Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called out the hypocrisy of world leaders in condemning and attacking the Islamic terrorist group ISIS while not seeing the similarities between ISIS and Hamas.
Netanyahu spoke to the general assembly of the United Nations on Monday.
“Last week, many of the countries represented here rightly applauded President Obama for leading the effort to confront ISIS, and yet weeks before, some of these same countries, the same countries that now support confronting ISIS, opposed Israel for confronting Hamas. They evidently don’t understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu laid out the similarities between the groups including their expressed desire to destroy the nation of Israel.
“As Hamas’ charter makes clear, Hamas’ immediate goal is to destroy Israel, but Hamas has a broader objective. They also want a caliphate. Hamas shares the global ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists, and that’s why its supporters wildly cheered in the streets of Gaza as thousands of Americans were murdered in 9/11, and that’s why its leaders condemn the United States for killing Osama bin Laden whom they praised as a holy warrior,’ Netanyahu explained.
Netanyahu said that ISIS must be destroyed and that Israel will back the effort to eliminate the extremist group.
In what is likely an attempt to strengthen their hand before talks with Israel in October, Islamic groups in the Gaza strip have agreed to allow a unity government to take control of the region.
The ceasefire that had been struck in August between Israel and Hamas called for the Palestinian Authority to take over as civil administration for the region. The deal with Hamas and Fatah announced today in Cairo calls for the unity government to take over immediately.
The deal was brokered by Egyptian intelligence services.
“All civil servants will be paid by the unity government because they are all Palestinians and it is the government of all Palestinians,” said Azzam Ahmed of Fatah on Thursday.
The groups reportedly have agreed to eliminate “all the obstacles” to a national unity government. They will also negotiate with the UN and Israel over border crossing access.
However, in what might be a blow to potential talks, the leaders of the unity government said they want Israel tried for war crimes.
Observers estimate at least 60,000 Kurds have fled from Syria toward Turkey over a single 24-hour period because of ISIS.
“ISIS came and attacked, and we left with the women, but the rest of the men stayed behind,” 24-year-old Abdullah of Shiran told Reuters. “They killed many people in the villages, cutting their throats. We were terrified that they would cut our throats too.”
Witnesses say that women, children and the elderly were seen fleeing in large groups on foot.
“Islamic State is killing any civilian it finds in a village,” Mustefa Ebdi, the director of local radio station Arta FM, added. “People prefer to flee rather than remain and die. [ISIS wants] to eliminate anything that is Kurdish. This is creating a state of terror.”
Turkish officials reportedly stopped the group at the border and refused to allow them to cross until they confirmed they were fleeing ISIS.
U.N. officials called on world charities to send food and supplies to the region to help the refugees.
A United Nations panel has slammed Iran for their continued imprisonment of Pastor Saeed Abedini for his Christian faith.
The Iranians have been firm in refusing to free the pastor before the end of an eight-year prison term for being a Christian.
United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says that the 34-year-old Abedini “has been deprived of his liberty for peacefully exercising the rights to freedom of religion, belief, and association.”
The report detailed all the issues surrounding the imprisonment of Abedini and called for his immediate release.
Saeed’s wife Naghmeh has been pleading with the White House and lawmakers to do something to free her husband from his wrongful imprisonment. She hopes that the U.N. report will be a large step toward her husband’s release.
“There are times where your cause feels forgotten — but today is not one of those days,” Naghmeh told Fox News. “From the depths of my heart, I urge the member countries of the UN to act on the recommendations of this report. As these countries sit face-to-face with Iran during the upcoming UN General Assembly, I plead with them to ask for my husband’s release. It is time for our family to be re-united. My children need their father and I need my husband.”
The administration has been criticized for negotiating the release of potential traitor Bowe Bergdahl while doing virtually nothing to gain the release of Abedini from Iran.
Syria has suddenly revealed on the eve of potential airstrikes in its country against ISIS that it has another chemical weapons laboratory.
The lab was built specifically to produce the deadly chemical ricin for chemical weapons.
Three sources told Reuters that the Syrian government admitted the location of three new facilities to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The revelation of the plants backs up claims from world leaders that Syria was not completely honest with OPCW and the UN regarding their chemical weapons stash and abilities.
Damascus had agreed last year to eliminate its chemical weapons program following world condemnation for an attack on Ghouta where hundreds were killed by sarin gas.
The OPCW described the incident as a “discrepancy” in the initial declaration by Syria to the organization. Syria claims that they could never let inspectors in because of fighting between rebels and government troops.
Syria had blamed sarin attacks on rebel forces and said they never had the capability to produce the rockets needed for the weapons.
“Syria will argue that the facilities were not revealed earlier because they were in a rush when they first had to report them,” said one diplomatic source. “They had said the ricin was for medical purposes, but we don’t believe that’s true.”
The OPCW is also investigating a report that Syrian government troops have dropped chlorine “barrel” bombs this year.
A major conference on the heavy increase in anti-Semitism around the world was held at the United Nations.
But the UN itself didn’t have a single thing to do in sponsoring it.
The UN Permanent Mission of Palau and the Aja Eze Foundation sponsored a lunchtime conference to address the outbreaks of anti-Semitic rhetoric and violence in the wake of the conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
“But why couldn’t the UN, founded on the ashes of the Jewish people, and presently witnessing a widespread resurgence in anti-Semitism, sponsor a conference on combating global anti-Semitism?” said Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust. “The answer is clear: Because the United Nations itself is the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism.”
In July, 318 confirmed anti-Semitic incidents were reported by the UN, an increase of 381% from the same time period last year.
“Where is the outrage? Where are the universal condemnations?” Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor said. “The silence is very similar to the silence of the 1930s and we all have a responsibility to stand up and fight. Will you stand with those who fire rockets, kidnap girls out of classrooms, and cut off the heads of journalists? Or will you stand up for freedom?”
The United Nations is calling out the terrorist group ISIS for the killing of hundreds of children in their campaign of terror across Iraq and Syria.
The UN’s Envoy on Children testified Monday that many children were simply executed on the spot by the terrorists.
“Up to 700 children have been killed or maimed in Iraq since the beginning of the year, including in summary executions,” Leila Zerrougui told the UN Security Council. She added that in addition to the children who have been killed by the group, they are also forcing children as young as 13 to be soldiers.
“Other children are used as suicide bombers,” Zarrougui said.
Zarrougui was not the only UN official condemning the terrorist outfit on Monday. The new head of the UN’s Commission on Human Rights called out the group while speaking in Geneva.
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said that ISIS is creating a “house of blood” in the areas under their control.
The UN has committed to making sure there are no child soldiers anywhere in the world by the end of 2016.
The fight against Ebola is now considered such a world threat that the U.S. military is becoming involved in the containment of the West African outbreak.
President Obama has said the outbreak is now “a serious national security concern.”
“We’re going to have to get U.S. military assets just to set up, for example, isolation units and equipment there,” the President said, “to provide security for public health workers surging from around the world.”
The move will allow the military to provide containment units, medical supplies and other advice to health officials on the ground in Liberia and other nations where the virus is running rampant.
Military officials say they will be working closely with Doctors Without Borders.
West African nations are stepping up to offer infrastructure to aid organizations and military relief efforts. Ghana said they would make their international airport in Accra an “air bridge” for Ebola response.
The U.N. says that $600 million will be needed at the bare minimum to stop the virus.
The head of the CDC is publicly stating that the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is “spiraling out of control” as the death toll has topped 1,900 and another American missionary has been confirmed to be infected with the virus.
Dr. Tom Frieden reports many countries “turned their backs” on those coming form countries who have been hit hard by the virus and that containment measures are actually hurting relief efforts in effected areas.
Frieden attended a United Nations conference where the world agency says over $600 million will be needed in medication and supplies to stop the outbreak.
The health officials at the UN conference also warned of the increase in spread of the virus. Cases have been reported in Nigeria and Senegal adding to the number of nations treating patients.
“We are working intensively with those governments to encourage them to commit to the movement of people and planes and at the same time deal with anxieties about the possibility of infection,” UN Coordinator for Ebola Dr. David Nabarro said.
Meanwhile, another health worker for the Christian relief agency SIM has been confirmed as a victim of the virus. Details are still sketchy regarding the latest case but officials say the man was working with pregnant women in a wing of the hospital away from Ebola cases and it was not clear how he was infected.
A video from a man trying to call attention to Lou Gehrig’s Disease by dumping a bucket of ice water over his head went viral and launched an unusual fundraising campaign that’s raised millions in research funding the ALS Foundation.
The phenomenon has gone worldwide and now leaders in Israel are stepping up to be a part of the fundraising.
The first major leader to take part of Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, the spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. He posted pictures online August 19th showing him pouring the ice water over his own head. He then issued challenges to other leaders including members of the Knesset and the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.
Yesh Atid MK Dov Lipman jumped on the challenge and not only did the bucket of water but also made a large donation for the research.
Then Wednesday morning, the Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. accepted his challenge. Ron Prosor had a staff member pour the ice water on his head outside of the Israeli embassy in New York. Prosor then nominated the U.N.’s secretary general Ban Ki-Moon to do the challenge.
Prosor joked the water was only slightly colder than the reception Israel gets at the U.N.
