JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming address to a joint meeting of Congress will probably be the most important speech of his career — and one that has already jeopardized relations between Israel and the United States.
On Tuesday morning, Netanyahu will confront an American president and insist that the future of the State of Israel, and the world, is imperiled by a pending “bad deal” with Iran on its nuclear program.
Also hanging in the balance is Netanyahu’s own political future. Just two weeks after the speech, Netanyahu will either be reelected to a historic fourth term as prime minister or be out of a job.
Netanyahu has spent three terms as Israeli prime minister focused on the dangers posed by Iran. In his first address to Congress in 1996, he warned that an atomic Iran would “presage catastrophic consequences, not only for my country, and not only for the Middle East, but for all mankind.”
His supporters call him prescient; his detractors say Netanyahu has been warning for 20 years that “time is running out” on the Iran threat. His critics say Netanyahu is a broken record, a Cassandra obsessed, willing to deeply damage U.S.-Israeli relations in a futile confrontation with the United States that wins Israel nothing.
His opponents in Israel and the United States say the speech is mostly a cynical ploy to get reelected in a tight March 17 vote, by fear-mongering on Iran and by opposing an American president who is not very popular in Israel.
On Tuesday morning, as Secretary of State John F. Kerry meets with his counterparts in Switzerland to try to complete a framework accord with Iran by the end of March, Netanyahu will stand at the lectern in Congress to tell Americans, essentially, that President Obama is either foolhardy or weak and about to sign a deal with the devil.
Netanyahu will warn, as he has in the past, that the Americans are gambling on a radical Iranian regime run by Muslim clerics who deny the Holocaust, sponsor terrorist groups, support a murderous regime in Syria and pledge to destroy Israel.
As his chartered plane wings toward Washington on Sunday afternoon, Netanyahu’s advisers say the final author of the speech will be Netanyahu himself.
The prime minister’s press office released photographs of Netanyahu penning his speech in longhand.
Netanyahu will write the speech because he considers himself not only an authority on the minutiae of the Iran nuclear program — the number, type and productivity of the centrifuges and the estimates of low-enriched uranium to the kilogram — but also an expert on U.S. politics and the American people.
Netanyahu studied at MIT and served as Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He has been called the “most American” of Israeli prime ministers.
This is his moment. Netanyahu’s English is fluid, conversational, persuasive and often blunt. He has a flair for stagecraft. His guiding light, says his inner circle, is Britain’s wartime premier and great orator, Winston Churchill, who is the only other foreign leader to have addressed a joint meeting of Congress three times.
During Netanyahu’s second speech to Congress in May 2009, he received 29 standing ovations.
Netanyahu’s critics in Israel and in the Obama administration warn that the Israeli leader is really no Churchill and that he has seriously miscalculated this time.
Israeli relations with Democrats and the Obama administration are at a historic low.
A top Israeli diplomat said that Netanyahu, if reelected, has already written off his relations with Obama in his last two years in the White House, a potentially perilous gambit for a Middle East leader surrounded by enemies.
National security adviser Susan E. Rice on Tuesday denounced the upcoming address as “destructive” to the relationship between the United States and Israel.
A senior U.S. official said Friday that the strategy is to stand aside and let Netanyahu give his speech, which will neither derail Iran talks nor sway Congress to block a possible agreement.
The senior official, who agreed to present administration views in exchange for anonymity, said the speech is more about Netanyahu’s reelection bid and his preoccupation with Iran — a clear and present threat shared by the Obama White House, but approached in a more pragmatic manner.
“The Netanyahu myth is that he alone understands the Americans,” said Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli consul general in New York and former adviser to four Israeli foreign ministers.
Pinkas said the speech will be applauded by Republicans but will do little to shape the Iran deal. “He is a grumpy, old man. He’s like a Republican senator from West Jerusalem. He talks like them, he dresses like them. He is always saying, ‘They’re against me! They don’t like me!’ He’s dealing with an America he doesn’t know.” Pinkas predicted the speech will fall flat.
Israeli journalist and author of the best-selling history “My Promised Land,” Ari Shavit, said he expects Netanyahu to give “a brilliant and desperate speech.”
Shavit is sympathetic. He sees the Iranian threat as more “bloodcurdling” than ever. Yet he says the prime minister has made a mistake by working against the U.S. administration rather than beside it.
Now “Israel rather than Iran has been isolated,” Shavit wrote in a recent column .
Netanyahu has opposed any deal with Iran that does not dismantle its uranium-enrichment program and insisted that economic sanctions should be stiffened, not lifted. Kerry and his negotiators have said such a deal is impossible.
Senior administration officials say an imperfect agreement that freezes Iran’s nuclear ambitions and allows for monitoring leaves the world in a much safer place than a rogue Iran with the potential to rush toward a bomb in clandestine bunkers packed with centrifuges.
Iran has long maintained that it seeks only a peaceful atom, and it is within its rights to research and exploit nuclear energy.
Netanyahu does not believe this. The Israeli leader has brushed aside appeals by Jewish leaders in the United States, congressional Democrats and some of his allies at home to pull back and find a face-saving way to cancel the speech.
In Israel, Netanyahu faces an extremely tight race for reelection against a surprisingly strong challenger, Isaac Herzog, leader of the Labor Party, who has pounded Netanyahu for endangering U.S.-Israeli relations with his speech.
Two hundred former generals and commanders of the Israeli Defense Forces, Mossad intelligence agency, Shin Bet domestic security and National Police are scheduled to appear at a joint news conference Sunday to urge Netanyahu to avoid any further deterioration of the U.S.-Israeli strategic relationship.
All this may help Netanyahu at home. “There will be nothing new in this speech,” said Dan Avnon, a lecturer of political theory at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “The question here is who will be able to replace him? Can anyone else stand up in Congress and talk so forcefully against the leader of the United States? This has an effect on voters in Israel. People sit at home and say this man really steps up to the pressure.”
“What will happen after the speech? I honestly don’t know,” said Yuval Steinitz, Israeli minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, a Netanyahu confidant and the Israeli government’s top authority on the nuclear talks.
“It will be very clear this is a historic speech,” Steinitz said. “Because this issue is burning in his bones. He really feels that as prime minister of Israel this is his first priority, above all other issues.”
Netanyahu’s speech is going to be especially challenging, as it must reach multiple audiences with multiple messages.
“He is speaking to the people of Israel, his political system, to the administration, to Congress and to the American people, as well,” said Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and a former foreign policy adviser to the prime minister who is still part of his inner circle.
“I think the notion that this speech is for political purposes is baseless,” said Gold, a former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations.
Netanyahu has reveled on the grand stages afforded him in past performances at the United Nations and before Congress. In a September 2012 address before the U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu employed a kind of Wile E. Coyote drawing of a bomb with a fuse and took out a marker to draw a literal red line.
Netanyahu’s intelligence minister said he has not seen a draft of the speech, but he said the prime minister will stress that leaving Iran with thousands of centrifuges and a stockpile of uranium — materials that Israelis say would allow Iran to break through to a nuclear bomb in months, not years — is too dangerous.
“Our position is simple,” Steinitz said. “Iran built a nuclear program in secret, illegally. They want normal relations with the world? Okay, dismantle it.”
Bonnie Miller Barber Marty
Mensch: "...What is this all about? Why would anybody not want to hear
Bibi speak? It cannot be about the sensitive negotiations the US is
having with Iran on its nukes, Israel is not involved in these
negotiations, and if a treaty should be reached,
Israel is not obligated to honor the treaty, because it was not party
in reaching its agreement. This cannot be about Obama not wanting Bibi
to speak, because it will interfere with Bibi's upcoming election, Obama
is deeply involved in Israel's upcoming election to unseat Bibi. So, it
is not that.
Is
it more about March 4th, the day after Bibi address's Congress, his
speech will move the Jewish vote away from the Democrats into the
Republican camp? Is Jewish objection to Bibi speaking more about, Jew's
in America fear supporting a Republican would label them “Racist”? This
speech is Republican sponsored, and would make the Republican party more
pro Israel over the Democratic party. This the American Jew cannot
accept, they have to be identified as mainstream American, Democrat to
be received into the community. Are there Jews that feel pressured to
vote Democrat out of fear of social annihilation? Are American Jews
intimidated and live in fear that a “Pogrom” is in the making for
failing to support Obama, and having Bibi address Congress?
In
2009 Israel's election,Obama threw his support to Kadema, he actually
did a great job on this, Livni was running 12 seats and with Obama's
help she won 28 seats, one more seat than Likud. The problem she had was
no other party would join her in a coalition agreement. Obama gave it
another shot in 2013 and he sent in his troops again for this upcoming
2015 election to unseat Bibi.
Obama
fights dirty and has no problem sacrificing human lives, in December
2010, Israel was engulfed in a deadly 13 acre fire in Titat Carmel, when
Israel asked Evergreen Fire Suppression in the US, to rent an airplane
fire tanker at the tune of a million dollars, to help suppress this
fire, Obama held up it delivery to Israel, hoping that this fire would
bring down Bibi's government. This fire was started on a Thursday
morning, after some fierce lobbing the plane reached Israel Saturday
evening, the fire was extinguished Sunday, aid came to Israel from as
many as 24 nations. It took the lives of 44, 42 Arab Fire Cadets. At the
end of the day, Israel purchased 6 of these Airplanes from Canada, and
100 Fire trucks, from EU nations. Bibi has proven, that whatever Obama
refuses to do for Israel, there are many others that will.
Israel
does not deserve this, as much as American voices are advocating that
Bibi should keep out of Americas affairs and cancel his upcoming
Congressional address, these same voices should understand that they
too, should stay out of Israel's Domestic and Foreign affairs as well.
In 1981 Israel was faced with this same situation, as it is today and
had to take it upon itself to take out the nuclear facility in Iraq, as
it did recently in Syria. You would think, after these two events, the
1967 war, the International Community would take the threats against
Israel more seriously and prevent an Israeli attack on Iran."
Star of David dress to star in Miss World pageant
Miss Israel Mor Maman to represent country in international beauty pageant donning patriotic ensemble to show off Israeli pride.
Ynet
|
For the past several weeks, Maman has been staying in the capital of Great Britain, preparing for the ceremony in which she will compete against 100 other beauty queens from around the world.
Pictured: Mor Maman shows off the dress designed by leading designer of haute couture in Israel Efrat Kalig (Photo: Shuka Cohen)
The competition will be broadcast live in dozens of countries. The Miss World Organization has recently launched the Miss World app – a free smartphone application with which viewers can vote for their favorite contestants and help them advance to the the final round.
George Galloway speech on Gaza/Israel war - 23rd July 2014
I am a proud Christian BUT I am no longer a Sheeple. I am in pursuit of the TRUTH wherever it may take me I will no longer submit to lies, to bullying nor to a corrupt media and government. If you are of the same conviction, and with NO malice toward any other human being unless they , without provocation, want to do you and /or your family harm, then you may want to explore this video. I am no Anti Semite. In fact I have worked with many of the Jewish faith throughout my career in a largely Jewish corporation (harmoniously, I might add with Christians) . One of my favorite agents was Jewish and helped decorate our office Christmas tree. Intolerance was not accepted nor was racism. My team coexisted quite nicely due to mutual respect and they led our 26 office company in sales. We simply had no time for bigotry. If you would care to comment on this video, I would ask that you remember that I operate on a platform of mutual respect, so prior to you will want to remember that. Thank you.
BREAKING: Israel Kills “Islamic Jihad” Leader in Massive Blow to Terrorists
While the world at large doesn’t seem to be providing Israel with much in the way of moral support, the country has managed to move forward with ground operations in the Gaza region designed to shut down Hamas tunnel networks that secretly lead into Israeli communities.
Attempts at a ceasefire have failed, as Hamas continues to say one thing, and do another, breaking every agreement they’ve said yes to
The Israel Defense Forces scored a huge victory in their battle against terrorism when a recent operation killed a Hamas senior commander who was in charge of intelligence gathering in Gaza and who led many weapons attacks against Israel during this latest conflict.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Danyal Mnsour was killed by the IDF when a house he was staying in was hit during a bombing strike that saw the Israeli military hitting 100 targets in a 12 hour time span.
This is proof that the Israelis are more than capable of dismantling the Hamas terrorist organization without much help or aid from other countries.
Israel is doing what needs to be done in order to ensure that its people are safe, and they continue to achieve massive victories bringing their goal of peace within grasp.
Hopefully they will continue to strike at the heart of Hamas and bring this terrorist group, which happens to be a global threat, to its knees and get rid of them for good, whether or not the rest of the world supports them.
The Patriot Conservative News Tea Party Network
liberalism + Socialism = Terrorism
Thanks for your Support
liberalism + Socialism = Terrorism
Howard Stern: “If You’re Anti-Israel, You’re Anti-American” [Language Warning]
“Israel is at no fault,” Stern said bluntly. “Jews are the indigenous people of that area.”
While the rest of the middle east seems to be dissolving into chaos, Israel has remained steadfast in her determination to protect her people, democracy, and human rights.
“If you’re anti-Israel, then you’re anti-America. They’re the only democracy over there, the only friend we have who’s willing to fight and stand up for what’s right,” Stern said, predicting that if a full-scale war develops in the region, America’s only military ally would be the Jewish state.
Although many would argue that the conflict is rooted in thousands of years of history, Stern believes he knows the root of the current hatred of the Palestinians for the Jews, which is based on the liberal bogeyman of income inequality:
“Did you know that the median income [in Israel]…is $30 thousand. And the Palestinian median income is $2 thousand,” he explained. “But the Palestinians are mad at the Israelis instead of being mad at the f******g terrorists running their so-called country, who are raping the country, taking all the aid the United States actually gives to them.”
Stern is most certainly correct about one thing: the Palestinians receive more U.S. aid per capita than almost any other people group in the world, but very little of those funds seem to be getting into the hands of those who need it most.
Hear all of Stern’s comments here or by clicking on the video link below.
WARNING: Intense language… viewer discretion is advised.
We don’t often have cause to use these words, but well-said, Mr. Stern. We might quibble on the precise nature of the origin of the conflict between the Palestinians and the democratic nation of Israel, but we largely agree with the rest of Stern’s analysis.
Stern places the ultimate blame for the current plight of the Palestinians exactly where it should fall: on the Palestinians themselves. “They elected terrorists to run their country. That’s the difference. Who do you support?”
Who, indeed?
Israel strikes 9 military targets in Syria
Israel Has a real President ~ Benjamin Netanyahu has declare war on Syria
and Iran ~ muslims killed in Syria who are ISIS al qeada terrorists fundamentalist
I support Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel for bombing the Carp out of Syria... And What is America Doing ???? We are bring in and flying illegal immigrants who are muslims jihadest terrorists with ISIS al qeada terrorists fundamentalist I Say Open season for target practice on muslims jihadest terrorists
Burn them All to Hell be done with it ~ Benjamin Netanyahu has the Right
Idea I support Israel 100% It's nice to know That there leadership in
our World But Not Here in America that is a Fact Jack...
Op-ed: A tale of two hospitals: One in Israel, one in Gaza
Israel saves its enemies; Hamas endangers its friends
July 31, 2014
Sen. Ted Cruz
If you want to judge a nation, look at how it treats its most vulnerable civilians. Hospitals are a good place to start.
Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, is housed in a converted British army barracks. Some 126 miles north is Israel’s Ziv Medical Center in Zefat.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, is using the civilian population as human shields. The terrorist group has placed its missiles in schools and mosques and, even more deplorably, burrowed its command center underneath the al-Shifa hospital.
Hamas‘ activities are taking place in plain sight. Just two weeks ago, The Washington Post described al-Shifa as “a de facto headquarters for Hamas leaders.” These terrorist facilities are of course well known not only to the foreign journalists who interview Hamas fighters there, but also to the Israelis, who would by necessity consider such a location a legitimate target for any action against Hamas. However, the terrorist group has tried to immunize their headquarters by digging it under a hospital, leaving Israel no option but to target al-Shifa if they want to get rid of the Hamas terrorist leadership.
Hamas sees no downside in this arrangement. Knowing that Israel prioritizes protecting civilians, the terrorists can be reasonably confident that al-Shifa will not be targeted, and they can continue their murderous activities undisturbed. If the Israelis finally decide that these activities are intolerable and that to destroy Hamas they must target their headquarters, Hamas will have pictures of the quintessentially innocent martyrs — hospital patients unable to flee — to plaster across international media in their ongoing propaganda war to demonize the Jewish state.
The medical care and even survival of the Gazan people are of no concern to these terrorists, for whom casualties are not an unintended consequence of war, but rather a deliberate objective. Like the rest of the population stationed around the many civilian institutions militarized by Hamas, they must either make do with a substandard medical facility being exploited by a terrorist organization, or die in the service of that organization’s savage campaign to destroy Israel.
Meanwhile in Israel, Ziv is a center for pediatric and orthopedic medicine. Given its proximity to Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria, Ziv has seen its share of violence, but despite taking direct rocket fire during the 2006 Lebanon war, it has remained in continuous operation.
During the past three years of the Syrian civil war, Ziv has treated more than 1,000 Syrians injured in that conflict — all free of charge.
In a visit to Ziv this spring, I met the social worker whose job it is to explain to the patients who wake up grievously injured and surrounded by Israelis that they are not in hell, but that the people who they have been told from birth are the devil are, in fact, working very hard to heal them.
I met a Syrian child who had lost three limbs but has been fitted with revolutionary prosthetics and will, God willing, walk again.
All of this means that many of Ziv’s hospital beds and a substantial portion of its funding are not available for Israelis, but the staff has concluded it is worth it if their work can start to reverse the intractable hate that has been relentlessly leveled at Israel by its neighbors.
The contrast in this tale of two hospitals could not be more clear: Hamas exploits their medical facilities as a human shield to launch terrorist operations against Israel, while Israel uses theirs to provide cutting-edge medical care to people whose government’s avowed goal is to destroy the Jewish state. Hamas‘ actions are a war crime. Israel’s are one of the great, unsung humanitarian missions on the planet.
BREAKING: Israel Kills Senior Terrorist in Airstrike
Hamas, the designated Foreign Terrorist Organization supported by the Obama administration, is responsible for firing thousands of rockets into Israel from behind human shields in the Gaza Strip. The group says it will not stop fighting until both Israel and Egypt agree to open Gaza’s borders. Neither nation has agreed–or is likely to agree–to that demand.
Israel has “mobilized over 65,000 reserve forces” in its efforts to eradicate the ability of the Palestinian terrorists to continue their rocket attacks against civilian targets, according to reports from Fox News.
Get our daily email alert by entering your Email: In recent fighting, “Israeli warplanes struck 30 houses throughout the Gaza Strip, including the home of Salah Hassanein, a leader of the military wing of Islamic Jihad,” the report said. After Hamas, Islamic Jihad is the second-largest terrorist organization in Gaza. Gaza police spokesman Ayman Batniji and al-Kidra confirmed that “Hassanein and two of his sons were killed in the strike,” Fox reported. Representatives of the Israeli military also confirmed the air strike. The reports added that Israeli aircraft “have repeatedly hit homes of Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders,” killing a Hamas commander and others in recent days, even though most of the terrorist leaders are in hiding. The killing of terrorist leaders means that Israel can end its military operations that much sooner, and therefore should be applauded by all–conservative or liberal–who want to see an end to the bloody conflict. Israel has already lost dozens of lives in the military operation, and hundreds more Palestinians have been killed. Others will no doubt die before the terrorists are completed rooted out. Those who would argue that Israel should cease its attacks to prevent further bloodshed are, however, terribly misguided. A cease-fire now would simply allow Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the other terrorists in Gaza to rest, resupply, and resume the violence at a time of their choosing. It would, in other words, lead ultimately to more death. Israel must complete its difficult task to ensure the safety of all her people–Jew and Arab, Christian and Muslim–and America should stand by her close ally in the middle east as she does.
Please share this article on Facebook and Twitter if you support Israel in her efforts to protect her citizens by solidly defeating the Islamic terrorists in the Gaza Strip...
Krauthammer: Israeli War Producing ‘Resurgence In Anti-Semtism Not Seen Since The 1930s’
Charles Krauthammer warned on Friday that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has produced — particularly in Europe — a “resurgence in anti-Semitism not seen since the ’30s.”
The conservative columnist appeared with Fox News’ Greta van Susteren on Friday to discuss Secretary of State John Kerry’s handling of the brutal war in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of dozens of Israeli soldiers and well over 1,000 Palestinians.
But Krauthammer addressed a different facet of the conflict after Susteren questioned why “the rest of the world” doesn’t realize the ultimate blame for the conflict rests on Hamas.
“The rest of the world’s reaction to what’s happening in Gaza is Orwellian,” Krauthammer declared. “It is shocking. Especially in Europe. It is a resurgence of anti-Semitism not seen since the 1930s.”
“This is a recurrence,” he continued. “It’s all over the world. And don’t tell me it’s anti-Zionism. You listen to the slogans. You see the signs. ‘Hitler was right,’ in Germany, a sign in Germany saying that.”
“This is a veneer that is a front for anti-Semitism,” Krauthammer asserted. “It is back. It’s all over the world. And that’s what we are now beginning to face.”
Israel bombs 9 military targets in Syria, retaliating for Golan Heights attack
warplanes and missiles struck nine Syrian military positions early
Monday in retaliation for an earlier cross-border attack that killed a
14-year-old boy and wounded three other civilians in the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, according to the Israel Defense Forces
and news agency reports.
The Israeli bombardment hit Syrian
military command centers and launching positions, according to a
statement from the Israel Defense Forces and news agency accounts. The
attack involved both Tamuz guided missiles and military jets, according
to Israeli press reports.
“Direct hits were confirmed,” the Israeli military said in its statement.
There was no immediate word on casualties from the post-midnight strikes inside Syria and the extent of damage inflicted.
But
the attacks appeared to be among the most extensive that Israel has
launched to date on Syrian territory since the Syrian conflict broke out
more than three years ago.
The incident also raised the prospect
of a more robust Israeli involvement in the raging Syrian conflict, a
proxy war in which rebels supported by the United States and its allies
are fighting to oust the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Assad‘s
government is backed by Iran, Israel’s regional rival. The armed Syrian
opposition has repeatedly denied Syrian government allegations that
Israel has provided direct assistance to rebels fighting to oust Assad.
Israel
is reported to have launched at least half a dozen airstrikes in the
last 18 months against military targets inside Syria. Israeli officials
have generally not publicly confirmed the previous attacks, which have
been confirmed by U.S. and Syrian officials.
But
on Monday, Israel acknowledged the retaliatory strikes. The official
statement said the action was in response to the cross-border incident
Sunday that killed the 14-year-old boy and wounded three others,
including the boy's father, in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Israeli authorities initially described the earlier attack as an
“explosion,” possibly from mortar fire or a planted bomb.
“Yesterday’s
attack was an unprovoked act of aggression against Israel, and a direct
continuation to recent attacks that occurred in the area,” said Lt.
Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, in a statement. “The
IDF will not tolerate any attempt to breach Israel’s sovereignty and
will act in order to safeguard the civilians of the state of Israel."
Earlier,
Israel had said that the Golan Heights attack “targeted an Israeli
civilian vehicle.” News agency reports indicated that an anti-tank
projectile fired from within Syria struck near the border fence. The
teenage victim was sitting in a truck with his father, who was doing
maintenance work on the fence for the Israeli Defense Ministry along
with two other contract workers, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
The incident was “not a case of errant fire, but of an intentional attack,” the Israeli military said in its statement.
Shells
from the Syrian conflict have occasionally landed in the
Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. But Sunday’s incident was reportedly the
first time that someone had been killed on the Israeli side of the
disputed frontier.
It was never publicly clarified if the Syrian
military or anti-government rebels were behind the explosion that killed
the teenager. Both the Syrian army and insurgents are active on the
Syrian side.
In an initial response, Israel tanks fired Sunday at
Syrian government targets inside Syria, news agencies reported. Those
shelling attacks were followed early Monday by the Israeli strikes on
nine Syrian military targets.
There was no immediate reaction from Syrian authorities.
Israel seized the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau, from Syria during the 1967 war.
The
frontier zone, patrolled by United Nations peacekeepers, was relatively
calm for decades until the Syrian conflict broke out and
anti-government rebels, including some linked to Al Qaeda, began
battling Syrian government forces in the zone. Syrian rebels have on
several occasions kidnapped U.N. peacekeepers in the area, but all U.N.
personnel have been later released safely.
Special correspondent Sobelman reported from Jerusalem and staff writer McDonnell from Beirut.
Follow @mcdneville for news from the Middle East
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