[FoxNews] Lieberman is an Army medic, assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg
Army Sgt. Brian Lieberman, 22, said he was "just doing his job" when he saved the life of a 14-year-old girl in the middle of a shooting at his apartment complex. But the United States Army believes Lieberman is an American hero, meriting the Soldier's Medal.
Lieberman, an Army medic, is assigned to the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The Soldier's Medal, a prestigious award since its inception in 1926, is presented to those deemed heroic through "clearly recognizable personal hazard or danger and the voluntary risk of life."
It is not enough to simply have been a "good Samaritan" or to save a life. Rather, a recipient must act without hesitation to put his or her own life on the line.
On June 5, 2023, a gunman attacked the Carrington Place apartment complex in North Carolina, shooting a teenage girl in the back. Army training instincts kicked in, and Lieberman rushed into the line of fire.
"I looked out my window with my roommate and we heard people screaming and saw people running around by my complex pool, at which point I grabbed my weapon and ran out my front door while my roommate dialed 911," Lieberman said to Fox News Digital.
"As I got downstairs, I approached a group of people and I threw my hands up and stated that I am an army medic and they pointed to an individual that was lying in the street. I was only able to locate a single gunshot wound to her lower back."
After discovering the wound, Lieberman began using his combat medic expertise to treat the victim, including using grocery bags as a makeshift seal. At that point, the gunman returned.
"The shooter's vehicle drove past us again, and my roommate yelled at me to get down. I threw myself over the girl while the shooters drove by [and] shot at us again, and then that was when I pulled my weapon out to return fire into the suspect's vehicle."
Lieberman then continued seeing to the young victim's wounds until medical personnel arrived on-scene. The victim survived thanks to the heroic actions of Sgt Lieberman that day.
The 22-year-old sergeant was awarded the Solider's Medal on Tuesday at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, for his heroism and selflessness that day.
But Lieberman's humble, sacrificial nature didn't start in the Army. For him, he thanks his upbringing for his call to service.
"It all started at home," said Lieberman. "My mom is currently still a nurse and has been for well over 30 years now and my father was a paramedic and a police officer for [a] combined 30 years as well… I just grew up seeing my parents always go above and beyond, always stop[ping] to help someone in need, no matter where they were, what we were doing."
An Army citation reads, "Specialist Lieberman’s bravery and willingness to risk his life to protect others is in keeping with the finest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon him, the 82d Airborne Division, and the United States Army."
In truly humble fashion, Lieberman credits others for his brave actions that day.
"I would have not gotten this award if it wasn't for my roommate in that scenario… But if it wasn't for him that day, I would not be in the situation that I am in now," said Lieberman. "I feel like he didn't get much recognition that he deserves and I feel like he should be sitting right here next to me in this interview and in every single interview."
"Because he brought me my medical bag, he brought me all the rags that I used to clean up her blood… So he might not have pulled the trigger that day, but he 110% was the reason that I was so successful that day in helping that girl."
[Garowe] In what could significantly impact the fight against al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... snuffies in East Africa, the US government has placed a $10 million bounty on Abdullahi Banati, a suspected al-Shabaab murderous Moslem allegedly behind the Manda Bay terror attack.
The 2020 terror attack, which took the lives of three US citizens, including a serviceman, was the first major attack by the snuffies on a US base within East Africa, leading to an endless search for attackers.
The Department of State Rewards for Justice (RFJ), which was established in 1984 to combat international terrorism, has asked anyone with information that can lead to the arrest of Abdullahi to come forward with the information for quick action.
"Two DoD contractor pilots, both US citizens, were killed when their military aircraft was hit by RPGs on the tarmac of the airfield. A third DoD contractor, also a US citizen, survived the earth-shattering kaboom with serious injuries," reads the RFJ's U.S. Army specialist.
A Kenyan soldier was also maimed during the attack. Abdullahi is said to be a member of the Jaish al-Ayman, an elite group entrusted to carry out attacks on Kenyan soil. It is named after one of its notorious leaders, Maalim Ayman, also known as Dobow Abdiaziz Ali, an ethnic Somali from Mandera County.
Abdullahi Banati was one of the individuals involved in the operational planning of the January 5, 2020, attack on Manda Bay Airfield. al-Shabaab — al-Qa'ida's principal affiliate in East Africa — is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in Kenya, Somalia, and neighbouring countries that have killed thousands of people, including US citizens," the RFJ website reads.
Two years ago, Maskim Ayman was also placed on the list of most desperados over the links to the Manda Naval Base attack, which caught the US army unprepared. Senior US Africa Command commanders had also condemned the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) for failing to act swiftly.
The January 5 attack, which saw approximately 30 to 40 snuffies launch mortar rounds and fire rocket-propelled grenades and small arms at the base, led to the deaths of four American soldiers. al-Shabaab later grabbed credit for the attack.
The Manda Bay Airfield, which is heavily fortified and with support from a US base in Djibouti, trains the East Africa Quick Reaction Force, which enhances security within the region and safeguards America's interests.
The US Department of State designated al-Shabaab as both a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) in March 2008. The group is under severe attack both in Kenya and Somalia following coordinated operations by the two countries.
[SaharaReporters] The threat of an impending Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... attack in the city of Garoua, Cameroon ...a long, narrow country that fills the space between Nigeria and Chad on the northeast, CAR to the southeast. Prior to incursions by Boko Haram nothing ever happened there... forced local authorities to cancel the usual Friday prayers, plunging the community into uncertainty and fear, SaharaReporters has learnt.
According to sources who spoke to SaharaReporters, the turbans had been spreading news of their plans throughout the day, and with recent escalations in their attacks, the authorities took the precautionary measure to ensure the safety of the public.
"Given the serious threat posed by Boko Haram gunnies in the region, the decision was made to suspend Friday prayers as a preventive measure," said a local government official who preferred to remain anonymous.
"Our priority is the safety of our citizens, and we had no choice but to act swiftly."
Boko Haram, an holy warrior bully boy group based in northeastern Nigeria, has carried out a series of attacks in the Lake Chad region, including parts of Cameroon, since 2013.
Their violent mostly peaceful campaign, which has included bombings, kidnappings, and ambushes, has caused immense hardship for the affected populations.
The group aims to establish a hardline interpretation of Islamic law and has frequently targeted civilian populations, security forces, and religious institutions.
This disruption comes amid a heightened security presence in the region, with the group intensifying its offensive in recent weeks.
[IsraelTimes] Testimonials presented to House of Lords find sharp spike in anti-Jewish activities since Oct. 7, show Jewish students are ‘frightened’ to be on campuses.
A few care over there. Many don’t, or think it doesn’t go far enough.
Keep in mind their goal as always, is not education but rather conquest.
#1
Well, it is understandable: Perfidious Albion imported over a million Arabs - into the territory given to it by League of Nations to create Jewish national home - during the Mandate era.
#5
Ickes plan was to accept European Jews and resettle them in Alaska was proposed after Kristallnacht. Roosevelt failed to support it. Think of how many could have been saved. Think of how Alaska could have been transformed.
#6
^The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a 2007 novel by American author Michael Chabon.[1] The novel is a detective story set in an alternative history version of the present day, based on the premise that during World War II, a temporary settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Sitka, Alaska, in 1941, and that the fledgling State of Israel was destroyed in 1948. The novel is set in Sitka, which it depicts as a large, Yiddish-speaking metropolis.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The first video from inside El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison shows newly deported Tren de Aragua-accused migrants hollering from their cells.
The scene unfolded as US representatives toured the facility with the country's president, Nayib Bukele.
Video shows the caged men shouting and screaming as Reps Andy Ogles, Vicente Gonzalez, Anna Paulina Luna as well as former congressman Matt Gaetz made their way through.
'I saw evil today. I will never forget it,' Luna said of her visit. 'I heard a story of a MS-13 admitting to watching an infant being murdered.
'I watched and listened to another member of MS-13 admit to murdering over 50 people.
'I saw murderers. Recruited as young boys and as boys their souls and humanity was crushed. Forcing them to commit murder as a way of blooding in.
'The Dems in congress advocating for this need to STOP. Some of these MEN were illegally in MD, MA, VA, TX, etc. multiple times deported.'
Other footage showed her sampling a typical meal given to the inmates - burgers and fries.
CECOT houses some of El Salvador's most hardened criminals and has a capacity for 40,000 inmates.
The prison in Tecoluca, which opened in 2023, is a sprawling complex and a symbol of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's harsh crackdown on gang violence.
Buekele struck a $6 million deal with the US to house accused migrants in the prison, which is known as a 'black hole of human rights'.
For the strongman president of El Salvador the deal with the US is an opportunity to show the world the brutal efficacy of his repressive 'State of Exception' regime - an excess of the growing autocratic trend turning its back on liberal democracy.
At least 363 people have died in Salvadoran prisons since the policy came into effect, prisoner rights group Cristosal told MailOnline, citing 'horrific overcrowding, disease, systematic denial of food, clothing medicine, and basic hygiene'.
The jewel in the crown, CECOT has been heralded by Bukele as a superweapon in the war on gang violence.
Confined to cells of 70 for all but 30 minutes a day, prisoners are held in dire conditions, forbidden from going outside or having visitors, and are made to sleep on steel cots without mattresses in cramped conditions.
It has recently become home to hundreds of alleged Tren de Aragua members who had been residing in the US.
They were deported as part of the president's immigration crackdown.
Between February and March, 13,300 migrants were deported, according to NBC's tracker.
The policy has caused some backlash after some of the migrants removed to El Salvador claimed they had been falsely accused.
Testimony emerged about migrants being rounded up on the basis of sporting tattoos similar to those adopted by the prison gang or other flimsy so-called evidence.
The deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who has been in the states since 2011, caused a huge controversy after the Department of Homeland Security admitted he had been deported in error.
Garcia has no criminal convictions in the US or in El Salvador and strongly refutes the allegation that he is part of Tren de Aragua.
An immigration judge had also previously ruled that he could not be sent home due to persecution by the gang.
But Trump officials have refused to back down even as the highest courts in the country ordered his return to the US.
The president raised more eyebrows this week when he unveiled plans to suspending habeas corpus, the constitutional right of a person to challenge their detention in court, as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown.
'The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,' White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters.
'So it's an option we're actively looking at,' Miller said. 'A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.'
Federal judges have so far been skeptical of the Trump administration's past efforts to use extraordinary powers to make deportations easier.
Trump argued in March that the U.S. was facing an 'invasion' of Venezuelan gang members and evoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority he has tried to use to speed up mass deportations.
Federal courts around the country, including in New York, Colorado, Texas and Pennsylvania, have since blocked the administration's uses of the Alien Enemies Act for many reasons, including amid questions about whether the country is truly facing an invasion.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
05/11/2025 05:16 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[179 views]
Top|| File under: Tren de Aragua
#1
Gotta love when a VIP visits your prison. You get a decent meal for once.
#2
These scumbag can rot in CECOT for all I care, but I'm getting a wee bit tired of the photo ops and PR these US politicians are pulling, starting with Kristi Noem.
#3
Every time one of these stories come out, whether about that prison, about an unhappy arrest, about Democrat hysterics, it’s another reminder to our illegals that the zeitgeist has changed, another point on the scale tipping toward self-deportation.
Because we cannot deport fast enough to clear out the millions — it has to be a choice by the illegal immigrants to leave. We saw something similar after 9/11: as the deadline approached to President George W. Bush’s requirement that all adult male Moslem immigrants register to show they were in the country legally, entire families liquidated and left, whether going back home or up north to Canada. And it was more than just those who had overstayed student and tourist visas, but even those here legally — they didn’t want to endure the scrutiny to ensure they were not connected to Al Qaeda and other jihadi groups. That’s the main reason we’ve had so few serious mass jihad attacks, unlike in Europe — most who would have done such things left, and the remainder have been keeping their heads down, despite nasty talk among themselves.
[IsraelTimes] Daniel Noboa says UAE has also said it will help in fight against cocaine traffickers
Here’s hoping he is able to get what his country needs.
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has said he’s sought assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the narco mobs that are terrorizing the South American country.
In an interview in Gay Paree on Thursday night, the iron-fisted 37-year-old who won reelection last month said Israel and the UAE have agreed to provide intelligence "to help" fight cocaine traffickers.
Once-peaceful Ecuador averaged a killing every hour at the start of the year, as cartels battle for control over cocaine routes that pass through the nation’s ports.
During presidential campaigning, Noboa suggested US special forces should be deployed to Ecuador to tackle the violence and floated legal reforms to allow US bases to reopen.
Over the past week, he traveled to Italia, Spain, Britannia and La Belle France — some of the European countries experiencing rocketing cocaine consumption — to develop further security alliances, as well as Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
He said he spoke to Israeli and Emirati leaders about "cooperation on security at ports and borders... since the violence is there, in the areas or on the routes to the ports."
But Noboa admitted that "there is not much interest so far" from foreign powers in establishing military bases in the Andean country.
In March, he announced a security alliance with Erik Prince, founder of the controversial American security company Blackwater, whose employees killed and maimed dozens of civilians in Iraq.
Asked about the pact, Noboa said Prince was merely acting in a "consultancy" capacity.
After a close-run race in the first round of Ecuador’s election Noboa easily defeated left-wing lawyer Luisa Gonzalez in April’s run-off.
While Gonzalez had pitched herself as a political everywoman who would improve the lot of poor Ecuadorans, Noboa — heir to a banana export empire — staked his political fortunes on his war on the cartels.
In March, he announced a preemptive amnesty for security forces fighting gangs in the violence-wracked port of Guayaquil, despite allegations of gross rights abuses by the military particularly.
His tough talk appeared to pay off, with the incumbent taking an 11-point lead over his rival.
Gonzalez rejected the results as fraudulent, without providing proof of her claim.
Noboa said his win was a "vote of confidence" in his policies.
He faces a tough task to unite a country grappling with its dramatic decline in fortunes.
Rampant bloodshed has spooked investors and tourists alike, fueling economic malaise and swelling the ranks of Ecuador’s poor to 28 percent of the population.
"More than anything, we need to attract foreign investment," Noboa said.
But in order to access bond markets, the government needs to lower its country’s risk factor.
Noboa assured that Ecuador’s economic fundamentals were "not bad," citing low inflation and record bank deposits, among other indicators.
#3
Oh, boy. Deploying US troops to new foreign countries.
That will work out great.
It worked so well in Afghanistan.
America first! How many times must this be repeated?
And working with mercenaries like Blackwater isn't a good look either.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/11/2025 20:42 Comments ||
Top||
#6
On Zamzama, baring their nyms,
Sat a score or more, chattering hymns,
And each monk almost passed
For some alien caste,
Though you wouldn't take any for Kims.
[Breitbart] Several thousand people demonstrated in Warsaw on Saturday against illegal immigration and the pro-European government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a week before the EU member chooses a new president.
The protest, organised by the nationalist opposition, drew demonstrators from across Poland, who carried the red and white national flag and chanted slogans such as “no to immigration”.
Immigration is a central issue in the central European country ahead of the May 18 election.
Poland currently hosts around one million refugees from the war in neighbouring Ukraine, and has accused Russia and Belarus of orchestrating a wave of immigration into the European Union member.
The protesters made their way towards the seat of government in central Warsaw, chanting the name of nationalist presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki.
The 42-year-old fan of US President Donald Trump has the backing of the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party and outgoing President Andrzej Duda.
He is polling second in the presidential race, with around 25 percent support.
The frontrunner, Warsaw’s pro-European Union Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, has the support of Tusk’s Civic Coalition and is polling on 32 percent.
“Poland has to defend itself against illegal immigration. These migrants have their own countries. They should stay there,” 66-year-old farmer Boguslaw Uchmanowicz told AFP.
[Rudaw] Germany will deport rejected asylum seekers regardless of how well they have integrated into society, including those with jobs or language skills, a government office told Rudaw on Saturday.
"If, after examining an asylum application, the Federal Office comes to the decision that there are no grounds for protection, [it] issues an order to leave the country," Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) stated in a written response to Rudaw. It added that rejected applicants may be returned to their country "even without their consent."
"Integration achievements play no role in the asylum procedure," BAMF said. "Individual integration achievements as well as professional activities have no influence on the examination."
The decision on the asylum application, it said, is based solely on whether an applicant faces a specific threat if returned to their country of origin. Decision-makers also consider whether internal relocation is possible within the applicant’s home country before granting asylum.
The office clarified that its role is limited to processing asylum applications and making protection decisions. Deportation enforcement falls under the jurisdiction of Germany’s federal states and their respective immigration authorities.
A growing number of Iraqi Kurds and Arabs who were recently deported had held temporary toleration status, known as Duldung, and had been employed or enrolled in integration programs. BAMF explained that Duldung only suspends deportation temporarily and does not establish a legal right to stay.
"People who are deported have no right to stay in Germany—even if they have a toleration status," BAMF noted. "The obligation to leave remains."
Public criticism has mounted over deportations of long-term residents. One such case is Rawsht Ghafor Abdullah, an Iraqi Kurd with a nursing degree who held Duldung status in Bavaria. In a video posted online, Abdullah said he was deported despite completing integration courses, working in Germany, and having no criminal record. BAMF declined to comment on individual cases but said residency decisions fall under the remit of state-level authorities.
Germany hosts one of the world’s largest refugee populations. In 2024, there were nearly 251,000 asylum applications, according to a survey by BAMF.
Immigration was a central issue in Germany’s February parliamentary elections. The Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union bloc - considered center-right - secured 28.5 percent of the vote, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 20.5 percent, and the Social 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... (SPD) with 16.4 percent.
In January, the parliament passed a controversial migration control bill aimed at tightening enforcement. The legislation includes five measures: preventing illegal immigration, deporting those without legal status, deporting foreign criminals, detaining those under removal orders, and limiting family reunification.
Germany is a popular destination for tens of thousands of Iraqis and residents of the Kurdistan Region who attempt to reach Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... each year, often through smuggling routes.
[IsraelTimes] A Tufts University student from Turkey who was swept up in the campaign by US President Donald Trump’s administration to deport pro-Palestinian campus activists, returns to Massachusetts after spending more than six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
Rumeysa Ozturk,
,…the Turkish Fulbright Scholar, whose student visa was revoked for having co-authored an opinion piece for the Tufts University student newspaper a year earlier supporting terror organization Hamas and castigating the university for not divesting from Israel-related companies. I’ve not yet seen anything about the other three co-authors — perhaps that association is what got her in trouble. No doubt her naturalized, activist Iranian-American immigration lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, is also somehow objectionable …
who was arrested after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, tells reporters after arriving at Logan International Airport in Boston that she is excited to get back to her studies and community after a judge ordered her immediately released.
“This has been a very difficult time for me,” she says at a press conference with her lawyers and local members of Congress.
Ozturk thanks her supporters, including professors and students who have sent her letters, and urges the public not to forget about hundreds of other women still housed in the detention center.
“America is the greatest democracy in the world,” she says. “I have faith in the American system of justice.”
The 30-year-old PhD student was arrested on March 25 by masked plainclothes officers on a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts, near her home, after the US Department of State revoked her student visa.
[IsraelTimes] The Canadian B’nai B’rith Jewish non-profit says it has “exposed” a server on a social media platform used by Quebec medical school applicants and students to spread antisemitic and other hateful content.
On the public Discord server, the “aspiring doctors openly posted Holocaust denial, praise for the ‘Final Solution,’ hurled racial slurs, glorified terrorism, and degraded women,” the B’nai B’rith says, releasing screenshots of the French-language posts.
One post reads: “Don’t worry. You can trust me as long as you don’t have a kippa under your wig.”
Another appears to call for an “Islamic State of Quebec,” and that “Quebec is done. We’ll dominate soon.”
“This content wasn’t buried. It was shared in open channels, visible to over 1,400 members. Almost no one spoke up. These aren’t anonymous trolls. They are future doctors. And this kind of hate doesn’t stay online. It follows them into classrooms, clinics, and operating rooms,” the B’nai B’rith organization says.
“Silence enables this rot to spread. Institutions must act — now. Hate like this has no place in healthcare—or anywhere in Canadian society.”
B’nai Brith Canada has exposed a public Discord server used by Quebec medical school applicants and attendees that became a cesspool of antisemitism, racism, misogyny, and hate.
For months, a number ofaspiring doctors openly posted Holocaust denial, praise for the “Final… pic.twitter.com/xRxBJa1GvA
— B'nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) May 8, 2025
… praise for the “Final Solution,” hurled racial slurs, glorified terrorism, and degraded women.
This content wasn’t buried. It was shared in open channels, visible to over 1,400 members. Almost no one spoke up.
These aren’t anonymous trolls. They are future doctors. And this kind of hate doesn’t stay online. It follows them into classrooms, clinics, and operating rooms.
Silence enables this rot to spread. Institutions must act—now.
Hate like this has no place in healthcare—or anywhere in Canadian society.
[JustTheNews] Snippet: "The new GOP report stressed that “the FBI case file makes clear this case was a premeditated assassination attempt on Republican congressmen by a radical, left-wing political extremist, who was seeking to affect the conduct of our government.”
[TimesOfIndia] Sky News has traced social media accounts expressing support for jihadist terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba ...the Army of the Pure, an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...> (LeT) and al-Qaeda to the exact location of the building in Muridke, Pakistain, which was struck by India last week in retaliation for the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
A Sky News forensics and data team geolocated to Markaz Taiba in Muridke multiple videos on TikTok, YouTube and Google which express support for the LeT and "313", referring to the 313 Brigade, al-Qaeda's military wing in Pakistain.
The videos were posted before India blew the complex up last week. The channel confirmed the video locations using satellite imagery in and around the complex.
According to Stanford University's mapping bandidosDeath Eaters project, members of 313 Brigade include Taliban ...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan... and allied jihadist groups, such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... , Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, LeT and Jaish-e-Muhammed . 313 Brigade has been behind many high-profile attacks and bombings inside Pakistain.
Captions, hashtags and usernames posting these videos express support for either or both the LeT and "313". One video shows a man with a gun and the username states: "Lashkar Taiba - Markaz Taiba Muridke - 313 Bhai Group - Mujahid Force PK".
A TikTok video with the text "313" is captioned "bring your arms and ammunition and go to war".
Muskan Sangwan, senior intelligence analyst at TRAC, a terrorism research consortium, said: "These young men posing with rifles are using 313 label as a badge for jihadist identity," which, she said, would help with recruitment.
One video with the hashtag "313 jihad" shows children practising sword-fighting inside the mosque, with the caption "We are little soldiers, and we fight the non-believers". The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) told Sky News: "It has been known for decades that LeT has its headquarters in Muridke."
Pakistain-based Resistance® Front, an LeT proxy, initially grabbed credit for the Pahalgam attack. Khawaja Asif, Pakistain's defence minister, said: "This appears to be a random video with background music added later - consistent with how TikTok trends often function. If this is to be considered credible evidence, we could produce millions of similar clips ourselves." Any suggestion that the mosque was used as a base by bandidosDeath Eaters was a "completely false social media made up hoax," he added.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Vasily Fedorov
And who, pray tell, did not hold it first?
[REGNUM] On the night of May 10, Pakistan announced the start of a large-scale military operation against India.
According to the Pakistani side, the operation was a response to a series of Indian strikes that began on May 7 and were directed against targets in border areas.
HISTORY OF ESCALATION
The conflict dates back to April 22, when a terrorist attack took place in the Pahalgam area of Indian-controlled Kashmir. A group of militants attacked tourists, killing 26 people.
The Resistance Front, a division of the Islamist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Days later, Lashkar-e-Taiba itself denied any involvement, claiming that the statement was posted by Indian state hackers.
On May 7, India launched missile, air and artillery strikes on Pakistani territory. The Indian side claimed that the targets were terrorist infrastructure facilities.
On the morning of May 10, the Pakistani armed forces announced the start of the military operation. The official statement from the Pakistani government said: “This operation is being carried out in response to the initial attack by India, which was an encroachment on our land, people and sovereignty.”
According to the Pakistani side, significant results were achieved during the operation.
The Indian air bases of Udhampur and Pathankot were destroyed, a warehouse of supersonic anti-ship missiles "BrahMos" in Beas was destroyed, and an S-400 air defense system in Adampur, India, was destroyed.
A cyber attack was carried out that knocked out up to 70% of India's power grid. An airfield in the Indian city of Sirsa was destroyed, as well as a supply depot in Uri and one of the command centers of an Indian military formation.
INDIAN LOSSES AND STATEMENTS BY THE PARTIES
At least five people were killed in the Pakistani strikes, Indian sources said. Among the victims was a senior official, Raj Kumar Thapa, and two of his employees were seriously wounded.
Pakistan has attacked 26 areas of India from Jammu and Kashmir in the north to Gujarat in the west.
The attacks were carried out using drones, long-range weapons, loitering munitions and fighter jets.
India responded with missile strikes on three Pakistani air bases - Nur Khan, Murid and Shorkot.
The Indian army also said it had carried out attacks on "terrorist training sites" in Pakistan.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif stressed that the country is not considering the possibility of using nuclear weapons: “If nuclear weapons are used, not only the parties to the conflict will suffer, but also the observers.”
At the same time, the minister added that Pakistan has fewer options in developing the conflict due to “the situation that India has created.”
Pakistani Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar told Geo TV that his country had "consistently avoided escalation."
He also said Pakistan would consider de-escalation if India did not carry out further attacks.
India has accused Pakistan of escalating the conflict and encroaching on its sovereignty. The Indian military has also reported the deployment of Pakistani troops to the border.
FIRST CONTACTS AND EMERGENCY TRUCE
Amid growing tensions, the first signs of possible negotiations began to appear.
Shortly after the escalation began, senior Indian and Pakistani military officials held their first telephone conversation since the outbreak of tensions.
During the conversation, the Pakistani side expressed a desire to hold a meeting with their Indian colleagues.
The G7 countries have called on India and Pakistan to reduce tensions and engage in direct dialogue.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held talks with Pakistani General Asim Munir, urging both countries to find ways to compromise.
On May 10, after a “long night of negotiations,” US President Donald Trump announced that a ceasefire had been agreed upon.
"After a long night of negotiations brokered by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a complete and immediate ceasefire," he wrote on social media.
The ceasefire came into effect at 17:00 local time (14:30 Moscow time). Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Indian Foreign Minister Vikram Misri officially confirmed the agreement.
Rubio said Vice President J.D. Vance was acting as a mediator, adding that India and Pakistan "agreed to begin broad-based negotiations in a neutral venue."
VIOLATION OF THE CEASEFIRE AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CONFLICT
Despite an official ceasefire announcement, explosions were soon heard in the Indian city of Jammu and shells were seen in the sky.
An Indian government source accused Pakistan of violating the ceasefire. Loud explosions were heard in several cities in Indian Kashmir and power outages were imposed.
The Indian Chief Minister in Jammu and Kashmir expressed bewilderment: "What the hell just happened to the ceasefire? Explosions heard all over Srinagar!!!" The Deputy Foreign Minister also said the ceasefire had been violated.
During the four days of fighting, both sides suffered significant losses. In addition to the loss of life and material damage, the conflict led to a serious deterioration in diplomatic relations between the countries.
Embassy staffs were cut, visas were cancelled, and borders were closed.
Key agreements that have governed relations between the countries for decades have been suspended, including the 1960 Indus River water sharing treaty and the 1972 Simla Agreement, which defined the status quo in the disputed Kashmir region.
Both countries closed their airspace, causing significant disruption to air travel across the Eurasian continent.
Operations at 32 Indian airports have been suspended until May 15.
READY FOR DIALOGUE?
After the ceasefire was announced, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said: " We are ready to engage in constructive diplomacy and comprehensive dialogue with India and strive to resolve all issues."
India, while confirming the ceasefire, warned that "any terrorist attack by militants" from Pakistani territory would be a trigger for war.
At the same time, the country announced that it would maintain the measures taken against Pakistan, including the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.
Trump praised the leaders of both countries for demonstrating “common sense and common sense” in declaring a ceasefire. Pakistani airspace has been reopened to all types of flights.
In the protracted Indo-Pakistani conflict that has been going on since 1947, the events of May 2025 marked the most significant escalation since at least 1999 (the Kargil War) and the second major military clash since both sides declared their nuclear status.
Posted by: badanov ||
05/11/2025 00:00 ||
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Why go to Pakistan for training? How long has this been going on?
[Rudaw] Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... i has ordered the return of 500 soldiers who are receiving training in Pakistain because of tensions with India, the Iraqi defense ministry announced on Saturday.
Sudani "has ordered the return of a training regiment consisting of 500 officers and [other various] ranks belonging to the Second Regiment of the 66th Brigade in the Second Special Forces Division, currently in Pakistain under a prior training agreement, back to Iraq, due to the current situation in Pakistain," the ministry said in a statement.
It added that the move "comes out of concern for the safety of our heroic armed forces personnel."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/11/2025 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee says Israelis should not feel snubbed by US President Donald Trump’s decision to skip Israel in his upcoming visit to the Middle East, which will include stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
“His first trip is about economic opportunity. That’s where his focus is,” Huckabee says in an interview with Hebrew news network Channel 12.
“What he’s doing is not because he’s snubbing Israel. There are 200 nations in the world, almost, so there are a lot of them he hasn’t gone to yet, a lot of them he isn’t going to right away — he’s spent more time with the prime minister of Israel than he has with any other world leader. I think that says a lot.”
“I would just say to people, ‘relax, calm down, Donald Trump loves you, there’s no doubt about that, he’s got your back,'” says the ambassador. “He is the same Donald Trump that, for four years as president, did more for Israel than any other American president.”
The man clearly reads the Israeli news sites.
Turning to the ongoing nuclear talks between the US and Iran, Huckabee is asked whether Washington would allow Israel to carry out independent military action against Iran if a deal is signed, should it still deem it to be a threat.
He answers that the US believes “Israel has the right to do what it has to do,” and that Trump knows “nobody can tell Israel what to do. He says, however, that the White House would definitely have “recommendations” in this regard.
Huckabee also defends Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s relationship with Trump, after recent reports suggested that their relationship may have soured.
He says that the interviewer’s suggestion that Trump has thrown Netanyahu “under the bus” is a “very unfair characteristic.”
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has spent more time with President Trump than I have in the past couple of months, and it’s a warm and personal, cordial relationship,” says Huckabee.
More Huckabee:
[X]
Hmm. @Jerusalem_Post needs better sources than this unidentified “source.” My 4 yr old grandson Teddy is more reliable. And take it from Teddy. This report is nonsense. @Israel doesn’t have a better friend than @POTUS ! https://t.co/N3YYgdXYCW
— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) May 10, 2025
#1
Evidently Netanyahu has been lecturing Trump on what he "must" do with Iran.
World leaders should have learned after Zelensky threw his temper tantrum in the Oval Office that you treat our President with respect
and gratitude.
Definitely do not tell us what we "must" do.
You're lucky you have us as a friend, not the other way around.
This skipped visit was sending a message, and it "must" be received loud and clear.
Oh,Netanyahu doesn't like being told what he must do? Imagine that. America first!
#2
Skipping Israel was a smart move for Air Force-1 given the 100's of Surface to Air missiles that seem to have been provided by Putin, Xi, and Biden leaving stockpiles in the Sand Lands.
[IsraelTimes] The families of hostages Elkana Bohbot and Yosef-Haim Ohana grant media outlets permission to air a video of the two men that was published by Hamas earlier this evening.
In the video, Ohana sits on the ground next to Bohbot, who lies under a blanket and appears as though he is asleep.
“I am prisoner number 21. This is prisoner number 22,” says Ohana, gesturing to Bohbot, whom he says he will talk about.
The video is almost certainly dictated by their captors.
Absolutely, not almost. Let us remember that the legal and moral responsibility for the health and welfare of the hostages is on the shoulders of Hamas and the immediate captors. Israel has given them endless opportunities to release the kidnapped, but they have refused.
“His medical and psychological conditions are very difficult,” says Ohana of his companion. “Ever since we heard that the war had been going on for months, we realized how dangerous it was to our lives.
“Since then, he has not stopped trying to harm himself,” he says. “Since then, we have lost our world and our hope. A few days ago, he tried to hurt himself, and I, along with a Qassam fighter, jumped on him to try and stop him, and as a result, he tried to hurt us too.”
“How did things get to this point?” asks Ohana. “Our lives are in imminent danger, every minute here is critical!”
“We can’t even sleep. Prisoner 22 is refusing to eat or drink. He cannot do anything except daydream and think about his son Reim and his wife Rivka. He cannot do anything. He cannot function.”
“What are you waiting for? What will happen if I can’t stay with him and I leave him alone? I can’t even imagine that,” says Ohana.
He says that he has also decided to stop eating, “because my friend’s fate is my fate, and our fate is in your hands.”
He then turns his attention to the Israeli Air Force, asking the pilots how they can continue to carry out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip when they know it could endanger the hostages and Palestinian civilians.
“What do you tell your families? What do you tell our families?” he demands.
“How is this war still going? How has this war not ended?” Ohana says. “What needs to happen that hasn’t happened yet? What needs to be done that hasn’t been done?”
An entire country wants this nightmare to end — from now on, every drop of blood spilled, every additional deterioration that you see with your own eyes — is on your hands. It is only in the hands of the decision makers.”
Enough! The time has come to stop! Time is running out,” he ends his plea.
The video concludes with an animation of a clock with spinning hands, and the words “Only a ceasefire agreement brings them back alive” superimposed on top in Arabic, Hebrew, and English.
[IsraelTimes] Despite saying it would act on Trump’s plan to depopulate the Strip, Israel has allowed just 550 people out since March, after months-long efforts by humanitarian groups and foreign governments
At a February presser alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... outlined a proposal to relocate 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... ’s roughly 2 million residents to third-party countries.
In response, Israel’s Defense Ministry announced the creation of a new governmental body — a "Voluntary Emigration Directorate" — tasked with facilitating the exit of hundreds of thousands of Gazooks. A retired IDF colonel, Yaakov Blitshtein, was appointed to head the directorate in late March.
"Emigration from Gaza will begin within weeks," Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a February 15 interview with Channel 12.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel stated on April 7 at a conference organized by Yedioth Ahronoth: "More than 16 flights have departed from Ramon Airport carrying Gazooks who requested to leave the Strip — and this is only going to increase."
In recent months, Israeli media have widely reported on flights evacuating Gazooks from the Strip, presenting this as part of Trump’s plan. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... Israel has not officially disclosed how many Gazooks have left at any time during the war.
When The Times of Israel contacted the Population and Immigration Authority — a body facilitating Gazook departures — officials referred the inquiry to the Defense Ministry, which declined to respond.
The Times of Israel likewise found no meaningful change in Israel’s exit policy for Gaza residents in recent months.
Despite reports of increased movement through the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to a source familiar with the issue who talked to The Times of Israel, and public announcements by foreign countries and humanitarian organizations, only about 600 people have left the Gaza Strip in the past two months, since the collapse of the most recent ceasefire.
This is a relatively small number compared to the exodus earlier in the conflict.
For comparison, according to Egyptian media reports, around 103,000 people exited Gaza through the Rafah crossing between November 2023 and May 2024. Additionally, during the second ceasefire between February 1 and March 17 of this year, 4,259 Gazooks — including patients, maimed individuals, and their family members — were evacuated from the Strip for medical treatment abroad.
LEAVING GAZA REQUIRES INTERNATIONAL INTERVENTION
Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), the body under the Defense Ministry responsible for coordinating the movement of Gaza residents, has maintained that the only criteria for exiting Gaza — both before and throughout the war — are severe illness or injury, or foreign citizenship. In all cases, residents cannot apply directly to COGAT; an international organization must submit the request on their behalf.
It is notable that many countries accepting patients from Gaza during the war, including the UAE and various European states, have clarified that these are temporary stays for medical treatment and that the individuals are expected to return afterward.
Since the war began, the World Health Organization has been responsible for coordinating the evacuation of patients and their companions from the Gaza Strip. From November 2023 to May 2024, evacuations occurred via the Rafah crossing into Egypt. Following the Israeli ground operation in Rafah on May 6, 2024, the crossing was closed.
In June 2024, Israel began allowing patients to exit Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel and then into Jordan by vehicle via the Allenby Bridge. From Jordan, they were flown abroad.
Israel does not allow Paleostinians to fly through Ben-Gurion Airport, the country’s central international hub, except in rare cases such as high-ranking Paleostinian Authority officials who receive special permission. Since last February, some Gazook patients have been allowed to fly directly from Israel via Ramon Airport in the Negev in the south of Israel. (Until then, Ramon Airport in southern Israel was not used for international flights.)
The WHO publishes an online chart that is updated every few weeks to show the number of individuals evacuated from Gaza. According to the data, from the collapse of the ceasefire on March 18 until May 6, a total of 310 people — patients and companions — were evacuated.
FOREIGN NATIONALS STILL WAITING TO EXIT
To exit Gaza as a foreign citizen — including dual citizens — during the war, the individual’s country must submit a formal request to COGAT and provide proof of citizenship and presence in Gaza. Gazook residents cannot request exit permits from Israel directly.
When the Rafah crossing was open from November 2023 to May 2024, foreign nationals used it to reach Egypt. Most were asked to pay between $2,000 and $5,000 per person to Egyptian companies managing the crossing.
Notably, even Gazooks without foreign citizenship were able to leave by paying the same amount, including senior Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... figures such as the Hamas-run health ministry spokesperson, Ashraf al-Qudra, who reportedly exited the Strip this way during the war.
Following Israel’s operation in Rafah and the subsequent closure of the crossing in May 2024, foreign nationals could no longer leave Gaza through that route.
In August, COGAT responsed to a query from Gisha, an Israeli organization that helps protect the freedom of movement of Paleostinians — especially Gaza residents — by stating that Israel would be willing to allow the departure of Gazooks with foreign citizenship through Israeli territory, provided that their countries submitted an official request and furnished documentation confirming their planned travel via Egypt or Jordan, including letters of non-objection from those countries.
According to a source familiar with the issue who spoke with The Times of Israel, 10 Gazooks with foreign citizenship left the strip between August 2024 and February 2025 by crossing through Israel into Jordan.
During the most recent ceasefire, Israel did not permit foreign nationals to exit through the Rafah crossing, allowing only maimed and sick individuals to leave.
According to Gisha, representatives of foreign governments were informed that only Gazooks physically present in the Strip with foreign citizenship would be eligible for exit, not those with relatives abroad holding foreign passports. COGAT confirmed to The Times of Israel that eligibility was strictly limited to holders of foreign citizenship, not those with visas or other legal residency forms.
FOREIGN CITIZEN TRAPPED IN GAZA FOR 15 MONTHS
One of the individuals who managed to leave Gaza in February is Ahmad (a pseudonym), a 33-year-old Gaza resident and European citizen. His wife and two daughters live in Europe, where he has resided for the past decade. He requested that his full name and identifying details not be published.
In September 2023, Ahmad traveled to Gaza for a family visit. Once the war broke out, he attempted to leave and return home. His first attempt via Rafah was denied by Israel on the grounds of "security concerns." Later, with legal assistance from Gisha, he petitioned Israel’s High Court of Justice to leave. Israel responded after long months that it had no objection to his departure, and a week after the petition was withdrawn, his exit via Kerem Shalom crossing was coordinated.
Ahmad left Gaza after 15 months of trying, despite holding foreign citizenship and having immediate family abroad.
In a WhatsApp conversation with The Times of Israel, Ahmad described the experience as deeply frustrating: "Throughout the process, the official bodies responsible for handling this had failed. The citizen is the last priority."
GAZANS LEAVE FOLLOWING REQUESTS BY FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS
Despite official Israeli statements asserting that only foreign nationals or individuals in need of urgent medical care are allowed to exit Gaza, approximately 290 Gaza residents have left the Strip since the March collapse of the ceasefire. According to foreign media reports, official statements, and a source familiar with the issue who spoke with The Times of Israel, they left through foreign government intervention and not for medical reasons, and some of them did not have foreign citizenship.
Although COGAT told The Times of Israel that the only valid exit criteria are illness, injury, or foreign citizenship, several Gazooks have traveled to Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... over the past two months without meeting these conditions. For example, 13 students left for Ireland on student visas, and several individuals traveled to La Belle France, including Gazooks who had worked for French institutions in Gaza, their relatives, academics granted scholarships, and students with study visas.
When The Times of Israel asked which documents were required for these exits to be approved, the embassies of Ireland and La Belle France in Israel declined to respond. However,
death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate... the French embassy confirmed that it had worked for several months to secure the departure of those Gaza residents.
Among them were the 13 students accepted to academic institutions in Ireland, along with family members of Irish citizens. The Irish embassy in Israel declined to specify the total number of evacuees. One Irish newspaper reported that among them was a 74-year-old woman, the mother of an Irish citizen, who had waited 18 months to leave Gaza.
In addition, 21 people were flown to Sweden, 175 to La Belle France, 24 Belgian citizens and their relatives to Belgium, and 50 German nationals and their families to Germany. A source familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Times of Israel on condition of anonymity, said that additional Gazooks had left for Canada — likely relatives of Canadian citizens — as well as for the UK. The Canadian and British embassies in Israel did not respond to inquiries regarding the exact number of people evacuated.
Except for one instance — a March 31 flight that took 33 German nationals and their relatives directly to Germany — all others were transferred from the Kerem Shalom crossing through Israel to Jordan by vehicle and then flown onward to Europe.
Many of these individuals had reportedly been trying to leave Gaza for months, some since the start of the war. Following the March 31 evacuation to Germany, German officials acknowledged: "We would have preferred to do this sooner — it took us time."
In total, at least 284 people are confirmed to have left Gaza for foreign destinations. The exact number is unknown, but given the significant restrictions imposed by foreign governments and Israel, it is unlikely to be much higher.
The International Committee of the Red Thingy helped coordinate the exit of these residents and foreign nationals through the Kerem Shalom crossing. It declined to tell The Times of Israel how many people it assisted over the past two months.
ISRAELI STATEMENTS CONTRADICT REALITY
The Israeli organization Gisha reported that it had recently received inquiries from 150 Gaza residents who had been accepted to study abroad but were still unable to leave the Strip. COGAT has stated that acceptance to academic programs overseas does not meet the criteria for exit.
Shai Greenberg, spokesperson for Gisha, told The Times of Israel: "Since the beginning of the war, thousands of people have been trapped in the Gaza Strip — including foreign nationals, patients in need of life-saving medical treatment unavailable in Gaza, students accepted into graduate programs abroad, and individuals eligible for family reunification in various countries.
"This is part of a systematic violation of fundamental rights — including freedom of movement and the right to family life for both those trapped and their relatives in Gaza and abroad — as well as the rights to health, bodily integrity, education, and livelihood," Greenberg stated.
Ahmad, who left Gaza in February after 15 months of effort, told The Times of Israel he knows many foreign nationals who remain stuck in the Strip.
"I know a lot of people with foreign citizenship or permanent residency abroad who are still trapped in Gaza — some of them are close friends. Only one of them managed to leave, about 20 days ago," he said.
In early April, several dozen Gazooks with Egyptian citizenship held a protest inside Gaza, demanding that the Rafah crossing be reopened so they could travel to Egypt.
The World Health Organization estimated in early March that between 11,000 and 13,000 people in Gaza still required urgent evacuation for medical treatment — a figure released before the current round of hostilities resumed nearly two months ago.
On March 3, during a Knesset session, Smotrich, who also holds a ministerial role in the Defense Ministry, announced the establishment of an Emigration Directorate.
"This initiative is being prepared under the leadership of the prime minister and the defense minister. The budget will not be an obstacle — if we remove 5,000 people a day, it will take a year," he said.
The data, however, appears to be in stark contrast to official Israeli rhetoric promising and encouraging the emigration of Gaza residents. Even under Israel’s strict criteria — limited to foreign nationals and those requiring urgent care — only a small number of Gazooks have successfully exited the Strip.
[IsraelTimes] Former captive recalls currying terrorists’ favor by taking care of cooking, maintenance in tunnel where he was held alone for some 400 days after his friends Maya and Itay Regev were freed
Omer Shem Tov, who was released from Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... captivity in March as part of 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... ceasefire-hostage deal, has said his captors cursed, starved and spat on him, and once threatened to shoot him if he would not agree to help collapse a booby-trapped building on IDF troops.
"If you don’t do it we’ll shoot you in the head," Shem Tov recalled his captors saying. "I told them: Then shoot me in the head. I have no intention of doing it."
Shem Tov said he managed to stay on his captors’ good side by amusing them and performing menial tasks. One night in captivity, however, when the IDF was operating nearby, he decided to carry out a plan to kill his captors and escape. "There was no other way," he said.
When all his captors were asleep, Shem Tov said, he quietly took hold of one of their weapons. But then he let go of the weapon and went back to his cell. He told Channel 12 in an interview broadcast this week that he believed the reason he got cold feet was fear the gun would jam.
Shem Tov was snatched from the Reim-area Nova music festival on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led snuffies stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza. He was kidnapped along with his friends, siblings Maya and Itay Regev, who were released in the November 2023 weeklong truce-hostage deal.
Murdered hostage Ori Danino, whom the three had met the night before, managed to flee but came back with a car to save them.
"I opened the door and shoved Maya and Itay inside," said Shem Tov. "Ori kept on saying, ’keep your head down, keep your head down’... He really looked out for us."
They drove away but soon ran into snuffies who were blocking the road with two pickup trucks. The snuffies opened fire, according to Shem Tov. He recalled one coming up to him, grabbing him by the shirt and tossing him to the ground before beginning to beat him. He could also see snuffies remove Itay and Maya from the car, both with bullet wounds in their legs. Maya’s leg was "just dangling in the air," said Shem Tov.
He and the two siblings were loaded onto a pickup truck and driven to a small storage unit in Gaza, Shem Tov said, recalling the shouts of "Allahu Akbar" he could hear from outside. In the storage unit, Shem Tov was ordered to climb down into a hole in the ground. Once underground, he was met by an armed terrorist and was made to lie on the floor.
Shem Tov said his first instinct was to make nice with the terrorist. "I ask him, ’What’s your name?’ And he tells me his name, and then I tell him my name," recalled Shem Tov, adding that the terrorist had not asked.
"I say to him, ’I’m Omer,’ and then he says to me, ’Do you know Eden Ben-Zaken?'" Shem Tov said, referring to the Israeli pop singer.
"I told him I do, and he says: ’Sing me a song.’ So I sing Queen of Roses," Shem Tov chuckled, referring to Ben Zaken’s 2015 hit. "Just the chorus... he even continued after me."
From there, Shem Tov was taken to his first cell. He said the first thing he thought of there was Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier whom Hamas kidnapped in 2006 and released five years later in exchange for over 1,000 Paleostinian terrorists, many of serving life terms for murder — including Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who criminal masterminded the October 7 onslaught. Shem Tov said he thought at this point that he, too, would remain in Gaza for five years.
Forty minutes later, snuffies brought in a heavily bloodied Itay Regev, said Shem Tov, adding: "I said, thank God, I have Itay now." After a few minutes, Shem Tov said, the snuffies also brought in Itay’s sister Maya, but removed her two minutes later to an adjacent room.
’WE’LL BE BACK IN A WEEK’
Shem Tov recalled asking the captor who stayed in his room how many Paleostinian prisoners he would be worth in an exchange. The captor said fifty. The answer gave Shem Tov hope, he said.
"I look at Itay and I say to him, ’Oh that’s great, it’s all good,'" said Shem Tov. "’Gilad Shalit was like a thousand, we’ll be back in a week, it’s all good.'"
One night, Shem Tov recalled, he and Itay were awaken by the whistle of a bomb. Moments later there was a massive boom, and the window of their cell shattered, Shem Tov said. He and Itay clutched onto each other’s hand, Shem Tov. "I think we even fell asleep like that," he added.
Three days after the air raid, Shem Tov and Itay were moved to a new apartment. But their new quarters were also rattled by air raids, Shem Tov said, recalling one night when he was sure the building would collapse and kill him. When the building stopped shaking, a terrorist covered in dust came in informed them that ten buildings were felled in the raid, Shem Tov said.
The captor in that apartment had a television in the next room, which played Al Jazeera. Shem Tov said one night, the door of his room was left slightly ajar and he was able to watch a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the Gaza war.
The premier’s message, Shem Tov said, was that "the main goal is to destroy Hamas."
"He didn’t say, ’we’ll bring them back home.’ He didn’t say, ’there’s a deal.’ He didn’t say anything like that," said Shem Tov. "When it was over, I went back to Itay, and he said, ’What, what did he say?’ he recounted. "And I told him, ’Everything’s fine, he said they’ll bring us back home.'"
"And then I started thinking about... my parents, my family," said Shem Tov. "The suffering they are going through now."
Shem Tov would remain alone in captivity after the November 2023 ceasefire, which saw Hamas release 105 women and kiddies in exchange for 240 Paleostinians detained in Israel. Itay Regev, who was 18 at the time, was released days after his sister, leaving Shem Tov alone.
"Suddenly, there was silence in the apartment," said Shem Tov. "And then began... the fears, the feeling of loneliness. I felt that I was going insane."
’COULD SEE THE BONES OF MY SHOULDERS AND RIBS’
When the fighting resumed after the first hostage deal, Shem Tov was moved a third time. "We walk underground for something like 50 minutes, and we reach a kind of cell, with bars. They open the cell, put me inside and close it," said Shem Tov. "I immediately had an asthma attack. The moment I got there I wasn’t able to breathe."
One of his captors there was a doctor, Shem Tov said. "I was able to explain to him that I have asthma and won’t be able to be here without an inhaler, and they got me an inhaler."
Shem Tov was held in this tunnel in pitch-black darkness, with a light that could hold for barely a couple hours, "and even that gradually decreased," he said, adding that he would disconnect the lamp to conserve energy so he could eat with light.
Shem Tov’s diet in captivity dwindled from two pitas a day to a biscuit and a small amount of salty water, he said. "I was extremely thin, extremely, I could already see the bones of my shoulders and ribs," he said. Ahead of his release, he said, his captors fattened him up with chocolate, chicken and rice.
He said he passed the time by trying to sleep as much as possible so that he could dream of his family and friends. In his waking hours, he would talk with God.
"Everyone asks him for stuff but nobody asks how he’s doing," said Shem Tov. "So I would always start with, ’Are you okay?’... and then first thing, I would express thanks... for being alive, for breathing, for the food I have." Then, he said, he would make requests: "Put me on the right path, help me get home safely... keep my family safe."
Shem Tov was later taken to a larger cell — "from my perspective, the paradise of the tunnels" — where he would be held for some 400 days until his release. For the first time, he was able to shower.
After so much time without bathing, "You can really peel the filth off of you, from the chest and neck... black as coal," Shem Tov said.
He was allowed to eat with his captors, and recalled his captors taunting him for the way he scarfed down his first meal. "They look at me as I’m eating, and I hear them saying, ’pig, pig, Jew pig,'" said Shem Tov. "And I’m eating, I don’t care."
"One day we’re eating and I say to them, I’ll clear" the dishes, said Shem Tov. From that, he said, there developed "kind of an unspoken agreement that... I do things and you just be nice to me. And I ended spending most of my time in the kitchen there."
He said he soon took over cooking and some basic maintenance tasks in the tunnel — so much so that ahead of his release his captors asked him for tips about the place’s upkeep. He also made his captors laugh: When one asked what he wanted to work as, Shem Tov said he wants to be an actor. The terrorist then asked Shem Tov to imitate him. The imitation delighted the captor.
"The fact that I connected with him saved me," said Shem Tov.
Shem Tov was among the last hostages to be released in the the latest hostage release and ceasefire deal. The agreement’s first phase saw Hamas release 33 women, children, civilian men over 50 and those deemed "humanitarian cases." The first phase expired on March 2, a day after Shem Tov was released, amid Israel’s refusal to negotiate the second part, which would have required the IDF to fully withdraw from Gaza.
Hamas sparked outrage in Israel by holding propaganda ceremonies when handing over the hostages to the Red Thingy. At his ceremony, Shem Tov was forced to kiss the head of the snuffies next to him.
"The cameraman came up to me and told me to kiss him on the head," said Shem Tov. "You can see in the video that I’m hesitant... I said, okay, I’ll kiss him on the head and go home."
He said he did not know why he was on the list of hostages to be released. "There shouldn’t be a list. It should be everyone," said Shem Tov. He added that he did not think military force would get the hostages out.
Asked why there were still captives in Gaza, he said: "I think it’s a political issue."
Terror groups in Gaza are still holding 59 hostages, including the remains of a soldier killed fighting in the 2014 Gaza war. At least 35 captives have been confirmed dead.
[IsraelTimes] After Oct. 7 failures led to the killing of 48 civilian first responders, a grassroots org launches Magen 48 to professionally train security volunteers from 66 Gaza border communities
It looked like something from the hit Israeli television show "Fauda."
In the blinding sun, a line of men wearing army fatigues, bulletproof vests, and ear protection were firing at targets in quick succession, two at a time.
"Most Israeli men are hard of hearing thanks to this kind of noise," said instructors Georgi and Rada, handing this news hound a set of earplugs.
They stood with stopwatches next to each man due to shoot. "Five seconds to shoot five bullets," they barked.
The range they were practicing on is located in the Israel Defense Forces’ 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... Division headquarters near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel, but the 14 trainees were not professional sharpshooters. Rather, they were members of a civilian kibbutz security team on the first day of a new intensive tactical training course.
The course is aimed at ensuring that Gaza border communities can defend themselves against a repeat of the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... -led massacre in southern Israel. Some 1,200 people were slaughtered during the full-scale invasion, and 251 were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip.
Kibbutz Gvulot, just over 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) from the Gaza Strip, was not invaded on October 7. Lacking rifles, security team members who had pistols went to help fight forces of Evil in Kibbutz Holit, about a 15-minute drive away.
It is nevertheless one of 66 localities within the Gaza border area — including the city of Sderot — whose security teams are undergoing one day of training per month over the course of a year, for a total of 12 days. Eight of those sessions will count toward the participants’ military reserve duty and are being funded by the IDF, while the remaining four days are paid for by a private NGO, Magen Yehuda, and its program, Magen 48.
First-response security teams on Israel’s borders are the responsibility of the army, with each community required to have at least 24 members who are trained and armed by the IDF. These members, however, are volunteers, often fathers in their 30s and 40s who have completed compulsory military service and are willing to be on call to defend their villages and towns. One of them is appointed commander and may also serve as the civilian security coordinator, whose salary is paid by the army and the local authority.
The group from Kibbutz Gvulot, which hopes to double in size, represented the spectrum of Israeli society. Members included a farmer and a history teacher, and served in a range of combat units such as the Golani and Paratrooper infantry brigades as well as the elite Navy Seals. Many had chalked up hundreds of days of reserve duty in Gaza during the ongoing war against Hamas there.
LOCKED OUT, UNDER-EQUIPPED, AND POORLY COORDINATED
Until the October 7 massacre, the IDF provided men like these with two yearly sessions of limited training, usually at a shooting range.
When Hamas invaded and the army was initially overwhelmed, defense fell largely on the shoulders of these first response teams, 46 of whose members were murdered in the line of duty.
Along the Gaza border, none of the teams had been trained in pistol use. Some lacked assault rifles or were unable to access locked armories. According to a series of IDF post-October 7 probes, training of these teams was not standardized and coordination between them, the army, and other organizations was often poor.
In August 2022, following a series of break-ins and gun thefts, the army instructed all Gaza border security teams to return their assault rifles. It conditioned their return on the installation of safe storage places, either at home or in local armories. The decision left many unable to defend themselves against the massive waves of well-armed invading terrorists.
Because these were not installed in Sderot by October 7, for example, the security team there was not prepared to help defend the city. In all, 53 people were killed in Sderot that day, including 37 civilians, 11 coppers, two firefighters, and three IDF soldiers.
In Be’eri, the two security members with keys to the armory were killed before they could open it, and in Nahal Oz, the armory remained locked when power went out and the only man with a key for manual use was killed.
THE SECRET OF KIBBUTZ EREZ
Immediately after October 7, Ra’anana-based Australian immigrant Ari Briggs teamed up with his long-time friend Elan Isaacson to understand what had happened so that he could brief Jewish communities overseas.
Briggs is a business consultant and former director of the international department at the right-wing Regavim organization. Isaacson, who moved with his family from South Africa to Israel as a child, spent decades growing flowers on an agricultural cooperative near the Gaza border. After the last major flare-up with Hamas in 2014, Isaacson traded chrysanthemum cultivation for the job of security chief at the Eshkol Regional Council.
Traveling between farming communities with Isaacson, Briggs discovered that the security team at Kibbutz Erez had fared better than elsewhere, managing to prevent the forces of Evil from entering the community and avoiding civilian casualties.
One member of the security team, Amir Naim, was killed during the fighting. The team gathered at the highest point in the kibbutz, from which they could see two pickup trucks full of forces of Evil heading their way, Ben Sadan, another member of the squad, told Ynet. They opened fire on them and a ferocious shootout ensued, with "grenades, RPGs, insane gunfire," he said. Naim was critically maimed and died in battle.
During his visit to Kibbutz Erez, Briggs asked the team how they survived, and they said, "’Ehud Dribben’s training.’ So I chased Ehud down," he said.
Dribben, a counterterrorism instructor who has worked with the IDF and police forces and militaries around the world, established the NGO Magen Yehuda (Shield of Judah) in 2004 as a vehicle through which to voluntarily train 64 first-response teams, many of them in the West Bank.
He trained the Kibbutz Erez team before October 7, having been contacted by a mutual friend of one of the team members.
"We had had one to two days of practice each year, mainly at shooting ranges," recalled Danny Epstein, a member of Kibbutz Erez’s security team who helped fight Hamas forces of Evil on the kibbutz fence for three hours on October 7, sustaining a gunshot to his throat.
"We felt the difference as soon as Ehud came in. He told us what the aim was, his security perspective, and what he expected from us as a security team, from working as individuals to members of small cells to a group."
Dribben had them operating under scenarios of live fire, explosions, smoke, and more, and in simulations with maimed people and hostages.
"We carried out exercises that were relatively complex within the kibbutz," Epstein said. "It created a better bond between us. We know how to work better together now."
NO STANDARDIZED TRAINING
Briggs and Dribben conceived of Magen 48 this past August. The name was based on the understanding that 48 security team members had fallen on October 7. Confusingly, the IDF’s Gaza Division, with which Dribben worked on the details of the program, decided to call its project to improve civilian-military relations Magen 46, as two of the fallen were not from the Gaza border area.
An IDF spokeswoman said the army had taken inspiration from the NGO’s name, adding, "These are two separate programs with the same name, with the same aim, and wherever we can, we will help."
Both the IDF and Magen 48 denied that the army has effectively outsourced part of its training to the private sector.
"It’s a trial that the Gaza Division Commander has approved to upgrade the civilian first response teams," said Isaacson. "The army is taking responsibility, and we are supplementing it."
Key to the project are tailored defense plans, 23 of which have been produced so far. These are made after a reserve lieutenant colonel has toured the community with the local security liaison to understand the layout, where attacks are likely to come from, and how it should be defended. Exercises based on the defense plans are conducted twice in conjunction with the IDF. According to Briggs, seeing that the IDF is involved in such a professional initiative is key to rebuilding confidence in the military that was shattered on October 7.
"People said it’s [a job] for the bigger organizations, the government to deal with," Briggs quipped. "But I’m the crazy Australian, and I know that the government comes in once a program is successful."
The standards for the training are the same in all communities, Dribben said, although the trainings are shaped to suit the location that’s being defended.
The course includes tactical skills, communication, various forms of target training, drone reconnaissance, emergency medical strategies, and team leadership training focused on real-time decision-making. Security teams, to which women had also signed up, required the same level of rifle competency as homefront combat soldiers and combat support personnel.
"Every exercise, in every scenario, is timed, measured, and given marks," Dribben said. "The whole system must be rebuilt in a long-term and professional way."
Briggs has been visiting US Jewish communities, urging them to twin with the security teams of different Gaza border settlements to finance four of the 12 training sessions.
It costs $26,000 for one year, 20% less for the second year, and half that sum for the third, as the teams become more experienced. So far, he has raised support for 18 communities.
Isaacson, a keen supporter of the new training scheme, said, "You can have the best schools, the best of everything, but if you don’t have the basics — security — it will be hard to bring the communities back and keep them there."
"It’s 100% the army’s job to defend us," he went on. "But that’s not enough after October 7. Wherever you live in Israel, you need to take responsibility for your family and community."
Briggs added, "You don’t have to be Rambo to defend your community."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe in the full sense of the word, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on May 10.
Tell Hamas to open their overstuffed warehouses full of stolen humanitarian supplies. That’ll take care of the problem.
At a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Kremlin, the head of the Russian state stated that Moscow is concerned about the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone, is monitoring its development and is providing assistance to the Palestinian people.
"We are following with concern and empathy the tragic events in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone, which have claimed the lives of more than 51,000 people.
So the Hamas official claims. No way of knowing if it’s true, but repeated analysis shows they definitely lie about how many of that number are fighters versus civilians.
Tensions are also growing on the West Bank. The Gaza Strip is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe in the full sense of the word," Putin said.
The President also noted that the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone continues to deteriorate, and a sustainable settlement of the conflict is only possible on the basis of the two-state principle. Putin suggested that Abbas discuss possible additional steps by Russia that would contribute to de-escalation of the conflict.
Abbas, in turn, thanked Putin for his political support for Palestine and the supply of humanitarian aid. He stressed that he is categorically against US President Donald Trump's idea of resettling Palestinians from Gaza as a "way" to resolve the conflict.
They’re in no way related to the Arab population in the West Bank, so he doesn’t care that they have minimal food, no power, clean water, or sanitation, and no roofs over their heads. Though to be fair, only the food and roofs are new — the problems with power, water, and sanitation go back for years.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, Putin previously noted that peace in the Middle East cannot be restored as long as historical injustice against Palestine persists.
The President pointed out that the key condition for peace in the region is the implementation of the two-state formula (Israeli and Palestinian), previously approved by the UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions.
But rejected by Israel so long as the PLO or Hamas are the counterparties, so the UN’s opinion simply does not matter. Come back in a generation or two, and we’ll see if their attitude has improved.
The President also stated that Russia will do everything possible to resolve the grave and long-standing Middle East crisis.
That’s nice.
Earlier in May, Gaza Health Ministry Director General Munir al-Barash noted that the critical food shortage and lack of access to clean drinking water among residents of the sector allowed the UN to officially recognize the enclave as a famine zone.
[AnNahar] Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... and Syria are cracking down on Paleostinian factions that for decades have had an armed presence in both countries and which on some occasions were used to plan and launch attacks against Israel.
The crackdown comes as Syria's new rulers under Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... are pursuing officials of the former government under Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , including those in the ousted president's web of security agencies. Syria's most prominent Paleostinian factions were key allies of the Assad dynasty in both war and peace time and closely cooperated on security matters.
It also comes after Iran's main regional ally, Lebanon's Hezbollah, was weakened after over a year of war with Israel and as Lebanon's new government vows to monopolize all arms under the government, including Hezbollah and Paleostinian factions in Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Syria's President Ahmad al-Sharaa said his government is holding indirect talks with Israel through mediators, who he did not name. He said the aim of the indirect negotiations is to ease tensions after intense Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Syria.
A crackdown on hardline Paleostinian factions, including 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... , which took part with Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks 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... , is likely to be welcomed by Israel.
A Syrian government official declined to comment on the matter.
A Paleostinian official who had been in Damascus for more than 40 years, and who recently left the country, said Paleostinian factions in Syria were forced to hand over their weapons and the Paleostinian embassy will be the only side that Syria's new authorities will deal with. The Paleostinian groups would only be limited to social and charitable activities, the official added, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for their safety.
Paleostinian factions for decades have lived in refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria and have been involved militarily both locally and regionally. They closely aligned themselves with the Assads and later with Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose powerful military arsenal grew over the past few decades. Over time, many of the leaders of groups like Hamas and the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad were based in those countries.
However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... the regional developments of late 2024 that went against Iran's favor in the Levant began to take shape in recent weeks among the Paleostinian factions in Lebanon and Syria.
"No weapons will be allowed in the (Paleostinian refugee) camps. The Syrian state will protect citizens whether they are Paleostinians or Syrians," said Syrian political analyst Ahmad al-Hamada, whose view points reflect those of the government. "It is not allowed for Paleostinian factions that were arms for 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... and the Assad regime to keep their weapons."
When asked whether the state will prevent any attacks against Israel, al-Hamada said Syria will not allow its territories to be used as a launch pad against any neighbor.
Syrian authorities in Damascus this week detained two bigwigs of the Iran-backed Paleostinian Islamic Jihad group and briefly detained and questioned the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine-General Command, FLP-GC, that since its founding had been a key ally of Assad.
Another Paleostinian official with one of the factions that had been based in Syria said the developments caught them by surprise, and that regardless of who runs the country they are keen to have good relations with Syria's new rulers and maintain the country's stability.
"We hope that this wouldn't have happened. But we don't have a say in this," the official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are still based in the country. "We are simply guests here."
The government in Lebanon, which is trying to expand its army's influence in the south near Israel, has also been reclaiming dozens of informal border crossings with Syria, which were key arteries for Iran and its allies to transport weapons and fighters over the years. Many of those crossings were held by PFLP-GC forces of Evil who have given some of those positions up to the Lebanese Army after Assad's downfall.
Paleostinian 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....> , who Paleostinian factions in Syria oppose, visited Damascus last month for the first time in more than a decade and he is scheduled to visit Lebanon on May 21.
After Israel intensified its airstrikes on Lebanon in response to Hamas allegedly firing rockets from southern Lebanon in late March, the Lebanese government for the first time called out the Paleostinian group and arrested nearly 10 suspects involved in the operation. Hamas was pressured by the military to turn in three of their forces of Evil from different refugee camps.
Ahmad Abdul-Hadi, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, was also summoned by the head of one of the country's top security agencies over the incident and was formally told that Hamas should stop its military activities.
Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun, who is backed by the United States and Arab countries rather than Hezbollah and Iran, has said armed factions should not be allowed to "shake up national security and stability." His statement has set a new tone after decades of tolerating the presence of armed Paleostinian groups in refugee camps which have led to armed conflict in the crowded ghettos.
"I think we're in unprecedented times, politically speaking," said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "The (Lebanese) army is acting out of a political will, with its former chief now the president. There is a strong political thrust behind the army."
A Lebanese government official familiar with the initiative said that Hamas was told to hand over wanted forces of Evil and end all its military activity in the country. He added that there is also a plan to gradually give up Hamas' weapons, which coincides with the visit to Lebanon of Abbas, leader of the rival Fatah group.
[IsraelTimes] Leb ...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. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... has conducted a major overhaul of security at its sole international airport in Beirut to prevent Hezbollah smuggling, satisfying Israeli and US officials and giving them hope that the Lebanese state will take full control over the country’s ports of entry from the terror group, The Wall Street Journal reports.
"You can feel the difference," Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam tells the WSJ. "We’re doing better on smuggling for the first time in the contemporary history of Lebanon."
Senior Lebanese security and military officials tell the outlet that no planes are now exempt from security checks, while flights from 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... have been suspended since February. Airport staff linked to Hezbollah have been fired, smugglers detained, and new surveillance mechanisms using AI are being put into place, the report says.
In one of the recent achievements, Lebanese security thwarted an endeavor to smuggle over 50 pounds of gold to Hezbollah through Beirut’s international airport, a security bigshot tells the WSJ.
"There is reason for hope here," says a senior US official working for the ceasefire mechanism overseeing a deal that ended over a year of Hezbollah-instigated fighting in November.
"It has only been six or seven months, and we have stepped to a place that I am not sure I thought was achievable back in November."
The report says the Israeli and US officials feel there is work to be done, however. Israeli strikes continue to target Hezbollah operations in Lebanon, it says are in violation of the November ceasefire.
Ibrahim Mousawi, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon’s parliament, tells the WSJ that the terror group sustained heavy losses but claims there are ways for them to rearm: "Where there is a will, there is a way."
He also says that allegations of the terror group’s control over the airport were exaggerated: "We are part of the system, just like any other Lebanese constituency."
[IsraelTimes] Islamic Republic’s top diplomat strikes defiant tone after Witkoff said Tehran must dismantle uranium enrichment sites, with new round of negotiations set for Sunday in Oman
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on Saturday that if the United States’ goal was to deprive 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... of its "nuclear rights," Tehran would never back down on that front.
Araghchi was speaking in Doha a day ahead of another round of planned nuclear talks between Iran and the US in Oman.
"If the goal of the negotiations is to deprive Iran of its nuclear rights, I state clearly that Iran will not back down from any of its rights," state media quoted Araghchi as saying.
Iran has repeatedly said its right to enrich uranium is non-negotiable and has ruled out a "zero enrichment" demand by some US officials.
But US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... ’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said in an interview on Friday that Iran’s "enrichment facilities have to be dismantled" under any accord with the United States.
Trump, who withdrew Washington from a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers meant to curb its nuclear activity, has threatened to bomb Iran if no new deal is reached to resolve the long-unresolved dispute.
Western countries say Iran’s nuclear program, which Tehran accelerated after the US walkout from the now moribund 2015 accord, is geared toward producing weapons, whereas Iran insists it is purely for civilian purposes. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... Tehran regularly threatens to flatten Israeli cities and is currently enriching uranium to levels that have no civilian use.
"In its indirect talks with the United States, Iran emphasizes its right to peaceful use of nuclear energy and clearly declares that it is not seeking nuclear weapons," Araghchi claimed.
"Iran continues negotiations in good faith, and if the goal of these talks is to ensure the non-acquisition of nuclear weapons, an agreement is possible. However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... if the aim is to limit Iran’s nuclear rights, Iran will never retreat from its rights."
Witkoff was set to travel to Oman on Sunday for the fourth round of Omani-mediated talks with Araghchi, a source familiar with the matter said. The fourth round of negotiations, initially scheduled for May 3 in Rome, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing "logistical reasons."
Araghchi visited Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... on Saturday, a day before the fourth round of negotiations and days before Trump is expected to visit those countries. Trump is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to 16 on his first major Middle East trip of his second term. The president is not expected to visit Israel on the trip.
Trump provoked Araghchi’s ire earlier this month by indicating that the US would decide how to call the Persian Gulf, following reports that Washington could officially rename it the Gulf of Arabia. Araghchi condemned the decision as showing "hostile intent toward Iran and its people."
Ahead of the trip, Trump had predicted that Saudi-Israel normalization would happen "very quickly." However,
corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... sources cited by Rooters have said Trump has dropped the demand that Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel as a condition for progress on a civil nuclear program.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/11/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Nice of the US to pull half the B2s back to Whiteman from Diego. Of course they replaced them with B52s
#3
You’re absolutely right, DooDahMan. Let them stand firm until Israel loses patience and fixes the problem permanently, like they did for Iraq and Syria. No need for America to take the lead.
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.
... the personification of Somali state failure...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
...every time you hear the phrase 
...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan...
... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ...
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...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. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration....
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
