IDNS: A Change in Hamas Leadership?
September 24, 2012 17:30 by Pesach BensonIranian Atomic Urgency
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
• In the US for the start of the UN General Assembly, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave lengthy interviews to CNN‘s Piers Morgan and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius.
I’ll just give shoutout of sympathy to whoever was tasked with transcribing the president’s tendentious answers. Fortunately, Ignatius summarized and commented on the Q&A in a separate column. The low point? Morgan asking Ahmadinejad how he’d feel if one of his kids dated a Jew . . .
• Iranian trash talk continues. Reuters has the latest:
“Iran will not start any war but it could launch a pre-emptive attack if it was sure that the enemies are putting the final touches to attack it,” Al-Alam said, paraphrasing the military commander.
• For commentary/analysis, see Dan Ephron (The Daily Beast).
Arab Spring Winter and Muslim Rage
• Worth reading: For the first time, someone clearly articulated Muslim thinking on the Mohammed video. Yigal Carmon of Memri summed it up in a Q&A with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
Q: Does there seem to be any recognition at all in the Islamic world that no matter how insulting the video might be, it’s the product of a private citizen and not the United States government?
A: Yes, of course. They know it as a matter of fact, but they don’t accept it as a valid distinction. This is the discourse: It is America that is engaged in war against Islam, not on terrorists, so it doesn’t matter (that the government wasn’t involved in making the video). They say we need this international law against blasphemy against all religions, and of course monistic religions. If there is no law, then (blasphemy) is the responsibility of the state. Instead of (accepting) freedom of speech, they say (the government) may not have (made the video), but it didn’t do anything to prevent it.
• Sinai jihadi group inspired by Al-Qaida says it carried out Friday’s deadly firefight along the Israeli-Egyptian border. The Washington Post writes:
In a statement posted on militant Internet forums late Saturday, a group calling itself Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, or Partisans of Jerusalem, called the deadly raid a “disciplinary attack against those who insulted the beloved Prophet,” referring to the controversial anti-Islam YouTube video “Innocence of Muslims.”
Video shmideo. I’d respect this group more if they would be frank enough to simply say the truth: this attack was because they hate Israel and the Jewish people.
• Some Lebanese politicians who fear being dragged into Syria’s civil war are calling for a UNIFIL deployment along their border. Beirut’s pro-Syria government isn’t biting, but the Christian Science Monitor explains the basis for the talk:
The UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which defines UNIFIL’s post-2006 mission, includes a clause that permits it to help the Lebanese authorities prevent the smuggling of arms into Lebanon. The clause specifically refers to preventing the transfer of weapons from Syrian territory to Hezbollah’s arms caches inside Lebanon.
• Free Syrian Army unity is a joke, reports McClatchy News:
By one count, there are more than 600 battalions, though fewer than 10 stand out as having significant organizational capability across large swaths of territory.
Indeed, the news media convention of referring to all these groups as the Free Syrian Army is accurate only in that they all oppose the government of President Bashar Assad. In reality, they’re independent actors, sharing little in ideologies or resources.
Rest O’ the Roundup
Ehud Olmert
• After becoming the first Israeli prime minister ever convicted, Ehud Olmert was sentenced to one year’s probation and a NIS 75,000 fine. But the Times of Israel says don’t get carried away with buzz over Olmert’s possible political future:
Commentators said the sentence leaves Olmert free to run for election to the next Knesset. However, he would not be eligible to serve as a minister because he is still on trial in another corruption scandal, the Holyland affair, they said.
• Team Israel knocked out of World Baseball Classic competition, but the NY Times describes fond memories of Israeli pride:
Israel did lose, 9-7 in 10 innings. Still, there was a celebratory feel about the night.
Flags waved everywhere. A woman wore a Yankees blue T-shirt with the No. 2 that said “Jews For Jeter.” Fans wore the official Team Israel hat with the Star of David on it, as well as other team gear. From the stadium loudspeaker, Jewish music blared — songs like “Ya’alili” by the group 8th Day, and “Mi Shema’amin” by the popular Israeli singer Eyal Golan.
It didn’t go unnoticed to the Israeli team.
Watch highlights of the see-saw game, which ended in extra innings.
(Image of Caracal unit via Flickr/Israel Defense Forces, Ahmadinejad via CNN, Olmert via YouTube/Jposttv)
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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m
7:04 pm
Sep 24, 2012
“Israel also agreed to update electricity transportation networks throughout Gaza.”
Huh!?!??!?!
Whatever the fuck for?!?!?!?!??!
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jeb stuart
7:39 pm
Sep 24, 2012
It is hard to tell from this information whether or not Hamas is ready to create and act on a paradigm shift that would not be hostile to Israel and other non-Muslim entities. It is more likely Hamas by announcing its separation from “Palestine” may be introducing a new perspective on the same old problem merely stating that real change will arise from Gaza not the West Bank. It may also be the result of religious ideological differences with Egypt, and the Muslim Brotherhood; I have wondered if the latter retained any aspirations to recalim Gaza as Egyptian territory?
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M.Otero
6:25 am
Sep 25, 2012
Until as many people world wide are aware of the expulsion/flight of the Jews from Muslim countries 1948-67 and the expropriation of their assets and the fact that all their properties restored would amount to an area five times the size of Israel, then we are all wasting time and blood and endless words.
I have never met anyone in US who is aware of the plight of the Mizrahi Jews expelled from Muslim lands. Until we make this one fact clear, we are simply confusing further the minds of an already overwhelmed world public jaded with talk about the poor Palestinians. I appreciate the marvelous efforts of Israel’s UN Ambassador Prosor and VFM Ayalon, but these facts are crucial to peace
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Stephen
10:41 am
Sep 25, 2012
Regarding the article in the McGill Daily, it is of no surprise. There is little change to the Daily since my student years in the early 1970s.
It has always been a contrarian student paper since the 1960s, though prior to that it was a well respected example of student journalism on par with the Montreal Star (now defunct) and better than the Montreal Gazette (a waste of time).
For more than four decades the Daily has been a stalwart supporter of anything anti-Israel. Thankfully, exampled by the comments to this and other articles, most of the campus appears to be supporters of Israel and keep pointing out the inconsistencies, errors, and opinion-for-facts in these articles.
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IDNS: A Change in Hamas Leadership? | Blogs about Israel aggregation
9:58 am
Sep 27, 2012
[...] Continued on Page 2 [...]
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Walter Sieruk
4:47 pm
Sep 29, 2012
If there is a chance in the leadership of Hamas this Jihadist is still fated to fail in its agnenda to destroy the State of Israel. This is because ,eventhough they may not know it, they are striving against the Will of God. This also goes for other Islamic entities as well, such as Hezbollah. For it is written in the Bible that this land belongs to the Jewish people by Divine Right, Genesis 28:13-15. 35:10-12. Deuteromony 32:48,49. Psalm 105:7-11. 135:4. This Land also belongs to the Jewish people by historiic rights First Kings 4;20,21,24,25. 8:55,56.
So Hamas and other likeminded Islamic groups are in error , wrong and in darkness, Isaiah 8;20 Second Timothy 3:16.
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Walter Sieruk
4:57 pm
Sep 29, 2012
In all fairness there is one way that Hamas can convince God to turn His back of the State of Irrael and have that nation be no more. That way to to change the laws of astrophysics, including that of the sun, the moon and the stars. For God has declared in His Word, the Bible, in Jeremiah 31:35,36. “Thus saith the Lord, which givth the sun for a light by day and the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night…The Lord of host is His name, If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever.” [KJV]
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M.Otero
2:22 am
Sep 30, 2012
The Palestinian refugees were in many cases refugees as much as the US’s undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America are refugees. So many were simply rootless people following the job opportunities around the ME. The much twisted and exaggerated Dar Yassin event occurred a month AFTER most of the Arabs fled. What makes the Palestinian Arab situation so unique? 57,000,000 real, world wide refugees, between 1945-57, resolved their issues without UNRWA. There’s been a lot of major brain washing going on! ‘Much of it in colleges and liberal circles where facts are often irrelevant. Begin with an honest study of the history of Islam.
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