evening the broadcaster announced that it would be his final broadcast.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Beneficiary of charity led by David Friedman is not on terrorist list, State Department says
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., March 6, 2018. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A group that got money from a charity led at the time by David Friedman, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, is not the same as a group of the same name that appears on the State Department terrorist list, a U.S. official said.
The pro-settlement charity Friedman led from 2011 until 2017 when he became ambassador, American Friends of Bet El Yeshiva Center, donated about $12,000 to a group named Qomemiut in 2013.
Qomemiyut shares a name with another group set up in the mid 1990s by activists associated with Kach, the extremist group founded by the late Rabbo Meir Kahane. Although the name Qomemiyut appears on the most recent State Department designated terrorist list from 2016, the two groups are not the same, according to a State Department official.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Harvey Weinstein turns himself in to face rape charges
Harvey Weinstein arrives for his arraignment at a New York City courthouse in handcuffs, May 25, 2018. (Steven Ferdman/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Harvey Weinstein turned himself in to police custody in New York on rape and sexual abuse charges.
The disgraced movie mogul, who is Jewish, surrendered in Manhattan on Friday on charges that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex on him, the officials told The New York Times on Thursday.
The charges follow an avalanche of accusations against him that following their publication in October led women around the world, some famous and many who are not, to come forward with accounts of being sexually harassed and assaulted by powerful men.
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From PressTV
Nearly dozen militants slain as Iraqi forces thwart attacks in Kirkuk
Nearly a dozen members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group have been killed after Iraqi security forces, supported by pro-government fighters from Popular Mobilization Units, foiled their attacks in the country’s northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk.
Iraqi Joint Operations Command (JOC) spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool said a joint force from Hawija police and voluntary fighters, better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi, repelled militant attacks on the villages of Gharib and Hanaf, south of the provincial capital city of Kirkuk, killing 11 extremists in the process, Arabic-language al-Taghier television network reported.
Rasool added that five Takfiris clad in explosive vests were among the slain militants.
A policeman and a Hashd al-Sha’abi fighter were killed during the clashes as well.
Separately, the JOC announced in a statement that Iraqi F-16 fighter jets had bombarded Daesh positions and a weapons cache in Syria’s Hegeen region, located 40 kilometers from the border town of al-Qa’im in Iraq’s western province of al-Anbar.
The statement added that the militant sites were completely destroyed in the aerial attacks.
From PressTV
Lebanese lawmakers designate Hariri as PM: Aoun’s office
The office of Lebanon’s president says a majority of lawmakers in parliament have endorsed Sa’ad al-Hariri, designating the Western-backed politician as prime minister for a third time.
The office of Michel Aoun said in a statement on Thursday that Hariri had won the backing of 111 out of 128 members of Lebanon’s new parliament during official consultations with the president earlier in the day.
Lebanon’s post of prime minister is reserved for a Sunni Muslim politician. Despite losing more than a third of his MPs in a May 6 election, Hariri was still the leading Sunni figure and a clear frontrunner for the post.
Local media said Hariri would swiftly launch negotiations with other parties on forming a coalition government.
The Lebanese Hezbollah resistant movement had named nobody for the post.
However, Mohammed Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said after meeting Aoun that the movement would cooperate “positively” with whoever was designated.
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From PressTV
Tel Aviv will be bombarded if Israeli aggression on Gaza continues: Islamic Jihad
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement has warned that it will target Tel Aviv in case the Israeli regime presses ahead with its acts of aggression against the impoverished and besieged Gaza Strip.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Daoud Shihab said on Wednesday that Israel is desperately looking for a military confrontation with the resistance movement as a way out of the current impasse it has faced in the wake of the recent “Great March of Return” protests.
Shihab added that the latest Israeli airstrikes on several sites in the Gaza Strip point to the Tel Aviv regime’s defeat, failure and helplessness in the face of the voice of truth, which is more powerful than the terrorism being waged by Israel.
He stressed that the Islamic Jihad resistance movement is fully prepared for any Israeli military aggression, warning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet that Tel Aviv will get bombed if they continue their aggressive policies towards the Gaza Strip and its residents.
“We have the ability to carry out such a thing. We have nothing to lose. No one will then have the right to hold us responsible for the escalation. At that time, Netanyahu will not be able to continue with his deception to justify his failures,” Shihab pointed out.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli fighter jets destroyed a Palestinian boat in Gaza seaport that was supposed to welcome an international flotilla hoping to break the decade-long Israeli blockade on the coastal sliver.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Eurovision says reports of tensions over Israel serving as contest host are just ‘speculation’
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Eurovision organizers have dismissed as “speculation” reports of political tensions over Israel’s hosting of the song contest next year.
The organizers said this week in an email to JTA that they are finalizing the event with Israeli officials.
They declined to explain why on Tuesday, they warned followers of the official Eurovision Twitter account not to book flights to Israel “just yet” and instead “keep an eye out for announcements on our official channels.”
“We have no more to say on the matter at this time,” organizers wrote in the email in response to a question on the unusual move, which they did not make in previous years.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Britain’s Prince William to make historic visit to Jerusalem in June
Prince William in London, April 23, 2018. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Prince William will come to Jerusalem at the end of June, the British royal family said, during the first visit to Israel by a senior British royal.
The announcement Friday about the visit sometime between June 24 and 28 was the first confirmation that William, whose official title is the Duke of Cambridge, will visit the Israeli capital, according to a report by The Associated Press.
The visit to Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authorities was announced in March, but it did not contain specific dates or mention Jerusalem. It did say that the prince’s visit “is at the request of Her Majesty’s Government and has been welcomed by the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian authorities.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WWII-era Polish cardinal who was hostile to Jews is on the path to sainthood
(JTA) — A World War II-era Polish cardinal who was hostile to Jews was recognized by Pope Francis as having “heroic virtues,” the first step to sainthood.
Cardinal August Hlond was one of 12 sainthood cases to be advanced last week by the pope.
In a letter to the Vatican, the American Jewish Committee warned that putting Hlond on the track toward sainthood “will be perceived within the Jewish community and beyond as an expression of approval of Cardinal Hlond’s extremely negative approach towards the Jewish community.” Rabbi David Rosen, the AJC’s director of international interreligious affairs, wrote the letter.
In his 1936 pastoral letter, Hlond condemned Judaism and called for a boycott of Jewish businesses.
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