The Arab political parties in Israel are banding together in one ticket attempting to take out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Arab politicians, which contain communists, religious Muslims and one Jewish official, feel the joining together of the groups will drive up the historically low Arab voter turnout. They also hope they will be able to stop Netanyahu from forming a unity government should his party get into a position to form a new government.
Masoud Ganaim, a representative of the Islamic movement, said that after the incident this summer where Arab terrorists attacked Israelis in Gaza, many of the Arab residents of Israel asked the parties to unite to represent the beliefs of Arabs in the country.
Arab citizens are about 20% of Israel’s population.
Surveys of potential Arab voters show that the turnout could be as much as 10 percent higher than the last election because of a unity ticket. That would still be about 20 percent lower than average Jewish resident turnout.
A rocket struck Southern Israel on Friday according to officials with the Israel Defense Forces, the first strike by Palestinians on Israel using rockets since September.
The strike in the Eshkol region set off the air raid sirens but the rocket landed in an open field causing no damage or injuries.
The strike came as Palestinians attacked Israeli forces at a West Bank checkpoint near the village of Turmus Aya. The IDF reported no injuries as a result of the attack.
The village where the assault from the Palestinians took place is where a Palestinian Cabinet minister collapsed and later died. The Palestinians claimed an Israeli soldier hit him when an autopsy showed that he actually died from a heart attack.
In the midst of the Palestinian attacks, the IDF announced they were going to allow Christians in the West Bank to visit their relatives in the Gaza Strip. They said it was a goodwill measure for Christians during their holy days.
The Islamic caliphate of ISIS head Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi now has at least 12 militarized allies including nine outside of Iraq and Syria.
NYMag.com reported that the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium identified 12 groups that have pledged to back ISIS although they acknowledged other groups could be supporting ISIS without making a formal announcement.
The report shows that ISIS is taking a large part of the Al-Qaeda terror network.
Taliban splinter group Jundallah has joined other Tehrik-i-Taliban affiliates in Pakistan in aligning with ISIS. The Taliban leaders had long been aligned with Al-Qaeda, so the breakaway parts of the organization joining ISIS are a sign that the former world terror group is losing significant power in the Islamic terrorism community.
One group has been announced inside the Gaza Strip. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which fired rockets into Israel this summer during the terrorist campaign against Israelis, has pledged their support to ISIS and changed their named to al-Dawla al-Islamiyya or The Islamic State.
Groups have also announced their allegiance in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Philippines, Lebanon, Indonesia and Jordan.
Police and IDF forces across Israel are on high alert Friday because of the possibility of clashes between Jews and Muslims as two major holidays collide on the same day.
Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha overlap for the first time in over 30 years.
Reinforced police units have been deployed in cities that have significant Muslim minorities: Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa and Acre. The military has closed the West Bank and the Gaza Strip which is usually done during the major Jewish holidays.
Yom Kippur is a major day in Israel where devout Jews ask God to forgive them for their sins. Almost all businesses close and TV and radio stations usually are off the air.
The Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha lasts three days and consists of family celebrations and events.
Israeli officials did not say if the increased security will end after Yom Kippur or ocntinue through the end of the Muslim holiday.
In what is likely an attempt to strengthen their hand before talks with Israel in October, Islamic groups in the Gaza strip have agreed to allow a unity government to take control of the region.
The ceasefire that had been struck in August between Israel and Hamas called for the Palestinian Authority to take over as civil administration for the region. The deal with Hamas and Fatah announced today in Cairo calls for the unity government to take over immediately.
The deal was brokered by Egyptian intelligence services.
“All civil servants will be paid by the unity government because they are all Palestinians and it is the government of all Palestinians,” said Azzam Ahmed of Fatah on Thursday.
The groups reportedly have agreed to eliminate “all the obstacles” to a national unity government. They will also negotiate with the UN and Israel over border crossing access.
However, in what might be a blow to potential talks, the leaders of the unity government said they want Israel tried for war crimes.
A video smuggled out of a mosque in the Gaza strip shows a Muslim sheikh wielding a rifle and calling for violence against Israel as the only way to establish a Palestinian state.
Sheikh Lyad Abu Funun is shown in the video released by Middle East Media Research Institute. In the speech, he declares that Israel did not succeed on any level during the 50-day war for disarming Hamas terrorists.
“The Israelis came to conquer the Gaza Strip. Did they succeed in doing so? No, they did not. They came to take these weapons away from us,” Funun yells. “Do I still hold this weapon or not? They came to take these weapons away from us. Did they succeed?”
Those attending the event chanted “Allah Akbar” while the sheikh gave his rant.
The video also shows another part of the sermon where Funan says the weapons are the only way.
“This war has proven that these weapons are our only means to liberate our land,” Funan said. “These weapons are our only means to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque. These weapons are our only means to establish the Islamic state. These weapons are our only means to reestablish Muhammad’s caliphate. These weapons are our only means to instate the law of Allah.”
The Israeli Military Advocate General Corps announced investigations into five incidents connected to the 50-day battle between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
The most high profile of the cases involves the airstrike on a beach that resulted in the deaths of four Palestinian children. However, the IDF said none of the situations is being investigated under the guise of a “war crime.”
The MAG Corps speed at launching investigations is seen as a response to actions after the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead in Gaza that had some incidents left without investigation years later.
The beach investigation will look into accusations from reporters that no Hamas military targets were in the area of the beach at the time of the air strikes. The strike took place near a hotel where foreign journalists had been staying and they observed the air strike.
An investigation that has already taken place regarding an Israeli rocket that struck a UN school has shown that while one Israeli rocket hit the school, no injuries were caused to anyone by the strike. Hamas had claimed children were injured as a result of the strike.
Senior officials with the Israeli Defense Force has admitted to the Times of Israel that they underestimated the tenacity of Hamas and that they did not expect the conflict to last long.
“If you’d asked me two months ago, I wouldn’t assess that it’s going to take us 50 days,” the unnamed official said. “We thought it’s going to take them a shorter time to understand what happened, and we are mistaken here. It’s a tactical assessment mistake, but it’s a mistake.”
The official who demanded anonymity said that Hamas also had surprised the IDF with the power of their forces.
“They were in pretty good shape and pretty well trained,” he said, referring to amphibious commando-style raids.
“You can see for sure they were trained outside of the Gaza Strip,” he said. He also said that nothing surprised them militarily and that right now they’re believed to be in very bad shape.
The truce on August 26th continues to hold.
Reports have been released of a Muslim man who threatened to shot up an Ohio high school because of his hatred of Israel.
Police said that a man “with a heavy accent” called Pickerington North High School Wednesday morning and said that he would be shooting students at the school with an AK-47 assault rifle. The man said he was “Mohammed Shehad” and that his actions would be in response to Israel’s actions in the Gaza strip.
The school was put into lockdown until police could determine there was no actual threat in the area of the school.
Police say that no one has been arrested and it’s likely the threat has passed but they were not taking anything for granted.
“There is no way to be absolutely certain,” Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen said.
Terrorism analyst Patrick Poole, who lives in Ohio, said radical Islam in Ohio is on the rise.
“We have had a growing problem here in the Columbus area for years that local law enforcement and the media want to continue to sweep under the carpet,” Poole said. “Not only has central Ohio been the home of the largest known al-Qaeda cell since 9/11—with several members currently in prison on terrorism charges and at least two deported—we’ve had a number of cases of homegrown jihadists come through town.”
A statement has been released by almost 200 Hollywood stars condemning the “ideologies of hatred” that drive the terrorist group Hamas along with a call for peace in Gaza.
“We, the undersigned, are saddened by the devastating loss of life endured by Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. We are pained by the suffering on both sides of the conflict and hope for a solution that brings peace to the region,” the statement begins.
“While we stand firm in our commitment to peace and justice, we must also stand firm against ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in Hamas’ charter, Article 7 of which reads, ‘There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!’ Hamas cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage. Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields.”
The document was published on the website Creative Community For Peace.
Stars that signed the statement included Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwartenegger and Seth Rogan. The statement even had far-left wing celebrities that normally do not support conservative issues like creator of “The West Wing” Aaron Sorkin and atheist activist and commentator Bill Maher.
The group bills themselves as “an organization of prominent entertainment industry executives devoted to using art and music to build bridges for peace.”