France to Free Killer of Israeli, US Diplomats
January 14, 2013 15:09 by Pesach Benson
Everything you need to know about today’s coverage of Israel and the Mideast. Join the Israel Daily News Stream on Facebook.
Today’s Top Stories
1. Mali is France’s Gaza, argues Ron Agam:
France is now going to war in Mali because it says “we cannot have a terrorist state at the door of Europe,” but when Israel launches a defensive operation to protect its citizens from missile attacks from terrorists in Gaza, all the French newspapers and television commentators scream about Israeli aggression.
The distance between Bamako and Paris: 6266 km. The distance between Gaza and Israel: 1km.
This situation starkly exposes the hypocrisy of the Europeans in their attitudes toward Israel, which drives me insane.
Yaakov Bar-Simantov
2. A French court is on the verge of freeing Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a Lebanese national with some serious blood on his hands. He was convicted for the 1982 murders of Yaakov Bar-Simantov (an Israeli diplomat), Lt. Col. Charles R. Ray (US Army attache), and for trying to kill US consul Robert O. Homme in 1984.
The court already ruled that the release of Abdallah, now 61, would have to be conditional on his being deported to Lebanon. Ya Libnan says celebrations are already being prepared for the “struggler prisoner.”
3. Iran’s gathering intelligence on Israel from southern Syria. According to a US government report, we’re talking about listening stations supplying info to Hezbollah. The report adds that the Revolutionary Guards wants to establish additional sites. See UPI coverage and the full report in PDF.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Citing safety concerns after a recent winter storm, all Gaza smuggling tunnels are closed until further notice. Maan News coverage.
• BBC News Moves to the Bunker
• An aid group says Syrian refugees are citing sexual violence as the main reason for leaving their country. Reuters picked up on a new report by the International Rescue Committee.
• Alawites are digging in for a last stand along the Syrian coast as the regime elites move their families to Latakia and Tarsus. The Times of London says they’re not just stockpiling weapons and preparing defenses:
Rebels also say that the regime is trying to purge coastal towns and cities of their sizeable Sunni populations. They say that shabiha thugs are kidnapping the children of wealthy Sunnis, that young Sunni men are being arrested at checkpoints and that the regime has cut electricity and water to Sunni districts. “If you’re stopped at a checkpoint and you’re military age they take you straight away. You either flee or you’re imprisoned,” said Thair, 30, a Sunni who fled from Latakia with his family two months ago.
(Alawite map via Wikimedia Commons)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
Josephine Bacon
4:40 pm
Jan 14, 2013
Who is funding the “rebels” in Mali? Guns cost money, I am curious to know where it is coming from.
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emes
6:32 pm
Jan 14, 2013
Josephine, I don’t know who is funding the rebels in Mali, nor who is paying for the guns but I am a bit incensed that some of my tax money is going toward British soldiers and supply planes assisting the French in Mali. Is this part of the insurance policy that contributors of the EU have committed to? and are the funds coming out of these contributions? or is it an additional pay-out that this country will have to foot? In assisting th French in this conflict, have we also put Britain in the front line for Mali sympathisers – so many questions, where is the British subject’s vote on all of this or is this another “shoulder to shoulder” senario?
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emes
6:39 pm
Jan 14, 2013
To continue Josephine, with all the British soldiers being made redundant, we have left this country in a bit of a vulnerable state of affairs – still, we are paid-up members of the EU aren’t we and every country thus contributing will “pack a punch” on our behalf don’t you think? Nevertheless, with France being so anti-semitic, I don’t hear them say that they don’t want the money for assisting the French in Mali coming out of the British Jews’ pockets” – or am I going deaf!
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steven L
7:41 pm
Jan 14, 2013
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Mike lampard
11:17 pm
Jan 14, 2013
That is a filthy minded comment. Nothing in the Middle east conflict is the fault of Israel. It is the fault of Islam and ONLY Islam. I wonder how stupid you can be to make the comments you make. Are you blind or just stupid? Israel is the one ME democracy, and they have more right to their land INCLUSING the West Bank than any Arab Muslim ever had. You represent the filth of the UN and the EU in your comments. You are worht no more than a sewer.
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Z
12:06 am
Jan 15, 2013
Muslims murder other Muslims every day. Last week in Iraq Muslims murdered over 120 of their fellow Muslims. Has absolutely nothing to do with Jews or Israel.
I’m wondering about what type of device you are using to spread your venom as most operating systems and hardware for cell phones and computers come from Israel.
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steven L
7:45 pm
Jan 14, 2013
Of course the oil and gas money come from the West, and all the countries who need the oil and gas (China, Korea, Japan, India etc). So the whole world contributes to the Muslim war effort.
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Gary Katz
8:23 pm
Jan 14, 2013
“La Libnan” posted my comment on the imminent release of Ibrahim Abdallah:
“The mothers of the two people he murdered undoubtedly suffered extreme sorrow, as well. The friends and other family of his victims will not be celebrating his return to his village. He is no hero.”
I’ll be curious what if any replies I get.
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Gary Katz
1:43 am
Jan 15, 2013
Mike, if you were commenting on Steven’s post, I got the impression he was referring to the EU view, not his own view, and a bit tongue in cheek at that.
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Frederick
8:33 am
Jan 15, 2013
I believe the distance between Bamako and Paris is actually ‘only’ just under 4000 Km.
This, of course, does not alter the validity of the comment on European hypocrisy with regard to Israel, but a distance of more than 6000 Km is obviously not correct.
We don’t want HR to be accused of spreading disinformation!
Shalom
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Samir S. halabi
11:32 am
Jan 15, 2013
As soon as Ibrahim Abdallah is released from prison in France, he should be gunned-down at will.
The French collaborated with the Nazis during the world war 2, today in France many Muslims eulogize Mohamed Merah the French born Muslim of Algerian origin who cold bloodedly executed a Rabbi and his two children, including another 7 year old Jewish girl the daughter of the president of the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse. I don’t think that the French authorities put enough impetus into securing Jewish life in France today. They see more occupied with not upsetting Muslim sensibilities. I suggest that Jews must learn to defend themselves adequately against any attacks perpetrated by Muslims.
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Dany
7:25 pm
Jan 15, 2013
I just learnt that AZMI BASHARA, according to YARON LONDON, told him that the Palestinian people as a nation was invented to fight the Zionists and the RIGHT OF RETURN does not exist if there is no people as such. YARON London is a TV host, his show airs daily at 7PM.
AZMI BASHARA is an Arab Israeli that spied for Hezbollah and is hiding abroad.
I have said in the past that “THE PALESTINIAN BLUFF IS COMONG TO AN END” and this is the first recognition of that prophecy
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Gary Katz
7:38 pm
Jan 15, 2013
Dany, I agree. The “Pawnestinians [sic]” are merely a bunch of Arabs who live in the region. They are no different genetically than Arabs living in Saudi Arabia. If Jordan hadn’t joined in the war in ’67, it would still control Judea and Samaria, and we would never have heard the term, “Palestinian.”
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Jeffrey
11:45 pm
Jan 15, 2013
Will the French be following the gold standard for avoiding civilian casualties that was set by Israel during their recent defensive action to disarm Gaza? If not, why not? Perhaps the UN might like to hold them to account.
How many days will France be allowed to act against the militants (let’s use the word loved by the media) for before someone forces them to stop the action?
No doubt there will be no pictures faked or real of civilians killed by French attacks because in model democracy France it is illegal to post pictures of brutality by French police or military.
Hypocrisy and double standards rule supreme.
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SeeAr
7:24 am
Jan 16, 2013
The only reason F. Hollande has taken France to Mali is to overcome his image as weak and bumbling. It is pure political standing. Vote for me – look how strong I am – how decisive.
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France to Free Killer of Israeli, US Diplomats | The Conservative Papers
7:33 am
Jan 16, 2013
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