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."

Israeli Leaders Defiant as Paris Victims Buried in Jerusalem

Tuesday, January 13, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

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Terrorism

Israeli leaders sounded a defiant tone on Tuesday as four Jewish victims of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris were laid to rest in Jerusalem.

Philippe Braham, Yohan Cohen, Yoav Hattab and Francois-Michel Saada were all killed during after a Muslim gunman stormed a Jewish grocery store and held shoppers and staff hostage, just days after fellow jihadists massacred employees at the offices of a satirical magazine in the French capital.

The bodes of the four victims of the grocery store attack were flown to Israel along with their families.

Their funeral at Jerusalem’s Har HaMenuchot cemetery was attended by President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, opposition leader Isaac Herzog and many other political and military leaders.

“This is not how we wanted to welcome you to Israel,” Rivlin said, looking to the bereaved families. “I stand before you, brokenhearted, shaken and in pain, and with me stands an entire nation. …This is sheer hatred of Jews; abhorrent, dark and premeditated, which seeks to strike, wherever there is Jewish life.”

Netanyahu vowed that no matter how dark the present situation, the terrorists “will never, ever beat us. This is the strength of an ancient people that has always prevailed and thank God, look around you, here in the mountains of Jerusalem, today we have a state of our own, flourishing and advanced, a state that is a moral beacon to the world.”

Herzog said there was a direct connection between the hatred that brought about the Paris supermarket attack, and the spilling of Jewish blood in Israel.

“A straight line connects the murder of the four Jews [in the Paris supermarket] to the bastards who penetrated the Har Nof synagogue and killed people at worship in their prayer shawls two months ago,” the opposition leader stated.

Herzog echoed Netanyahu in insisting that “terror will not win. …This is what brings the Jewish people together: the fact that we are set apart from other nations, the fact we face enemies.”

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Most Persecution of Christians is at Hands of Muslims

Wednesday, January 07, 2015 |  Israel Today Staff

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The non-denominational relief organization Open Doors on Wednesday published its annual World Watch List of the 50 countries around the world where Christians face the most persecution.

The group estimates that some 100 million Christians globally are persecuted for their faith. Over the past year, both the severity and the geographic distribution of persecution have increased, reported Open Doors.

That is especially true in the Middle East, where only in Israel does the Christian population grow and thrive. Needless, to say, the Jewish state did not make the list of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Since 2002, North Korea has held tight to the inglorious top position on the World Watch List. Of the estimated 200,000–400,000 underground Christians in North Korea, up to 70,000 are listed as “enemies of the regime” and made to suffer torture and hard labor in detention camps.

After North Korea, most of the persecution is happening in the Middle East, where violent jihadism has been on the rise, putting the local Christian populations under increasing pressure.

Iran rose to seventh place on the list over the past year. Unlike other Muslim countries in the region, in Iran persecution of Christians is government sanctioned. Under the leadership of the “moderate” President Rouhani, prison sentences are more common than ever for those suspected of having come to faith in Jesus.

In neighboring Iraq and Syria, the atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) against local Christians have shocked the world. With the assistance of jihadists from around the world, ISIS has vigorously pursued the establishment of a caliphate imposing strict Islamic principles reminiscent of the violent times of the Prophet Mohammed.

Christians unfortunately enough to find themselves living under the caliphate have been forcibly evicted, enslaved and murdered. In the Nineveh Plains and the city of Mosul, ancient Christians communities, the entire Christian population have virtually disappeared.

The authors of the Open Doors study noted that in no less than 18 of the 20 highest ranking countries “Islamic extremism” is the main driving force behind the persecution of Christians.

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Christian Mother in Somalia Beheaded in Front of Her Daughters

Coastal town of Barawa, in southeastern Somalia. (Wikimedia Commons)

Christian Mother in Somalia 

Beheaded in Front of Her Daughters

3/20/2014 INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN, CHARISMA NEWS

A Christian mother of two and her cousin were beheaded by al-Shabab Islamic extremists once their faith was discovered. The extremists beheaded them publicly, in front of the woman's daughters and many of the villagers in the town square.

Morning Star News reports that Sadia Ali Omar, the mother of the two girls, and her cousin, Osman Mohamoud Moge, were beheaded in the port town of Barawa in the Lower Shebelle region on March 4.

Before the two were martyred in front of many witnesses, sources report that the Islamic extremists said, "We know these two people are Christians who recently came back from Kenya—we want to wipe out any underground Christian living inside of mujahidin [jihadists'] area."

Al-Shabab is a rebel militia group that has vowed to rid Somalia of all Christians, as converting from Islam in Somalia is punishable by death. The militants who slaughtered the two believers "became suspicious of Omar and Moge due to their irregular attendance at Friday mosque prayers," sources say.

"It is an injustice that a mother can be murdered in front of her children merely for being a devout follower of her chosen faith," says Corey Bailey, regional manager for International Christian Concern. "Al-Shabab is an Islamic extremist group that has vowed to make Somalia 'purely Islamic.' The group adheres to an extremely harsh interpretation of Shariah that includes the beheading of converts from Islam and the removal of hands from thieves. The practice of torturing and killing converts from Islam must be addressed by the international community and should have no place in modern society."  

This article originally appeared on persecution.org.

Source: CHARISMA NEWS