Avigdor Lieberman would apply death punishment to Palestinian prisoners

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/17053-lieberman-proposes-death-penalty-for-palestinian-prisoners

Key Points:

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that the first law he intends to propose in the next Knesset will be the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners and to prevent the release of any prisoners.

Lieberman, who heads the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu, wrote on his Facebook page yesterday that "global terrorism is currently the world's foremost challenge" and that "Israel in particular must drastically alter the way it deals with terrorists", adding that "there is a gap between what Israel advocates for and what it does".

"We created hope for terrorist organisations, all the terrorists who fight against Israel. Instead of building an iron wall and telling them they have no chance [because] we will fight, we constantly create and strengthen their hope," he said.

Lieberman added: "Time and again we release groups of terrorists, and each of them has hope. They're not afraid; they know that at the end of the day we will surrender. We released thousands of terrorists over the last decades, terrorists responsible for the most horrible attacks. It's simply a wrong message. It encourages terrorism and creates more terrorists."

Speaking about Israel's wars against the Gaza Strip, he wrote that it was clear that a fourth round of fighting with Hamas cannot be prevented.

All military campaign must end with decisive victory, because otherwise Israel loses big time, he said.

According to Lieberman, entering into a military confrontation with Hamas once every two years does not allow Israel to plan for the long term, like any normal country, in the political and economic sphere.

Lieberman's remarks come two weeks ahead of the Knesset elections.

Zionist gangs were the first terrorist groups in the Middle East

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/origins-savagery-middle-east-non-islamic-origins-terrorist-jihadi-groups

There is an attempt underway to make the case that Islam, the religion, inspired or spawned the creation of various jihadist groups. The fact that the US itself was a major catalyst for the creation of such groups, as that was its plot against communism during the Cold War, often goes unmentioned. But to understand the horrific savagery of terrorist groups in the Middle East you have to go to the origins of militias in the Middle East.

Zionist gangs were the first modern militias in the Middle East. This runs contrary to the silly (and racist and bigoted) thesis of Thomas Friedman’s silly book, “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” wherein he posits that Israel was contaminated by its Arab and Muslim surrounding, and that the Jews, unlike backward Muslims, were genetically incapable of producing acts of violence, but were forced to change their ways to survive in this new savage neighborhood. Zionist gangs in pre-1948 Palestine were the real pioneers of terrorism in the Middle East. They were the first to perpetrate acts of terrorism that are often assumed to have been introduced by Hamas in the 1990s. It was Zionist terrorist groups who first 1) tossed grenades into cafes, market places, and public squares; 2) shelled villages and towns indiscriminately; 3) threw grenades on busses; 4) sent letter bombs; 5) used booby-trapped ambulances against Palestinians; 6) used car bombs; 7) used barrel bombs; 8) and bombed hotels. And all those pioneering acts of terrorism occurred as far back as the 1930s and 1940s. Later, when the Israeli state was founded atop an already existing Palestinian state, the new state pioneered other acts of terrorism including hijacking of planes and the use of planes in indiscriminate bombings.

Yet, modern-style Arab militias did not really form until the Lebanese civil war of 1975 when the right-wing Maronite militias of Lebanon started to engage in unprecedented savagery (there were militias in Oman, south Sudan, and Kurdistan, as well, but the Lebanese Phalanges and the Sham`unis had been operating since 1958). Unsurprisingly, the Lebanese right-wing Maronite (Christian) militias received Israeli training since their inception, and their association with the Israeli military and intelligence only grew over time. The Sabra and Shatila massacre of 1982 was not the first collaboration between those two terrorist factions.

The Phalanges militia (and its other Maronite-oriented militias) started the Lebanese civil war and they were responsible for its prolongment. The other side was not prepared; it took time for the PLO to — begrudgingly — set up Lebanese militias. But the savagery that characterized the Lebanese civil war was clearly the pioneering work of Bashir Gemayyel and his gangs. They were the first groups to kidnap and kill on the basis of sectarian identity. They were the first to cut off limbs and other body parts (barrels of Muslim penises were found, the work of Phalanges and Tigers militias, who in 1975-76 pulled passengers out of cars and checked if they were circumcised. They were the first to mutilate corpses (there are accounts of their horrific deeds in books written by Beirut-based correspondents at the time, like Jonathan Randal and Helena Cobban and others). The right-wing non-Muslim militias also burned people alive in various refugee camps and in poor, Shia-dominated shantytowns in East Beirut. They were the first militia to shackle men to the back of cars and drag them through the streets until they die. They were the first to slice people up while alive, and to dump bodies into the ocean while placing their legs in cement. The account of one of the henchmen of the Phalanges, Joseph Saadeh, has not been translated into English, but it reveals the extent to which the right-wing non-Muslim militias introduced a level of savagery and brutality neither Lebanon nor the region had known before in internal fighting (See SAADE, Joseph, BRUNQUELL, Frédéric et COUDERC, Frédéric, 1989, Victime et bourreau, Paris: Calmann-Lévy.)

This is not to say that Lebanese civil wars of the 19th century were not brutal, they were. But never at the level that Lebanon witnessed in 1975-76, and its aftermath, at the hands of those right-wing Maronite-oriented groups (which received the largesse of the terrorist state of Israel and also of the US government, at the highest level after 1980).

Yet, when those Christian militias — who used the cross in their emblems and had Christian motifs in their mottos and rhetoric — engaged in these horrific war crimes, the Western press didn’t attribute that to their religion. Yet, if a Muslim commits one act of murder or terrorism, the blame falls on the Islamic religion and all Muslims of the world. Neither Judaism nor Christianity should be blamed for the crimes of Jewish or Christian terror groups. But those who are interested in studying the phenomenon of ISIS and its savagery should go back to the Lebanese civil war and study the contributions of the death squads on the Maronite right. They will see some similarities that fly in the face of conventional wisdom in Washington, DC..

Netanyahu taking advantage of UNHRC chairman resignation to bypass legal proceedings against mass killing of Palestinians

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/head-un-inquiry-gaza-war-crimes-quit-over-israeli-claim-bias

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said that a probe by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) into last year's Israeli offensive against the Gaza Strip should be shelved in light of the recent resignation of inquiry commission head William Schabas.

"After the resignation of the committee chairman, who was biased against Israel, the report that was written at the behest of the UNHRC… needs to be shelved," Netanyahu said in a statement, slamming the rights council as "an anti-Israel body” with decisions that “has nothing to do with human rights."

Schabas was appointed last August by the head of the United Nations Human Rights Council to lead a three-member group looking into Israeli war crimes during the 51-day assault on the coastal enclave.

In a letter to the commission, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Schabas said he would step down immediately to prevent the issue from overshadowing the preparation of the report and its findings, which are due to be published in March.

Schabas' departure highlights the sensitivity of the UN investigation just weeks after prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague said they had started a preliminary inquiry into atrocities in the Palestinian territories.

"This is the same council that in 2014 made more decisions against Israel than against Iran, Syria and North Korea combined," Netanyahu asserted.

"It is Hamas, the other terrorist organizations and the terrorist regimes around us that need to be investigated, not Israel," he added.

More than 2,310 Gazans, 70 percent of them civilians, were killed and 10,626 injured during unrelenting Israeli attacks on the besieged strip this summer.

According to the UN, the Israeli military killed at least 495 Palestinian children in Gaza during “Operation Protective Edge.” The al-Mezan Center for Human Rights puts the number at 518, while the Palestinian Center for Human Rights puts it at 519. All three figures exceed the total number of Israelis, civilians and soldiers, killed by Palestinians in the last decade.

The besieged enclave has also seen widespread destruction of its infrastructure, reaching levels of devastation that UN chief Ban Ki-moon called “beyond description” in a visit to the Strip on October 14.

Schabas' resignation is "the inevitable result of Israeli… pressure on the commission," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement.

"Israeli pressure aims at preventing any legal action that would reveal the truth about Israeli crimes [during the Gaza onslaught]," he added.

Barhoum urged the UN to go ahead with the probe and not to bow to "any pressure or blackmail against its investigative committees."

For his part, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman hailed Schabas' resignation, saying it was a "victory" for the Zionist state.

"It is an Israeli diplomatic victory. However, it will not change the probe's conclusions," he said.

He added that the appointment of Schabas to investigate last year's war against Gaza was like "appointing Cain to investigate who killed Abel."

Israel had long criticized Schabas' appointment, citing consultancy work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organization as well as his record as a strong critic of the Zionist state and its current political leadership.

In the letter, Schabas said a legal opinion he wrote for the Palestine Liberation Organization in 2012, for which he was paid $1,300, was not different from advice he had given to many other governments and organizations.

"My views on Israel and Palestine as well as on many other issues were well known and very public," he wrote. "This work in defense of human rights appears to have made me a huge target for malicious attacks."

Schabas said his work for the PLO had prompted the Human Rights Council's executive on Monday to seek legal advice about his position from UN headquarters.

"I believe that it is difficult for the work to continue while a procedure is underway to consider whether the chair of the commission should be removed," he wrote.

The commission had largely finished gathering evidence and had begun writing the report, he added.

The commission is looking into the behavior of both the Israelis and of Hamas, the resistance movement that controls Gaza.

The appointment of Schabas, who lives in Britain and teaches international law at Middlesex University, was welcomed at the time by Hamas but was harshly criticized by Zionist groups in the United States.

Schabas had said at the time he was determined to put aside any views about "things that have gone on in the past.”

Al Qassam Brigade blacklisted as a terrorist organisation

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/16722-palestinian-factions-denounce-egyptian-blacklisting-of-al-qassam-brigades

Major Palestinian factions denounced on Sunday a decision by an Egyptian court to classify Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas movement in Gaza, as a terrorist organisation.

In a statement co-signed by Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front, the Democratic Front, the People's Party, Al-Ahrar Movement and the Popular Resistance Committee, all factions condemned the decision to blacklist Al-Qassam.

"Al-Qassam is body that has been involved in a battle of liberation with the Israeli occupation on Palestine," the statement read. The factions said they hope that Egypt and Egyptians will "take part in the liberation of Palestine based on their strong relations with the Palestinians."

The statement stressed that the Al-Qassam Brigades only targets the Israeli occupation, and does not engage in indiscriminate military action.

Responding to the court decision, the factions pledged that they would intensify communication with Egypt in order to mitigate the repercussions of such a decision. They also appealed to Egyptian mass media to stop its campaigns that "seek to damage Palestinian-Egyptian relations."

On Sunday, the Egyptian Court for Urgent Matters in Cairo ruled that the Al-Qassam Brigades should be classified as a terrorist organisation. The ruling was based on accusations that Al-Qassam was involved in several terrorist attacks in Egypt.

Egyptian officials and the Egyptian media have a history of using Hamas as a scapegoat for instability and terrorism in Egypt, often without any proof.

Hamas' senior leader Bardawil endorces PLO's visit to Gaza Strip for National Unity Government

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/16732-hamas-welcomes-plos-planned-trip-to-gaza

Hamas senior leader and spokesman Salah Al-Bardawil said yesterday that his movement welcomes the PLO's planned visit to the Gaza Strip to discuss the unity government, PLS48.net reported.

Al-Bardawil said that no one has contacted Hamas regarding this visit and his movement found out about it through the media. However, he reiterated that his movement welcomes the move.

"In case there is a visit and meeting decided, we would welcome such steps aiming to agree on the outstanding issues," he said.

Yesterday evening the PLO factions held a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah and decided to contact Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza to pave the way ahead of a visit for a PLO delegation aiming to discuss the terms of the national reconciliation agreement.

The Executive Committee of the PLO asked the factions to meet and decide on making contacts with Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza in order to discuss the issue of the national unity government and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.

Member of the Executive Committee Wasel Abu Yousef told the local Palestinian news agency Safa that the meeting concentrated on the measures to be taken for the work of the national unity government to begin and which will give it the ability to continue its work in the Gaza Strip.

What is a National Unity Government?

A national unity government, government of national unity, or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other national emergency.

Hamas vows to protect UN premises in Gaza

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/16681-hamas-vows-to-protect-un-premises-in-gaza

Hamas described the attack on the United Nations' offices in the Gaza Strip as "unacceptable", stressing that it will not allow any further assaults on the international organisation's offices in the enclave, the Anadolu Agency reported.

A senior member of Hamas's political bureau, Mousa Abu-Marzouk said in a statement yesterday that the actions of protesters who stormed UNRWA's offices in Gaza were "unacceptable".

Abu-Marzouk said the security services in Gaza will put an end to "these abuses" and will not allow them to happen again.

"The security services in Gaza are responsible for protecting international staff and providing for them," he added.