Scenes of police using force outside hospital, Shireen Abu Akleh’s casket almost toppling, draw widespread condemnation; cops says rioters had seized casket against family’s wishes

By JACOB MAGID, AARON BOXERMAN and AGENCIES      13 May 2022, 10:31 pmUpdated: Today, 7:36 am  <

Israeli police confront mourners as they carry the casket of slain Al Jazeera veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in East Jerusalem, Friday, May 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

Scenes of Israeli police rushing participants in the funeral of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, using force against Palestinians who were carrying her casket outside a Jerusalem hospital and nearly toppling it, drew widespread condemnation on Friday, with the White House saying it was “deeply disturbing,” while the European Union said it was “appalled.”

The police said in a subsequent statement that it intervened because rioters took her casket at the hospital against her family’s wishes, and prevented it from being loaded onto a hearse, as previously agreed, for that part of the funeral procession.

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“I view Iran as the most destabilizing force in the Middle East. The United States’ position is that we will not allow a nuclear Iran. However, our concerns about Iran go beyond its nuclear capability,” says Maj. Gen. Michael Kurilla

By  News Agencies and ILH Staff

Then-Lt. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla testifies before the Senate Armed Services committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, to be general and commander of the US Central Command | Photo: AP/Susan Walsh

Iran is “the number one destabilizing factor” in the Middle East, commander of United States Central Command Maj. Gen. Michael Kurilla told Dubai-based Arabic television news channel Al-Arabiya on Thursday.

Kurilla, who was on a tour of Saudi Arabia and Egypt as part of what he called a “listening tour,” told Al Arabiya on Thursday that countering the threat posed by Iran required regional cooperation.

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Statement says ‘mob’ took Shireen Abu Akleh’s casket against her family’s wishes, prompting police action; brother says mourners were attacked as soon as they left hospital

By TOI STAFF      Today, 2:14 am

Israeli police confront mourners as they carry the casket of slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during her funeral in Jerusalem, May 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

Israeli police said late Friday that officers intervened in the funeral of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jerusalem earlier in the day after “rioters” seized her coffin at the hospital, against her family’s wishes.

Officers charged Palestinians who were holding and surrounding the casket, and beat them with batons, nearly toppling the coffin. Images of the incident sparked global shock and condemnation.

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And got away with it.

By David Horowitz and John Perazzo, FPM    May 13/22

Everybody to the right of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez knows that the root cause of the crisis facing America — the most serious since the Civil War — is lawlessness. And everybody not under the spell of the Democrat spin machine understands that the lawlessness begins at the top, with government and the many agencies of the executive branch who are tasked by our Constitution with enforcing the law. Whether by failing to enforce our immigration statutes, or failing to prosecute criminals in our streets, or violating our election procedures to favor one party, Democrat administrations in our nation’s capital and our major cities have brazenly supported criminal behavior carried out by Black Lives Matter rioters, common street thugs, and anti-Supreme Court agitators seeking to extort decisions by fear. The effect has been to systematically undermine the rule of law, stoke the fires of anarchy, and sow chaos in our institutions.

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By Maya Carlin, CSP

Israel Defense Forces / Wikimedia

Israel’s air superiority over the Middle East can be attributed to its unique F-35I Adir stealth fighter jet – the only nation on Earth with a custom version of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The origin story of the “Mighty One” begins in 2010, when Israel became the first country outside the aircraft’s nine-nation co-development group to buy the jet. By 2018, Israel became the first country to debut its version of the F-35 as combat operational. The Jewish state’s fleet of fifth-generation stealth jets has been an instrumental tool in its shadow war against the Islamic Republic of Iran and overall deterrence in the region.

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The mainstream media generally choose to believe the Palestinians, even though they routinely lie about Israel. These lies are weapons of war, deployed to incite violence and mass murder. Op-ed.

By Melanie Phillips

A Palestinian Arab journalist with Al Jazeera, Shireen Abu Akleh, was shot dead this week in a firefight between Hamas and the Israelis in the West Bank city of Jenin.

Western news outlets initially reported uncritically the Hamas claim that the Israelis had shot her, eagerly regurgitating Al Jazeera’s assertion that the Israelis had “assassinated” her “in cold blood.”

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Standing up for the truth of Israel in a world of hypocrisy and lies.

by Rabbi Chaim Richman and Jim Long, INN

This week, our hosts discuss the recent spate of terror attacks in Israel in the light of history, and the Torah’s emphasis on the importance of the Land of Israel and the key role it plays in the redemption of Israel and all mankind.

Jim Long and Rabbi Chaim Richman present a scathing analysis of these painful events as they are falsely portrayed in the media and manipulated by the political echelon.

The organization, the New York Solidarity Network, views itself as a counterweight to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and the Democratic Socialists of America.

By Dana Rubinstein, NYT   May 12/22

Protesters march in New York against Ben & Jerry’s on Aug. 12, 2021, after the company decided to stop selling its products in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.Credit…Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

In the past year, the left-wing effort to boycott Israel over its treatment of Palestinians has won over The Harvard Crimson and the Irish novelist Sally Rooney. It’s even affected ice cream: Ben & Jerry’s has refused to sell its confections in the occupied territories.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland’s electoral base is in Canada’s Ukrainian diaspora community, which has rebranded Nazi collaborators as nationalist war heroes

By Jeremy Appel, TABLET

On Jan. 26, 2022, in the midst of Russia’s preparations to invade Ukraine, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland issued a statement outlining why Canada—home to the largest Ukrainian diaspora outside Russia—would support Ukraine unconditionally, outlining a Manichean view of a “struggle between democracy and authoritarianism.” “Canadians—our own parents and grandparents—fought and died,” she continued, “to establish a rules-based international order during and after the Second World War.”

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A Hamas delegation visited Moscow at a time when relations between Russia and Israel are taking a more tense turn due to Israel’s position in the Russia-Ukraine war.

By Rasha Abou Jalal, Al MONITOR   May 12/22

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meets with representatives of Palestinian groups and movements, who are in Moscow for intra-Palestinian talks, on Feb. 12, 2019.KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — A Hamas delegation visited Moscow on May 4, where it held talks with Russian officials at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s guesthouse. The talks concluded on May 5.

Hamas’ visit to Moscow came at a time when Russian-Israeli relations are tense due to Israel’s condemning position of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The Hamas delegation was led by head of the movement’s international relations office Moussa Abu Marzouk, and it included members of the movement’s political bureau, notably Fathi Hammad and Hussam Badran.

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Hamas is urging Arabs of Israel to escalate their attacks against Israelis inside Israel, as part of efforts to confuse the Israeli army in the event of a war with Gaza.

By Rasha Abou Jalal, AL MONITOR     May 11, 2022

An Israeli soldier takes aim during a raid in the town of Rummanah, near the flashpoint town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on May 8, 2022, reportedly the home of Palestinian Subhi Imad Abu Shukair, suspected of carrying out a fatal ax attack in the central city of Elad two days earlier. – JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty 

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — As part of efforts to avoid dragging the Gaza Strip into another military confrontation with the Israeli army, Hamas is working to move the confrontation with Israel inside its territories as a better means of confrontation than launching rockets from Gaza into Israel.

On May 5, which marks Israeli Independence Day, two Palestinians killed three Israelis and wounded several others using an ax in an attack inside a park in the town of Elad east of Tel Aviv

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by Roie Yellinek and Assaf Malach, Middle East Quarterly Spring 2022 

While the “Palestine question” has long dominated inter-Arab politics, not only have the Arab states been driven by their own ulterior motives, but they also have shown little concern for the wellbeing of the Palestinians, let alone their demand for a state of their own. This pattern dates back to the mandate years (1920-48) when the self-styled champions of the nascent pan-Arab movement—King Faisal of Iraq, Transjordan’s Emir Abdullah, and Egyptian King Faruq—viewed Palestine as part of their would-be empires. This situation culminated in the 1948 war when the all-Arab assault on Israel was launched in pursuit of the invading states’ imperialist goals—not in support of Palestinian self-determination. In the words of the Arab League’s secretary-general Abdel Rahman Azzam:

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By Victor Davis Hanson, JWR

Americans are now entering uncharted, revolutionary territory. They may witness things over the next five months that once would have seemed unimaginable.

Until the Ukrainian conflict, we had never witnessed a major land war inside Europe directly involving a nuclear power.

In desperation, Russia’s impaired and unhinged leader, Russian President Vladimir Putin, now talks trash about the likelihood of nuclear war.

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We may have lost in the international media arena, but only there and only temporarily. In terms of the diplomatic arena, an Israeli official summarized succinctly: “There’s no crisis.” That’s what’s important.

By  Ariel Kahana, ISRAEL HAYOM  May 12/22

There are battles where the most you can hope for is to mitigate the damage. This was the goal of Israel’s public relations campaign on Wednesday morning.

Immediately after the reports of Al-Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh’s death, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office, the Foreign Ministry, the Government Press Office, the Israel Police, and the Public Diplomacy Directorate in the Prime Minister’s Office, which coordinates between the various bodies, shifted to an emergency footing.  It was obvious that the incident was not good for Israel, and that a quick and clear response was imperative.
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T. Belman. I do not believe this. “Roughly 330,000 Palestinians and 450,000 Israeli settlers live in the 60 percent of the West Bank that makes up Area C”. The Israel High Court has virtually ordered Israel to give building permits to Palestinians also. Israel is hoping the US will OK the 4,400 Jewish homes because their is approval for 1000 Arab homes.  The Arabs have built thousands of illegal homes in Area C.  Why give them permits while this is going on.

Last time such approvals were granted, the majority of the 1,300 were for houses already built; this move comes as Defense Ministry greenlights 4,400 new Jewish settlement homes

By JACOB MAGID, TOI  

A Palestinian boy walks while backdropped by his home village of Susiya in Area C of the West Bank on July 24, 2015. (AP/Nasser Nasser)

The Defense Ministry will advance plans for some 1,000 Palestinian homes in the West Bank, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel on Thursday, as the same office was convening to greenlight projects for some 4,400 Jewish settlement homes.

The projects for both the Palestinians and the Israeli settlers will be located in Area C, where Israel maintains civilian control. Roughly 330,000 Palestinians and 450,000 Israeli settlers live in the 60 percent of the West Bank that makes up Area C, according to figures from the UN and Israeli authorities respectively.

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When Rushdie was published, bookstores were attacked and others refused to sell the book, but the publisher stood firm. Not today. Op-ed.

By Giulio Meotti, INN

Giulio Meotti

When Salman Rushdie published The Satanic Verses in 1989, Viking Penguin, the British and American publisher of the novel, was subjected to daily threats from Islamists. As Daniel Pipes wrote, the London office resembled “a battlefield”, with police on guard, metal detectors and an escort for visitors. At the New York office, trained dogs sniffed mail packages and the offices were called a “sensitive place.”

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