Iraq "Fully Liberated" from ISIL Terrorists

CNN reports that Iraq has declared itself to be "fully liberated" from the terrrorists and murderers of the criminal network known as ISIL.

The Iraqi military has "fully liberated" all of Iraq's territory of "ISIS terrorist gangs" and retaken full control of the Iraqi-Syrian border, it said Saturday in a statement. 

"Our heroic armed forces have now secured the entire length of the Iraq-Syria border," Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said on his Twitter account. "We defeated Daesh (ISIS) through our unity and sacrifice for the nation. Long live Iraq and its people." (CNN, December 9, 2017.)

May there be peace in Iraq.

British MP Assassinated

Terrible news from Britain of a MP murdered. Just dreadful.

(Jo Cox obituary: Proud Yorkshire lass who became local MP, BBC News.)

Ruins Near Kibbutzim in Israel

Al Jazeera recently released an article about the Japanese photojournalist Ryuichi Hirokawa.

In 1967, after completing university, he travelled to Israel.

"I entered a kibbutz. In Japan they wrote that all kibbutzim were paradise," he said, noting he arrived shortly before the outbreak of the Six-Day War. "I changed my mind. In Japan we were taught that war is bad, but people were celebrating."

Hirokawa, who made a recent appearance at the second International Palestinian Conference for Media and Communications in Turkey, recalled finding ruins near the kibbutz.

"I asked people what these ruins were but no one answered," he said, noting as he began to explore and research the ruins further, he began to learn about the history of the Palestinian plight. "I started finding villages and I studied what happened. It took me more than 30 years, but I would take pictures and make documentaries about Palestinian villages. (Al Jazeera.)

East Jerusalem Through the Eyes of a Settler

Arutz Sheva published an article discussing a Councilman who leads an organization dedicated to filling East Jerusalem, an area predominantly populated by Palestinians, with Israeli Jews. So he makes a video saying East Jerusalem is filled with scary Arabs.

[A] Jerusalem Councilman ... on Monday exposed the lawless state of affairs in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem where terror flags fly freely and calls for attacks on Jews are scrawled on the walls.
In a post on Facebook, King shared a video that he took on Monday while driving his motorbike through Abu Tor and other areas just south of the Old City. He pointed out green Hamas flags and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terror flags flying from nearly every electric line, and graffiti on the walls including images of a bloody knife in an open call for terror attacks. (April 11, 2016.)

This Councilman goes on to say.

"But as your eyes can see, there are priorities in the city according to which culture, perks and public relations come before a thorough treatment of the terror dens and an implementation of the sovereignty and enforcement of the law."
[He] pointed out several recent moves in the municipality indicating those priorities, saying, "this is what happened when the small budget for eradicating the deafening noise of the mosques was erased from the budget book." (April 11, 2016.)

Eradicate the noise?

Bear in mind this man runs an organization dedicated to filling up East Jerusalem with Israeli Jews. He is working to place Israeli Jews near these alleged "terror dens" with PLO and Hamas flags present and graffiti of a knife. He wants to get Israeli Jews to move there.

Passover Reenactment to be Held in Jerusalem

A reenactment of the Passover sacrifice is to be held in Jerusalem.

The reenactment will take place next Monday, just four days before the prescribed time of the Paschal Offering. Event organizers say they want to offer a taste of an exciting, authentic Jewish experience, "with its smells, sounds, and colors that have been lost to us these 2000 years, and to thus arouse a longing to renew this Temple ritual in our day." ...

Finally, there will be a procession with the sheep simulating the Passover pilgrimage to the Temple Mount as in the time of the Holy Temple, culminating in an exact reenactment of the Paschal Sacrifice, including the slaughtering of a lamb and the ritual offering of its blood and fats on a model altar by actual Cohanim [priests] dressed in authentic priestly garments.

Some people have said that the Palestinians are wrong to worry about a Third Temple. I very much agree that it is at present a most unlikely eventuality. But unfortunately there are some Israeli Jews who wish for and openly call for such a thing. And as long as these hardliner Third Temple Jews insist on keeping this dream of theirs alive disregarding everybody else this issue will be a constant thorn in relations between Israelis and Palestinians.

I dearly hope nothing bad happens, unlike what happened in 1990.

ISIL on Verge of Seizing Yarmouk Refugee Camp in Damascus

Orient News, a media outlet aligned with the Syrian opposition, has published an article stating the news that the terrorists and murderers of ISIL on the verge of seizing all of Yarmouk for themselves from Al Qaeda's arm in Syria, the infamous Jabhat al-Nusra. They are both surrounded by the Assad regime in the Yarmouk refugee camp. The article indicates that the other rebel factions that used to be in Yarmouk are no longer present there. (April 13, 2016.)

Yarmouk is a suburb of Damascus that was a refugee camp for Palestinians. Before the war it was a flourishing suburb which was the social center for Palestinians in Syria. In December 2012 the Assad regime lost control of Yarmouk. Since then Yarmouk has been besieged by the Assad regime. In early April 2015 somehow the terrorists and murderers of ISIL were able to invade rebel held Yarmouk and now control most of Yarmouk.

It is awful to imagine that there are possibly about six thousands civilians trapped in this divided, surrounded and deprived enclave. Those civilians caught up in this battle do not deserve to be in this terrible situation.

Story of Defected Syrian Diplomat

Orient News, a media outlet aligned with the Syrian opposition, has published an article interviewing a former Syrian diplomat.

[She] views her case as an example for many regime advocates who are misguided or deluded. She said to Al-Quds Al-Araby: “I have not heard about what happened in Tal al-Zaatar, a Palestinian refugee camp where Assad forces committed a massacre against Palestinians in August 1976, until 2000. That was my first shock.” (April 12, 2016.)