The burning alive of a Jordanian pilot by the Islamic State group is a “turning point” in the kingdom’s fight against the jihadists, a minister said in remarks published Saturday.
Air strikes carried out so far by Jordan’s air force were “the beginning of an ongoing process to eliminate” IS, Interior Minister Hussein Majali said, quoted by government newspaper al-Rai.
Amman said its warplanes launched dozens of strikes on Thursday against the Sunni Muslim extremist group after threatening a harsh response to the murder of pilot Mu’ath al-Kassasbeh.
Majali said the Jordanian air strikes that destroyed the “terrorist” group’s facilities, arms depots and training centers on Thursday were the start of a campaign to “wipe them out completely.”
“The state of Jordan is entitled to retaliate against this terrorist organization, and we will pursue it wherever it is,” he told al-Rai.
“History shows that Jordan never forgets to avenge (such attacks), no matter how long it takes… we have the resources to deal with this.
“The day of the hero, martyr pilot’s assassination is a turning point in Jordan’s history in order to face this horrific crime that was committed by the cowardly terrorist organisation,” said the minister.
[Political games by the EU]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to move forward with a plan to demolish some 400 Palestinian structures built in the West Bank with European funding, Israeli media reported Friday.
The prime minister’s order came shortly after a Thursday exposé in the Daily Mail claimed that the EU sank tens of millions of euros into homes which were not granted building permits by the Israeli government.
Official EU documentation discovered by the newspaper stated that the buildings were intended to “pave the way for development and more authority of the PA over Area C,” raising concerns that the governmental organization was taking sides in the dispute by shaping the demographics of the Israeli-controlled territory.
A portion of the homes, which largely resemble prefabricated caravans, were built in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim and near the Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus, according to Israeli news site NRG.
According to the Daily Mail, the construction in 17 locations cost tens of millions in EU public funds.
On Friday, a spokesman for the European Union defended its funding for the unlicensed construction, even as another EU official had denied wrongdoing.
Othman was interviewed about footage collected by the Israeli not-for-profit Regavim, which shows structures bearing plaques with the EU logo. Regavim says the structures were erected in recent months without license from Israeli authorities.
Ari Briggs, the International Director of Regavim and the report’s principal author, insisted that the EU and Oxfam were using the project as a “Trojan horse” to undermine Israeli claims to the area.
“Area C has been identified by the anti-Israel ‘humanitarian community’ as a hot spot to push Israel,” Briggs stated.
“These organizations with EU funding are encouraging and actively aiding the illegal attempt to take over public land. This has nothing to do with human rights and everything to do with taking advantage of less privileged nomadic societies for political goals,” insisted Briggs.
James Carver, a British MEP for the West Midlands region, wrote a letter this week to the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs condemning the “illegal” project: “The structures all bear the name and flag of the EU and official EU agents have been photographed participating in overseeing the construction, so the active involvement of the EU can hardly be denied.”
“I kindly call upon you to do your utmost to bring an end to these illegal and destructive activities,” he wrote.
Alan Baker, an international lawyer who took part in the creation of the Oslo Accords, accused the EU of interfering in the conflict.
“The EU is a signatory to the Oslo Accords, so they cannot pick and choose when they recognize it,” he said. According to international law, all building in Area C must have permission from Israel, whether it is temporary or permanent.”
“The same principle applies anywhere in the world. If you want to build, you need planning permission…The EU is ignoring international law and taking concrete steps to influence the facts on the ground,” Baker stated.
An unnamed Israeli government source claimed the venture exemplified “the double standards of the EU”, which “deplores Israeli settlements in the West Bank while simultaneously funding its own for Palestinians: “If Israel started building houses in the middle of Hyde Park, the British government would immediately take them down…The EU is doing things that would never be acceptable in Europe.”
MK Yariv Levin also accused the Europeans of double-speak.
“It is hypocritical of the EU to criticize Israeli construction while at the same time actively supporting and practically taking part in illegal Palestinian settlement construction on Israeli land,” the Likud MK charged.
The EU is acting illegally by funding unauthorised Palestinian building in areas placed under Israeli control by international law, say an NGO, international lawyers and MEPs.
More than 400 EU-funded Palestinian homes have been erected in Area C of the West Bank, which was placed under Israeli jurisdiction during the Oslo Accords – a part of international law to which the EU is a signatory.
The Palestinian buildings, which have no permits, come at a cost of tens of millions of Euros in public money, a proportion of which comes from the British taxpayer.
This has raised concerns that the EU is using valuable resources to take sides in a foreign territorial dispute.
Locally, the villages are known as the ‘EU Settlements’, and can be found in 17 locations around the West Bank.
They proudly fly the EU flag, and display hundreds of EU stickers and signs. Some also bear the logos of Oxfam and other NGOs, which have assisted in the projects.
Alan Baker, an international lawyer who took part in drafting the Oslo Accords in the Nineties, said that the EU’s actions were illegal.
‘The EU is a signatory to the Oslo Accords, so they cannot pick and choose when they recognise it,’ he said.
‘According to international law, all building in Area C must have permission from Israel, whether it is temporary or permanent.
‘The same principle applies anywhere in the world. If you want to build, you need planning permission.
‘The EU is ignoring international law and taking concrete steps to influence the facts on the ground.’
When I was invited to join the Prime Minister at his home in Jerusalem, along with other members of the English-speaking community in Israel, I expected to find myself in a large auditorium in which I would need binoculars to see Benjamin Netanyahu. To my surprise, the room was an outdoor space that could accommodate no more than fifty, with chairs arranged in an intimate circle, with a small table in the front.
The Prime Minister entered and to everyone’s complete astonishment, he went around the room, warmly shaking everyone’s hands, nodding to those he had met before. While he started out behind the small table, he soon had two armchairs brought in and joined the circle. The mystery of armchair number two was solved when to our surprise his wife Sarah joined him, smiling graciously.
With the head of the free world AWOL for the last six and a half years bowing to the Saudis, making an ass of himself in Cairo, and destroying America’s economy while he plays golf, Benjamin Netanyahu has been heroically cast as the world leader standing up to the world-shattering dangers of a nuclear Iran. Anything that hurts and weakens him, hurts and weakens the firmest wall of resistance to the Kool Aid being dished out to the masses regarding an “agreement” with Iran to halt its rush towards becoming a nuclear-industrial power that threatens every single, man, woman and child on Planet Earth.
While he was at the end of a long day by the time he joined us, Prime Minister Netanyahu began his talk with vigor and determination. “We are witnessing the collapse of the Middle East as we know it,” he told us. “Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen are gone.” Iran, on the rise, has already taken over parts of Yemen and is supplying arms to Lebanon. “In ten to twelve years, Iran will be a nuclear industrial power, and the greatest threat to the future of our world.”
Seventy years ago, he reminded us, we didn’t have the ability to speak out. Now we have a country, a government, an army. We have the ability to make ourselves heard. It would be an everlasting crime not to raise our voices against this existential threat which is “a mortal threat to our survival.” I am, he said with particular passion, “firmly committed to preventing it.” The negotiations with Iran, even if successful, will still allow Iran its stockpile of enriched uranium. With all the negotiations, Iran hasn’t budged. The only progress, has been the West abandoning its opposition and moving towards Iran’s stance.
In answer to a question about negotiations with the Palestinians, he said with refreshing clarity that “any land handed over to the Palestinians has been given over to militant Islamist. “We saw it with Lebanon, we saw it with Gaza.” The upcoming Israeli elections are vital. “If you want me as Prime Minister, you must vote for the Likud. A vote for any other party, is a vote for the Left.”
This is true. Without a sweeping majority for his party, Netanyahu will not be able to form a government that will stand up against the failed policies of Leftists, responsible for numerous disasters in the last decade which saw us and our children blown up in buses, hotels, and bar mitzvahs. The delusional architects of “Oslo,” and its “land for peace” idea that has been discredited again and again and again.
Pitted against the usual range of Leftists like Herzog and the self-promoting, do-nothing Livni — whose only notable decision was the disastrous push to end the war against Hezbollah too early leaving them armed and dangerous to kill another day– it is hard to argue that it is vital that the Likud win big.
This is a hard pill for many. I myself don’t agree with all Likud policies. But as Mr. Netanyahu pointed out, as far as social programs are concerned, there is only money to improve the quality of life for Israeli citizens if we have a strong economy. He was instrumental in guiding Israel to an enviable economic status, with an unemployment rate the West can only dream about. He really has led the country away from disastrous socialist policies of previous Labor governments, to a thriving entrepreneurial “start-up nation” that is being studied and envied all over the world.
Israel has benefited. There are roads being built everywhere to make it possible for Israelis to live up north and down south and still be able to commute to work. He fought to free up public land for more housing, and to move army bases and army industries from the center of the country to the Negev to free up space for residential housing.
As I listened to him speak, I felt so humbled, and sad really, that Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had to defy the most hostile American administration ever, a frothing United Nations filled with backwater terror-lovers and barbarians, a world-wide insurgence of lethal anti-Semitism, must also deal with a local population inexplicably swayed again and again by used car salesmen politicians hawking their disproven and broken down Leftist policies with a coat of fresh paint. Zionist Coalition? Who are they kidding? They won’t agree to call Israel a Jewish State!
He’s flying to Washington to talk to Congress. He flew to France to march against terrorism and encourage French Jews to make Aliyah. He presided over a terrible war against Gaza with success.
What else do we want the man to do?
I wanted to stand up and tell him to ignore his critics, that millions of people all over the world are proud that he is going to speak to Congress, to plead Israel’s case—the world’s case!– to force Iran, the most dangerous terrorist state since Nazi Germany, to give up its rush towards nuclear weapons. I wanted to tell him that the Israelis I know are appalled by the personal attacks made against him and his wife during this election campaign, the attempts to paint them as money-grubbing and living high on the hog (you should see the area of the Prime Minister’s official residence I saw: plastic curtains, plastic chairs, old woodwork…Turning it into a “palace” with public funds? Pul-leese.) We don’t believe a word, and if anything, we are going to vote Likud to spit in their faces. It’s called “backlash.”
The meeting ended with shocking informality. A woman from Zichron Yaakov got up and told the Prime Minister much of what I was too shy to say. To my astonishment, I could see the eyes of Sarah and Benjamin Netanyahu moisten at the warm words. He put his arm around his wife and hugged her.
It was so special, and yet so normal, being in that room, watching our Prime Minister in his penny loafers and off the rack suit, his grey hair greyer than I remember it. He is was and is my hero. I will vote Likud and so should everyone else who wants to protect Israel’s children and her future.
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3 comments:
Forgive this interruption...but just a lite moment in these tense and dark days...Bibi's campaign ad's :) lol Of course the left in Israel are calling them "condensing", but the truth is the truth :)lol
Netanyahu's 'kindergarten' campaign video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRWFVE2RRq4
Benjamin Netanyahu babysitter ad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmac71R5Br8
Now back to our regular programming...:)
Very funny and hopefully effective! The babysitter was actually hilarious!
lol :)
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