Israel's medical services have treated more than 2,600 Syrians wounded during their country's conflict since 2013, despite the two nations being officially at war, the Israeli army said Tues. 14 March 2027. The wounded are transferred to the border where they receive first aid from Israeli medical teams before being taken to hospitals. Israel and Syria have been officially at war for decades, though the border between the two countries was largely quiet until the Syrian conflict broke out in 2011. The Jewish state has allegedly carried out a number of strikes inside Syria, targeting Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, an Israeli arch-foe and ally of the Syrian regime. (INN) [Comment]

The formation of a new Hezbollah brigade which aims to liberate the Golan Heights from Israel increases the threat posed by Iran on the northern border, Minister of Intelligence and member of Security Cabinet Israel Katz said this week. "The so called ‘Golan Liberation Brigade’ sharpens the threat posed by the presence of Iran and Hezbollah in Syria in general and on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights in particular. I have been saying for a long time that if Iran is allowed to base itself in Syria it will be a threat to Israel's national security and a constant source of regional instability and tension and friction with the Sunni majority in Syria and with the Sunni countries in the region as well,” Katz added. The latest Iranian proxy to be formed in Syria is a brigade that was announced last week at a press conference in Iran. "After the latest victories [in Syria and Iraq], we established the ‘Golan Liberation Brigade’, said an Iranian military source. According to the source, the brigade members are well trained special forces and well-armed, ready to assist the Syrian regime in retaking the Golan Heights, territory won by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War. The group also released a 45-second video promoting the newly formed Golan liberation brigade, with dozens of fighters marching with a banner reading "Israel will be destroyed.” (J.Post) "Moreover the multitude of your foes shall be like fine dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones like chaff that passes away. Yes, it shall be in an instant, suddenly.” Isa. 29: 5 [Comment]

The United States on Wed. 15 March 2017 demanded that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres withdraw a report by a UN body accusing Israel of imposing apartheid on Arabs in Judea and Samaria. Guterres distanced himself from the report by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) but USA Ambassador Nikki Haley said it should be scrapped altogether. "The United States is outraged by the report," said Haley. "The United Nations secretariat was right to distance itself from this report, but it must go further and withdraw the report altogether." The study concluded that "available evidence established beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid." Based in Beirut, ESCWA is comprised of 18 Arab countries, which lists the 'state of Palestine' as a full member. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said "the report does not reflect the views of the secretary-general."

One of the authors is Richard Falk, a former special UN rapporteur on Palestinian human rights who has praised the Hamas terrorist organization and compared it to the French resistance during World War 2. "That such anti-Israel propaganda would come from a body whose membership nearly universally does not recognize Israel is unsurprising," said Haley. She described Falk as "a man who has repeatedly made biased and deeply offensive comments about Israel and espoused ridiculous conspiracy theories". Haley has accused the UN of being biased against Israel and has vowed as President Donald Trump's envoy to staunchly defend Israel at the world body. Israel's ambassador Danny Danon condemned the report, describing it as an "attempt to smear and falsely label the only true democracy in the Middle East." Danon said to label Israel as an apartheid regime was "despicable" and "a blatant lie." (Fox) "Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains is a deception; surely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel” Jer 3:23.

Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid on Wed. evening 15 March 2017 blasted a UN report accusing Israel of imposing apartheid on Arabs in Judea and Samaria. The entire report "is full of hatred and anti-Semitism", Lapid said. "Instead of an organization which defends freedom, democracy and liberal values, the UN has turned into a collaborator with terrorist organizations. Does anyone think it makes sense that a UN agency in which Syria and Sudan are members will preach morality to the State of Israel - the only democracy in the Middle East that protects the rights of its minorities and provides humanitarian aid to its enemies?” he continued. "Europe and the United States must make it unequivocally clear that as long as the campaign of incitement by the UN against Israel continues, they will stop supporting this organization that has long ago ceased to fulfill its role." Lapid added, "This week I held a series of meetings in Washington aimed at stopping the funding to the UN and convincing the United States to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council. I will continue to do so until that happens." (Arutz-7) [Comment]

 Israel is interested in pursuing bilateral negotiations for the resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict, National Infrastructure Minister Yuval Steinitz said Monday 13 March 2017, but has no partner in the Palestinian Authority willing and able to make peace. Steinitz made the comments on Israel Radio just ahead of the arrival of special White House envoy Jason Greenblatt, who was slated to land in Israel Mondayfor talks with PM Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas. Minister Steinitz slammed the PA leader, arguing his extremist positions made negotiations between the PA and Israel impossible. "Israel is just telling the truth about Mahmoud Abbas’ extreme positions, which negate the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.” (INN) Former Deputy Education Minister Avi Wortzman has likewise in the past sharply criticized the Palestinian Authority for making endless demands to continue peace talks. ''They demanded independence, and we gave it to them. They demanded recognition of a Palestinian state, and we gave it to them. They demanded weapons and we gave them to them. They demanded Hebron, and we gave it to them. They demanded Gaza, and we gave it to them. They demanded terrorist releases, and we gave it to them, again and again," said Wortzman. "In response: we received attacks, we received wounded and dead, we received damage to our economy," he continued. "Now they're coming back and demanding we withdraw to '67 borders, with eastern Jerusalem as their capital. If we do it, God forbid, what will they ask for tomorrow? It's time to demand that we stop giving," he stated. "It's time to put our existential needs and our security before their demands. The time has come to say it clearly: this is our country. Ours - period." [Comment]

 Hours after his release from 20 years in jail for gunning down seven Israeli schoolgirls, ex-Jordanian soldier Ahmed Daqamseh declared on 12 March 2017 that Israelis are "human waste” that must be eradicated. Daqamseh made his remarks to al-Jazeera TV station, shortly after returning from jail to his home village of Ibdir to cheering friends and family. "The Israelis are the human waste of people that the rest of the world has vomited up at our feet” he told the TV station. "We must eliminate them by fire or by burial. If this is not done by our hands, the task will fall on the future generations to do.” In a later media interview Daqamseh said that he did not want to cause political instability in Jordan, and indicated he was not planning to carry out future attacks. "My position regarding Zionists is known. I did what I did 20 years ago and that’s it,” he said. In March 1997, Daqamseh opened fire with an automatic weapon at Israeli schoolgirls on a trip to the Jordan-Israel border, killing seven of them and wounding five others and a teacher. A Jordanian court deemed Daqamseh mentally unstable and sentenced him to life in prison, rather than imposing the death penalty. Early this week Daqamseh was released from the Bab al-Hawa prison in Irbid, 60 miles north of the capital Amman after serving 20 years. Daqamseh was driven home in a convoy of dozens of cars whose drivers were honking their horns. His brother Bassem said the family home was full of well-wishers. (Times of Israel) [Comment]

A British daily revealed on 12 March 2017 that 24 Palestinian Authority schools are openly ignoring Western demands to cease encouraging violence against Israelis - or else forfeit foreign aid. According to the Daily Mail, despite public outrage over the UK government’s payments to the PA as part of a commitment to spend £12 billion on foreign aid - following an expose by the paper last year about how taxpayers’ money was going toward paying salaries to convicted terrorists and families of suicide bombers - the schools in question have been continuing to incite students to terrorism through text books and classroom indoctrination. MP Joan Ryan, chair of Labour Friends of Israel - for which a report was prepared by Jerusalem-based research organization Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) - said that though she supports sending aid to the Palestinians, "We cannot stand idly by while the Palestinian Authority sanctions anti-Semitic incitement which poisons young minds and makes a two-state solution ever more difficult to achieve.”

Among the 24 schools in question, all dedicated to prominent Palestinian terrorists, are four named after the mastermind of the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, one after the founder of Hamas and one after Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who backed Hitler during WWII and helped recruit for the SS. Another of the schools on the list, in Hebron, is one of three named after Dalal Mughrabi, the woman behind the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history - the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre, which left 37 people dead, among them 12 children. "Britain and the European Union bear responsibility for this terror when they are funding a school system that is actively promoting, and thereby creating, terrorism,” PMW head Itamar Marcus told the Daily Mail. "This is simply child abuse, encouraging kids to die in armed struggle. It is a terrible message for the next generation. Children are the key to peace, but look at what they are being exposed to from a young age, growing up in an environment of terror and told the killing of Israelis is a heroic action.” (Algemeiner) How grave is the tragic truth that Palestinians are destroying the souls of their own society and especially their children. They do so by glorifying terrorists as heroes, furthering incitement to hate and kill Jews via children’s TV programs, school text books and in summer camps designed to instill jihad aspirations in the young. Pray against the sacrifice of Palestinian children to jihadist hatred and murder.

Police raided the eastern Jerusalem home of the Arab terrorist responsible for a stabbing attack which left two Border Police officers injured early Monday morning 13 March 2017. The attack took place at a security post just outside of the Lion’s Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. The terrorist entered a booth occupied by the two officers and proceeded to stab them before being shot and killed. One officer suffered serious injuries, while the other has been listed in light-to-moderate condition. Both were evacuated to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital and are in stable condition. After the attack, police and Border Police officers raided the terrorist’s home in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood, searching the premises and taking four of the terrorist’s relatives into custody. Police say the four are being questioned in connection with the attack. Jabel Mukaber has been dubbed a terrorist hotbed by security experts, who warn of increasing support there for the ISIS terror movement. "The neighborhood school brings parents of terrorists to laud the greatness of their children's activities,” said Dr. Ephraim Herrera, an expert on Islam and the Middle East. "Our inquiries to the Education Ministry were answered saying it is a private school, so don't be surprised that this is happening." (Arutz-7) Pray for the swift and complete recovery of Israel’s latest terror victims – also for the protection of Jerusalem and surrounding areas from brutal outbreaks of terrorist violence.
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