Palestinians furious after Saudi Arabia downplays importance of Jerusalem

Proponents of the Palestinian cause have tried to inflate the position of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in Islam, and thereby paint Israel’s sovereignty in this city as an affront to their own religion.

But a couple of years ago, renowned Egyptian scholar and novelist Youssef Ziedan acknowledged in a series of television interviews that Jerusalem holds no religious significance to Muslims.

Today, it is common to hear that Jerusalem is Islam’s third holiest city, being the location of the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Ziedan said the whole thing is nonsense: “The Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem did not exist back then, and the city was not called Al-Quds.  It was called Aelia, and had no mosques.”

He is far from being alone in that position.

In fact, a growing number of Saudis on social media have taken to using a hashtag that translates as “Riyadh is more important than Jerusalem.”

It is a deliberate downplaying of the importance of Jerusalem from both religious and nationalist viewpoints, and it coincides with Saudi Arabia’s warming relations with Israel.

(israeltoday.co.il)

 

Four life sentences given to Sarona terrorists

The Tel Aviv District Court this week handed down four life sentences to the three perpetrators of the attack in Sarona in Tel Aviv last June, in which four people were murdered.

The three Palestinian terrorists – Mahmoud Mahamrah, Khaled Mahamrah and Yunis Aish Musa Zin – were convicted last month of four murders and 41 counts of attempted murder.

(jpost.com; timesofisrael.com)

 

American Jewish Congress: ‘Palestinians’ pursuit of terror reason enough to support immediate U.S. Embassy move

The American Jewish Congress said it acknowledges the Trump administration’s commitment to relocating the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the designated capital of Israel.

“The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that its embassy move would only be realized once movement was made on Middle East peace.  The Palestinians have so far shown a lack of serious commitment to achieving peace and have pursued terror in preference to constructive dialog, which is reason enough to support an immediate move of the embassy to Jerusalem.”

(ynetnews.com)

 

Fatah says Hamas ‘not committed’ to unity deal ahead of key deadline

Fatah’s top negotiator says rival movement Hamas is “not committed” to a landmark Palestinian reconciliation agreement, two days ahead of a key deadline to implement the accord.

“Hamas is not committed to the agreement it signed in Cairo to end the division,” Azzam al-Ahmad, chief negotiator for Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah, told AFP.

“Until this moment the problems and obstacles from Hamas are still there and are increasing.”

Under the agreement, the Hamas terror organization is due to hand over control of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinian Authority by Friday (Dec. 1) after a decade of dominance there, but doubts have emerged over whether it will occur.

(afp.com)

 

PA orders former civil servants in Gaza to resume posts, angering Hamas

The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday (28th) called on all of its former civil servants in Gaza – who were forced out of work following Hamas’ June 2007 takeover – to return to work in their former posts, casting doubt on the future of tens of thousands of Hamas-hired employees in Gaza.

(maannews.net)

 

Iran demands Syrian bases – Eric Sumner

About a month ago, Iranian Chief of Staff Gen. Mohammad Bagheri visited Damascus and presented Assad with a list of demands, Walla News reported Tuesday (28th).

Tehran’s demands included a 50-year lease on a Mediterranean naval base, the establishment of air bases throughout Syria, and permission to mine phosphates – including uranium.

(jpost.com)

 

Israel is the new Promised Land for Chinese investors – Coco Liu

A growing number of Chinese investors view Israeli businesses as the next smart buy, fueled by China’s soaring demand for advanced technologies and warming relations between Beijing and Israel.

China’s total investment in Israel almost tripled last year to $16 billion, largely driven by a surge in funding in Israel’s hi-tech industry.

(scmp.com)

 

Jewish leader says anti-Semitism growing in Germany

The head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews says that anti-Semitism is growing in the country, causing concern for a community that is otherwise blossoming more than seven decades after the Holocaust.

Josef Schuster said at a reception of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin that Jews in Germany fear the increased anti-Semitism of far-right nationalists, Muslim immigrants and leftists.

Schuster said that in recent surveys, “90% of Jews perceive anti-semitism as a very big problem and…70% avoid carrying or wearing any Jewish symbols in public.”

(ap.com)

 

Islamic State said to threaten terror attacks on Christmas

Amid unprecedented setbacks on the ground in Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State has been pushed out of all major population centers and relegated to marginal desert regions, the group appears to be urging its followers to show it is still a relevant force by carrying out terror attacks in major Western cities during the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

An image circulating on an Islamic State-backed online chat group called “Army of Mujahideen” shows what appears to be an IS beheading photo, with a kneeling Santa Claus as its victim, according to New York-based newspaper The Epoch Times.  The image is superimposed on an image of the Regent Street shopping area of London.       

(timesofisrael.com)

 

Philly breaks ground on $7 million Holocaust Memorial Plaza

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny was on hand for the groundbreaking of his city’s $7 million Holocaust Memorial Plaza.

“The plaza, a project of the Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, is scheduled to be completed next fall.

The plaza will feature six pillars erected in memory of the 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, with each pillar chronicling a Holocaust atrocity and contrasting it with American constitutional protections and values.  Original train tracks from the railroad adjacent to the Treblinka death camp will be embedded in the pavement near the “Theresienstadt tree,” a sapling of the tree nurtured by children in the Theresienstadt camp.

A bronze Six Million Jewish Martyrs sculpture has memorialized the Holocaust in Philadelphia since 1964 and was the first such public monument in North America.

(jta.com)