Secret US-Iran Deal Cause for Concern

November 20, 2013 Nuclear talks designed to place restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program will resume today between Iran and the P5+1 in Geneva. It is the third round of negotiations in a month, and they are taking place nearly two weeks after an accord that would Iran's nuclear activity in exchange for the easing of sanctions was almost reached. Of the six P5+1 world powers at the last meeting—the US, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany—France alone objected when the US brought forward the deal, claiming that the terms were "too soft" on Tehran.

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Palestinian Teen Slays Israeli Private

November 20, 2013 Last Wednesday, a newly enlisted 18-year-old Israeli soldier was stabbed repeatedly in the throat as he napped on a bus. The bus had just made a stopover at the Afula station in Israel. Most of the passengers had left the bus to stretch their legs when Eden Atias was murdered by a Palestinian youth. Passengers on the bus managed to stop the 16-year-old terrorist, but Atias died of his wounds not long afterward.

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PA Negotiators Quit Peace Talks

November 20, 2013 Last week, Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator for the peace talks, along with his fellow negotiator, Muhammad Shtayyeh, the minister in charge of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction, resigned from peace negotiations with Israel. In response, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected the resignations, asking them to continue the negotiations and re-asserted the PA commitment to the peace process. "The delegation to the talks handed in its resignation, which we have still not accepted," Abbas said. (Israel HaYom)

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Syrian Mother Chooses to Deliver Baby in Israel

November 13, 2013 A 20-year-old Syrian woman who fled to Israel to give birth to her first child in an Israeli hospital said that both she and her baby were being treated well by Israel. (CBN) “I don’t feel like I am in an enemy country. The staff are all helping me and worrying about me,” she said, adding that her baby “is getting wonderful, devoted care.” (JPost)

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New Textbooks in Gaza Misinform Students About Israel

November 13, 2013 The Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip recently introduced textbooks for grades eight through 10 designed to “infuse the next generation with its militant ideology” toward Israel. (Commentary) The textbooks fail to recognize modern Israel and do not mention the Oslo Accords, agreements signed by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 1993. (NYT)

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Arab MKs Disrupt Temple Mount Committee Session

November 13, 2013 A recent debate on a bill that would guarantee Jews access to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, as well as equal prayer rights there, sparked an angry response from Arab-Israeli MKs (members of parliament). During the debate MK Miri Regev stressed that no attempt is being made to bar Muslims from praying at the Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site.

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UN Envoy Calls for Division of Jerusalem

November 6, 2013 Last week, UN envoy Robert H. Serry emphasized Israel’s capital, Jerusalem, must be divided to achieve peace. “Without resolving Jerusalem, there will be no solution,” he said. “The [UN] secretary general believes that a way has to be found for Jerusalem to emerge as a capital for two states.” (JPost) Serry currently serves as the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority.

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Israel Releases 26 Terrorists as Part of Peace Talks Deal

November 6, 2013 Last week, Israel let go 26 more of the 104 terrorists to be released as part of the deal for peace talks, a deal brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry. This second of the four-stage release went forward despite anguished objections by the families of the terrorists' victims.

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Palestinian Leader Calls for Shooting Jerusalem Jews

October 30, 2013 Recently, a local Palestinian community leader speaking at an al-Quds Day rally in Toronto, Canada, said that Jews who refuse to leave Jerusalem should be shot. “We say get out or you’re dead! We give them two minutes and then we start shooting. And that’s the only way that they will understand,” Elias Hazineh, the former president of Palestine House, told a crowd of about 400.

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IDF Discovers Terrorist Tunnel Linking Gaza with Israel

October 23, 2013 Israel’s military has uncovered yet another terrorist tunnel linking Gaza with Israel. The tunnel is 1.7 kilometers long (just over a mile) and ends near Israeli civilian populations. It is the third tunnel discovered along the Gaza-Israel security fence in the past year.

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