Israel’s Danon to U.N.: Hezbollah Transforming Lebanon Into ‘Terror Stronghold’
(JNS.org) Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon on Tuesday spoke during a special meeting at the United Nations Security Council marking the 10-year anniversary of the start of the Second Lebanon War between Israel and the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
During his speech, Danon presented an aerial photograph to the Security Council of the Lebanese village of Shaqra, which he said has been transformed into a “terrorist stronghold.”
“The village of Shaqra has been turned into a Hezbollah stronghold with one out of three buildings used for terror activities including rocket launchers and arms depots,” Danon said. “Hezbollah has placed these positions next to schools and other public institutions, putting innocent civilians in great danger. We demand the removal of Hezbollah terrorists from southern Lebanon.”
According to Danon, Hezbollah was in possession of roughly 7,000 rockets in 2006, and the Lebanese terror group now has more than 120,000 missiles aimed at Israeli cities.
Hezbollah has “more missiles below ground in Lebanon than the European NATO allies have above ground,” Danon said.
Republicans Exclude Language on ‘Two-State Solution’ in Party Platform
(JNS.org) The Republican Party has agreed to removing language encouraging a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its platform for the GOP’s convention in Cleveland next week.
On Monday, the national security subcommittee of the Republican Platform Committee approved an amendment dropping support of a two-state solution, CNN reported. An earlier version of the draft had included support for “two democratic states,” but had removed any references to the Palestinians that was included in the 2012 platform.
“The U.S. seeks to assist in the establishment of comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East, to be negotiated among those living in the region,” the approved amendment said. “We oppose any measures intended to impose an agreement or to dictate borders or other terms, and call for the immediate termination of all U.S. funding of any entity that attempts to do so.”
The platform committee unanimously approved the measure in a vote in Cleveland on Tuesday. Earlier, the Republicans had reinstated a reference to an “undivided” Jerusalem that had been previously included in the party’s 2008 platform, but was removed in 2012.
Facebook Charged With Aiding Terror in Billion Dollar Lawsuit
(Arutz Sheva Staff) The families of five Americans and Israeli-Americans killed or wounded by Arab terrorists in Israel have filed suit against the social media giant Facebook, claiming one billion dollars in damages over the website’s failure to rein in on rampant pro-terror incitement. The lawsuit, filed by the Shurat Hadin organization on behalf of the five families, contends that Facebook knowingly provided services to terrorists—including the Hamas organization—to spread anti-Israel incitement.
Citing the 1992 Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), which forbids all American corporations from providing any and all aid to terror groups or their leaders, the five families filed the suit Monday morning in a federal court in New York.
Shurat Hadin, a Tel Aviv–based law center, tracks anti-Israeli incitement and targets terror organizations and their backers in legal cases around the world.
The plaintiffs in the case claim the social media site is liable under the 1992 ATA for terror attacks carried out by the Hamas terror organization, which the suit notes has active accounts with Facebook and uses the website as a platform to spread its propaganda and incitement to violence.
The families behind the suit include the relatives of Taylor Force, an American Army veteran who was murdered in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv in 2016; the family of Menachem Mendel Rivkin, who was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in Givat Zeev in 2016; relatives of Richard Leikin, a 76-year-old man who was shot and killed by a terrorist on a bus in Jerusalem in 2015; the family of Chaya Zisel Braun, the baby murdered by a Hamas terrorist in Jerusalem in 2014 and relatives of Yaakov Naftali Frankel, one of the three youths kidnapped and murdered by Hamas in 2014.
While Monday’s lawsuit is the largest such claim made against Facebook, it is not the first suit faced by the social media giant in connection to terrorism.
Last month the family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old California college student who was murdered in last year’s ISIS attack in Paris, sued Facebook, Twitter and Google for providing what they called “material support” for the ISIS terror group.
The claim, which was filed in a federal court in California, was immediately rejected by all three defendants cited in the suit.
Facebook claims the company works “aggressively to remove” terrorist content “as soon as we become aware of it.”
Stop Playing Pokémon Go, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Asks Visitors
(JNS.org) The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has asked visitors to refrain from playing the popular game “Pokémon Go” after characters from the augmented reality game were found inside the museum.
“Playing the game is not appropriate in the museum, which is a memorial to the victims of Nazism,” the museum’s communications director, Andrew Hollinger, told the Washington Post. “We are trying to find out if we can get the museum excluded from the game.”
Pokémon Go, a mobile game based on the popular Nintendo title that was first released in 1996, uses a phone’s GPS and camera to detect Pokémon characters using a technology called “augmented reality,” which mixes the real world and the virtual world. The game has become a global sensation that is on the verge of overtaking Twitter in terms of active users.
Pokémon figures have also been spotted at other historically sensitive sites such as Auschwitz, the former Nazi death camp in Poland.
Niantic Labs, the company that produced the popular game, has since removed the Pokémon from these types of locations.
“After we were made aware that a number of historical markers on the grounds of former concentration camps in Germany had been added, we determined that they did not meet the spirit of our guidelines and began the process of removing them in Germany and elsewhere in Europe,” Niantic said in a statement.
Jewish-American Gymnast Aly Raisman Will Compete in Rio Olympics
(JNS.org) Jewish-American gymnast Aly Raisman will be part of the U.S. gymnastics team competing in next month’s 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after qualifying at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. The 22-year-old Raisman will be joined on the team by Simone Biles, 19; Gabby Douglas, 20; Laurie Hernandez, 16; and Madison Kocian, 19.
“We were joking; I was like, ‘I really am going to live up to my Grandma name because I’m going to have a heart attack before they announce the names,’” Raisman said about the excruciating wait before the final team members were announced, the Associated Press reported.
At the 2012 Olympics in London, Raisman won gold medals in the team and floor exercise competitions. Douglas was also on the American team four years ago.
“It’s just amazing because she’s so strong,” Douglas said of Raisman. “To have her just lead this team, we’ve been there, and for us to be back on this road together is just amazing and kind of different because we were on the same team and now we’re on the same team again. It’s just a special bond.”
Theresa May, U.K.’s Next Prime Minister, Seen as Strong Supporter of Israel and Jews
(JNS.org) British Home Secretary Theresa May, who is slated to become the country’s next prime minister, is seen as a strong supporter of Israel and the Jewish community.
May emerged as the likely candidate to succeed Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation following the U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) in a referendum last month. She will become the U.K.’s second female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher and will be responsible for guiding the country through a potentially chaotic exit from the EU.
In her capacity as home secretary, a position responsible for the internal affairs of England and Wales, May has promised to defend the country’s Jewish community and wipe out anti-Semitism.
“I never thought I would see the day when members of the Jewish community in the United Kingdom would say they were fearful of remaining here in the United Kingdom,” May said in a speech to Jewish leaders in January 2015 in the aftermath of the Paris terror attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket. “And that means we must all redouble our efforts to wipe out anti-Semitism here in the United Kingdom.”
May has also spoken of her strong support for Israel, saying that “the modern State of Israel is the fulfillment of many generations of struggle” during a speech for Israeli Independence Day in April 2015.
In 2014, May visited Israel, where she met with experts on cyber-security and modern slavery, saying those are “two challenges which both Israel and the U.K. are confronting with great determination.”
