A Gaza citizen infiltrated through Israel’s southern border Tuesday night, near Jewish communities in the Gaza Belt area.

He was spotted by Israeli military forces heading towards a location in the Eshkol Regional Council district.

The forces took him into custody and transferred the suspect to security personnel for questioning. His identity is not known, and his motives for leaving the Hamas-ruled region and entering Israel were not clear.

Less than two weeks ago an Arab man crossed into Israel through the border with Jordan and threw a rock at an Israeli woman driving along Route 90, south of Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), causing the car to crash into a rail on the side of the road.

The Jordanian then tried to force the driver out of the car but failed when the woman fought back. He ultimately gave up and tried the same strategy with another vehicle that stopped to help, but failed again and then fled the scene. A third car arrived and called police.

A guard at Kibbutz Degania Bet later saw the man wandering around, but when he ignored a directive to stop, the guard shot and disabled him. He was later arrested by Israel Police. IDF officials subsequently identified the Jordanian as a “mentally ill individual.”

Both houses of Congress are at work to modify funding bills for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), as part of an effort to investigate the very legitimacy of the decades-old agency, Michael Wilner reported in the Jerusalem Post Friday. Both the House and the Senate want the State Department to, once and for all, define the term “Palestinian refugee,” and while they’re at it, reveal how many are receiving aid from UNRWA.

UNRWA was established in 1948 to assist the 750,000 Palestinians who had left Israel. Since then UNRWA has been a promoter of the Palestinian cause, funding as many as 5 million “refugees,” the majority of whom never left the homes where they were born in the Gaza Strip, the “West Bank,” eastern Jerusalem, or other Arab countries, to the tune of $1.23 billion annually, $250 million of which is donated by US taxpayers.

Many in Congress have been saying, since about 2012, that the majority of Palestinians are permanently settled, and should not be under the jurisdiction of a refugee agency.

Needless to say, Wilner points out, “such a finding would fundamentally change the narrative of the decades-old conflict.”

The first Palestinian census was completed 15 years ago, and the head of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) admitted then that the census was, in effect, “a civil intifada” rather than a scientific survey. In 2011 the Bureau attempted to correct that blatant misrepresentation, claiming that 2.6 million Palestinian Arabs inhabit Judea and Samaria.

But Israeli demographer Yoram Ettinger challenged those numbers, claiming they overstated the real number of Arabs there by as much as 66%. He explained that the PCBS’s total counts 400,000 Palestinians living overseas, and double-counts 240,000 Jerusalem Arabs. It also undercounted Palestinian emigration.

In 2014, UNRWA came up with the figure of 5 million Palestinian refugees living in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and the US responded by providing hundreds of millions of dollars for UNRWA’s health, education, and social service programs.

“UNRWA is sort of becoming an entitlement program of the Middle East, and the desire is to increase transparency on who actually are refugees relevant to that conflict,” a senior Senate aide familiar with the language told Wilner, suggesting the new bill “goes to the heart of the debate over UNRWA funding.”

Republicans in both houses have launched parallel efforts to compel the State Department to go on the record with who qualifies as a “Palestinian refugee,” and the combined version of the law, once passed, will compel the secretary of state to provide “a justification of why it is in the national interest of the United States to provide funds to UNRWA.”

The bill’s language continues: “Such justification shall include an analysis of the current definition of Palestinian refugees that is used by UNRWA, how that definition corresponds with, or differs from, that used by UNHCR, other UN agencies, and the United States Government, and whether such definition furthers the prospects for lasting peace in the region.”

And, naturally, “the committee directs that such report be posted on the publicly available website of the Department of State.”

Finally, it should be noted that there are two distinct definitions of the term “refugee” in international law.

A refugee, according to the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, is a person who is outside their country of citizenship because they have well-founded grounds for fear of persecution because of their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, and is unable to obtain sanctuary from their home country or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail themselves of the protection of that country; or in the case of not having a nationality and being outside their country of former habitual residence as a result of such event, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to their country of former habitual residence.

It is rare for a refugee status to extend beyond the lifetime of the original refugee, because normally it is expected that their offspring will have settled someplace else.

Not so regarding Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA’s definition of the term, which includes the patrilineal descendants of the original “Palestinian refugees,” limited to persons residing in UNRWA’s areas of operation in the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Shifa al-Qudsi was 24, a beauty technician from Tulkarem, when she was planning to blow up a supermarket in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya. Back in 2007, while still in Israeli security prison, she told Judith Miller that although the suicide vest that was stuffed with explosives, nails, ball bearings and various metal fragments, weighed close to 40 pounds, it felt “like roses on my shoulders. I was even more eager to do it after I put the vest on. Many would have died. No fence in the world would have stopped me.”

With that kind of a self professed reputation, is it any wonder that the same Shifa al-Qudsi was refused entry into Israel Thursday, when she wanted to attend the world premiere of a new documentary titled “Disturbing the Peace,” in which she appears.

According to the official press packet, “Director Steve Apkon’s documentary conveys a universal story about the human ability to see beyond the narratives which we tend to accept as reality, and challenging convention in the struggle for freedom.” In essence, the film’s protagonists liberate themselves from the war stories that no longer serve their purpose, because, let’s face it, most Israelis are not buying the Arab peace offers — in favor of an alternative narrative and a new vision which sees Israel giving up through peaceful means what it has been refusing to abandon in battle.

The special screening will take place Thursday at the Jerusalem Film Festival at 2:15 PM, by al-Qudsi’s brothers and sisters in arms who have not been barred by Israel’s visa authorities. The screening will be followed by Q&A with Stephen Apkon Apkon and the “Combatants for Peace” activists who appear in the film.

Al-Qudsi was arrested in a dawn raid at her home in April 2002, having been turned in by an Arab informer in the terrorists’ ranks. She was convicted and served six years in prison. After her release she joined the “Combatants for Peace,” a group of Arabs and Israelis who have served in the IDF and in terror organizations. “We – serving our peoples, raised weapons which we aimed at each other and saw each other only through gun sights – have established Combatants for Peace on the basis of the following principles,” their website states:

1. “We believe that the conflict cannot be resolved through military means by either of the parties.” (check)

2. “We call for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, based on the border of June 4, 1967, alongside Israel. The two countries will prevail side by side in peace, security and good neighborly relations.” Or, in other words, we insist that the agenda of one side (the terrorists) will be accepted over that of the other side (folks who served in the IDF). Totally evenhanded.

3. “Our direction is that of nonviolent struggle and we call on both nations to join us to achieve peace and reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis. We urge the political leadership to take bold steps to commence serious negotiations to end the conflict and desist from taking unilateral steps aimed at placing obstacles in the face of this goal and prolonging the conflict, including the construction of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, whose purpose is the perpetuation of the conflict and the blocking of any chance of real peace.” In other words, we’d like to have peace all around, but do remove those half a million pesky Jews from the homes where they’ve lived for the past four or five decades.

With so much peace and love, how could Israel refuse entry to Shifa al-Qudsi who merely asks the Jewish State to continue her unconsummated suicide bombing through non-violent action?

Which is why Combatants for Peace leaders Udi Gur and Mohamad Awedah released a statement saying, “Israel’s limiting visa policy for peace movements consistently encumbers the Palestinian voice calling for the end of the conflict from being conveyed to the Israeli public. Combatants for Peace Palestinian members’ voices are critical and non-violent. The Israeli public deserves to hear that change is possible, as Shifa’s process illustrates, and the attempt to silence her is meant to tear the two nations apart and bring despair — but we believe there is another path, the path of hope.”

And that “hope,” as always, is the hope of seeing the Jewish State disappear eventually from the map of the Middle East, as it will be swallowed up by the already existing three Palestinian states of Jordan, the PA and Hamas-Gaza.

An Arab woman with a Jordanian passport was caught at the Allenby Bridge Crossing trying to smuggle a weapon and ammunition from Israel into Jordan in her luggage.

Using the X-Ray machine, the Allenby Crossing Authority found the concealed handgun inside a package of crushed dates, along with 2 empty magazines and a box of bullets.

It is not know what she wanted to do with the weapon.

The woman has been transferred to the relevant security authorities.

X-Ray of the gun hidden inside a bag of crushed dates

The blogger DoubleTapper has identified the gun as a Libyan made Hulk-Tactical PT12-PRO which is a low quality knockoff of a Turkish pistol design.

This gun can’t be (legally) found in Israel, though it can be found in Jordan and throughout the rest of the Middle East.

A car bomb exploded along the Jordanian-Syrian border on Tuesday morning, according to a Reuters report.

Six Jordanian guards were killed and 14 more were injured in the attack that was a few hundred meters from a refugee camp for Syrian refugees.

The attack comes on the heels of the attack against a Jordanian intelligence office in Amman, which killed 5 people.

The King of Jordan how vowed to hit back at the terrorists.

Many Western and Israeli journalists paint a rosy picture of a Jordan’s “peaceful regime” and “stable throne.” As you will see in the next few lines, those descriptions are very far from the truth.

Even worse, some journalists, do claim “authority” on Jordan’s politics despite failing to do the proper groundwork and research, assuming that spending a week in a five-star hotel in Jordan entitles them to judge the status quo. Some claim authority about Jordan just because they can read Arabic and then translate Jordan’s official state media stories as “exclusive analysis” of their own.

Such practice of deliberate misinformation should worry every American and Israeli, as it does end up feeding wrongful information to the public opinion and eventually influencing decision makers into taking the wrong actions. Therefore, those either uninformed, ignorant or simply sell-out journalists do threaten American, Israeli and Jordanians’ interests.

Here, you will see the pure naked truth presented against the myths that some media people keep misinforming the public with, at best, out of ignorance or, at worst, spreading lies on purpose..

Myth: Israel sees Jordan’s regime as stable and depends on it for security

Fact: A recent Israeli intelligence leak shows that Mossad leadership believes the king and his regime are on their last legs and as such, he will never be able to pass the throne to his heirs. This is one possible reason why Israel is building a $1 billion mega wall across Jordan’s borders. [1]

Myth: Jordan is friendly with all of its neighbors, making it a stable country

Fact: Despite alleged peace with neighbors, Jordan’s king has clearly aligned himself with Syria’s Assad. Why? The King fears that Assad’s fall could bring his own. As a result of his belief, he is close to Assad’s supporter:  Iran. He has also been provoking, antagonizing and disturbing Saudi Arabia and Israel. The King’s official media is in the process of inciting not just a war of words against the countries, but anti-Semitic programs (including the stab-a-Jew go to heaven program).  In fact, an official Israeli statement recently described Jordan as a “major contributor to the unrest in Jerusalem”, through both: incitement and action. [2]

Myth: Jordan has survived the Arab Spring

Fact: Jordan has been in a total chaos and unrest since 2012. As a result, both the US and UK embassies in Amman have elevated their security warnings for travel in Jordan. Additionally, gun battles are happening in the capital Amman and the south, including Petra tourist area – daily. Gunfire is regularly exchanged between the king’s forces and the angry locals many of whom are simply looking for work or food for their families. With that in mind, anti-regime protests have become regular; and although not massive, they still mimic Egypt’s anti-Mubarak protests that proceeded the 2011 revolution, and extended between 2006 and end of 2010. Which means, those could escalate into a full-scale revolution sooner or later. [3] [4]

Myth: The king is revered, loved and respected by his subjects

Fact: The king, who has placed himself above the Constitution and all Jordanian law, is despised by his subjects, controls them with an iron fist and when they oppose him, they are often thrown in jail. They dub him “Ali Baba” which is equivalent to thief. Jordanians of all backgrounds exhibit sincere hatred for him over social media risking server punishment, which shows the actual level of dismay with the king and the royal family is much greater beneath the surface. Hatred for the king comes from all background, “East Bankers” do even exhibit much more vocal hatred -to the Hashemite family- than other Jordanians. In other words, the claim that “East Banker tribes support the Hashemites” is not only outdated, but also laughable.

Myth: The king of Jordan, lives in Jordan. If he ever leaves Jordan there would be chaos.

Fact: The king of Jordan spends more time out of the country than he does in it. In fact, he has been nominated for a Guinness Book of World Records, Record – as the Monarch holding office the longest in a country that doesn’t live in. Even his office is proud he spent 25% of the year abroad in 2015 alone.  This figure does not mention his “undisclosed personal travel”. After careful analysis, with all this time out of the country, one has to wonder how relevant the king of Jordan is to Jordan’s security, not to mention stability.

Myth: The king of Jordan controls the army and intelligence services and therefore he’s an asset to the USA

Fact: Jordan’s king has lost his grip on the army and intelligence. Since the 2012 “November Revolution’, those organizations have become independent and now coordinate directly with the US, UK and Israel. Because of this, the king is irrelevant to Jordan’s security. [5]

Myth: Jordan’s king is fighting ISIL, therefore, he is essential to US interest

Fact: Jordan’s contribution in the war on ISIS has been limited to six F16s and for only three months in 2015, after that UAE’s F16s began bombing from Jordan. Further, recent reports show Toyota trucks captured from ISIL were originally sold to Jordan’s government.  CNN Arabic reported Jordan is one of ISIL’s top oil buyers, and 4,500 Jordanians have managed to cross the borders to join ISIL under the king’s nose. Further, the king harbors and embraces the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIL’s ideological mother foundation. [6]

Myth: The king has outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood (MB); they are his enemies.

Fact: Jordan’s king has been in full cooperation with the MB. Historically, the MB stood up against the November 2012 revolution, crushing it while publically saying: “We won’t allow the king to fall”. The king’s Minister of Political Reform has said on TV: “The MB is a part of the regime”. The king refused Saudi’s, Egypt’s and UAE’s demands to shut down the MB.  Although supposedly vigorously fighting the MB, the king publically licensed 2 new MB organizations in the last few weeks. Despite the king’s claims, MB still operates their TV station, daily paper and a $3 billion trust fund. Further, the king is allowing the MB to patriciate in the upcoming parliamentary elections. [7]

Myth: The king could be a part of the solution to the Palestinian’s cause by taking over the West Bank

Fact: The Palestinians have historically hated the king and his ancestors. Why? Because they have lied to them, treat them as outsiders (see above) and are using them as pawns while the king consolidates power and ravages the country for every dime he can. In fact, if one thinks about it, if the king can barely keep control over Jordan, what makes anyone in the world think he can control the West Bank? Make no mistake about it, the King of Jordan cannot (and will not) bring stability to the country and west bank. [8]

Myth: Israel depends on Jordan’s regime for its borders security

Fact: Israel depends on its own military power and puts little confidence on Jordan’s regime protecting its borders, this is why it is now building a huge wall across the borders and why it has deployed the “Lions of Jordan” brigade across the Jordan valley, our Western sources confirm the IDF has a contingency plan that includes deploying troops across the Jordanian borders if necessary. Further, our inside sources confirm; Israeli drones and F16s are in fact protecting Jordan’s Northern skies, close to Syria and also coordinating with the US Central Command to protect Jordan’s borders with Iraq.

Sources:

1-http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/intel-jordans-abdullah-the-last-hashemite-king/2014/12/25/

2- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/200941#.V2XhtLgrLIU

3-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAfX7y8q8UA

4-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k9nEdtpCZg

5-http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=16289

6-http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/opinions/jordans-king-supports-isis-yes-you-did-read-this-right/2016/01/19/

7-http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Jordans-king-and-the-Islamists-In-one-boat-332767

8-http://new.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Is-Jordan-the-Hashemite-occupied-Palestine

by Jonathan Benedek

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) on Thursday signed an order temporarily preventing two Arabs, Mesbah Mesbah Abu Sabih Sabih and Mohammed Yassin Sabah Yassin, from leaving Israel.

Minister Deri released a statement saying he exercised his authority to prevent these individuals’ exit in light of information he received that their departure would pose a threat to national security. The two Palestinians were allegedly planning to incite violence in Jerusalem as well as to meet with terrorists abroad.

Abu Sabih Sabih, a resident of Jerusalem who is a prominent Hamas activist and a leader of the Al-Shabab Al-Aqsa organization that aims to “defend” the Temple Mount from Jews and other non-Muslims, was planning to travel to Jordan.

As to Yasin Sabih, who is suspected of involvement in terrorist activity, Israeli security suspected that he would present a national security threat outside Israel. There was also concern that his departure from the country would be used to promote unrest in Jerusalem, as well as in Judea and Samaria, via the al-Hirak al-Shabab youth movement.

The ban will hold for at least one month and may be extended to as long as six months.