HOT POINTS
A Digest of DEBKAfile Round-the-Clock Exclusives in Week Ending April 24, 2014
April 11, 2014 Briefs
The IDF shuts down Yitzhar yeshiva and posts border guards
The IDF for the first time in its history took control of a yeshiva, the Od Yosef Hay, in the West Bank community of Yitzhar, announced the suspension of studies and posted a company of border guards there as of Friday morning. A group of students at this yeshiva is suspected of the rampage last week against the demolition of three illegal structures and knocking over the tents of a military position.
Gunman shouting “Heil Hitler!” murdered 3 people in two Kansas Jewish centers
14 April. A 70-year old man shot dead Sunday, April 14, three people at two Jewish centers in Kansas City, before being taken into custody. He was heard shouting “Heil Hitler!” A Johnson County sheriff's database identified him as Frazier Glenn Cross, an avowed white supremacist and anti-Semite. A grandfather and grandson whom he killed were members of the Episcopal Church. His third victim was a Jewish woman.
April 15, 2014 Briefs
Prince Bandar replaced as Saudi intelligence chief
Saudi intelligence director Prince Bandar bin Sultan has been replaced by his deputy, Yousef al-Idrissi. Bandar, a former ambassador to the US, acted in the past two years as the kingdom’s point man on the Syrian conflict.
Victim of Palestinian shooting was Police Dep. Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi
Police Dep. Superintendent Baruch Mizrahi , 47, of Modiin, was shot dead and his wife Hadas, seriously injured in a Palestinian shooting attack on their way to the Passover Seder Monday. The father of five, he had served 25 years in the IDF in operational and high-tech positions. His last job was in the prestigious 8200 Intelligence Unit before joining the police force in 2011.
Baghdad braces for wholesale Al Qaeda assault on city
15 April. The Iraqi army began buttressing its defense lines on April 12 to save parts of the capital city of Baghdad from falling to al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). Terrorist forces have broken through into the city’s western outskirts before heading out to other parts of the city of more than seven million and government headquarters. The jihadis are engaged in cutting off the Iraqi capital’s sources of fresh water and blowing up its main bridges to the rest of the country to disrupt Iraqi army movements
April 16, 2014 Briefs
Putin discusses Iran and Ukraine with Netanyahu
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Tuesday night discussed "current issues in bilateral cooperation and on the international agenda, including progress in talks on the Iranian nuclear program," Putin's website reported. On the Ukrainian question, the Russian leader “pointed out that the sharp escalation of the crisis is the result of Kiev’s irresponsible policy.
Tehran vetoes discussion of its missiles in talks with world powers
Iran’s defense minister Gen. Hossein Dehghan said Wednesday that Iran’s missile program has nothing to do with the nuclear negotiations in progress with the six world powers and it has no nuclear dimensions. Iran's missiles are not up for discussion under any circumstances."
Jerusalem police bar Jews from Temple Mt. amid Hamas rampage
Several hundred Palestinians, most of them radical Hamas or Al Tahrir activists are barricaded in the Al Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount, Jerusalem since early Wednesday. They have been pelting police with rocks and firebombs they have piled up inside the mosque. So far police units have not tried to break up the disturbance by storming the site, after barring access to the compound for Jewish Passover pilgrims. Clashes earlier spread to the Old City.
Ukrainian armed operation founders with defections
16 April. The five or six armored personnel carriers which rolled in the embattled town of Slavyansk with Russian flags Wednesday, April 16, turned out to be part of the Ukrainian military operation whose crews, instead of cracking down on the pro-Russian militias, joined them. The Kiev government’s “anti-terror” operation in East Ukraine is accordingly breaking up.
April 17, 2014 Briefs
Al Qaeda chief pledges war on western crusaders
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) chief Nasser al-Wuhayshi pledged to pursue the war against Western “crusaders” everywhere possible. In Canberra, Australian Prime Minister John Key reported that a New Zealander with terrorism links known as “Muslim bin John” and an Australian were killed in a US drone strike in Yemen last year.
Jerusalem police again close Temple Mt. to Jewish visitors
For the second day running, Temple Mt. was closed to Jewish visitors and tourists by the Jerusalem police following Muslim stone-throwing riots, spearheaded from Al Aqsa Mosque by the radical Palestinian Hamas in the course of the Passover festival.
April 18, 2014 Briefs
Kerry denounces demand of Donetsk Jews to list property
US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Geneva, denounced as grotesque a leaflet handed out to Jews leaving a local synagogue in Donetsk which ordered “citizens of Jewish Nationality” over age 16 to pay $50 to register and be issued special passports marking their faith, and listing their property. debkafile: This incident has all the hallmarks of a typical Kiev government provocation to discredit the pro-Russian separatist movement.
Thai police foil suspected Hizballah Passover plot
Thai police round up two out of three suspected members of a terrorist cell run by Hizballah preparing attacks on Israeli tourists during Passover. They were identified as Lebanese-French national Daoud Farhat and Lebanese-Philippine national Youssef Ayad.
Extra security at Jerusalem’s shrines after Hamas riots
Jerusalem security police have brought in extra strength to the Old City of Jerusalem. Access to Temple Mount is restricted to men over 50 though women may enter, after the riots and attacks on Jewish worshippers staged by Hamas activists from al Aqsa mosque during the Passover festival. The Christian Good Friday and Festival of the Light processions at Old City shrines and the Via Dolorosa were also under close police guard.
The leaking Kerry-Lavrov deal for Ukraine will fuel more US-Russian dissent
18 April. The Kerry-Lavrov “de-escalation” recipe for Ukraine, concluded in Geneva Thursday, April 17, consists of the same ingredients as their previous deals: a slick-sounding compromise that the US and Russian can more or less live with; a gloss over the real elements at issue between them; and a deal that goes over the heads of the prime movers involved in the conflict. By Friday, the two rival camps in Ukraine were digging in their heels against it.
April 20, 2014 Briefs
Strongman El-Sisi faces just one challenger in run for Egyptian president
The former army chief, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi who toppled the Muslim Brotherhood government is challenged only by the leftist politician Hamdeed Sabahi in next month’s presidential election.
Europeans fighting with al Qaeda in Syria quadrupled
The number of European Muslims who have joined up with al Qaeda to fight in Syria quadrupled in the first months of this year to 3,000 compared with 2013, increasing the menace of terrorism at the hands of returning Islamists after training and combat experience.
Two Jerusalem policemen injured in Palestinian disturbances
When Temple Mount was opened to Jewish and tourist visits Sunday morning, Palestinian rioters began hurling large rocks and firebombs at security officers guarding the shrines holy to three faiths at the site and Lions Gate. Two police officers were injured. Twenty-four rioters were taken into custody and Temple Mount again closed to visits. Radical Palestinian Islamists have been hurling rocks and firecrackers against Jewish worshippers and police day after day throughout the Passover festival.-
First crack in Western wall against Russia over Ukraine
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he wished as much emphasis would be placed on preventing an escalation of tensions with Russia over Ukraine as there is in threatening economic sanctions.
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