Gazans Risking It All To Reach Israel

Thursday, September 03, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

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Gaza

Palestinians raised in the Gaza Strip are taught to believe Israel is a blood-thirsty monster that desires nothing more than their destruction. Apparently, many aren’t buying the lies, as the number of Gazans risking it all to seek asylum in the Jewish state is growing.

Every day, Palestinians are crossing the border, and telling of impossible living conditions under the Hamas regime.

Initially, IDF soldiers guarding the border feared the rising number of infiltrators was a new wave of terrorist activity. But interrogations revealed that most of those crossing the fence are fleeing in fear of Hamas, willing even to risk imprisonment in Israel, where at least they’ll receive three meals a day.

Hamas itself is working to stem this tide by establishing a security strip patrolled by its gunmen, forcing the asylum seekers to crawl long distances and then under the fence. Those who are captured on the Gaza side are executed.

“We were afraid of Hamas, and the patrol road they built is meant to prevent us from leaving Gaza,” said one escapee in remarks published by Israel’s NRG news portal. Hamas reportedly worries those who leave Gaza could become “collaborators” with Israel.

Since last summer’s Gaza war, sparked by increased Hamas rocket fire on southern Israel, the socio-economic situation in the coastal enclave has reached an all-time low. Residents suffer from a lack of food and basic supplies, and nearly all the aid entering Gaza is confiscated by Hamas. For instance, nearly all of the cement sent to Gaza to repair and rebuilt homes damaged in the war has instead been used to construct new smuggling and terror tunnels.

Most of the asylum-seeking infiltrators are immediately captured by the IDF and other security forces. Following questioning, nearly all are sent back to Gaza.

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Obama Blames Netanyahu, Jihadists Attack Jews

By Tzippe Barrow

CBN News Internet Producer - Jerusalem

Thursday, June 04, 2015

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Days after President Obama said Israel is losing "credibility" because of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's intransigence on the creation of a Palestinian state, jihadists in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets on southern Israel, the second attack in 10 days.

The rockets exploded in open areas near the cities of Ashkelon and Netivot. There were no injuries or property damage, but air raid sirens blared in Gaza-perimeter communities just after 11 p.m. Wednesday.

IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said more than 140,000 Israel citizens were potentially at risk when the air raid sirens sounded.

The IDF responded by targeting three terrorist training camps in Gaza, confirming direct hits.

An ISIS-affiliated group in the Gaza Strip, calling itself Sheikh Amar Hadid Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack, calling it retaliation for the death of one its members by Hamas.

According to Channel 2 Middle East commentator Ehud Yaari, the man Hamas executed was a former officer in one of its own brigades.

Yaari said Hamas is trying to curb these activities by arresting some Salafist activists and trying to discipline Islamic Jihad, the group responsible for the rocket attack 10 days ago.

"Salafists are trying to undermine Hamas policy, coordinating with ISIS-affiliated Salafists in the Sinai," Yaari told journalists Thursday morning.

Yaari said Hamas is weakening because the perception of Operation Protective Edge, the IDF'S military incursion against Hamas rocket fire last summer, is different in Gaza than the way it's been presented to the outside world.

Gaza residents see it as a failed offensive because Hamas didn't achieve any of its demands.

There's one point, however, on which they all seem to agree, articulated in a statement by the Sheikh Amar Hadid Brigades.

"We have repeated that we will continue in the way of jihad ["holy" war] against the Jews, the enemies of Allah," its statement read. "No one will stop us from filling our obligation and attacking the Jews."

Meanwhile, Israel holds Hamas responsible.

"Even if the shooters last night were jihadist groups rebelling against Hamas by firing at us, we view Hamas as being responsible for everything that occurs in the territory of Gaza," Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said in a statement.

"We will not tolerate any attempts to harm our civilians or allow the return of a reality where rockets are trickling into the state," he added. "We will act decisively and firmly to ensure the security of the residents of the South and the citizens of Israel."

Does Hamas' Renewed Tunnel Digging Concern No One?

Monday, October 20, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff

An official Hamas newspaper, Al-Risalah, openly and proudly acknowledged this week that the terror group had renewed the digging of attack tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to targeted Jewish communities in southern Israel.

And this just days after the international community pledged billions of dollars to Hamas-ruled Gaza, and while Western leaders are again putting pressure on Israel to restart peace talks with a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas.

A reporter for Al-Risalah wrote that he personally visited one of the tunnels now under construction. Like many others, the tunnel had been destroyed by Israeli forces during the summer’s Gaza war. That these tunnels are being restored, at great financial cost, is seen as a victory in Gaza, even though they are likely to lead to another devastating war.

Israeli commentators have responded to the situation with great frustration. Western blindness and willingness to tacitly support Palestinian terror, so long as not too many Israelis die, has become the norm. But many Israelis are increasingly upset that their own government is playing along with this dangerous diplomatic game.

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Israel Flourishing Despite Struggles

By Tzippe Barrow

CBN News Internet Producer - Jerusalem

Monday, October 20, 2014

Israel for everything from the failed peace process with the Palestinian Authority, to defending itself against its enemies, to a variety of global issues worldwide, the nation continues to prosper.

In his first interview following last summer's military operation in the Gaza Strip, posted byIsrael Hayom, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon quotes Dr. Moshe Beilinson, the former deputy editor of an Israeli newspaper, whose response to the question, "When will it end?" still applies: "When the last of our enemies understand that we are here forever."

That's a lesson most Israeli youth learn right out of high school when they begin their compulsory military service -- three years for men and two for women. They soon learn they're defending their own homes and families. It's a lesson they'll live out the rest of their lives, many as reservists in conflicts such as took place this past summer against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Experience has made Israeli leaders -- and the people for that matter -- very pragmatic. It's been an uphill battle from the start, which in itself has helped create a strong, determined people, a mélange of every culture, who have learned to live and work together in a country where ancient meets modern.

In his latest article, former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yoram Ettinger writes, "Israel is increasingly appreciated and embraced -- not ostracized -- by the global community." It's a perspective you'll rarely find in international media.

Ettinger quotes a recent article in Entrepreneur, describing the ingenuity of the Israeli people.

"The pool of STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] talent in Israel is huge. There are 140 scientists, technicians and engineers for every 10,000 Israeli employees, compared to 85 per 10,000 in the USA…Israel is flush with entrepreneurs…filled with people with courage, drive, creativity, boldness and tenacity, who will move mountains to achieve their goals and dreams."

Israeli innovation in medical research, agriculture, solar energy, aerospace engineering -- the list goes on and on -- has improved life for people in many countries.

So while the world condemns Israel at every juncture, God continues to prosper and bless the nation, the people and the land itself as foretold in the Bible.

Polls continue to show that Israelis for the most part are optimistic about the future. And well they should be. The challenges of life here in Israel help people care for one another and appreciate the simple pleasures.

That camaraderie can be experienced every Friday night as families and friends gather around the table to thank God for His bountiful provision during the work week and for Shabbat (the Sabbath) and the rest it brings.

WATCH: Hamas Continues to Manufacture Missiles

Thursday, August 14, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff

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Hamas

Hamas’ Al Aqsa TV this week broadcast a special report featuring masked terrorists continuing to manufacture medium-range missiles in the Gaza Strip, even as the group’s leader purportedly negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel.

In the clip, Hamas engineers are seen assembling and polishing M–75 missiles.

The M–75 is based on the Iranian-made Fajr–5 missile. It has a range of 80 km (50 miles) and can hit Jerusalem and most of Greater Tel Aviv. The Fajr–5 sports a 400-pound warhead, and the M–75 is believed to carry a similar payload.

Hamas fired a great many M–75 and other medium-range missiles during this summer’s Gaza war. Nearly all that were predicted to hit populated areas were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system.

That Hamas continues to manufacture these weapons is not only a slap in the face of all those now working toward a lasting ceasefire, but a gross violation of Israel’s past signed agreements with the Palestinians, which stipulate that the Gaza Strip is to be a demilitarized area.

The materials used to make these missiles are among those sent into Gaza ostensibly to build facilities and services for the civilian population. That they are instead used to manufacture weapons of war is one of the reasons Israel maintains a limited blockade on Gaza.

Click here to see the Al Aqsa report on Hamas continuing to manufacture M–75 missiles. The linked page is in Hebrew, and the audio of the video is in Arabic, but the images speak for themselves.

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US Absolves Abbas of Responsibility for Gaza Rockets

Thursday, June 12, 2014 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY

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America

The Obama Administration determined on Wednesday that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, despite having forged a new unity government, cannot be held responsible for terrorist rocket fire perpetrated by his regime’s citizens residing in the Gaza Strip.

Terrorists operating out of the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel early Wednesday morning. The projectile narrowly missed a major traffic artery.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that Abbas must be held accountable for such attacks, since he has now welcomed Gaza’s Hamas rulers into his government.

“I would like to remind the international community that [Abbas] - on the day he formed a government with the Hamas terrorist organization - promised to honor all previous agreements. This means that he is responsible for disarming Hamas and the other terrorist organizations of the arsenals in Gaza,” said Netanyahu.

The American government quickly rejected that assessment.

“We feel President Abbas needs to do everything possible to prevent [such attacks], [but] we understand that his ability to do that is severely limited at this point in time,” US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

Abbas’ office soon after issued a pseudo-condemnation of the rocket attack, but not because it had targeted Israeli civilians, but rather because it hindered the current Palestinian agenda.

“The leadership calls on all Palestinian factions to honor the 2012 Cairo truce and the understandings of the reconciliation agreement out of keenness for the interest of the Palestinian people and their security and so as not to give Israel any excuse to continue its aggression against the Gaza Strip,” read the statement.

While that statement seemed to satisfy the Americans, Israeli leaders were unimpressed.

“President Abbas claims that the new Palestinian government honors all previous commitments. So why has he not disarmed the terrorist organizations in Gaza as he is obligated to do? Without such action his ‘condemnation’ of today’s rocket attack on Israel is nothing but empty rhetoric,” Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told The Jerusalem Post.

The episode highlighted the point Netanyahu and other Israeli officials have been making for years: that Abbas cannot be reasonably viewed as a viable peace partner if he is unable or unwilling to deliver on those peace obligations that are most important to Israel.

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US Backs Israel in Quitting Peace Talks (LFHP Editor's Note: GOOD FOR THE USA! Finally!)

US Backs Israel in Quitting Peace Talks

Thursday, April 24, 2014 |  Ryan Jones  ISRAEL TODAY

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Peace Process

The Obama Administration on Wednesday signaled its support for Israel’s decision to cancel further peace talks with the Palestinian Authority after the latter concluded a unity agreement with the Hamas terrorist organization.

“It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to sit down and negotiate with a group that denies its right to exist,” US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said in reference to Hamas.

Israel has long insisted that it cannot make genuine peace with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas.

In 2006, the Palestinian public responded to Israel’s position on the matter by overwhelmingly voting Hamas into power in national legislative elections. An internal power struggle with its rival Fatah kept Hamas from exercising its full authority. But Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (Fatah) this week demonstrated that he had no problem reconciling with Hamas, even if doing so put peace with Israel further out of reach.

The deal forged between Abbas and his Hamas rivals calls for the formation of a unity government in the next five weeks, and could see the Palestinian leader visit the Gaza Strip for the first time since it was seized by Hamas in a bloody coup in 2007.

“I said this morning that Abbas needs to choose between peace with Israel and an agreement with Hamas, a murderous terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and which both the United States and the European Union define as a terrorist organization,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a statement released to the press.

“This evening, as talks are still ongoing about extending the negotiations, Abbas has chosen Hamas and not peace,” he continued. “Whoever chooses Hamas does not want peace.”

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s chief negotiator in talks with the Palestinians, agreed: “The reconciliation agreement that Mahmoud Abbas signed with Hamas is a bad step, which not only caused the cancelation of [negotiations], but cast a heavy shadow on the possibility to progress.”

Livni added that Israel “has a duty, even when we want peace, not to stop seeing reality with eyes wide open: Hamas combines religious Muslim extremist ideology with terrorism and doesn’t recognize our right to exist.”

Finance Minister Yair Lapid said both the Fatah-Hamas unity agreement and Abbas’ recent decision to violate agreements with Israel by unilaterally seeking recognition for “Palestine” called into question whether or not the Palestinians really want a state of their own, or rather, a state alongside Israel.

“Hamas is not a government, it is a Jihadist terror organization that has inscribed on its flag the killing of civilians — women, children, old people — just because they are Jewish,” Lapid reminded a gathering of the European Jewish Congress in Tel Aviv.

At an emergency cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday, Netanyahu was reportedly urged to go beyond simply canceling a few negotiating sessions, and to impose real sanctions on the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, maintained that unity with Hamas should not preclude a negotiated settlement with Israel. Abbas was quoted as saying that bringing Hamas into the PLO (the parent organization of the Palestinian Authority) would somehow bolster the chances of a lasting peace.

PHOTO: Hamas and Fatah negotiators shake hands in Gaza

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Love For His People Editor's Note: 

GOOD FOR THE USA! 

Finally! Supporting Israel again!!!

Steve Martin