Netanyahu: Hizbullah ‘Brazenly Lying’ To World About Weapons Sites
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Lebanese terror group Hizbullah, a proxy of Iran, of ‘brazenly lying’ to the international community over the secret weapons facilities in and around Beirut, which the premier disclosed on the world stage at the United Nations General Assembly last week.
Netanyahu said in a statement Monday (1st) that Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil took 73 foreign envoys on a “fraudulent propaganda tour” of the alleged missile sites, where he failed to show them the underground facilities where Hizbullah is reportedly storing precision-guided missiles.
“Hizbullah is brazenly lying to the international community by means of the fraudulent propaganda tour of the Lebanese foreign minister who took ambassadors to the soccer field, (one of the missile sites), but refrained from taking them to the nearby underground precision missile production facility,” Netanyahu said.
On Monday, (1st) Bassil led a group of ambassadors around a pool complex and the sports stadium in a bid to disprove Israeli accusations.
“Today Lebanon is raising its voice by addressing all countries of the world… to refute Israel’s allegations,” Bassil was quoted as saying. Israel’s Channel 10 news said Monday night (1st) that Lebanon feared Israel may attack the sites.
Netanyahu said the envoys “should ask themselves why Lebanese authorities waited three days to give them a tour.” The PM said in the September 27th address to the UN General Assembly, that Hizbullah has secret missile conversion sites in and around Beirut.
One of the alleged sites is under a soccer field used by a Hizbullah-sponsored team; another is just north of the Rafik Hariri International Airport; and the third is underneath the Beirut port and less than 1640 feet from the international airport’s tarmac. These three are not the only facilities that the IDF believes are being used by the “terror group” for the manufacturing and storage of precision missiles.
Hizbullah, Netanyahu said, took pains to clear out the exposed facilities so that foreign diplomats could tour the area.
“It’s saddening that the Lebanese government is sacrificing the safety of citizens while covering for Hizbullah, which has taken Lebanon hostage in its aggression toward Israel,” said Netanyahu.
“In three days you can clear out a precision missile factory, invite foreign ambassadors, and hope that the world will fall for it,” Netanyahu added.
(pmo.gov.il; timesofisrael.com)
Russia Using World’s Largest Military Planes To deliver S-300 System To Syria
Russia has over the past week been delivering its advanced anti-aircraft systems, S-300, to Syria and has been using the Russian-made Antonov An-124 Rusian for the job.
The Antonov An-124 Rusian, also known as the Condor, is considered the largest military transport aircraft in the world, and is the second-largest plane overall, behind the Antonov An-225 Mriya. The Russian-made Mriya is the heaviest aircraft ever built and has the largest wingspan of an aircraft in service, at 290 feet. With an empty weight of 314 tons, only one such aircraft was ever built.
The Rusian weighs 192 tons empty and has a wingspan of 240 feet.
The planes used by the Russian Air force as well as several cargo operators, were seen by “aircraft spotters,” on the Russia-Syrian route over the past several days, according to Israeli news site Ynet.
Russia said it began supplying the S-300 air-defense system to Syria Friday (9/28), despite Israel’s protests. The first Rusian plane was spotted arriving at the Hmeimim Air Base near Latakia Syria on Thursday evening (9/27), according to the Ynet report.
(ynetnews.com)
Top German Paper Urges Berlin To ‘Sever All Trade With Iran’
A top German newspaper on Tuesday (2nd) called on the government in Berlin to suspend all trade ties with Iran over its terrorism and its repeated calls for Israel’s annihilation.
In an article in Germany’s most widely read daily newspaper Bild, Julian Roepcke, the paper’s foreign news editor, argued that Iran’s missile strikes in Syria this weekend “under the auspices of the ‘war on terror’ might sound good, but the opposite is true. The missiles themselves are a message of terror, because they carry inscriptions reading ‘Death to Israel’ and ‘Death to the USA’ – and that is deadly serious for the mullahs.”
Iran’s missiles, he continued “were not fired against Islamic State, but rather against those who stand in the way of the corrupt regime in Tehran, against those who do not want to stand idly by as Iran’s leaders, again and again, call for the ‘extermination’ of Israel. By the mullahs crazy logic, ISIS is also the creation of the heinous West, the US and Israel,” he wrote.
“Iran cannot be an ally at this time, neither in the fight against terrorism nor as an oil supplier or trade partner,” Roepcke concluded.
The Bild is Germany’s most widely circulated daily, printing 2.7 million copies a day. Between its various platforms, the paper, which is considered pro-Israel, has an average daily readership of 12 million.
(israelhayom.com)
Israelis At Columbia University Blast Administration For Ignoring Anti-Semitism
Israeli students at Columbia University in New York City are outraged at the university administration for failing to respond to reports of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist incidents by pro-Palestinian students and groups on campus.
The Columbia chapter of the Students Supporting Israel group issued a statement earlier this week alleging that for six months, university institutions have been ignoring complaints about attacks perpetrated by Palestinian students and their supporters.
The group said in the statement that representatives of Columbia informed them that as long as the incidents in question did not comprise physical violence, they could not take action.
In one incident, dozens of pro-Palestinian activists surrounded and harassed five Israeli students. Palestinians or supporters of the Palestinian cause also defaced the Israeli students’ promotional material.
The appeal to the university leadership was spearheaded by Dalia Zahger, vice president of SSI at Columbia and Ofir Dayan, the daughter of Israeli Consul in New York Dani Dayan.
Zahger wrote in an open letter that after campaigning for six months, the Israeli students realized they were on their own.
Students and their parents have the basic expectation that the university will do its best to meet the laws and standards it dictates, but in this case of Israelis being harassed, the university has failed to do so, Zahger wrote.
Dayan told Israel Hayom that “because of the verbal aggression, which sometimes approaches physical violence, we have people who are afraid to be pro-Israel. They just know that the university won’t defend them. It’s bizarre and shows contempt for the lives of students.”
(israelhayom.com)
‘Free Gaza:’ Pro-Palestinian Vandal Defaces Jewish Property In NY
A structure built on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in honor of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot was vandalized early Sunday morning (9/30), with the words “Free Gaza” spray-painted in black three times on its cloth walls.
Jews build such temporary structures for the week-long holiday of Sukkot, called in English the Feast of Tabernacles, as a reminder of national life in the desert after liberation from Egyptian slavery over 3,000 years ago. Celebrants eat in these structures and, weather permitting, sleep in them.
The anti-Israel message was reported about 8 AM, the New York police said adding that the city’s Hate Crime Task Force would be investigating the incident as a bias crime.
Rabbi Ben Tzion Krasnianski of the local chapter of Chabad, the Jewish outreach movement responsible for erecting the vandalized sukkah, was disgusted by the sight, but would not answer with similar sentiments.
“To come this morning and see this vicious act, and insult, there is just no room for this hatred in New York City,” he told the New York Post, adding “The only response we know, and the way we’ve responded for the last 3,800 years is to respond to darkness with light, to hate with love, and to negativity with positivity.”
Working swiftly, a few volunteers painted over the graffiti with phrases such as “Shalom” and “Sukkah of Unity” so that by the afternoon, all evidence of the crime had disappeared.
(worldisraelnews.com; nypost.com)
