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Bulgarian suicide attack on Israelis was exceptionally sophisticated, coordinated

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A sophisticated group of conspirators was involved in the suicide bombing in Bulgaria that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver last week, and they spent at least a month in Bulgaria before the attack, the country’s prime minister said Tuesday.

Boiko Borisov’s comments confirm suspicions that the suicide attacker who targeted a bus filled with Israeli vacationers last Wednesday did not act alone. However, the prime minister did not offer any evidence or give many more details. He didn’t say how many people were believed to have been involved in attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas and also declined to back up Israel’s claims that Iran and the militant group Hezbollah played roles.

Those involved used “leased vehicles, they moved in different cities so as not to be seen together, and no two of them can be seen in one place on any security camera,” Borisov said, speaking alongside visiting White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan.

He described the people behind the blast as “exceptionally skilled” and said they operated under “strict conspiracy rules.” He also said DNA samples from the suicide bomber have been shared with all partner security services, but no match has been found in their databases.

“There was absolutely no chance of preventing such an act of violence,” Borisov insisted. “We could have only detected it by chance or if we had been informed by the services that such activities were under way in Bulgaria.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: Alselon

Video: Miracle in Gaza – story of a soldier’s improbable survival

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After my three week trip to Israel – including the West Bank and Gaza – this past fall, the attached video has special meaning.  I saw firsthand the results of indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli towns outside of Gaza. This inspiring 10 minute+ video, narrated by a former IDF soldier, discusses the miraculous preservation of his unit during the war in Gaza and includes some great pictures of the Holy Land.

 

 

Photo credit: Joe Miller, All Rights Reserved.

Syria promises to use WMD if attacked

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The Syrian regime acknowledged for the first time Monday that it possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and said it will only use them in case of a foreign attack and never internally against its own citizens .

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the stockpiles are secure, in an apparent response to widespread international concerns that they could fall into the hands of the disparate bands of rebel forces fighting the government.

“No chemical or biological weapons will ever be used, and I repeat, will never be used, during the crisis in Syria no matter what the developments inside Syria,” he said in conference broadcast on state TV. “All of these types of weapons are in storage and under security and the direct supervision of the Syrian armed forces and will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external aggression.”

Syria is believed to have nerve agents as well as mustard gas, Scud missiles capable of delivering these lethal chemicals and a variety of advanced conventional arms, including anti-tank rockets and late-model portable anti-aircraft missiles.

Israel has said it fears that chaos following Assad’s fall could allow the Jewish state’s enemies, to access Syria’s chemical weapons and has not ruled out military intervention to prevent this from happening.

Read more from this story HERE.

Egypt’s new leadership renounces terms of 1978 peace treaty with Israel in front of a silent Hillary Clinton

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was silent as a senior Egyptian official stated during a joint press conference that his country would only uphold its peace treaty with Israel if the Jewish state returns to its 1967 borders and gives Palestinians control over portions of Jerusalem.

During a press conference Saturday in Cairo, Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr were asked about Egypt’s longstanding peace treaty with Israel, which has come under scrutiny in recent months by officials of Egypt’s new, Muslim Brotherhood-led government.

“Egypt’s understanding of peace is that it should be comprehensive, exactly as stipulated in the treaty itself,” Amr said, referring to the original 1978 Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt.

“And this also includes the Palestinians, of course, and its right to—their right to have their own state on the land that was—the pre-June 4, 1967, borders with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Clinton remained silent following Amr’s statement.  The Obama administration also backs a return to the pre-1967 borders—a decision that was roundly condemned by Jewish leaders when it was announced by the president in May 2011.

Read more from this story HERE.

Time for the U.S. to Abandon the United Nations

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For years, pundits, politicians and columnists – including me – have fiercely criticized the United Nations. This institution has become a political cesspool controlled by totalitarian states and rogue nations that despise democracy, liberty and freedom. It’s only getting worse with time.

Look what’s happened during the past two weeks:  Syria is likely to get a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council. U.N. Watch reported Iran will get a “top post” on the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty conference, which it described as being “like choosing Bernie Madoff to police fraud in the stock market.” Meanwhile, U.N. and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan claimed to have had a “very candid and constructive” meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

These are all ridiculous stories, but honestly, should we be surprised? I’m not. The U.N. has a long, sordid history of electing tyrannies and dictatorships to its various agencies, boards and councils. For an organization that vigorously claims to support world peace, it also vigorously – and controversially – supports countries that don’t have the slightest grasp of this concept.

For example, Libya chaired the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 2003 – and was a U.N. Security Council member in 2008 and 2009. Syria has twice headed the U.N. Security Council, in June 2002 and August 2003. Iran and Iraq were scheduled to co-chair a U.N. nuclear disarmament conference before Saddam Hussein was toppled from power in 2003. Additionally, North Korea – a major nuclear threat – headed the U.N. Conference on Disarmament just last year.

Not to be overlooked is the U.N.’s repeated condemnation of Israel’s policies for more than five decades while ignoring the terrible slaughter of Rwandans and Bosnian Muslims in two bloody civil wars, publicly supporting an antiterrorism conference held in Tehran, and refusing to expel members that openly support and finance terrorist groups. The list goes on and on.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: FreedomHouse

Video: Hamas Founder’s son claims Islam is “a religion of war,” Muhammad author of extremism, terror

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Mosab Yousef, the son of a Hamas founder, argues that Islam is a religion of war and that following Muhammad inevitably leads to extremism and terror.

Photo credit: kitty23

Son of Hamas Founder: ‘Time to expose Muhammad’

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Mosab Hassan Yousef stepped out of the airport terminal in a dark suit and tie, looking every inch the Hollywood darling. It’s perhaps not surprising then, that his close friend and the man who accompanied him on his trip to Israel this month, is producer and actor Sam Feuer. Feuer played the role of Yousef Romano in Steven Spielberg’s Munich, a movie about the aftermath of the Black September. Full of intrigue, spies, and clandestine operations—not to mention terror attacks on Israeli citizens—the plot of Spielberg’s cloak-and-dagger movie is not unlike Mosab’s own life as a secret agent.

Most people know the story by now, so I’ll be brief: In 1978, Mosab is born to the son of one of Hamas’ seven founders, Sheikh Hassan Yousef. Prepped to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a terrorist, Mosab starts asking questions until gradually, over the years, he becomes convinced that the ways of Hamas cannot be the truth. He subsequently converts to Christianity. He becomes an agent for Shin Bet. The intelligence he provides prevents terror attacks and leads to the incarceration of Hamas terrorists. In 2007, he leaves the West Bank in favor of the west coast. He gains political asylum in the US and remains there before coming back to Israel for a surprise visit last month.

Something about his life story—and indeed, certain aspects of his personality, including the fearless chutzpah with which he deceived Hamas—is distinctly reminiscent of Frank Abagnale, the real-life protagonist of yet another of Spielberg’s classics, Catch Me If You Can. But unlike the notorious confidence trickster, the former Shin Bet agent did not do what he did to advance his own interests (and neither did he forge millions of dollars worth of checks.) In his own words, Mosab Yousef did what he did in order “to save lives.”

Upon first meeting Yousef, there were a number of things I was curious to discover about his personality. Is he naïve or a realist? Is he extraordinarily foolish or extraordinarily brave? Has playing with fire become a way of life for him or does he take risks out of a sense of moral duty? More than once I was asked by other people, “Is he normal?” Considering the mind-boggling events that have shaped the life of Hamas’ prodigal son, the question is forgivable.

Normal or not, one thing about Mosab Yousef is that he is no politician. When asked whether he has any political aspirations, Yousef answers with a categorical “no.” Given his personality, his answer is hardly surprising. Yousef doesn’t seem to have a single trait that is conducive to being a politician. He has no sense of political correctness, and even though he is polite and refined, he lacks the diplomatic airs and graces of successful politicians. With utmost sincerity and an almost child-like earnestness, Yousef simply states the truth as he sees it.

Read more from this story HERE.

Photo credit: travelingCA

Israeli Gov’t: Another Obama term, “nightmare” for Jewish State

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I am traveling through Israel with the Young Jewish Conservatives—an emerging organization that is breaking the stereotype that all Jews (especially young ones) lean to the left.

Tonight we had the opportunity to speak with someone who shall remain anonymous, and who is a very credible source. He told us that there are those at the “highest levels of the Israeli Government” (possibly including Prime Minister Netanyahu himself) who have recently said that 4 more years of an Obama Presidency would be a “nightmarish scenario” for the Jewish State.

This Israeli fear of a second Obama term should surprise no one that has been following the disintegration of the Israel/American relationship during the last few years. After all, with regards to Israel’s greatest fear, a nuclear armed Iran, Obama has totally dropped the ball.

The only way Iran will peacefully abandon its nuclear weapons program is if it fears a credible military threat from America or Israel. Obama has seriously undermined this threat by giving in to endless “talks” with Iran, and for spending the bulk of his energy convincing Israel not to take pre-emptive military action. As a retired Israeli soldier told us yesterday, “Iran is laughing all the way to the bomb.”

Read more HERE.

Prez on Bibi – Will the Real Barack Obama Please Stand Up?

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As yet there is no category for most amazing backtracking done by a president in the Guinness Book of World Records but there is little doubt that Barack Obama would beat all other entrants to the category hands down.

Using words and phrases like Obama changes stance, clarifies or explains what he really meant are rife across the news cycle of the mainstream media including the internet. Explanations, gyrations and backtracking notwithstanding the rest of America is not going to be fooled as in, they know exactly what they heard the first time. If the audacity of dumb Americans was not already the thorn in Obama’s side for far too long now they are told they are people who, ‘just don’t listen.’

On May 19, 2011 the president clearly said these words to the entire world, no spin attached, nothing added.

“The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.”

To say that this statement was just a onetime event that may have been either misread or misspoken is countered by the fact that Obama said the same thing on more than one occasion.

In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee the president said he was misunderstood and what he really meant was, “By definition, it means that the parties themselves – Israelis and Palestinians – will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967.”

Read More at American Prophet by Rev. Michael Bresciani, American Prophet