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Leading into the Passover and summer travel seasons, Israel has raised travel warnings to the highest level, cautioning Israelis against traveling to Egypt's Sinai region. Counter-Terrorism Bureau Chief, Eitan Ben David, said on 27 March 2017 that "the threat has grown and is the gravest level of threat. Attacks on the Egyptian military, on Coptic Christians, ISIS rockets fired at Eilat and videos from ISIS against Israelis show the high motivation and power of terror groups there to attack Israelis," said Ben David. While Sinai has the highest level of warning at level one of four, other countries also have high warning levels – with Turkey at level two (without special heightened warning for merely stopping over in Turkey’s airport) and Jordan along with Egypt at level three. Level one signals "a very high concrete threat” with advice to avoid any travel to a destination and leave immediately. Level two means "a high concrete threat” with advice to avoid travel to a destination and leave as early as possible. Level three means "a basic-level concrete threat” with advice to avoid travel to a destination. Ben David emphasized that they did not disregard threats from Iran, Hezbollah or others, but that in general the increased threat stemmed mainly from ISIS-related groups. (J.Post) [Comment]

In an article published by the Palestinian Authority daily Al Quds, Fatah official Abbas Zaki called on the terror organization to "recruit tens of thousands Fatah activists to rise up against Israel." PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is also a Fatah member. According to Zaki, if Fatah recruits members and begins another uprising (intifada) against Israel, the other terror organizations will act similarly, and Fatah will be returned to the leadership position it held in 1967, when it returned "the Arabs' national hope" by means of "revolutionary acts." In his article, Zaki wrote, "The sword continues to be aimed, and the gun continues to precede the olive leaf." He also called on Arab officials to continue their attempts to harm Israel in international courts. "We need to do something concrete to integrate tens of thousands of Fatah activists into our civilian uprising against the settlers and the occupation's forces," Zaki wrote. "The numbers of these activists will immediately double, when other national and Islamist organizations join them, together with civilians of our great nation. This is because what binds us is the fight against Israel, and not the dialogue with Israel, which has already lost its efficiency in every way." Zaki also called on Fatah activists to "close off the roads leading to towns in Judea & Samaria, in order to push Israeli forces out of the Palestinian Authority's territory." In fact, while Jews are not allowed to enter Arab villages - and would lose their lives if they did - Arabs often enter Jewish villages to murder residents and set fire to buildings. (INN) [Comment]

 Lebanon has made the Hezbollah terrorist group, whose rocket launchers are in homes and villages, part of its official army, making it responsible for civilian deaths on both sides should war erupt. Where is the UN? Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah recently warned Israel that his Iran-backed terror group could attack targets producing mass Israeli casualties, including a huge ammonia storage tank in Haifa, and a nuclear reactor in Dimona. Also last month, sources reported that since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, Iran has provided Hezbollah with a vast supply of "game-changing,” state-of-the art weapons, despite Israel’s occasional airstrikes against weapons convoys. In a future conflict, Hezbollah has the capacity to fire 1,500 rockets into Israel each day. Should such a scenario materialize, Israel will be forced to respond with unprecedented firepower to defend its own civilians. Hezbollah’s advanced weapons reportedly are embedded across a staggering 10,000 locations in the heart of more than 200 civilian towns and villages. The Israeli military has openly warned about this Hezbollah war crime and the grave threats it poses to both sides, but that alarm has generated almost no attention from the global media, the UN, or other international institutions.

Hezbollah’s very presence in southern Lebanon is a flagrant violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, which called for the area to be a zone "free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons” other than the Lebanese military and the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The resolution also required Hezbollah to be disarmed, but the terror group today has an arsenal that rivals that of most armies. Hezbollah possesses an estimated 140,000 missiles and rockets, and reportedly now can manufacture advanced weapons in underground factories that are impervious to aerial attack. "Israel must stress again and again, before it happens, that these villages [storing Hezbollah weapons] have become military posts, and are therefore legitimate targets,” said Yoram Schweitzer, senior research fellow at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. But even a concerted campaign to showcase Hezbollah’s war preparation is unlikely to change things, said Eyal Zisser, a senior research fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Hezbollah exploits the fact that "the international community is too busy and weak to do something about it,” Zisser said. All of "these talks and reports have no meaning. See what is happening in Syria.” (Arutz-7) Pray that Israel will be prepared with effective strategies - and alliances that can be trusted - to deflate the Iran-backed Hezbollah that sits on Israel’s northern borders.

 Omar Barghouti, founder of both the BDS movement and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, was arrested on suspicion he committed tax evasion over the past decade, concealing $700,000 in earned income from tax authorities. During a raid of Barghouti’s house, police say they found credit cards and purchase records confirming the allegations against him. Investigators say Barghouti received the money from a company in the Palestinian Authority which sells and rents ATM machines, where Barghouti has served as director. Barghouti has openly advocated for the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state and the end of Zionism. Barghouti rejects the two-state solution, and has compared Israel to both Apartheid-ridden South Africa and Nazi Germany. The BDS movement pushes for boycotts of Israeli products and institutions, divestment from companies and institutions "complicit” in the violation of Palestinian rights (through investments in Israel), and sanctions against Israel, such as pushing for the rejection of its membership in international forums. (Times of Israel) [Comment]

The USA will boycott deliberations conducted within the framework of a permanent UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) agenda item that singles out Israel, the Trump administration announced on 20 March, 2017. The news came as the UNHRC was set to weigh a slew of anti-Israel resolutions this week at its Geneva, Switzerland headquarters. "While we are making some progress on reversing the anti-Israel bias at the UN in New York, regrettably, today in Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council begins debate on the only country permanently on the body’s calendar,” American UN envoy Nikki Haley said on Monday 20 March. "It is not Syria, where the regime has systematically slaughtered and tortured its own people. It is not Iran, where public hangings are a regular occurrence. It is not North Korea, where the regime uses forced labor camps to crush its people into submission. It is Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. The so-called ‘Agenda Item 7’ discredits the standing of the only UN body specifically designed to address the state of global human rights by allowing nations to distract from their own abuses back home by churning out anti-Israel propaganda,”

Haley further noted. "As a result, the United States will not participate in discussions under Agenda Item 7 at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, other than to vote against the outrageous, one-sided, anti-Israel resolutions that so diminish what the Human Rights Council should be, and we encourage other council members who purport to be defenders of human rights to do the same.” State Department spokesman Mark Toner earlier on Monday said, "The United States strongly and unequivocally opposes the existence of the UN Human Rights Council’s Agenda Item Seven: ‘Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.’ Today’s actions in the council are yet another reminder of that body’s long-standing bias against Israel. No other nation has an entire agenda item dedicated to it at the council. The continued existence of this agenda item is among the largest threats to the credibility of the council.” Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely tweeted at Haley on Monday, "I welcome USA determined position against UNHRC’s bias towards Israel. Today’s decision is an important step to change this bias.” (Algemeiner) Pray the UNHRC will be broken of its obsessive anti-Israel bias and pattern of targeting the Jewish state with its bigoted charges and resolutions. Pray that the focus will be turned to the true violators of human rights such as Syria, Iran and N. Korea. "Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow." Isa 1:17 [Comment]

A top global advertising agency has withdrawn all of its 240 UK clients from Google websites - including YouTube - due to concerns about ads being displayed next to extremist content, media sources reported on 20 March, 2017. According to the report, Havas spends around £175 million a year in the UK on digital advertising, of which Google gets around £35 million. "We have a duty of care to our clients in the UK marketplace,” said Paul Frampton, chief executive of Havas UK. "Our position will remain until we are confident in the YouTube platform and Google Display Network’s ability to deliver the standards we and our clients expect.” Last week, a top Google executive told British lawmakers that an anti-Semitic YouTube video titled "Jews admit organizing White Genocide” did not constitute hate speech. While the video - narrated by ex-Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke - was "deeply offensive and shocking,” it did not violate YouTube rules against hate speech and would remain on the site, Google Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs Peter Barron said at a House of Commons Home Affairs Committee hearing. The hearing marked the start of a parliamentary inquiry into online hate. (Algemeiner) Pray that Google websites and social media outlets that refuse to cease posting material that is clearly anti-Semitic and full anti-Israel bias will incur increasing sharp penalties for their slander and incitement.
[Comment]

Ministers and chief executive officers accompanying PM Binyamin Netanyahu on his trip to China signed agreements that include cooperation on emergency medicine, exchange of scientific delegations, the environment and cooperation in matters of education during the third innovation conference involving the two countries this year in Beijing. Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong told Netanyahu that the meeting with Israeli ministers proves itself and brings significant results, explaining, "At each meeting, significant agreements are signed that promise to enhance cooperation in innovation between the two countries. Other government ministries join each meeting, indicating the success of the forum. China has such a framework for innovation only with Israel. We must ensure that the framework of the innovation committee continues, will bear fruit and will expand in the coming years." PM Netanyahu noted that the framework of the conference is vital to bilateral relations, adding that the two countries have a long tradition and past, and both are committed to building a society that promotes technology and innovation. (Arutz-7) [Comment]