Sometimes there’s no way to protect someone from himself..
[IsraelTimes] An Israeli-American who served seven years in an Israeli prison for multiple counts of extortion and waging an intimidation campaign of bomb threats, including against Jewish Community Centers in the United States, has been detained in Norway on a US extradition request, Channel 12 reports.
The hacker, who was a teen at the time of his conviction and whose name remains under gag order in Israel, admitted to making some 2,000 fake bomb threat calls to hospitals, airlines, schools and various Jewish institutions out of boredom.
According to Channel 12, he was released on parole last week and travelled to Norway where he submitted an asylum claim. However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... Norwegian authorities rejected the claim and detained him on an existing US extradition charge.
He remains in jug until his next hearing.
Israel had refused to extradite him to the US and tried and sentenced him in Israel.
"My client was sentenced to an unprecedented sentence in Israel, despite the fact that he was recognized as a person on the high end of the autism spectrum for offenses allegedly committed on US soil," his lawyer Nir Yaslovitzh tells Channel 12.
"Unfortunately, the US apparently decided to administer a coup de grâce and, after a long time and in a clearly unjustified manner, request my client’s extradition from Norway to the US despite the fact that my client has already paid his debt with many years of imprisonment."
The Ashkelon native was found guilty of hundreds of counts of extortion, publishing false information that caused panic, computer offenses and money laundering, among other charges.
Authorities say he made thousands of threatening calls, mostly to community centers and schools in the US, from January to March 2017, using an online calling service that disguised his voice and allowed him to hide his identity. He also targeted hundreds of airlines and airports, malls, and cop shoppes, in the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Britannia, and tried to extort Republican State Senator Ernesto Lopez from Delaware.
In addition to the bomb threats, M. offered his extortion services through an online black market. Court documents linked him to a post on the now-shuttered illicit marketplace AlphaBay, advertising a "School Email Bomb Threat Service." The ad offered to send customized threats to schools for $30, plus a surcharge if the buyer seeks to have someone framed.
His threats caused fighter jets to scramble, planes to dump fuel and make emergency landings, schools to evacuate, and numerous other chaotic consequences. In some cases, he allegedly threatened to execute children he claimed to be holding hostage. Police also found hundreds of photos and videos of child pornography on his computer.
According to the US Justice Department, if convicted, M. could face a maximum jail term of 20 years for each of the hate crime charges; 10 years for each of the bomb threats; and five years for other hoax and cyberstalking charges.
[DailyFinland] The University of Leipzig has cancelled a lecture by Israeli historian Benny Morris planned for next week, reported dpa.
The reason for the cancellation were statements made by the historian, some of which could be read as offensive and even racist, the university announced. This had led to understandable but frightening protests from individual student groups.
Various groups had called on the Faculty of Theology to cancel the lecture as part of the lecture series ‘Traditions and Present of Anti-Semitism’. ‘Together with the security concerns that have arisen, these points mean that the lecture by Prof Benny Morris will not take place,’ the university said.
Thus neatly demonstrating the point that he would have made, had he been allowed to speak.
CRITICAL DISCUSSION WAS PLANNED
The purpose of the event with Morris was therefore a critical discussion, not an endorsement of his theories or later statements. The university emphasised that inviting speakers does not necessarily mean that they agree with their views: ‘We distance ourselves firmly from Prof. Morris’ controversial statements.’
Morris criticised the cancellation in the Israeli newspaper ‘Haaretz’ as ‘disgraceful’, above all because the reason was fear of possible violence by the students. The history professor spoke of ‘cowardice and appeasement par excellence’.
German universities have a long history of kowtowing to vicious radicals within and outside the government.
[IsraelTimes] Boulos’s son Michael is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany. The businessman and lawyer played an integral role in expanding Trump’s support among Arab and Muslim Americans in last month’s election, echoing the GOP leader’s pledge to end wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
Massad Boulos will likely work alongside Steve Witkoff, who Trump last month appointed as his special envoy for the Middle East.
A source familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that Witkoff will deal more directly with Israel, while Boulos will be Trump’s point-man to Arab countries. The president-elect campaigned on expanding the Abraham Accords that he brokered at the end of his first term, which saw the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco normalize relations with Israel.
Boulus has also served as Trump’s conduit to Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> , handing over a letter that the latter wrote to the then-Republican nominee condemning the July attempt on his life. Trump sent the letter back to Abbas with a note expressing thanks for the well-wishes.
Boulos then met Abbas in person on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September, and, earlier this month, coordinated the first phone call between the two leaders in over seven years, during which Abbas congratulated Trump on his election win.
In a Truth Social post announcing the appointment, Trump touted Boulos as a "highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the international scene."
"He has been a longtime proponent of Republican and Conservative values, an asset to my Campaign, and was instrumental in building tremendous new coalitions with the Arab American Community," Trump continued. "Massad is a dealmaker and an unwavering supporter of PEACE in the Middle East."
It was the second time in recent days that Trump chose the father-in-law of one of his children to serve in his administration.
On Saturday, Trump said that he had picked his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s father, real estate mogul Charles Kushner, to serve as US ambassador to La Belle France.
In recent months, Boulos campaigned for Trump to drum up Lebanese and Arab American support, even as the US-backed Israel’s military campaign against Hezbollah in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... Boulos has powerful roots in both countries.
His father and grandfather were both figures in Lebanese politics and his father-in-law was a key funder of the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... , a Christian party aligned with Hezbollah.
Boulos’s son, Michael, and Tiffany Trump were married in an elaborate ceremony at Trump’s Florida Mar-a-Lago Club in November 2022, after getting engaged in the White House Rose Garden during Trump’s first term.
Boulos has been in touch with interlocutors across Lebanon’s multipolar political world, three sources who spoke to him in recent months say, a rare feat in Lebanon, where decades-old rivalries between factions run deep.
Particularly notable is his ability to maintain relations with Hezbollah, they say. The Iranian-backed Shiite terror group has a large number of seats in Lebanon’s parliament and ministers in the government.
Boulos is a friend of Suleiman Frangieh, a Christian ally of Hezbollah and its candidate for Lebanon’s presidency. He is also in touch with the Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... Party, a vehemently anti-Hezbollah Christian faction, the sources say, and has ties to independent politicians.
Aron Lund, a fellow at the Century Foundation think tank, said Boulos was well placed to influence Trump’s Middle East policy after playing a small but significant role in expanding Trump’s appeal to Arab American and Moslem voters during the campaign.
"Boulos’s Lebanese political past gives no real indication of a geostrategic or even national vision, but it demonstrates ambition and a set of political allies that will stand out in Trump’s circle like a sore thumb," Lund wrote.
Boulos, a billionaire with extensive business ties in Nigeria, was born in Lebanon, but moved to Texas as a teenager, where he attended the University of Houston, earned a law degree and became a US citizen.
Trump’s election win in Michigan came in part because of Boulos’s help flipping some of the 300,000 Arab Americans and Moslems in the state who overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020, but opposed Biden’s policies in Israel, Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , and Lebanon, Trump campaign officials and supporters told Rooters.
"Boulos played a big role in the outreach to Moslem voters," said Rabiul Chowdhury, co-founder of Moslems for Trump.
Beginning in September, the Trump campaign held weekly meetings in person and via Zoom with dozens of Arab American and Moslem civic leaders and business executives.
Boulos spent weeks on the ground in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and other states with big Arab American and Moslem populations, assuring audiences in private lunches and dinners that tapped his own connections to Lebanese American businessmen that Trump was committed to ending the wars in the Middle East.
The Trump campaign spent tens of millions of dollars on the effort to mobilize Arab American and Moslem voters, Boulos told Rooters in an interview shortly after the election.
Trump won endorsements from Moslem imams and the Moslem mayor of Hamtramck, another town near bankrupt, increasingly impoverished, reliably Democrat, Detroit ... ruled by Democrats since 1962. A city whose Golden Age included the Purple Gang... with a large Arab American population, as well as the large Bangladeshi community, and courted Iraqi Americans, Albanian Americans and others.
While the events on the ground in Lebanon played a factor, the economy did too. And conservative Arabs and Moslems were concerned about what they saw as the Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... ’ "far-left ideology," including support of transgender rights, Boulos said.
The new role could offer Boulos the kind of political clout he could not achieve in Lebanon. He had a brief run for Lebanon’s parliament in 2018 alongside pro-Hezbollah candidates, but since then he has not consistently aligned himself with any particular party, sources in Lebanon said.
He hails from a Greek Orthodox family. In Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, that would cap his chances at a senior role in government at the level of deputy speaker of parliament. The post of president — the highest Christian role in the country — is reserved for Maronite Catholics.
While he used to travel to Lebanon frequently, he has not visited in the last four years, one of the sources said.
[IsraelTimes] This month, the Balva family and US attorney Jonathan Missner filed a suit against the Islamic Republic for funding the terror group that killed US citizen Sgt. 1st Class Omer Balva
Eyal Balva visits the Military Cemetery in Herzliya at least once a week to sit by his son Omer’s grave and talk.
An antitank missile fired by Hezbollah killed Sgt. 1st Class (res) Omer Balva on October 20, 2023. The 22-year-old was stationed at Netu’a, a moshav in northern Israel, just two miles from the Lebanese border. He’d only just rejoined his unit when he died.
"We were very close. Not just father and son close, but like friends. I always promise him that I will keep fighting for him, that I will make him proud," Balva said in a video interview with The Times of Israel from his condominium in Maryland, where the family splits time with their Israeli home. Behind him hangs a portrait of a joyful Omer.
American citizens have previously sued Iran for orchestrating terror attacks. And although Iran never defends itself in court, the plaintiffs often win default judgments.
Balva and his wife Sigalit are among the dozens suing Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... for its role in the death and injury of American citizens, both in and out of the Israeli military, during the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... -led invasion of southern Israel.
Some 1,200 men, women, and children were slaughtered in the onslaught and 251 were kidnapped to the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip. In the subsequent multi-front conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in the north, 46 civilians and 458 IDF soldiers and reservists have been killed.
The lawsuit, filed on November 17 in the US District Court of the District of Columbia, details Iran’s funding of Hamas as well as its links to other terrorist organizations including Hezbollah, the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine. Documents seized in Gaza, which have been viewed by The Times of Israel, provide the foundation for much of the suit.
But behind the bureaucratic language of the complaint and accompanying exhibits, are the 47 plaintiffs — the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, daughter and sons — each of whom signed on to this lawsuit knowing there would be many hurdles to overcome. For Balva, knowing that his close friend Jonathan Missner — a managing partner at Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner — is representing him makes the path forward a little easier.
"I don’t know if I could do this without Jon. He was like a father to Omer. I know it’s going to be hard, but I have to do it for the memory of Omer. There has to be accountability for terror," Balva said.
From the time Missner’s son Ethan and Omer met at age 5, they were inseparable, Missner said.
"Omer Balva was a remarkable young man who only had love and humor in his heart. He lit up any environment he was in. My son believes he was an angel sent to Earth for a purpose. He selflessly volunteered for dangerous missions to defend Israel and the Jewish people, and he was murdered by Hezbollah. There is no legal matter that I have ever pursued that is more personal or important to me than this one," Missner said.
Missner’s firm represents 20 plaintiffs in the current suit, including the Balvas and Yechiel Leiter, who was just named Israeli ambassador to the United States. Leiter’s son, Moshe Leiter, a 39-year-old father of six, was killed in the northern Gaza Strip while serving in the IDF reserves. The firm has pooled resources and clients with co-counsel from Jenner & Block LLP and Osen LLC.
’STANDARD’ DAMAGES FOR TERRORIST ATTACKS
However difficult it may be to win cases like this, Missner said, it is possible.
In 2021, a federal court in Washington held Iran and Syria liable for damages to the four children of Eitam and Naama Henkin, an Israeli-American couple who were shot and killed by Hamas turbans at close range in front of their children in the West Bank in 2015.
Missner, who represented the Henkin children, said he believes the case can serve as a model for the October 7 lawsuit.
In ordinary terrorism cases, the direct victims — those killed or maimed — are harmed in one location, such as aboard an aircraft or inside a restaurant, and their closely related family members — spouses, parents, siblings, and children — are elsewhere, Missner said.
As such, the courts typically award damages for the close family members to compensate for the grief of having to live without a loved one or with someone who was maimed in the attack. Over time, US courts have developed "standard" damages awards of $8 million for spouses, $5 million for parents and children, and $2.5 million for siblings, Missner said.
In the Henkin case, the court awarded the children $10 million. The amount reflects both their grief of having to live without their parents and also the fact that they witnessed their parents’ murder, Missner said.
"A number of the October 7 victims — in our case and others — were present while their loved ones were murdered, maimed, or kidnapped. Their damages awards should account for not just the grief of living with the aftermath of the attack, but also for experiencing the horror of the attacks in real-time," said Missner, who also serves on the board of the Israel Economic Forum.
Several weeks before he was killed, Omer Balva had been vacationing in the United States — first in Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, with his parents, siblings, and girlfriend, and then in Maryland, where he was born and lived until graduating from the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School.
Omer was staying with the Missners in Maryland when he first learned Hamas turbans had invaded Israel’s southern border by air, land and sea. After getting word that four of his soldiers were killed in the initial attack, Omer was determined to return to Israel.
"He kept calling me every two hours to get him on a flight," Balva said. He and the rest of the family were already back in Israel.
The night before Omer left, he and Ethan packed a duffel bag full of gear for his unit — knee pads, elbow pads, earmuffs, anything they could think of. Omer flew back to Israel on October 15. On October 17, he and his father made the three-hour drive north. Balva tried to console himself with the knowledge that Omer would be in the north, since the majority of the fighting at the time was in and around Gaza. Omer was killed three days later, on October 20.
"When the doorbell rang, I said to my wife, ’They are here to tell us about Omer.’ Even so, when I opened the door I said, ’Tell me he is just injured.’ I knew they don’t come to your home to tell you someone is injured, but I wanted to make them say it," Balva said.
IRAN, THE HEAD OF THE HYDRA
American citizens have previously sued Iran for orchestrating terror attacks. And although Iran never defends itself in court, the plaintiffs often win default judgments.
The current lawsuit seeks compensatory damages under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and Anti-Terrorism Act, as well as punitive damages under the FSIA.
Payments come from seized or frozen assets that have been deposited in the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund. A special master administers the fund and determines entitlement and the payment amount.
Part of the strategy in this case will be to trace Iran’s financial fingerprints as well as its relationships with Hamas leadership, Missner said.
"Financial institutions that aid and abet this conduct are indistinguishable from the criminals that plan and participate in the attacks. In fact, we have applied this expertise in many matters such as our investigation of Swiss banks that provided financial support to the Nazis during World War II and even kept some of that Nazi money until as recently as a few years ago," Missner said.
In this case, several exhibits accompanying the 103-page complaint detail $1 million, $2 million, and $3 million payments allegedly made from Iran to several Hamas leaders including Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh ...became Prime Minister of Gaza after the legislative elections of 2006 which Hamas won. President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed Haniyeh from office on 14 June 2007 at the height of the Fatah-Hamas festivities, but Haniyeh did not acknowledge the decree and continues as the PM of Gazoo while Abbas maintains a separate PM in the West Bank... , and Marwan Issa between 2014 and 2020. The complaint also covers "the big project," which is how Hamas referred to the planned October 7 onslaught.
"Hamas was preparing for Sinwar’s ’Big Project’ — a multi-pronged attack, coordinated with Hezbollah and the IRGC-QF, to annihilate the State of Israel," according to the complaint. "To this end, Hamas held a conference in Gaza on September 30, 2021, titled ’Ensuring the End of Days — Paleostine After Liberation.’"
While it will be some time before a judge rules in this case, Balva said he feels confident Omer would insist he fight Iran in the courts.
"We have to do this, to do something better for the world and to remember him," Balva said.
[Breitbart] Afghanistan’s governing Taliban terrorist organization on Sunday demanded representatives be allowed to join all future U.N. global climate talks after returning from COP29 in Baku where its officials were welcomed for the first time.
AFP reports the Afghan delegation had attended in the wake of the Taliban sweeping to power in August 2021 through a bloody takeover, having failed to get an invite to the past two COPs (Conference of the Parties) held in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
This is despite a Taliban representative previously claiming the jihadist organization will, if permitted, play an “indispensable role” on the international stage engaging in climate issues among other supposed global challenges.
Now it is again calling for inclusion. "We want in on the boodle!"
“Afghanistan must participate in such conferences in the future,” said Matiul Haq Khalis, the director general of Afghanistan’s National Environmental Protection Agency, at a press conference on Sunday.
He described Afghanistan’s attendance last month at the talks as a “big achievement.”
[GEO.TV] Iraq's parliament postponed until Monday a vote on controversial legal amendments, including a reworked family law bill that had sparked civil outrage over fears of a resurgence in underage marriages.
A session devoted to the legislation scheduled for Sunday did not go ahead and would now be held the following day, parliament's communications department said.
The proposed amendments would let people choose between religious or state regulations for family matters, such as marriage, inheritance, divorce and child custody.
Critics fear the move could erode protections for Moslem women by lowering the legal age for marriage — currently set at 18, or 15 with the consent of legal guardians and a judge — and pave the way for the adoption of law that could allow girls as young as nine years old to marry.
A revised version of the bill sets the minimum age at 15 with court approval and retains "current conditions", according to MP Raed al-Maliki, who backs the new proposals.
If passed, holy mans and lawyers would have four months to establish community-specific regulations.
Parliament would then vote again to finalise the changes.
The draft law has already undergone two readings, with votes previously delayed.
An earlier version faced a backlash from feminists and civil society groups.
In October, Amnesty International warned the amendments could legalise unregistered marriages — often used to bypass child marriage bans — and strip protections for divorced women.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2024 00:30 ||
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Link ||
[11134 views]
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#1
Are scott rittter, p diddy,and 3/4 of Hollywood now moving to iraq?
[IsraelTimes] Head of UN agency says route via Kerem Shalom no longer safe, largely blames Israel; Jerusalem downplays announcement, says only 7% of aid via crossing is coordinated with UNRWA
It marked a further deterioration of ties between Israel and the United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which have crumbled amid the ongoing war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... that was started last year by the Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... ”We are pausing the delivery of aid through Kerem Shalom... The road out of this crossing has not been safe for months," UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a post on social media platform X, blaming Israel.
"On 16 November, a large convoy of aid trucks was stolen by armed gangs," he recalled.
"Yesterday, we tried to bring in a few food trucks on the same route. They were all taken," Lazzarini added.
The UN official did not specify who is carrying out the looting.
Lazzarini largely blamed Israel for the breakdown of humanitarian operations in Gaza, citing alleged "political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid," lack of safety on aid routes, and Israel’s targeting of the Hamas-run police force, which had previously provided public security.
The Israeli military has said that attacking convoys and stealing aid is an ongoing problem in Gaza. COGAT, the military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, has said convoys are attacked by Hamas Death Eaters and known crime families.
Lazzarini called on Israel to ensure aid flowed to Gaza and said the country "must refrain from attacks on humanitarian workers."
In response, Israel’s COGAT sought to downplay the significance of UNRWA’s announcement by stating that almost all the aid wasn’t being coordinated with the UN agency.
"Only 7% of the aid that came into the Gaza Strip in November was coordinated by UNRWA," the Defense Ministry liaison body said on X.
"There are dozens of humanitarian organizations operating in the Gaza Strip that continue to take a growing role in delivering humanitarian aid," it added. "Last week, over 1,000 trucks carrying humanitarian aid were collected from the various crossings and distributed throughout the Gaza Strip.
"We will continue to work with the international community to increase the amount of aid making its way into Gaza, through the Kerem Shalom Crossing as well as the other 4 crossings between Israel and Gaza," it concluded.
Israel has long argued that it allows enough aid into Gaza, blaiming UNRWA and other agencies for failing to deliver it. It accuses UNRWA of having allowed Hamas to deeply infiltrate its ranks, including dozens who actively took part in the October 7 massacre in southern Israel, and passed legislation to sever ties with the agency last month.
During a press visit Thursday, the IDF showed aid shipments at the crossing and said they have waited at the Gaza side of Kerem Shalom for months.
Kerem Shalom is the only crossing between Israel and Gaza that is designed for cargo shipments and has been the main artery for aid deliveries since the Rafah crossing with Egypt was shut down in May when Cairo refused to cooperate with the IDF on operating the gateway after it was captured. Last month, nearly two-thirds of all aid entering Gaza came through Kerem Shalom, and in previous months it accounted for an even larger amount, according to Israeli figures.
The UNRWA move followed an Israeli strike on Saturday that killed three contractors of the US charity World Central Kitchen, including one who Israel’s military said was involved in Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack that opened the war.
The United Nations said last month that 333 aid workers had been killed since the start of the war in October of last year, 243 of them employees of UNRWA.
Lazzarini reiterated his call for a ceasefire "that would also secure the delivery of safe and uninterrupted aid to people in need."
As mediators relaunch efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, a Hamas delegation was in Cairo for talks Saturday and an Egyptian team was reported to visit Israel in recent days, though there was no official confirmation for the latter trip.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the talks included negotiations on reopening the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which Egypt shuttered once Israel took control of the border region. Arab negotiators told the Journal that an agreement could lead to the crossing’s reopening by early December.
The report added that under the proposed deal, administrative control of the terminal would be given to the Paleostinian Authority, and Israel would be given access to information on those crossing.
Killing time while waiting for Allah to send a miracle. Possibly via President Trump, who as an American will surely be moved to force Israel to surrender in the hope of getting back the Israeli-American hostages, right?
[GEO.TV] Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... is open to discussing "all ideas and proposals", a senior Hamas official told AFP, as representatives arrived in Cairo Saturday for talks on a possible ceasefire in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... The group has "not received any new offer or proposal so far", the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... because of the sensitivity of the topic.
But Hamas "is open to discussing all ideas and proposals that lead to the end of the war, Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the return of the displaced, the entry of humanitarian and relief aid, and a serious deal to exchange prisoners," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/02/2024 00:37 ||
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[11139 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
When the Nazis [“officially”] started WWII with its surprise-attack on Poland on 1 Sept 1939, Hitler went on radio asserting his openness to negotiations for ending all hostilities peacefully. Sound familiar? Why do otherwise intelligent people fall for this stuff over and over and over and over again?
Posted by: Ginger Hale ||
12/02/2024 3:19 Comments ||
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#2
Hitler’s speech from that day are easily available online. It’s remarkable how similar his words are to those of Hamas.
Posted by: Ginger Hale ||
12/02/2024 3:25 Comments ||
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Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
[ColonelCassad] 1. The Syrian army was able to hold the capital of Hama province and move on to stabilization measures in Hama province and in the Al-Ghab valley. Several cities and villages have been liberated. The threat of losing Hama has been temporarily removed.
2. On the other hand, a hole in the front to the southeast of Aleppo remains. After capturing Kuweiris and Al-Safir, the militants continued their offensive to the southeast and captured Khanasser. The situation there is out of control.
3. The militants and the Turks are also clearing out the Kurds in Tal Rifaat. The city has effectively fallen, as has the Menaj airbase. The Kurds in the Sheikh Maksoud area have been given an ultimatum - get out to Rojava or else things will be bad.
Dammit. Not surprising — the Kurds have been a thorn in President Erdogan’s side since the Arab Spring started, and this is clearly a Turkish operation — but even so.
4. Iranian proxies
…meaning Hezbollah or meaning various Shiite paramilitaries with poor to fair military skills? It will be interesting either way… UPDATE: we have tweets reporting that columns of Popular Mobilization Forces — Iran commanded Shiite Iraqi paramilitaries — headed toward Syria are being strafed by American Warthogs. Very interesting times…
have left for the front, large columns are coming from Iraq. But it will take them time to reach the front line. Iraq is strengthening its border with Syria.
5. The Russian Aerospace Forces are currently operating very effectively, inflicting heavy losses by striking columns and concentrations of enemy manpower. But air strikes alone cannot stop the enemy's advance.
6. Lieutenant General Kisel has left the post of commander of the Russian group in Syria. His place has presumably been taken by Colonel General Chaiko.
7. In addition to Russia and Iran, Egypt, Iraq, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have spoken out in support of Syria.
Nobody likes President Erdogan even though nobody trusts Iran.
The head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry arrived in Damascus today. The issue of deploying Iranian proxies in Syria was discussed.
8. In the southern regions of Syria, it has so far been possible to contain the unrest of militants in Daraa. But with further failures at the front, there may be a flare-up there too.
9. Assad is now in Syria. Rumors of a coup d'etat are fabrications. As are the statements that Assad is hiding in Russia.
All that might even be true.
10. In general, the crisis continues to develop and it is too early to talk about its containment. The consequences of the catastrophic failure of the Syrian army near Aleppo are currently being collected. In fact, 1.5 provinces were surrendered in a few days. The reasons for this failure have yet to be determined.
They’re Arabs. They don’t trust their fellows to stand and fight, so they do not stand and fight.
SDF says working to evacuate its people from Tal Rifaat
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday said it is working with "relevant parties" in Syria to safely evacuate the people of the strategic town of Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo province to northeast Syria (Rojava) amid intense attacks by Ottoman Turkish-backed krazed killers.
"Our forces have bravely defended our people in Aleppo, Tal Rifaat, and the Shahba region. We are coordinating with all relevant parties in Syria to ensure the safety of our people and facilitate their evacuation from Tal Rifaat and Shahba to our secure regions in northeastern Syria," said a statement from Mazloum Abdi, commander-in-chief of the SDF.
While the Kurdish-led force is still in control of the Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods in Aleppo city, its attempts to establish a corridor connecting Rojava with Aleppo and Tal Rifaat were "disrupted" by Ottoman Turkish-backed krazed killers, according to Abdi.
"Our forces face intense attacks from multiple fronts," he stressed.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britannia-based war monitor, reported on Saturday that Ottoman Turkish-backed bandidosforces of Evil took control of Tal Rifaat and nearby villages from the SDF.
As a coalition of rebel forces led by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS) marched on Aleppo and sent regime soldiers fleeing, the SDF took control of strategic locations in eastern Aleppo and formed a corridor to the city from the Euphrates River, briefly capturing key sites such as Aleppo International Airport.
It later tactically withdrew from many of the sites, while maintaining hold over Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh, both long held by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) - the SDF’s backbone.
On Sunday, the HTS-led opposition government in Idlib called on the SDF to withdraw from Aleppo towards northeast Syria, promising to take care of civilians in the Kurdish-held neighborhoods.
But SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami rejected rumors that the Kurdish force had withdrawn from the neighborhoods.
Rojava’s ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) claimed in a statement on X that the Kurdish-held Shahba area in northern Aleppo is "witnessing massacres" by The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... -backed krazed killers.
The SDF on Sunday urged the people in Rojava to "heed the call" for a general mobilization declared hours prior by the Kurdish-led administration.
Turkey, which backs various Syrian rebel groups, has threatened in the past to carry out an offensive to remove Kurdish fighters from Tal Rifaat. It said it is closely following the situation and urged the clashing parties not to cause "larger instabilities."
Ankara also accused Kurdish forces in Tal Rifaat and nearby Manbij of "trying to take advantage of the current state of instability.
Fear looms as half a million Kurds, Yazidis trapped in northern Aleppo
Iso
[Rudaw] Fear grows over the fate of approximately 500,000 Kurds and 5,000 Yazidis trapped in the Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo province, activists warned on Monday, as Kurdish forces remain under siege in the conflict-stricken province.
“There is now a great fear regarding the Kurdish residents of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafiyeh in Aleppo, and the Shahba region. There are concerns that large-scale retaliation might be carried out against the Kurdish civilians in the area,” Ali Iso, the director of Ezdina, a Germany-based Yazidi rights organization, told Rudaw.
“There is another fear for the Yazidi Kurds, as there are Kurds on one side and Yazidis on the other. According to our information, the fate of a 63-year-old Yazidi civilian is unknown,” he added.
Media affiliated with the Kurdish-led Rojava administration on Sunday reported fierce clashes between the SDF and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in northern Aleppo province, near the Kurdish-held town of Tal Rifaat near Afrin and Shahba.
Also on Sunday, the Idlib-based Syrian opposition government called on the Kurdish forces in Aleppo to withdraw from the city towards northeast Syria, promising to take care of the Kurdish civilians in the Kurdish neighborhoods.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
