The Hamas government in Gaza held a celebration for 13,000 teenagers that have been trained to be terrorist suicide bombers.
Students from grades 10-12 were put into a one-week camp separated by gender. They were all trained in the techniques of Hamas terrorists and how to execute a successful suicide attack on Israeli forces.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, Interior Minister Fathi Hammad and Education Minister Usama Mzeini all gave speeches praising the “new generation of Palestinian combatants.”
“Beware this generation,” Haniyeh said during a portion of the speech targeting Israel. “This is a generation which knows no fear. It is the generation of the missile, the tunnel and the suicide operations.”
The Hamas leaders made multiple references to a coming war with Israel.
Ariel Sharon was remembered as a great warrior who was also fiercely devoted to his family.
A state memorial service was held Monday attended by multiple foreign dignitaries. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and others attended the ceremony. The Arab world even had a representative as Egypt sent a diplomat to the ceremony.
Vice President Biden delivered a personal address about his decades-long friendship with Sharon and said his passing felt like a “death in the family.” Biden shared stories about how he learned Sharon earned his nickname “The Bulldozer” after he would bring out maps and repeatedly make the same points to hammer home his passion for his country.
He defended this land like a lion and he taught its children to swing a scythe,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said his eulogy. “He was a military legend in his lifetime and then turned his gaze to the day Israel would dwell in safety, when our children would return to our borders and peace would grace the Promised Land.”
Sharon was buried on his farm in southern Israel.
One of Israel’s strongest military and political leaders has gone home.
Ariel Sharon passed away Saturday at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. His family, including sons Omri and Gilad, were at his side when he died.
Sharon rose to prominence as a military leader in two of Israel’s biggest battles. His tactics for the IDF in both the 1967 Six Day War and 1973 Yom Kippur War are studied by students. Images of a wounded Sharon with a bandage on his head continuing to lead a battle was used as a rallying point for many IDF forces. He had received the nickname “Arik, King of Israel” for his fierceness on the battlefield.
He brought that no-compromise attitude into the political arena where he oversaw the 1982 Lebanon War as defense minister. After a seven year absence from political life, he returned in 1990 as construction and housing minister and headed a massive building effort of over 144,000 homes for the flood of Russian immigrants from the former Soviet Union.
He rose to foreign minister in 1998 and stood up against the Palestinians by walking onto the Temple Mount despite their protests.
Sharon was elected Prime Minister in 2001 and immediately Israel began to build the security barrier in the West Bank. When he discovered too much resistance inside his own political party, he left the Likud in 2005 to form his own party, Kadima. Sharon suffered a debilitating stroke in 2006 before he could stand for another term as Prime Minister, but his party went on to dominate the election under the leadership of Ehud Olmert.
His body will lie in state at the Knesset before his funeral on his Negev ranch next to his late wife Lily. Current and former world leaders are expected to come to Israel for the funeral.
A former Israeli Prime Minister who is one of the nation’s most revered generals is reported to be near death.
A spokesman for Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer said Ariel Sharon has shown a significant decline in health during recent days. The family has been called to his bedside with doctors estimating less than a week to live for the Israeli hero.
Sharon has been in a coma since a major stroke in 2006.
Sharon, called “the Bulldozer” by his political opponents, was known as a man who found a way to get things done during his time in Israeli leadership. He was Defense Minister during the nation’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon. He was elected Prime Minister in 2001 and was on the way to massive landslide re-election when he was felled by a stroke in January 2006.
His deputy, Ehud Olmert, was elected Prime Minister a few months after Sharon’s illness.
Israeli leaders have called for prayers for Sharon and his family.
Women under 33 will be able to get a state funded abortion in 2014 regardless of their circumstances according to Israeli health officials.
Subsidized abortion in Israel was only available previously for cases of rape, abuse or medical emergencies. Also, all women in the Israeli army were provided one free abortion on request.
Despite the new funding, women will still need to get the approval of a state committee before being able to obtain the abortion. Abortion is illegal without the board’s approval; however, the board approves 98% of cases that are brought before it.
The panel, which recommended the change, said that they expect to see 6,300 government-funded abortions in the new age range in 2014.
The panel will not consider any rights of the father for the baby and minors do not need to have a guardian or parent’s permission to appear before the committee to obtain an abortion.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center has released its annual list of the worst anti-Semitic statements or actions of the past year and Iran’s Supreme Leader is at the top of the list.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Israel was the “rabid dog” of the Middle East and that “its leaders look like beasts and cannot be called human.” The anti-Semitic rhetoric continued as the U.S. was conducting secret talks with Iran over that country’s nuclear program.
Others on the list included the American Studies Association which voted to called for a boycott of Israel because of their refusal to give away their land for a Palestinian state while refusing to acknowledge terrorism against Israel by Palestinian groups.
An American school district also made the list. Pine Bush School District in New York has reportedly taken no steps to stop abuse of Jewish students which included their being forced to dive into garbage cans to retrieve coins, the beating of a Jewish boy with a hockey stick and a Jewish girl who was held down and had a swastika drawn on her face.
Senior Israeli officials are furious after a new leak from fugitive Edward Snowden shows the NSA was tracking the e-mail of some of Israel’s highest leaders.
The report says that from 2008 to 2011, the U.S. obtained help from Britain to spy on the e-mails of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz told Israel Radio that what the NSA had done to his country was “not legitimate” intelligence gathering and he called for an agreement between the two nations regarding espionage.
A spokesman for Olmert tried to downplay the news saying the account monitored was for questions from the public and that “there is no chance there was a security or intelligence breach.”
Israel stopped all espionage actions against the U.S. when former civilian intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was caught sending classified information to the Israelis.
“I think we should expect the same relations from the U.S.,” Steinitz said.
A sniper with the Lebanese army launched an unprovoked attack on an Israeli soldier. The soldier was driving along the border late Sunday night when he was shot by the sniper.
Two Lebanese soldiers were then killed early Monday morning by Israeli troops.
The shootings are causing concern that the area will see hostilities resume after a mostly peaceful season after a one-month war in 2006. Israeli officials said they do not want to see an escalation of the violence and they would take no actions to add to that atmosphere.
Lebanon’s National News Agency confirmed the killing of the Israeli soldier was by a member of their army but did not mention why the sniper chose to assassinate the Israeli.
United Nations officials have called on both sides to provide information for an investigation into the incident without delay.
Heavy storms continued throughout Israel on Friday, causing traffic disruptions and power outages across the country, floods in southern regions, a brief closure of Ben-Gurion International Airport, and a measure of excitement among the nation’s many snow-lovers.
Thousands of people in and around Jerusalem were left without power. A hastily assembled array of relief services, beefed up by Israeli army troops, came to the aid of hundreds of motorists who were trapped in their vehicles, some for up to 10 hours.
Speaking on the radio, Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat described the snowstorm as a “tsunami,” for which the municipality was unprepared. The city set up several improvised snow-havens, granting shelter to hundreds of the snowed-in masses, many of whom had come to the capital to celebrate what is usually a much less torrid event.
Roads to and from Jerusalem were closed Thursday night and school there was cancelled for Friday as the heaviest December storm since 1953 fell on the capital city.
Source: Haaretz – Massive snowstorm shuts down Jerusalem
The biggest December snow and rain storm in the modern history of Israel and the Palestinian territories hit on Wednesday night. Now a storm three times worse is bearing down on the epicenter.
For the many of the kids of Jerusalem, the storm has been much fun. Building snow men. Having snow ball fights. Sledding. Walking through and playing in the cold white stuff they rarely experience. Continue reading →