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United Nations Moving Forward With Plan to Declare Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall A Muslim Holy Site

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Israel said Monday that it is working to thwart a Palestinian bid to have the Western Wall in Jerusalem declared a Muslim holy site by the UN’s cultural body in a vote [today].

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry called the proposal “an attempt to distort history and blur the connection between the Jewish people and its holiest place and to create a false reality.”

The Western Wall is one of the few remnants of the ancient retaining wall that held up an artificial plateau on which a refurbished Second Temple stood in the reign of King Herod the Great. The Temple and much of the wall were later destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E.

For Jews, who are forbidden from praying on the Temple Mount by Israeli regulations, the Western Wall is the prayer site closest to the ancient site of the Holy of Holies inside the destroyed Temple. It is considered the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray.

According to Muslim tradition, the Temple Mount is where Mohammad tied the winged animal Buraq, which he rode on the night he ascended to heaven. Atop it lies the Dome of the Rock — a Muslim shrine — and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. (Read more from “United Nations Moving Forward With Plan to Declare Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall A ‘Muslim Holy Site'” HERE)


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UPDATE: UNESCO has decreed that the second and third holiest sites in the Jewish faith are actually Muslim. At the same time, the initial draft proposal declaring that the Western Wall was also a Muslim holy site was withdrawn after facing widespread criticism

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has adopted a resolution condemning Israel for restricting the freedom of worship at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque and for mishandling holy sites.

The resolution submitted by Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates on behalf of Palestine, was adopted Wednesday with 26 votes in favor, six against, including the United States, Britain and Germany, and 25 abstentions, including France.

The adopted resolution referred to Jerusalem as “the occupied capital of Palestine”. It condemned “restrictions of freedom of worship at the Al-Aqsa mosque”, reaffirmed other complaints about Israeli management of holy sites and Israeli actions in Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.

The head of UN’s cultural body, Irina Bokova, called on the UNESCO board Tuesday “to take decisions that do not further inflame tensions on the ground and that encourage respect for the sanctity of the holy sites”. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Israel Deploys Hundreds of Soldiers in Jerusalem

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By Judah Ari Gross and Raoul Wootliff. Six companies of Israeli soldiers were mobilized in Jerusalem Wednesday, as the IDF joined efforts to secure the city following an escalation in the violence there. The move is part of a slew of measures passed by the security cabinet overnight Tuesday aiming to prevent further terror attacks after the deadliest day so far in the current wave of unrest.

Tuesday saw four terror attacks, two of which, in Jerusalem, left three Israelis dead. All told, over 30 were injured.

“In accordance with the cabinet’s decision last night, as of this morning 300 IDF soldiers have already begun spreading out to provide additional security under police command,” an Israel Police spokesman said in a statement Wednesday morning.

Police also began setting up checkpoints at “the exits of Palestinian villages and neighborhoods in east Jerusalem,” where most of the recent attackers have come from, a police spokeswoman said. Those police actions are intended to return security and order to all the country’s residents, the police said.

The security cabinet also voted to ramp up security arrangements on Jerusalem’s public transport, where the IDF will bolster security until the Transportation Ministry enlists additional guards. Soldiers will be stationed at bus and light rail stops, as well as on buses and trains across the city. (Read more from “Israel Deploys Hundreds of Soldiers in Jerusalem” HERE)

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Kerry Links ‘Increase in Violence’ to Israel’s Settlement Activity

By Rebecca Shimoni Stoil and AP. Expansion of building in settlements has increased Palestinian frustration, leading to the current upswing in violence, Secretary of State John Kerry told an audience at Harvard University Tuesday evening. Speaking about America’s ability to impact outcomes throughout the world, Kerry warned that “unless we get going, the two-state solution will be conceivably stolen from everybody.”

“There’s been a massive increase in settlements over the course of the last years,” Kerry said during a question-and-answer session, “and there’s an increase in the violence because there’s this frustration that’s growing.” Kerry noted that there was also “a frustration among Israelis who don’t see any end.”

“I look at that and I say if that did explode — and I pray and hope it won’t — and I think there’re options to prevent that, then we would inevitably be at some point engaged in working though those kinds of difficulties,” Kerry continued. “So better to find the ways to deal with it before that happens than later and I think what always perplexes me – we’ve been through Oslo, Wye Plantation, Madrid, countless negotiations. Most people I talk to have a pretty damn good sense of what has to be done.”

“It’s a question of making the judgments and having the courage to go there,” Kerry insisted, adding that “we have 16 months left in this administration and we’re going to stay engaged and try to work through these issues because there are options and there is a better other side to the current conflict we’re witnessing.”

The top US diplomat stressed that the Obama administration would keep pushing for an agreement in its remaining 16 months in office. US-backed talks collapsed spectacularly in April 2014 after a nine-month effort and negotiations have been in a deep freeze ever since. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Something Massive Was Just Discovered Under Ground in a Key Region of Israel That Could Ratchet Tensions Higher

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Israel’s relationship with surrounding nations could change significantly because of a recent discovery in their nation.

Massive oil reserves have been found near their Syrian border.

“There is enormous excitement,” Yuval Bartov, chief geologist for Afek Oil and Gas, an Israeli subsidiary of Genie Energy, an American company, said Tuesday. “It’s a fantastic feeling. We came here thinking maybe yes or maybe no, and now things are really happening.”

The potential of the discovery is vast, Bartov said. The field could meet Israel’s domestic oil consumption needs for many years, eliminating any need to import oil from Arab neighbors. Israel uses about 270,000 barrels of oil per day.

“We are talking about a strata which is 350 meters thick and what is important is the thickness and the porosity,” Bartov said. “On average in the world, strata are 20-30 meters thick, so this is ten times as large as that, so we are talking about significant quantities. The important thing is to know the oil is in the rock and that’s what we now know” . . .

The reserves were found in the Golan Heights, captured from Syria during the 1967 Six Day War and formally annexed by Israel in 1981. The region already contains vital underground water sources that provide Israel’s chief source of fresh water. (Read more from “Something Massive Was Just Discovered Under Ground in a Key Region of Israel That Could Ratchet Tensions Higher” HERE)

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NATO Allies Making It Easier for Iran to Attack Israel?

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1234In early 2013, NATO supposedly came to its ally’s help: As Turkey was under threat from Syrian missiles — potentially with biological/chemical warheads — the alliance would build a mini anti-missile defense architecture on Turkish soil. Six U.S.-made Patriot missile batteries would be deployed in three Turkish cities and protect a vast area where about 3.5 million Turks lived.

The Patriot batteries that would protect Turkey from Syrian missiles belonged to the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. In early 2015, the Dutch mission ended and was replaced by Spanish Patriots. Recently, the German government said that it would withdraw its Patriot batteries and 250 troops at the beginning of 2016. Almost simultaneously, the U.S. government informed Turkey that its Patriot mission, expiring in October, would not be renewed. Washington cited “critical modernization upgrades” for the withdrawal.

Since the air defense system was stationed on Turkish soil, it unnerved Iran more than it did Syria. There is a story behind this. First, Patriot missiles cannot protect large swaths of land, but only designated friendly sites or installations in their vicinity. That the six batteries would protect Turkey’s entire south and 3.5 million people living there was a tall tale. They would instead protect a U.S.-owned, NATO-assigned radar deployed earlier in Kurecik, a Turkish town; and they would protect it not from Syrian missiles with chemical warheads, but from Iranian ballistic missiles . . .

What was stationed in Kurecik was an early-warning missile detection and tracking radar system. Its mission is to provide U.S. naval assets in the Mediterranean with early warning and tracking information in case of an Iranian missile launch that might target an ally or a friendly country, including Israel. So, a six-battery Patriot shield to protect the NATO radar in Kurecik against possible Iranian aggression was necessary. And that explains why the Iranians went mad about Kurecik and openly threatened to hit it . . .

Why, otherwise, would a country feel “threatened” and threaten others with starting a “world war” just because a bunch of defensive systems are deployed in a neighboring country? Iran did so because it views the NATO radar in Turkey as an asset that could counter any missile attack on Israel; and the Patriots as hostile elements because they would protect that radar. In a way, Iran’s reaction to the NATO assets in Turkey revealed its intentions to attack. (Read more from “NATO Allies Making It Easier for Iran to Attack Israel?” HERE)

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Israel Recovers Ancient Sarcophagus Hidden by Contractors

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Part-NIC-Nic6481924-1-1-0Israeli authorities have recovered a Roman-era sarcophagus that construction workers sought to hide after digging it up at a building site, officials said Thursday.

The limestone coffin, estimated at 1,800 years old and discovered last week during work on a new neighbourhood in coastal city Ashkelon, was described as “unique” by Gabi Mazor, a retired Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist and expert on the era.

The contractors who encountered the find opted to extract it themselves with a tractor, damaging it before hiding it beneath a stack of metal sheets and boards, according to the authority.

Police have questioned the contractors on suspicion of not reporting their find and of damaging it, and the authority pledged that legal proceedings would be pursued against those involved . . .

Around the coffin are engraved images of “bulls’ heads, naked Cupids, and the head of the monstrous female figure Medusa which includes remains of hair together with snakes, part of a commonly held belief in the Roman period that she protects the deceased,” Mazor said. (Read more from “Israel Recovers Ancient Sarcophagus Hidden by Contractors” HERE)

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Israeli Archaeologists Unearth Unique Stepped Structure in City of David

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SteppedStructuresIsrael1An archaeological excavation in the Jerusalem Walls National Park in the City of David, the site of ancient Jerusalem, unearthed a pyramid-shaped staircase. This unique structure was located right next to the 2,000-year-old Second Temple stepped street, famed for leading religious pilgrims from Shiloah (Siloam) Pool to the temple. The dig was carried out in partnership between the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the City of David Foundation, according to a release from the Israel Antiquities Authority.

“The structure exposed is unique. To date such a structure has yet to be found along the stepped street in the numerous excavations that have taken place in Jerusalem and to the best of our knowledge outside of it,” said excavation directors, archaeologists Nahshon Szanton and Joe Uziel, in the release. “We believe the structure was a kind of monumental podium that attracted the public’s attention when walking on the city’s main street. It would be very interesting to know what was said there 2,000 years ago. Were messages announced here on behalf of the government? Perhaps news or gossip, or admonitions and street preaching – unfortunately we do not know” . . .

“Given the lack of a clear archaeological parallel to the stepped structure, the purpose of the staircase remains the mystery,” they said in the release. “It is certainly possible the rabbinical sources provide valuable information about structures, such as this, although for the time being there is no definitive proof.” (Read more from “Israeli Archaeologists Unearth Unique Stepped Structure in City of David” HERE)

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Israeli NGO Calls on British Authorities to Probe New Palestinian Resistance Curriculum

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An Israeli NGO called on the British authorities to investigate an offensive new curriculum developed by the National Union of Teachers that educates young students about Palestinian “occupation, freedom and resistance.”

“An immediate, thorough and independent investigation by the Charities Commission as well as the U.K. education authorities is clearly required,” demanded the president of Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, Gerald Steinberg.

Steinberg called the curriculum, which was developed by NUT together with a Christian charity called Edukid that aims to educate children living in poverty or conflict zones, “a fictitious narrative that promotes hate and incitement.”

Some have said the “extremist agenda” attempting to describe the often violent and unresolved Palestinian struggle for a state does not belong in a classroom with three-year-old students.

“We need to be more vigilant about the politicization of British classrooms,” said Tom Wilson of the Henry Jackson Society, according to the U.K. Daily Telegraph. (Read more from “Israeli NGO Calls on British Authorities to Probe New Palestinian Resistance Curriculum” HERE)

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Israel’s Foreign Ministry Chief: Sunni Arab Nations Are Our ‘Allies’

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The director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Dore Gold, called the Middle East’s Sunni Arab nations “Israel’s allies” . . .

“What we have is a regime on a roll that is trying to conquer the Middle East,” Gold said of Iran, “and it’s not Israel talking, that is our Sunni Arab neighbors — and you know what? I’ll use another expression – that is our Sunni Arab allies talking.”

Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations and a longtime adviser to Israeli prime ministers from the right-wing Likud Party, is also the author of a 2003 book on Saudi Arabia called “Hatred’s Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism.” Saudi Arabia has been one of the most vocal Arab opponents of US-Iran rapprochement and the Iran nuclear agreement.

The presentation, which was organized by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, also featured Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence who now heads Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies. Yadlin ran unsuccessfully for the Knesset in March on the center-left Zionist Union list.

Both Yadlin and Gold warned of the perils of the Iran nuclear agreement. Gold called Iran a major force of instability in the Middle East, and Yadlin said that while the deal gets a B+/A- on its short-term accomplishments of rolling back and freezing Iran’s nuclear program, it’s a “disaster” when it comes to the long-term implications of where it leaves Iran in 15 years. (Read more from “Israel’s Foreign Ministry Chief: Sunni Arab Nations Are Our ‘Allies'” HERE)

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Op-Ed: Obama Knows Iran Will Use Its Nukes on Israel

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At first, Obama said we couldn’t talk about his Iranian Nuke Deal unless it was finalized. Then, Obama said we couldn’t talk about his Iranian Nuke Deal unless we read it all – and simply didn’t disclose all of his side-deals. Now, he says Mike Huckabee’s comparison of shipping the Jews of Israel to the new ovens of the Iranian Auschwitz-Nuke is “ridiculous.”

Perhaps Obama wants to wait until Iran nukes Israel for it to be politically correct to call Iran’s wiping Israel off the map a “Holocaust.” But, make no mistake, Obama knows full well that Iran intends to wipe Israel off the map with its Obama-blessed Nukes.

Come on, does anyone (except the American left-wing cool-aid drinking Jews) really believe that Iran will abide by their “voluntary” protocols under the Vienna announcement? Of course not! Are Obama or any of the European Union leaders so rank stupid and naïve that they think Iran won’t build a bomb just like North Korea? Does anyone not know that one of Iran’s first targets will be to annihilate Israel?

Of course Obama knows Iran will seek to annihilate Israel, so that must be what Obama wants. (Read more from “Op-Ed: Obama Knows Iran Will Use Its Nukes on Israel” HERE)

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Spy for Israel, Jonathan Pollard, Finally Granted Parole

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Convicted spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard has been granted parole and will be released from an American jail on Nov. 21, his lawyer announced Tuesday.

Pollard’s release — exactly 30 years after his arrest — could help ease the tensions between the United States and Israel that have grown over the Iran nuclear deal, which President Barack Obama supports and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vehemently opposes.

Both the Justice Department and Pollard’s pro bono attorneys, Eliot Lauer and Jacques Semmelman, confirmed his release date Tuesday.

“Mr. Pollard is looking forward to being reunited with his beloved wife Esther,” his lawyers said in a statement.

“Mr. Pollard would like to thank the many thousands of well-wishers in the United States, in Israel, and throughout the world, who provided grass roots support by attending rallies, sending letters, making phone calls to elected officials, and saying prayers for his welfare. He is deeply appreciative of every gesture, large or small,” his lawyers said. “We look forward to seeing our client on the outside in less than four months.” (Read more from “Spy for Israel Jonathan Pollard Granted Parole” HERE)

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