Cruz Hails ‘Turning Point’ in Presidential Race
(Arutz Sheva and combined sources) After resoundingly winning the Wisconsin Republican primary, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) estimated that a “turning point” has been reached in his race against real estate mogul Donald Trump.
Cruz won 48 percent of the vote as opposed to 35 percent for Trump, according to Fox News. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders outpaced Hillary Clinton 57 percent to 43 percent, in a key victory for Sanders. “Tonight is a turning point,” Cruz announced at a victory rally held in Milwaukee.
“I am more and more convinced that our campaign is going to win the 1,237 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination. Either before Cleveland or at Cleveland…we will win a majority of the delegates.”
According to Cruz his campaign has led to “the full spectrum of the Republican Party coming together and uniting,” and appraising his chances of taking the Republican race, he added, “Hillary, get ready, here we come.”
With the Wisconsin results, Trump still remains ahead in the race for the 1,237 delegates needed to get the nomination, but Cruz is closing in and may be able to block Trump from gaining the needed amount. According to a CNN estimate, Trump stands at 743 delegates, Cruz has 507, and Ohio Governor John Kasich has 145.
Trump was less than magnanimous in taking the news of his defeat in Wisconsin, which came following a week of gaffes. Instead of holding a news conference as is his custom after elections, he issued a statement attacking Cruz.
While Cruz may be hard pressed to get the needed 1,237 delegates before voting ends in late April, in light of the Wisconsin victory Cruz is better situated to prevent Trump from reaching the number of delegates. If that happens, the Republican Party would hold an open convention to pick the GOP candidate in July, marking the first such convention in four decades.
Bernie Sanders Inflates 2014 Gaza War’s Civilian Death Toll at Least Sevenfold
(JNS.org) Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in an interview with the New York Daily News editorial board that Israel launched “indiscriminate” attacks against the residents of Gaza in 2014, resulting in what Sanders suggested were more than 10,000 Palestinian civilian deaths during that summer’s war between Israel and the Hamas terror group.
“Anybody help me out here, because I don’t remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?” Sanders said. When told that the figure was “probably high,” Sanders replied, “I don’t have it in my number…but I think it’s over 10,000.”
“My understanding is that a whole lot of apartment houses were leveled. Hospitals, I think, were bombed,” he added. “So yeah, I do believe, and I don’t think I’m alone in believing, that Israel’s force was more indiscriminate than it should have been.”
According to the United Nations Human Rights Council, 2,251 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza war—including 1,462 civilians (65 percent). In its own report on the war, the Israeli government said that 2,125 Palestinians were killed, with at least 44 percent of them confirmed to have been armed members of Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Based on both the Israeli and U.N. estimates, Sanders inflated the Gaza conflict’s total Palestinian death toll about fivefold and its Palestinian civilian death toll at least sevenfold.
When asked what he would have done differently than Israel during the Gaza war, Sanders said he is not qualified to answer that question, but still called Israel’s attacks against Gaza “indiscriminate.”
“But I think it is fair to say that the level of attacks against civilian areas and I do know that the Palestinians, some of them, were using civilian areas to launch missiles, makes it very difficult,” said Sanders. “But I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed.”
Sanders, who is Jewish, noted that he has spent time living in Israel, has family members in Israel, and believes “100 percent not only in Israel’s right to exist, a right to exist in peace and security without having to face terrorist attacks.”
Yet Sanders also said that Israel must end its expansion of settlements if it wants to achieve true peace and security.
“From the United States’s point of view, I think, long-term, we cannot ignore the reality that you have large numbers of Palestinians who are suffering now, poverty rate off the charts, unemployment off the charts, Gaza remaining a destroyed area….I think if the expansion was illegal, moving into territory that was not their territory, I think withdrawal from those territories is appropriate,” he said.
Sanders also controversially linked the prospect of “positive” U.S.-Israel relations to the status of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “To the degree that they want us to have a positive relationship, I think they’re going to have to improve their relationship with the Palestinians,” he said.
Mahmoud Abbas Says He Is Prepared to End ‘Mutual Incitement’ With Israel
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he is prepared to work with Israel to stop what he called “mutual incitement,” yet accused the Jewish state of “settler assaults” on holy sites in Jerusalem.
“We want to hear the Israeli government send a clear statement that it believes in the two-state solution,” Abbas told Romanian journalists who visited Ramallah on Tuesday, the Jerusalem Post reported. “If it agrees to this, the beginning of the solution will be ready and we will negotiate about the other issues.”
Abbas’s remarks came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is prepared to clear his schedule to meet with Abbas in Jerusalem this week. Abbas said last week that he would meet with Netanyahu “at any time.”
“President Abbas said on Israeli television a few days ago that if I invite him, he’ll come,” Netanyahu said during a meeting with Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek on Monday. “I’m inviting him. I’ve cleared my schedule for the week. Any day he can come, I’ll be here.”
“The first order of business will be ending the Palestinian campaign of incitement to murder Israelis,” Netanyahu added. “My door is always open for those who want peace with Israel.”
Israeli Police Demolish East Jerusalem Park That Glorified Palestinian Terror
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli police officers from the Jerusalem District and city officials on Tuesday demolished a memorial garden in the Arab neighborhood of Ras al-Amud in eastern Jerusalem, which was created to commemorate terrorists—or “shahids” (martyrs), as the garden’s founders described them—who have been killed during the current wave of violence in Israel.
The garden was created several weeks ago. Its founders planted saplings and placed images of terrorists alongside each one. They also spray-painted slogans on a nearby wall. The entire memorial was built on public property and without a proper permit.
The opening of the garden was reported on Arab social media sites. As stated, upon learning of its existence, police and city officials removed the saplings and the photographs of the terrorists, and erased the graffiti. The Jerusalem District Police said it was aware of the identities of several suspects and would soon bring them in for questioning.
Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said, “The police will continue to act decisively against any display of incitement and support for terror against Israel.”
Israel Officially Recognizes Istanbul Bombing as Attack Targeting Israelis
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israeli Defense Ministry has decided to officially recognize last month’s suicide bombing in Istanbul as an attack targeting Israelis, and the Israelis killed or wounded in the attack will be recognized as victims of terrorism.
This means that the Israeli survivors of the bombing will be eligible for benefits from Israel’s National Insurance Institute, in accordance under the Compensation for Victims of Terror Law. The Defense Ministry said in a statement that “the material presented to the decision-making authority in the ministry indicates that there is a reasonable basis to assume that the attack targeted Israelis.”
After the bombing on March 19, Turkish media reported that the attacker, Mehmet Ozturk, had waited outside a restaurant where Israelis were dining and detonated himself shortly after they left the premises. The attack killed Israeli tourists Simha Dimri, Yonatan Suher, and Avraham Goldman, while wounding 10 other Israelis. An Iranian tourist was also killed in the bombing, and a total of 36 people were injured. Three of the wounded Israelis were flown back to the Jewish state in serious condition, and now face extensive medical treatment and rehabilitation. Two arrived back in Israel in moderate to serious condition.
