From Ian:
3 killed, including American tourist, in terrorist shooting near Gush Etzion in the West Bank
Three people were killed late Thursday afternoon when a Palestinian terrorist shot at cars stuck in a traffic jam near the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank.
Initial reports suggest that the terrorist fired at the cars and then sped in the direction of the Alon Shvut settlement and slammed into a car.
The terrorist exited the vehicle and attempted to fire off further shots. Security forces shot at the terrorist and then arrested him.
MDA paramedics pronounced an approximately 18-year old man dead on the scene after efforts to resuscitate him failed. The youth was an American tourist. An approximately 50-year old man was critically wounded and taken to Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem where he was pronounced dead.
The third victim was a Palestinian passenger who was sitting in one of the vehicle's that the terrorist shot at.
In addition, four others were lightly wounded and were evacuated to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, which is also located in the capital.
Two killed in stabbing attack at Tel Aviv office building
Two Israelis were killed and at least two others wounded in a stabbing attack in southern Tel Aviv Thursday afternoon.
The incident took place in the Panorama office building at an entrance to a room used for prayer services next to the parking lot as afternoon prayers were taking place, according to reports from the scene.
One victim was declared dead at the scene and a second died after being rushed to a hospital with serious injuries.
Two more people suffered light and moderate injuries, according to officials. The identity of the victims was not immediately released.
The Palestinian attacker was caught by passersby and arrested by police at the scene. He was taken to a hospital with light injuries.
Police identified him as Raid Halil bin Mahmoud, a 36-year-old father of five from the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron, and said he did not have a criminal record.
PreOccupiedTerritory: Obama Says Palestinian Stabbings Also ‘Contained’ (satire)
The official noted the lack of fatalities or serious injuries among Israelis resulting from Palestinian attacks in the last two weeks, evidently under the erroneous presumption that if anything had happened, he’d be aware of it. “None of the major news networks have said anything about new attacks,” explained the official, unaware that numerous attacks have in fact taken place, and the only reason they have not been widely reported in Western media is that the latter tend to focus on fatal incidents, or non-fatal incidents in which Israel can be made to look brutal.
Experts say the contrast between Obama’s pronouncements and the actual, physical reality has often become apparent. “If you look at the way the president keeps backtracking on what he said he aimed to do to ISIS, this should come as little surprise,” said commentator Mitch N. Accompliszt. “There’s a constant negotiation of the gap – a chasm, really – between what he says and what actually happens. Sometimes he is able to anticipate the emerging reality, and walk back his rhetoric: ‘degrade and destroy ISIL’ becomes just ‘degrade,’ for example. But almost as often, events give the lie to the president’s assertions in what amounts to real time, and these moments are what results.”
Obama of course is not the first leader to have his pronouncements trumped by reality. A similar episode occurred before the Second World War when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to let Nazi Germany annex parts of Czechoslovakia, accepting Hitler’s assurances that Germany sought no more territory than that, and even proclaiming upon his return to Britain that he had brought “peace for our time.”
PodCast: Radio Free Delingpole - Douglas Murray
When are we ever going to understand that Islamist terrorists really mean it? This is the theme of a special Paris edition of Radio Free Delingpole starring the go-to expert at dark times like these – Douglas Murray, Associate Director of the Henry Jackson Society. Douglas has been warning for years that attacks like the one on Paris were coming. How did he know? Because unlike so many politicians and commentators who find it more seductive to bury their heads in douglas-150-250-0the sand, Murray listens to what the Islamists are saying, studies what they do and finds little reason to believe that peace and love are about to break out soon if only we light a few more candles and get James Taylor to sing You Got A Friend again – maybe this time with the whole Laurel Canyon crowd. So: who’s to blame? Where do we go from here? Are Britain and the US next on the list? And is there any damn thing we can do about it? Douglas has all the answers…
Honest Reporting PodCast: John Kerry’s “Legitimate” Terrorism, and HR Readers Defeat Anti-Semitic Letter
Secretary of State John Kerry makes a slip by calling some terrorism “legitimate.” The New York Times compares Palestinian exhortations to murder Jews with a video game where the object is to kill terrorists, and how a few HonestReporting readers made a newspaper admit to making a “mistake” by publishing an anti-Semitic letter.
HonestReporting’s Yarden Frankl talks about news coverage of Israel with host Mottle Wolf.
Naftali Bennett: Islamic State understands one thing: Force
On March 27, 2002, a suicide bomber walked into the Park Hotel in the Israeli city of Netanya and blew up the explosives belt he had strapped around his waist. Thirty people, who moments earlier were sitting down for the Passover Seder, were murdered. A celebratory and civilized scene, like those in Paris last week, had suddenly become a field of carnage.
The Park Hotel attack came at the height of the Second Intifada, a conflict that would ultimately claim the lives of more than 1,000 Israelis. More than 130 people were killed that March, and by then there had already been thousands of terror attacks.
My country, Israel, seemed paralyzed and the national sentiment was that the military would be unable to defeat the terror campaign. The only real way to stop the attacks, many supposed experts said, was by political means.
They were wrong. Two days after the hotel massacre, the Israeli government launched a military operation called Defensive Shield to stop the suicide bombers and retake control of Palestinian cities in the West Bank.
It worked. Within weeks of the operation, the number of attacks and Israeli casualties dropped by more than 80%, and while it took time, we eventually succeeded in bringing suicide attacks down to zero. We proved that terror can be defeated.
Ben-Dror Yemini: Who needs facts? We have Israel as a scapegoat
It was only a matter of time before someone would blame Jewish state for terror attacks in Paris as Jimmy Carter blamed Israel for Charlie Hebdo.
It was clear that we wouldn't have to wait long before someone blames Israel for the terror attacks in Paris.
It's not the murderers. They are simply desperate. The global jihadists are extremely worried about the oppressions of the Palestinians' human rights. They are not just worried, they are going mad. They are willing to blow up the entire world in order to express their despair, especially as they have 72 virgins waiting for them to relieve their desperation.
The world of knowledge often demonstrates similar nonsense. It was Jimmy Carter, not a foreign ministry of a country which has lost its mind, but the former president of the world's strongest power, or at least used to be the world's strongest power, who raised a similar argument earlier this year.
What do you think about the murder at the Charlie Hebdo offices, he was asked by Jon Stewart, who is not known as an Israel lover. "One of the origins for it," Carter replied, "is the Palestinian problem. And this aggravates people who are affiliated in any way with the Arab people who live in the West Bank and Gaza, what they are doing now — what’s being done to them."
How did we not think of that? The Charlie Hebdo journalists were murdered because of Israel.
PMW: Fatah: All Israelis are Nazis
The above cartoon, depicting Israelis as Nazis, was posted by Abbas’ Fatah movement on the internet as commentary on Israeli politics and/or society. The cartoon shows one set of legs with six upper bodies and heads, united into one person by a belt with a Star of David on it, representing Israelis or possibly Israeli leaders, who are arguing. They are all dressed in Nazi uniform and are wearing hats with swastikas.
The message presented in the cartoon’s headline is that “they are all the same,” meaning, all Israelis are Nazis. The text on the cartoon says: “The disputes inside ‘Israel’.” [Website of Fatah's Information and Culture Commission, Nov. 11, 2015]
This is not the first time that Fatah has applied Nazi imagery to Jews since the beginning of the current wave of terror attacks, as Palestinian Media Watch has shown.
Earlier this year, Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen stated that there is “no difference” between Hitler and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
PMW: The PA’s moral murder: Kill the parents, spare the children
Today a Palestinian terrorist murdered two Israelis in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv. One of the prime motivators of the current wave of terror attacks is that the PA leadership is giving its support and blessings to the terror by justifying and honoring the killers, as Palestinian Media Watch has documented repeatedly.
One example of this support for murder is the Palestinian Authority's presentation of two recent murderers who killed parents in front of their children as acting with a moral conscience - because the murderers chose not to murder the children as well. Last week, a Palestinian terrorist shot and killed Israelis Ya'akov Litman and his 18-year-old son Netanel when they were driving. The rest of the family, the mother and four younger children, were also in the car at the time and were wounded.
Now, the official PA daily has chosen to present this murderer of two civilians positively because he did not murder the woman and the other four children who were with them. Calling the murderous terror attack "the Hebron operation," the paper's headline boasts that "The Palestinians have again not killed children or women":
"'The perpetrator of the operation prepared an ambush at the side of the road and waited for an Israeli car to come. When it came, he shot at it and retreated from the scene.' ... Israeli media sources noted that the perpetrators forced the car to slow down, shot 10 bullets at it, and then verified the death of the settlers. Likewise, they emphasized that they saw a boy and 3 women in the car, but didn't injure them, similar to what happened in the Nablus operation (i.e., Hamas terror attack in which 2 parents were shot to death in front of their 4 children) less than 2 months ago."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 14, 2015]
PMW: 2-year-old sings: "Daddy, buy me a machine gun... I will defeat Israel," says proud Fatah official
In the midst of the current wave of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis, Fatah official Tawfiq Tirawi expressed his satisfaction with his 2-year-old son on official PA TV.
The source of the fatherly pride was his son's singing both about "a Martyr being escorted to his wedding" and his singing a verse that goes, "Daddy, buy me a machine gun and a rifle, so that I will defeat Israel and the Zionists."
Fatah Central Committee member Tirawi explained that the messages of these songs - support for Martyrdom-death and the wish to kill "Zionists" - express the "sense of belonging to the homeland":
"The Palestinian by nature and education feels a sense of belonging to the land and the homeland. Listen, my son is two years and ten months old. Yesterday, he sang to his mother: "Escort the Martyr to his wedding." He doesn't know the meaning of this song (i.e., the Islamic belief that Martyrs marry 72 Virgins in Paradise). Today his mother told me that he sang: "Daddy, buy me a machine gun and a rifle, so that I will defeat Israel and the Zionists." A boy who is not yet three! A Palestinian grows up with a feeling of belonging to the land, the homeland, and the people."
[Official PA TV, Oct. 27, 2015]
Fatah official: Palestinians support Martyrdom-death and wish to kill “Zionists”
IDF arrests three knife-carrying Palestinian women alleged to have targeted army camp
IDF soldiers arrested three Palestinian women who allegedly tried to enter a West Bank military encampment armed with knives, the army announced on Thursday.
The arrest took place on the roadway connecting the Jewish settlement of Tekoa and the south Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa.
The army conducted a raid on the Bethlehem refugee camp of Daheisha during which soldiers arrested a wanted Palestinian.
Troops also entered the homes of a number of Palestinians alleged to have taken part in terrorist-related activities on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Soldier lightly wounded in Hebron grenade attack
An IDF soldier was lightly wounded Thursday morning when a homemade grenade was thrown at a checkpoint in the flashpoint West Bank city of Hebron.
The attack took place at the Pharmacy checkpoint during a demonstration by Palestinians.
The soldier received medical care in the field.
No details are immediately available about the identity of the attacker or the soldier.
Hebron was recently in the center of a wave of violence, with near-daily stabbing attacks against soldiers and civilians, though tensions appear to have calmed in recent days.
Police arrest Palestinian teen with knife in Hebron
A Palestinian teenager was detained by security forces on Wednesday when he approached a Border Police post in Hebron with a knife, police said.
There were no injuries to security forces and no reports of injury to the suspect, a 16-year-old resident of the flashpoint West Bank city, Israel Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said.
Officers’ suspicions were aroused by the suspect’s behavior as he drew near them at an entrance to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. They then noticed he was carrying a weapon and arrested him, Samri said.
The Tomb of the Patriarchs shrine, revered as the final resting place of several biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, is among the holiest sites to Judaism and is also celebrated by Muslims as the Ibrahimi Mosque.
Highway 6 firebomb gang busted
The Shin Bet and Yamar special operations police force on Thursday arrested a gang that specialized in throwing firebombs on Israeli cars driving on Highway 6.
Most members of the gang are minors and residents of the Arab village of Bir a-Sika. They carried out several such attacks in recent weeks, and were planning more.
Under questioning, the detainees said they threw firebombs at vehicles traveling south from the Ein Tut junction near Yoqne'am along Highway 6, one of Israel's main north-south highways.
Along with the firebombs, which were thrown in two instances, the gang also threw rocks and bricks at cars on the highway.
Security officials found the gang after a second attack occurred a few days after several other attacks were carried out by a gang from the Arab town of Tira, near Kfar Sava.
14-year-old gets attempted murder rap in light rail stabbing
The Jerusalem district prosecutor charged a 14-year-old Palestinian from the Beit Hanina neighborhood with attempted murder on Thursday in the November 10 stabbing attack on the light rail station in Pisgat Ze’ev, which injured an Israeli security guard. The teen was also charged with holding a knife.
The indictment contends that the suspect decided to carry out an attack as revenge for the death of a relative, who was himself killed while carrying out a stabbing attack.
The second suspect in the attack is the teen’s 11-year-old cousin, who was shot and injured by a guard during the attack.
The 14-year-old is accused of convincing his cousin to join him in the attack.
The two allegedly entered the light rail at the Damascus Gate station after failing to find a suitable victim in the Old City. In the train, they searched for potential victims.
11-year-old stabber to go free after hospital treatment
The 11-year-old Arab terrorist Ali Alkam, who along with his 14-year-old cousin Muawiyyeh Alkam stabbed and moderately wounded a security guard on the Jerusalem light rail last Tuesday, is receiving medical care and will soon be released - without standing trial.
Ali is still hospitalized at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in the capital in moderate condition after having three bullets extracted from his body, reports Walla! News on Wednesday.
The two young terrorists caught the security guard by surprise and stabbed him repeatedly at a station in the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood, before the wounded 25-year-old managed to shoot Ali and Muawiyyeh was detained, as captured on security camera footage.
Police say Ali stabbed his victim with sharp scissors, while Muawiyyeh stabbed with a knife.
However, because Ali is under the age of 14 he cannot be sentenced to jail time - and therefore he is simply to be released from the hospital after he recovers and not stand trial.
Hamas praises 'heroic' terror attack which killed two in Tel Aviv
Hamas praised the terror attack in which a Palestinian from the Hebron area killed two Israelis in south Tel Aviv on Thursday.
Hamas spokesman Husam Badran described the attack as "heroic" and called for more such attacks against Israel.
Badran expressed hope that such attacks would convince Israel to return the bodies of Palestinian "martyrs"killed while carrying out terror attacks in Israel.
Edgar Davidson: British Red Cross covering for Palestinian Liars while International Red Cross threatens those who expose the truth
The ICRC statement (by its Head of Delegation in "Israel and the Occupied Territories Jacques De Maio") unquestioningly accepts the Palestinian version of events and rejects the Israeli version. It includes the following gem:
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has immediately provided factual accounts, firmly rejected these allegations, and unequivocally reaffirmed its commitment to impartial response. The PRCS’ record of principled and strictly humanitarian action is uncontested and well recognized.
In fact (as brilliantly documented in Tuvia Tenenbom's Why European NGOs and the Red Cross are real enemies in Israel) the ICRC and the PRCS have a long history not just of indifference to the suffering of Israeli civilians, but also at least indirect support for terrorism. The ICRC statement also includes the following implict threat against those who seek to expose the Palestinian Red Crescent disgusting behaviour:
What we call on for now is for all to act responsibly and better support both national societies. That includes refraining from making serious accusations against either National Society that do not take into account the facts on the ground.
NYT Equates Israeli Online Anti-Terrorist Game With Real Palestinian Terrorists Killing Innocents
An article published in The New York Times equates an Israeli children’s game in which the object is to beat armed terrorists to a Palestinian television show’s praise of a woman who attempted to murder an Israeli civilian. The Times charges that both are cases of incitement.
In a report on Hamas-run satellite channel Al Aqsa TV, Gaza-based journalists Diaa Hadid and Majd Al Waheidi state that the TV channel has become more influential because Palestinian broadcasters in the West Bank have been told to tone down the vitriol.
Citing cases of incitement against Israelis, the Times article notes, “Presenters tried to keep the drumbeat of war fresh as they broadcast from the new set, which shows a masked Palestinian holding a knife dripping blood over a Star of David.”
In another instance, studio guests praise a video clip in which a Palestinian woman attempts to stab an Israeli security guard in East Jerusalem. A Quaranic verse encouraging Muslims to fight also appears on the screen.
CBC Gives Platform to Palestinian Organization’s Claim that Israel is Carrying Out ISIS Like Terror Attacks
An article entitled: “Winnipeg shows support for Paris in wake of terror attacks” reported the following:
“The Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba (CPAM) issued a release on Monday, saying it “vehemently condemns” the global rise of terror.
In addition to the Paris attacks, CPAM noted the Beirut suicide bombings and the Israeli raid on a Palestinian hospital — both of which happened the day before Paris — as part of the ‘recent rise of terror attacks.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the Beirut bombings, which killed 43 people and injured some 240 others.
In the hospital incident, two dozen Israeli gunmen disguised as Palestinians — including two dressed as women, one as a pregnant woman in a wheelchair, and others wearing fake beards — invaded al-Ahli hospital where they shot dead a 28-year-old man and dragged away another man in a wheelchair.
“We share the emotion and sadness and offer our sincerest sympathy and condolences to the families and friends of all the victims internationally,” stated the release from CPAM president Moh’d Badwan Zeid.
“A terror attack against one is an attack against all. We must sympathize with all victims of terror…”
HonestReporting Canada was deeply disturbed that CBC News gave an undue platform to the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba (CPAM) to accuse Israel of carrying out mass terror attacks on innocents, just like ISIS whose suicide and shooting attacks in Paris saw 129 people killed and hundreds injured, and its suicide attacks in Beirut that saw 43 people killed and 240 injured.
In this disgraceful attempt at drawing a moral equivalence and lumping Israel in with the scourge of radical Islam perpetrated by ISIS, CPAM claimed Israel committed “terror” in a raid on a Palestinian hospital. What CBCNews.ca failed to report and which we called on their editors to address in a complaint sent yesterday, is that the individual who was “dragged away”, as the CBC put it, was a Palestinian terrorist who Israel claims had stabbed an Israeli civilian and who was recuperating and hiding in this hospital. Furthermore, the 28-year-old man who was “shot dead” at the hospital was a known Hamas operative who Israel claims had attacked its soldiers who were acting in self-defence. This individual was, according to the Canadian government, a terrorist. CBC ignored all this vital context.
The GOP Is Walking into Obama’s Trap
Though he remains overseas, the president cannot resist the temptation to remind the international press which American political party more closely represents their values. “Apparently, they are scared of widows and orphans coming into the United States of America,” Obama scoffed. “At first they were too scared of the press being too tough on them in the debates. Now they are scared of 3-year-old orphans. That doesn’t seem so tough to me.” This is the debate Obama wants to have. Anything other than the losing war he has been prosecuting for nearly 18 months, the fruits of which are continuing to blow themselves up in Parisian streets nearly a week after the ISIS strike on Paris ended.
Writing in The American Interest, Walter Russell Meade made a brilliant case for why the president has engaged in a “cynical ploy” to focus global media’s attention on “a simple morality play featuring Wise Liberals and Racist Jacksonians.” Of course, no political debate is ever so binary. The issue of refugee resettlement is, however, more favorable ground for the president. The Middle Eastern refugees fleeing their homes have not yet sparked a crisis in the United States, but they most certainly have in Europe. The European compact is slowly eroding as the EU’s formerly borderless states again erect complex barriers on their peripheries to keep this ceaseless human tide from cascading into their territories. The only way to end the refugee crisis is to end the bloodletting in Syria. The minute the onus falls on this president to address the cause of the crisis rather than its myriad features is the minute this president loses the argument.
Every day that Republicans spend trying to position themselves as the most singularly focused on addressing the symptoms of war rather than its source is a day Barack Obama wins. Republicans are inexplicably focused on providing Obama with material that allows him to posture and signal to his supporters that, even if his governance is incompetent, the alternative is intolerable. Meanwhile, the world drifts ever farther away from the galvanizing attacks on Paris without having mustered the resolve or decided on a strategy to prevent the next strike. Obama wants nothing more than to be let off the hook for his complicity in the bloodshed in Paris, and Republicans are playing right into his hands.
White House Launches #RefugeesWelcome Hashtag
The Obama administration launched a hashtag last night to promote the concept of welcoming Syrian refugees into the United States after a growing number of governors proposed halting the program after the terrorist attacks in Paris.
The White House debuted a hashtag on their Facebook page last night: #RefugeesWelcome
“Even as we intensify our efforts in coordination with our partners to take out ISIL, we cannot turn our backs on those most threatened by the terrorist group,” the message on the White House page read.
A video on the page insisted that U.S. law enforcement officials were vetting each of the refugees before allowing them to settle in the United States.
Forget Paris
Time and again, the jihadis have demonstrated that they have other values and that they are willing — indeed, eager — to both kill and die for them. Ignoring that, Western leaders have prattled on about “countering violent extremism” through jobs programs and foreign aid. They have maintained that “there is no military solution” and that we can rely on diplomats to effectuate “conflict resolution” employing “soft power” and “smart power.” Mr. Obama has reassured us: “The tide of war is receding.”
Will Nov. 13, 2015 prove to be a wake-up call? French President Francois Hollande said: “We are going to lead a war which will be pitiless.” On Sunday, French planes bombed Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State.
The jihadis, however, are confident that France doesn’t have the stomach for a long war — what the bumper stickers call an “endless war.” They view not just France but also the European Union and NATO as spent forces — weak and war-weary, weighted down by the ever-burgeoning demands of the welfare state. I’m afraid they have a point.
Ironically and inconveniently, the Paris attacks took place just hours after President Obama told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that, thanks to his policies, the Islamic State had been “contained.” He elaborated: “They have not gained ground in Iraq and in Syria.” That must seem cold comfort to the people of Paris’s 10th, 11th and 18th arrondissements.
Analysis: Despite recent attack, EU unlikely to support Israeli anti-terror measures
The France that existed last week no longer exists.
French President Francois Hollande’s announced war on Islamic State is not limited to air strikes on the terrorist group’s positions in Syria. Rather, he announced an intent to amend France’s constitution to create a larger period of national emergency, which will be easier for the government to invoke, shifting the national security versus civil liberties balance hard toward national security.
There are reports that France has already administratively detained over 100 people and will open its social and other electronic networks to much more aggressive surveillance by security services.
France is also purportedly moving toward profiling tactics, revoking citizenship and other aggressive measures regarding its citizens who have visited Syria, particularly any who fought with rebel groups.
All of the above sound familiar to Israeli citizens as measures that the government has employed during the recent wave of violence and in past waves of violence.
In the past, these measures by Israel have faced a torrent of criticism from most EU countries as being anti-democratic and draconian.
Jewish teacher stabbed in Marseilles by purported ISIS supporters
A teacher at a Jewish school in the southern French city of Marseilles was stabbed on Wednesday by three people professing support for Islamic State, but his life was not in danger, prosecutors said.
The victim was identified as Tziyon Saadon who is in his fifties.
The three men who attacked the teacher uttered anti-Semitic remarks during the incident, AFP reported.
Three people on two scooters, one of them wearing an Islamic State t-shirt, approached the teacher in the street, Marseilles prosecutor Brice Robin told Reuters.
During the incident, one of the attackers showed a picture on his mobile telephone of Mohamed Merah, a homegrown Islamist militant who killed seven people in a series of attacks in southern France in 2012 including an attack in which three children were killed at a Jewish school in Toulouse.
Paris police raid halted terror cell that was ‘ready to strike’
French officials said Wednesday a massive police raid on a suspected terror cell in a suburb north of Paris likely headed off an imminent attack, possibly on an airport in the French capital.
Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the jihadis were capable of staging a fresh attack and were ready to act.
“A new team of terrorists was neutralized and all indications are that given their arms, their organizational structure and their determination, they could have struck,” said Molins.
Security sources said the fourth terror cell — in addition to the three teams who carried out Friday’s deadly attacks — had been planning to attack Charles de Gaulle Airport and a shopping mall, according to French state broadcaster France 2.
Prosecutor: Suspected mastermind of Paris attacks Abaaoud died in police raid
The suspected mastermind of last week's Paris attacks was killed in the police raid of an apartment north of the capital, French officials said on Thursday.
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 28-year-old Belgian militant who had boasted of mounting attacks in Europe for the Islamic State, was accused of orchestrating last Friday's coordinated bombings and shootings in the French capital, which killed 129 people.
"It was his body we discovered in the building, riddled with bullets," a statement from the Paris prosecutor said, a day after the pre-dawn raid. The prosecutor later added that it was unclear whether Abaaoud had detonated a suicide belt.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls broke the news in Parliament to applause from lawmakers who were voting on Thursday to extend the country's state of emergency for another three months.
Israeli Reporter Recalls Paris Terrorist as Antisemitic Bully in High School
An Israeli journalist originally from France was shocked to discover that one of the terrorists who took part in the Paris attacks last week was someone from his home town, and with whom he attended high school, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Tuesday.
Julien Bahloul said of 29-year-old Omar Ismayil Mostefai, who blew himself up at the Bataclan Theater during Friday night’s multi-pronged attacks – and was later identified by one of his severed fingers – that the two had grown up together in Courcouronnes, a poor suburb south of Paris.
Bahloul, a reporter and anchorman at i24 News, said that though he did not initially remember Mostefai, he understood from the terrorist’s biographical details that he had lived in the same neighborhood, was the same age and had attended the same school.
What Bahloul did recall clearly, however, was “suffering greatly from antisemtism at that school.”
One of Bahloul’s classmates, a Muslim who always stood up for him and other Jewish students victimized by antisemitic verbal and physical assaults, said he not only remembered Mostefai, but remembered having to defend Jewish students — including Bahloul — from him, according to Channel 2.
WATCH: ISIS terrorist's weapon jams as he's about to execute Parisian cafe patrons
A British newspaper obtained dramatic closed-circuit footage of an Islamic State gunman spraying bullets and nearly executing from point-blank range two women at a Paris cafe last week.
In the video released by Daily Mail, the cafe in Paris is seen just as shards of glass and bullets fly inside.
The terrorist is filmed approaching the cafe with an automatic rifle just as terrified patrons scramble for cover.
At one point, the terrorist is about to unload on two women hiding underneath an outdoor table, but is forced to abort when his weapon would not fire.
New York shrugs off Islamic State threat in new video
New York police said Wednesday they were aware of a new Islamic State video targeting the city but stressed that there was “no current or specific threat.”
As the video emerged just days after the deadly terror attacks in Paris, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that “stoking fear is the goal of terrorist organizations, but New York City will not be intimidated.”
“We will not submit to their wishes,” de Blasio vowed.
“There is no specific and credible threat against New York City. So it’s crucial that people go about their normal business,” de Blasio told reporters beneath Times Square’s bright lights.
He said that the NYPD was “providing extraordinary protection” with 35,000 members.
Attackers Planned Multiple Explosions In German Stadium
A group of several attackers planned to set off multiple explosives in Hanover soccer stadium at Tuesday night’s friendly match between Germany and the Netherlands, which was called off, daily Bild reported on Thursday.
Bild said it had obtained a copy of a document that Germany’s domestic intelligence service provided to Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere on Tuesday, the contents of which were so shocking the authorities had no choice but to call off the match.
Based on intelligence from a foreign intelligence service, the document detailed how a group of several attackers planned to set off several explosives in the stadium in Hanover, as well as a bomb in the city centre.
The attackers planned to smuggle the explosives into the stadium in an ambulance, Bild cited the document as saying. The group’s leader was to film the attack in the stadium. After midnight, another attack was planned at Hanover railway station.
In the event, the authorities said they found no explosives at the stadium.
French PM Warns Of Risk Of Chemical And Biological Attack
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has warned that France is at risk of chemical and biological attacks from terrorists, in an address to the French parliament.
“We must not rule anything out,” Mr Valls said. “I say it with all the precautions needed. But we know and bear in mind that there is also a risk of chemical or bacteriological weapons.”
He said that “terrorism hit France, not because of what it is doing in Iraq and Syria… but for what it is.”
“What is new are the ways of operating; the ways of attacking and killing are evolving all the time,” he added.
“The macabre imagination of those giving the orders is unlimited. Assault rifles, beheadings, suicide bombers, knives or all of these at once.”
Sweden On 'High' Terror Alert For First Time As Police Hunt Suspected Jihadi
Sweden’s terror threat level has been raised to “high” for the first time in the country’s history after the head of the Säpo security service said police were hunting a suspected terrorist.
The threat level is now at the second-highest out of five possible categories, meaning “the probability that players have the intent and ability to carry out attacks is high”.
Anders Thornberg, Director General of Säpo, called a press conference yesterday evening telling reporters that a person suspected of plotting a terror attack had been “arrested in absentia”, meaning police were still looking for him.
Shortly after the announcement, a grainy image of the suspect was published by tabloid Expressen and soon spread across social media. Police and security services later confirmed the man in the image was the suspect, but refused to confirm reports his name is Mutar Muthanna Majid.
Honduras Stops 5 Syrians With Fake Passports Headed to the US
Authorities in Honduras have detained “five Syrian nationals who were trying to reach the United States using stolen Greek passports” and, as Fox reports, the five “Syrians were trying to arrive in the U.S. by land, presumably by traveling through Mexico:”
The group of Syrian men was held late on Tuesday in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa on arrival from Costa Rica and they were planning to head to the border with neighboring Guatemala. The passports had been doctored to replace the photographs with those of the Syrians, police said.
Also according to Fox, the five “suspects remain in police custody.”
The newspaper reports that the passports were stolen in Greece and doctored to insert the photos of the Syrians into the document. Authorities have stated they are “on alert” for any additional suspect activity.
Honduran police spokesman Anibal Baca told reporters Wednesday that those arrested were “normal Syrians”:
Schumer: 'Pause' Needed On Syrian Refugees
Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, arguably the most liberal in the entire Senate, has called for a potential "pause" regarding Obama's Syrian refugee plan.
According to NPR reporter Susan Davis, who tweeted Chuck Schumer's stance, Schumer may be siding with Republicans to put the brakes on the Syrian refugee crisis:
Should Schumer officially reject Obama's proposal, he will join 30 governors and a majority of Republican congressmen who feel that blindly accepting the Syrian refugees poses a national security threat, considering that at least one of the terrorists involved in the attack on Paris last Friday came in through the refugee program.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has also stated he will motion for a "pause" on the Syrian refugees.
Schumer and Obama have already been at odds over the Iran deal; opposition on this will only widen the gap.
French Jewish Leader Transported In Armored Vehicle With Bodyguards
A French Jewish organization is working with the French government to keep the country’s Jews as safe as possible, especially in the aftermath of the jihadist massacres in Paris last Friday. Since the January 2015 terror attack on a Paris kosher supermarket, Hyper Cacher, over 10,000 police and soldiers have been guarding the French Jewish community.
In an interview with The Times of Israel , head of the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF) Roger Cukierman said the Jewish community “cannot ask for more than what the government is already doing.”
Cukierman said that French media had been speculating for months on the possibility of a multi-pronged attack following statements by government officials. He was quick to add that his own organization had not received any specific warning ahead of Friday’s attacks.
Firearms units secretly patrolling streets in unmarked cars after France shootings
Elite firearms officers are secretly patrolling London's streets in a new fleet of unmarked cars as part of heightened security arrangements after the Paris terror attacks.
Extra officers could eventually be drafted in from other forces to bolster new "SAS-style" heavily armed Metropolitan Police units seen for the first time at England's football friendly with France.
Scotland Yard has already boosted numbers of vehicles on patrol by a third for the armed response unit in the wake of the attacks.
Counter-terror chiefs are understood to be using extra covert teams in unmarked cars in addition to the military-style Jankel vans, seen at Wembley on Tuesday for the first time since the 2011 riots.
The officers have a much lower profile than the the squad of 130 Counter-Terrorist Specialist Firearms Officers (CT-SFO) seen brandishing semi-automatic rifles amid the crowds at England's football friendly against France.
#JeSuisDiesel: Dogs around the world pay their own tribute to hero police canine killed in Paris siege (with a little help from their owners)
Twitter users are posting pictures of their pets online to pay tribute to police dog Diesel, who was killed by a female suicide bomber yesterday during a French anti-terror raid.
Diesel, a seven-year-old Belgian shepherd, was a member of the SWAT team which stormed an apartment block in the Parisian suburb of St-Denis yesterday morning as police hunted for the suspected mastermind behind Friday's terror attack in the French capital.
She was sent in to the building to sniff out booby traps but was blown to pieces when a woman came out firing an AK-47 at police and then detonated her suicide vest.
Tributes quickly poured in to the much-loved canine who had been decorated with service medals after a distinguished career in the force.
One police handler said it was 'a little like losing one of our colleagues' while a Twitter user said Diesel had 'died to defend our colours'.
Exclusive: The Secret Flower And Candle Retailers Don’t Want You To Know! (satire)
Always ahead of the curve BCF secured an exclusive though anonymous interview with a representative of the Flower & Candle Memorial marketing board who spilled the dirty little secret that has the industry cowering in fear… Here’s the chilling lowdown straight from our industry insider…
“…We’ve sponsored study after study and every single one without exception has come to the same conclusion. Flowers and candles, even candles arranged into hearts or peace symbols have zero deterrent effect against Muslim terrorists. In fact they may even encourage random jihad attacks. It’s as if certain of our cultural practices, OK, actually all of them, don’t translate well and offend the Muslim world.
Needless to say none of these studies will ever see the light of day. That would be bad for business.
What worries our industry more are the confectioners, they’ve come out with a line of “Massacre of the Infidels Celebration Candy” which people can hand out to show solidarity with their Muslim friends on the occasion of each new mass killing. You just know that’s gonna take off. Give em credit, they were smart and paid attention to cultural norms, it’s smart marketing.”
French Senator to CNN: Paris Terror Leader is 'F*cking Bastard'
A French senator told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on live TV Wednesday that the man behind the Paris terror attacks is a “f#cking bastard.”
Nathalie Goulet, who is a member of the centrist Union of Democrats and Independents and represents the French region of Orne, was asked to describe her “gut feeling” about Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind behind the attacks, who was reportedly killed in an early morning raid by French military and law enforcement forces in the suburb of Saint-Denis.
The interview was carried on CNN International and not the basic American CNN feed.
Amanpour seemed taken aback.
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