Gaza Strip: 55 Palestinians killed while protesting US embassy in Jerusalem

At least 55 Palestinians were killed and 2,771 were injured on Monday as Israeli troops fired on demonstrators along the Gaza-Israel boundary protesting the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, making it the deadliest day of violence since the 2014 Gaza war.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today accused Israel of "state terror" and "genocide" after Israeli forces killed at least 55 Palestinians on the Gaza border.

In one of his most vehement broadsides ever against the Jewish state, Erdogan also announced three days of national mourning over the deaths, as well as a giant protest in Istanbul on Friday.

US blocks call for independent Gaza inquiry at UN

Despite the bloodshed, Trump hailed the move in a video message. He told the dedication ceremony that it had been a "long time coming", adding: "Israel is a sovereign nation with the right to determine its own capital but for many years we failed to acknowledge the obvious."

US Embassy to Israel in Jerusalem expected to open in May: WH official

The United States is expected to open its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem in May, a US official told Reuters on Friday.

US President Donald Trump announced last year that the United States recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, setting in motion the move of the embassy to Jeruslaem from Tel Aviv.

Israel PM Netanyahu may be charged with bribery for accepting cigars, gifts

Israeli police on Tuesday recommended that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be indicted in two cases of alleged corruption after a long-running probe in a move set to shake the country's politics.
A decision to press formal charges against the veteran premier now rests with the attorney general's office, which is expected to take weeks or months to decide how to proceed.

Netanyahu, prime minister for nearly 12 years, addressed the nation as news of the recommendations broke, proclaiming his innocence and pledging to continue to lead the country.

"Over the years, I have been the subject of at least 15 enquiries and investigations," Netanyahu said in the televised address.

PM Modi embarks on 'historic' Palestine visit: Here's the full itinerary

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first engagement after arriving in Ramallah on Saturday morning will be to lay a wreath at the Mausoleum of Late President Yasser Arafat.

Prime Minister Modi will be accompanied by his Palestinian counterpart Rami Hamdallah.

The Mausoleum of Yasser Arafat was unveiled on November 10, 2007 and is located adjacent to the compound of Presidential Headquarters (Al-Muqata'a).

After paying homage to Yasser Arafat at the Mausoleum, the Prime Minister will take a short tour, accompanied by Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, of the Yasser Arafat Museum located adjacent to the Mausoleum.

From 'Shalom Bollywood' to seeing the Taj: Netanyahu to land in India today

Six months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's historic visit to Israel, first ever by any Indian prime minister to the Jewish nation, his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu is arriving in India today for a six-day state visit.

The Israeli Prime Minister, who is the second Prime Minister from his country after Ariel Sharon to visit India in the last 25 years of a diplomatic relationship, will be accompanied by a 130-member delegation from various sectors including cyber, agriculture and defence.

Later in the day, he will call on External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj.

The visiting dignitary, on Monday, will be given a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhawan which will be followed by the wreath laying at the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi.

Netanyahu will also meet his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and hold delegation level talks.

The two sides will sign agreements and also issue a joint press statement. The Israeli Prime Minister will call on President Ram Nath Kovind later in the day.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara, will leave for Agra to see Taj Mahal. On the same day, he will visit Delhi and participate in the Raisina Dialogue, where he is scheduled to deliver an inaugural speech.
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Trump threatens to stop US aid worth 'hundreds of millions' to Palestine

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to withdraw aid money to Palestinians as they are unwilling to negotiate peace with Israel.

"..we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. They don't even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel," Trump said in a series of two lengthy tweets.

"We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?" Trump asked.

According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, since the mid-1990s, the US government has committed more than USD 5 billion in bilateral economic and non-lethal security assistance to the Palestinians.

Earlier in the day, the US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said the US would cut off aid if the Palestinians continue to refuse to engage in peace negotiations.

"I think the president has basically said that he doesn't want to give any additional funding or stop funding until the Palestinians are agreeing to come back to the negotiation table," Haley told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

"What we saw with the resolution was not helpful to the situation. We're trying to move for a peace process. But if that doesn't happen the president's not going to continue to fund that situation," Haley said in response to a question when asked if the US would continue to fund Palestine despite the recent resolution of the UN General Assembly against Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel.
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Israel's air-defense system intercepts two rockets fired from Gaza strip

Israeli army on Friday intercepted two rockets fired from the Gaza strip, while the third rocket fell near the Gaza border.
The Anadolu Agency quoted an Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth as saying that air-raid sirens were sounded in the border communities of Sdot Negev and Shaar Hanegev.

"The Iron Dome air-defense system intercepted two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip," the newspaper reported.

"A third rocket landed on a structure in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council in southern Israel," it added.

No casualties or material damage was reported.

United States President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital has prompted international criticism and sparked protests across the world.

Jerusalem is considered a sacred place, which is home to Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites.

However, it is also a disputed territory, contested by both Israel and Palestine, which sees it as a capital of its future state.
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Pope Francis defends Jerusalem 'status quo' ahead of Trump's announcement

Pope Francis on Wednesday defended the "status quo" of Jerusalem, hours ahead of an announcement by US President Donald Trump in which officials said he will recognise the disputed city as Israel's capital.

"I cannot silence my deep concern over the situation that has emerged in recent days. At the same time, I appeal strongly for all to respect the city's status quo, in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions," the pope said in his weekly address.

The Argentine pontiff's call came a day after he spoke by phone with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, the Vatican said without elaborating.

"Jerusalem is a unique city, sacred for Jews, Christians and Muslims," he said, adding that it was home to sites deemed holy by followers of the three major monotheistic faiths.

Jerusalem, the pope said, holds a "special vocation for peace".

"I pray to God that this identity is preserved and reinforced, for the sake of the Holy Land, the West Asia and the whole world, and that wisdom and prudence prevail," he said.

The pontiff added that maintaining the status quo was important "in order to avoid adding new elements of tension to an already volatile world that is wracked by so many cruel conflicts".
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Saudis, Turks voice alarm over US move to mark Jerusalem as Israel capital

Saudi Arabia on Monday voiced "grave and deep concern" over possible US plans to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, saying the move could have serious implications for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

President Donald Trump faces a key decision this week over Jerusalem's status, potentially reversing years of US policy and prompting a furious response from the Palestinians and the Arab world.

"Saudi Arabia (expresses) grave and deep concern over reports that the US administration intends to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem," the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing a foreign ministry source.

"This step will have serious implications and will further complicate the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It will also obstruct the ongoing efforts to revive the peace process."

The status of Jerusalem is one of the most contentious issues of the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Facing dark warnings of a historic misstep and widespread unrest, Trump on Monday delayed a decision on whether to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and move the US embassy there.
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Israel, Egypt pushed US to bomb Iran before 2015 nuclear deal: John Kerry

Former Secretary of State John Kerry says both Israel and Egypt pushed the United States to "bomb Iran" before the 2015 nuclear deal was struck.

Kerry is defending the deal during a forum in Washington. He says kings and foreign presidents told the US that bombing was the only language Iran would understand. But Kerry says that was "a trap" in many ways because the same countries would have publicly criticised the US if it bombed.

Kerry says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "genuinely agitating toward action."

Kerry says he doesn't know whether Iran will resume pursuing a nuclear weapon in 10 to 15 years after restrictions in the deal sunset. But he says it was the best deal the US could get.
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Blow to May: UK minister Priti Patel quits over unofficial meets in Israel

Priti Patel, Britain's overseas development secretary, resigned late on Wednesday after meeting Prime Minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street.

May had ordered Patel to cut short an official visit to Africa and return to London following reports she had held unauthorized meetings with Israeli officials, XInhua reported.

Her resignation was the second major blow within days for May following the resignation of the defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon in the so-called "sex pest" scandal that has currently engulfed British politics.

The fate of May's deputy, First Secretary Damian Green, has yet to be decided with an ongoing investigation into allegations made against him which he denies.

May has also faced calls this week from the main opposition Labor Party to fire Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson over his handling of a case involving a British-Iranian national, jailed for allegedly spying in Iran.

Political commentators in London say the troubles surrounding May's front bench team could not have happened at a worst time. She heads a minority government with opinion divided in her own party over Britain's future relationship with the European Union.

Patel, seen as a rising star in Conservative politics and a future leader, caused anger at Westminster over a series of unauthorized meetings with officials of the Israeli government, including a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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Trump is going to make a huge mistake on the Iran deal

President Trump is expected this week to refuse to recertify that Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal, a milestone diplomatic agreement that prevents Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Mr Trump seems poised to take that action despite the reality that Iran is not violating the terms of the deal. In fact, his key national security cabinet officers have publicly said that Iran is meeting its commitments. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is charged with monitoring and verifying the deal, has issued eight reports over the past two years echoing these conclusions.

Instead, the president seems prepared to argue that the deal is no longer in the United States’ vital national security interest because of Iran’s other activities in the Middle East, including its support for terrorism, its meddling in Syria and Yemen, and its threats to Israel’s security.

The Trump administration is right that Iranian behaviour destabilises the region, but wrong when it says that such behaviour contradicts the “spirit” of the agreement and that he is therefore justified in refusing to certify Iran’s compliance. In fact, Iran’s troubling foreign policy is precisely why the deal was necessary in the first place: An Iran armed with a nuclear weapon would be far more threatening to regional and global security.
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US Senators seek law to impose $1 mn fine, 20 years in jail for boycotting

In 1966, the NAACP of Claiborne County, Mississippi launched a boycott of several white-owned local businesses on the basis of racial discrimination.

It was so impactful that the local hardware store filed a lawsuit against the individuals and organisations who coordinated the boycott. After 10 long years of litigation, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in favour of the white businesses and ordered the NAACP to pay for all their lost earnings.

Years later, in 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-0 to overturn the lower court’s decision on the basis that nonviolent boycotts are a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment. In announcing the unanimous decision, Justice John Paul Stevens said, “One of the foundations of our society is the right of individuals to combine with other persons in pursuit of a common goal by lawful means.”

That should have been the end of it. But now, Americans’ right to boycott is under attack once again
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US think tank: Israel had plan to use atomic bomb in 1967

Israel had a secret plan to detonate an atomic bomb in Egypt in the event that it faced defeat during the 1967 West Asia war, a leading American think tank said today, citing newly released documents.

The operation was never carried out, as Israel swiftly vanquished its enemies in six days. But details about the doomsday scenario, in which Israel planned to set off a nuclear weapon atop a mountain in the Sinai Peninsula, shed new light on the fearful climate at the time. It also could undermine Israel's decades-long policy of nuclear ambiguity.

The Nuclear Proliferation International History Project of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington unveiled a website today devoted to "Operation Shimshon," the codename for the hastily arranged contingency plan of placing an improvised nuclear device in Sinai to be detonated upon the prime minister's orders.

The operation's name, Hebrew for Samson, invoked the biblical figure of great power and aimed to scare Arab armies into quitting their offensive should Israel face what was feared to be an existential threat.

The new information was based on interviews with Yitzhak Yaakov, a retired brigadier general who in 1967 was the chief liaison between the Israeli military and the civilian defence industries, including those overseeing the nuclear project.

In a series of interviews in 1999 with Avner Cohen, a leading scholar of Israeli nuclear history, Yaakov detailed how he came up with the plans at his superiors' urging and how a pair of helicopters was chosen for the mission along with forces from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit.

The selected landing site was a mountain in eastern Sinai, about 20 kilometres from the large Egyptian military complex in Abu Ageila. There, the semi-assembled "spider" device was to be connected with its nuclear core and linked to ignition wires.

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Donald Trump visits Israel after urging West Asia to 'drive out' terrorists

US President Donald Trump was on Monday set to land in Israel to tackle the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a day after urging Arab and Islamic leaders to unite and "drive out" terrorists while toning down his own harsh rhetoric about Muslims.

Trump's Israel visit comes after he delivered a powerful speech at the Arab-Islamic-American summit in Riyadh on Sunday.

The US President will hold talks with both Israeli and Palestinian leaders and also address regional security issues during the course of his two-day stop, CNN reported.

Trump, while addressing the leaders of 55 Muslim-majority countries in Saudi Arabia, sought to redefine his relationship with the Muslim world after making a slew of Islamophobic remarks on the campaign trail, calling for a ban on Muslims and declaring "Islam hates us".

He described the battle against terrorist groups as a "battle between good and evil" as he told Muslim-majority countries to redouble their counterterrorism efforts.

Trump rejected the idea that the fight against terrorism was a struggle between religions.

"This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects or different civilisations," Trump said.

"This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it. This is a battle between good and evil," he said.

While Trump said that he was "not here to lecture" the Muslim world, his speech went beyond outreach.

In his most forceful argument, Trump exhorted Muslim-majority countries to do more to eradicate terrorist groups that claim the mantle of Islam, urging Muslims to "drive out" terrorists.
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Trump leaves on maiden foreign trip; to visit Saudi Arabia, 4 other nations

President Donald Trump today left on a nine-day maiden overseas trip during which he will visit five countries and is expected to push for his agenda of boosting US economy, bringing peace in conflict-prone zones of the world and calling for greater security cooperation.

Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Israel, Vatican, Belgium and Italy during his visit with the defeat of ISIS topping his agenda.

"Getting ready for my big foreign trip. Will be strongly protecting American interests - that's what I like to do!" Trump told his nearly 30 million followers on Tweeter hours before he boarded Air Force One along with his top officials and a battery of White House reporters from Joint Andrews Air Force Base.

In Saudi Arabia, the first stop of his trip, Trump will address leaders from more than 50 Muslim countries with the message of peace and calling for a partnership with the Islamic world.

The leaders of the Muslim world - including those from Afghanistan and Pakistan - would be asked to sign a pledge to make it illegal in their countries to raise funds for extremist and terrorist groups.

Senior administration officials said the US later would hold these countries accountable if there is any violation of the pledge.

However, a major highlight of his trip would be his address to the Muslim world.

"The speech is intended to unite the broader Muslim world against common enemies of all civilisation and to demonstrate America's commitment to our Muslim partners," his National Security Adviser Lt General H R McMaster said ahead of the trip.

McMaster said Trump will also participate in a signing ceremony of several agreements that will further solidify US- Saudi security and economic cooperation.

According to senior administration officials, agreements are expected to cross a whopping $500 billion in all, with security co-operation alone accounting for $300 billion.

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Lawsuits accusing Facebook of supporting Hamas terrorist group dismissed

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed two lawsuits accusing Facebook Inc of supporting terrorist groups by letting them use its social media platform to further their aims, including violence against Jews.

US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn dismissed a lawsuit brought on behalf of roughly 20,000 Israeli citizens and a lawsuit by family members and the estates of victims of attacks by Hamas.

Garaufis said the plaintiffs in the first lawsuit lacked standing to pursue their claims in federal court, and that Facebook was immune from claims in the second lawsuit.
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Israel shows off F-35 fighter jets for first time on Independence Day event

BREAKING NEWS - Israel showed off its new F-35 stealth fighter jets recently delivered from the United States on Tuesday as part of an air show marking its annual Independence Day celebrations.

Three of Israel's five stealth fighters took to the skies along the Mediterranean coast off Tel Aviv as thousands of people gathered at the waterfront to watch.

The F-35s, made by US-based Lockheed Martin, were the highlight of the show, which marked 69 years of Israeli independence.

Israel has received the initial five jets since December with the aim of allowing it to maintain its military superiority in the turbulent Middle East, particularly regarding its arch-foe Iran.

It plans to purchase a total of 50 F-35s. Its first jets are to be operational this year.

While other countries have ordered the planes, Israel — which receives more than $3 billion a year in US defence aid — says it will be the first outside the United States with an operational F-35 squadron.

Israel is buying its first 33 F-35s at an average price of about $110 million (103.5 million euros) each — and the price tag has been criticised both in Israel and elsewhere.

Among its main features are advanced stealth capabilities to help pilots evade sophisticated missile systems.

The single-pilot jets can carry an array of weapons and travel at a supersonic speed of Mach 1.6, or around 1,200 miles per hour (1,900 kilometres per hour).

The pilot's ultra-high-tech helmet, at a cost of about $400,000 each, includes its own operating system, with data that appears on the visor and is also shared elsewhere.

Thermal and night vision as well as 360-degree views are possible with cameras mounted on the plane.
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The YouTube videos you watch can be tracked

If you thought what you watch on YouTube is no one's business, you could not be further detached from reality. Researchers have found that your online video viewing habits can be tracked.

Gaps in YouTube's encryption enable both government intelligence agencies, hackers and internet marketers to determine which videos a user is watching, said the researchers.


"We built a simple yet robust machine-learning algorithm that can identify which video you watched — within a predetermined set of videos — with a high degree of accuracy," said one of the researchers Ran Dubin from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Israel.

"The algorithm is based on an in-depth study of how video services work, how video content is encoded and how a video player requests information to play it," Dubin said.

Dubin was able to use this algorithm to determine if someone had watched a specific video from a set of suspicious, terror-related videos.

Intelligence agencies could access this technology for tracking terrorists or other suspicious individuals.

Internet marketing companies could track the number and make-up of viewers watching an ad, according to the research presented at the Black Hat Europe meeting in London.

"It's important to know that video encryption is not as secure as we once thought," Dubin said

"Google, YouTube's parent company, is not likely to patch the gaps, since it would be prohibitively expensive to create a traffic obfuscation mechanism for every user's every video request," he added. (READ MORE)