A formal request to blacklist Lebanon’s group was filed by Britain and is to be discussed at closed-door talks June 4 of a committee overseeing the EU list of people and groups subject to its asset freezing regime, reported AFP.

“We hope to have an agreement by the end of June on Hizbullah,” a diplomat close to the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity told the news agency.

A decision to add the group to the dozen people and score of groups currently blacklisted by the EU — including Hamas and Colombia’s FARC — will require unanimity from the 27 EU states.

Despite months of strong and steady pressure from Israel and the United States to follow their example and designate Hizbullah as a terrorist group, the EU has up until now skirted an issue seen as sensitive and divisive, with Britain openly in favor but France and Italy reluctant.

As the former colonial power, France fears destabilizing politically fragile Lebanon, where Hizbullah is the leading political group and part of the government.

There was concern too from France, Italy and Spain for the safety of national troops committed to the UN peacekeeping force, UNIFIL, reports AFP.

Italy is a major contributor, making it sensitive to the risk of reprisals, but its position is also based on a view of Hizbullah as a legitimate political force, not merely a military organization.

The calls on the EU to add Hizbullah to its list of terrorist organizations grew after Bulgaria announced that the group was behind the July 2012 terrorist attack in Burgas which killed five Israelis.

Shortly after the Burgas bombing, the EU decided not to list Hizbullah as a terrorist group.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Gujarat Cossack-Marcolis said at the time that “there is no consensus on the issue, because Hizbullah also has an active political arm.”

The United States, meanwhile, said Tuesday it does not differentiate between Hizbullah’s armed and political wings as it again urged Europe to blacklist the group.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell told AFP the U.S. was “increasingly concerned about Hizbullah’s activities on a number of fronts — including its stepped up terrorist campaign around the world, and their critical and ongoing support” for Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

Asked just how the EU would differentiate in applying sanctions between members of Hizbullah’s military wing and its political leadership, an EU official said “we cannot comment on such detail.”

But mounting global concern over the Shiite group’s active support of Assad has finally swayed even the most reluctant EU nations into shifting gear.

“Hizbullah’s role in Syria convinced member states it was time to act,” one diplomat told AFP.

During a visit to Brussels in March, Israeli President Shimon Peres urged the EU to put Hizbullah on the terrorist list, saying it was behind a score of attempted attacks in Europe and arguing that its intervention in Syria against anti-Assad rebels was enabling the group to spread its reach.

“If you do not take measures against Hizbullah, then they may think that they are permitted” to do what they like, Peres said after meeting European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso.

Hizbullah has been on a U.S. terror blacklist since 1995 after a series of anti-American attacks, including the bombing of the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in the 1980s.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged the EU to follow Washington’s lead in a move that will notably lead to a crackdown on the group’s fund-raising activities.

Currently, Britain and the Netherlands are the only EU nations to have placed Hizbullah on their lists of terrorist groups.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168202

The poll asked whether or not Lapid could succeed Binyamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister. 66% of a representative sample of respondents said he could not, with only a 34% saying that he could, or should. Among Yesh Atid voters, only 34% said that their party’s leader should be prime minister at some point, with 42% saying he was not the right person for the job.

Experts said that it was too early to count Lapid out for anything just yet; historically, finance ministers have built popularity only over time, and if during the coming years the economy improves – meaning that housing prices fall, inflation remains stable, and the job market remains brisk – Lapid could prove a very popular contender for Prime Minister.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168194

The 15-3 vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee showed broad support from both Democrats and Republicans for arming the rebels, though some lawmakers from each party voiced concern over the difficulty of ensuring the weapons aren’t misused and won’t slip into the hands of radical Islamists aligned with Al-Qaeda.

The vote comes as the government of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, fighting alongside terrorists from Iran-backed Hizbullah, engaged in a third day of an offensive on the Syrian city of Qusayr. Intense fighting in the city on Sunday killed 20 Hizbullah terrorists, among them a senior member of the group.

The bill to arm rebels still faces a lengthy legislative road to enactment and doesn’t require the administration to provide the arms, noted the Wall Street Journal.

The legislation now goes to the full Senate, where approval could spur action in the House of Representatives on a similar bill that was introduced earlier this year but has yet to advance to a vote.

“Vital national interests are at stake and we cannot watch from the sidelines,” said the committee’s chairman, Sen. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who introduced the Senate bill several weeks ago.

President Barack Obama rebuffed a proposal last year to arm moderate rebel groups despite support for the move by top cabinet members, including then-CIA Director David Petraeus and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In recent weeks, however, Obama and his advisers have begun looking once again at the option of providing arms to moderate rebels groups, possibly in concert with key allies Britain and France, according to senior administration officials.

The Senate bill introduced by Sen. Menendez authorizes the U.S. to provide small arms and training to units of the Free Syrian Army and other groups opposed to the Assad regime “that have been properly and fully vetted and share common values and interests with the United States.”

The bill says antiaircraft systems may not be transferred, however, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who has been an outspoken critic of Obama’s response to the Syria crisis, said the legislation “sends a signal to the administration” that it needs to get more involved in helping end the crisis in Syria.

During Tuesday’s hearing, several lawmakers raised objections to providing small arms.

Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) warned of the dangers of arming rebel forces whose intentions are unknown. “I think we have to ask the question, Who are we arming?” Sen. Udall asked fellow senators. “To tell you the truth, I don’t think we know who we’re arming. The truth is it changes every day,” he added, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said lawmakers who supported the legislation were in effect supporting the provision of arms to rebel groups that are “the allies of Al-Qaeda,” referring to the Islamist Al-Nusra Front, a powerful rebel force in the insurgency against Assad, which recently publicly pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda.

“It’s an irony you cannot overcome,” Paul was quoted as having said.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168203

“Om behalf of the Government and people of Israel, I offer our heartfelt condolences to you and to the people of the United States on the massive tornado that struck in Oklahoma and exacted such a horrific toll in human life,” the letter reads.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this tragedy and their families at this difficult time.”

At least 24 people, including nine children, were killed when a massive tornado struck an area outside Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon, officials said, according to CNN.

At least seven of those children were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, police said.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168190

“The situation is heart wrenching, to be so close to such devastation yet so distant in circumstance. However, to witness the tremendous outpour of support is comforting and heartwarming,” writes Rabbi Ovadia Goldman of Oklahoma’s Chabad Center for Jewish Life and Learning.

At least 24 people, including nine children, were killed when a massive tornado struck an area outside Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon.

At least seven of those children were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, police said.

“Here at Chabad we continue to work all morning on gathering supplies; diapers, canned goods, nonperishable food, snack items, water and sports drinks. We will be working with other organizations and authorities to deliver these supplies as they come,” the appeal stated.

“Chabad has activated a disaster relief fund, so individuals may give specifically to the tornadoes relief and recovery efforts. All these funds will be distributed, without any administrative fees, to help bring relief to the people impacted by this horrific disaster,” it added.

“I would also like to ask that you continue to pray for our brave first responders, for those who lost loved ones, for the injured and for all those who were affected by the tornadoes,” concluded Rabbi Goldman.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168196

Farhat and the families are residents of Majd al-Krum, a Muslim town in the Galilee. The cult’s activities extended for more than a decade, police said. Police arrested Farhat several weeks ago, but news of the arrest was released only on Tuesday.

Besides abusing children, Farhat instructed husbands to beat their wives. Women in the cult were forced to donate their time to Farhat, including cleaning his house – and if he was dissatisfied, he would beat the victims and lock them up in a closet for days.

Police said Farhat was also very involved in cult members’ personal lives, and he required them to reveal intimate details of their relationships, and of their finances. He also demanded that members turn over their salaries to him, and he distributed allowances to members. Cult members questioned by police said that Farhat tried to foster total dependence on him, and demanded that they loyally follow his every instruction.

Farhat was arrested after police opened an investigation against him last month, after a member of the cult filed a complaint against him – the only one filed in the decade the cult was in existence, police added.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168193

The soldier’s family has been informed. There is no word yet on funeral arrangements.

An investigative panel has been formed in the wake of the incident. The panel was appointed by General Guy Zur, head of IDF land operations.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168197

“Overnight, shots were fired at an IDF patrol on the border in the central Golan Heights, damaging a military vehicle,” said a statement on the army’s website. No one had been wounded, it added.

“In response, IDF forces returned precise fire at the source of the gunfire. They reported a direct hit,” the statement added.

“The IDF views the recent incidents in the north with concern and has lodged a complaint with UNDOF,” the UN Disengagement Force responsible for patrolling that area.

Early on Monday, the army reported that small-arms fire from Syria hit the Israeli Golan Heights overnight, causing no harm or damage. The army also filed a complaint with the UN force on that occasion.

The Golan Heights have been tense since the beginning of the conflict in Syria more than two years ago.

However, there have been only minor flare-ups in the region to date, with Syrian shells crashing in the occupied Golan and Israel firing in retaliation. 

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168169

In a wide-ranging annual report on religious freedom, the State Department voiced alarm at growing attacks against minority groups and painted a bleak picture in nations such as China, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea and Saudi Arabia.

Secretary of State John Kerry, while acknowledging that the U.S. record was not perfect, called religious freedom a “universal value” as he presented the report.

“The freedom to profess and practice one’s faith — to believe or not to believe, or to change one’s beliefs — that is a birthright of every human being,” Kerry said, according to AFP.

“I urge all countries, especially those identified in this report, to take action now to safeguard this fundamental freedom,” he said.

Kerry announced the appointment of Ira Forman, who served as President Barack Obama’s campaign outreach director to Jewish voters, to fill the State Department position of special envoy to combat anti-Semitism.

The report said anti-Semitism was rising in the media of Egypt and Venezuela, and pointed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s remarks questioning the extent of the Holocaust.

In addition to denying the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad has for years verbally attacked Israel and threatened to destroy the Jewish State. In February he claimed that “the period of the Zionists is over” and that “(the Zionists) should give their place to others.”

A week earlier the Iranian president called on all Muslims to mobilize their resources to uproot Zionism.

Jewish author and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel recently said that Ahmadinejad should be arrested and indicted for intent to commit a crime against humanity.

The State Department report, which covered 2012, also dealt with anti-Muslim sentiments, saying that “anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions were clearly on the rise — particularly in Europe and Asia.”

“Government restrictions, which often coincided with societal animosity, resulted in anti-Muslim actions that affected everyday life for numerous believers,” the report said, according to AFP.

The report sharply criticized the record of Myanmar, on the same day that its President Thein Sein met with U.S. President Barack Obama in a sign of American support for the former general’s democratic reforms.

“On Burma, we didn’t see any improvement in religious freedom,” said Suzan Johnson Cook, the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, using Myanmar’s former name.

The State Department report pointed to allegations that officials in Myanmar fanned a wave of violence targeting the mostly Muslim Rohingya community and said that Myanmar promoted Theravada Buddhism over other faiths.

The survey said that religious freedom declined further in China and that authorities cracked down particularly hard on the mostly Muslim Uighur community and on Tibetan Buddhists, whose monasteries are under close watch.

The report said that Muslims also faced new restrictions in 2012 in countries ranging from Belgium, which banned face-covering religious attire in classrooms, to India where schools in Mangalore restricted headscarves.

The report also voiced alarm at soaring violence against Islamic minorities including Shiites and Ahmadis in Pakistan, where laws restrict the Ahmadi community from even calling itself Muslim.

The study also voiced concern for Ahmadis in Indonesia and Bahais in Iran.

It said blasphemy laws were widely abused in Islamic countries including Pakistan, where incidents last year included the detention of a mentally challenged girl.

The State Department did not spare Bahrain from criticism, saying that the island’s Shiite majority “continued to face official discrimination” and allegations of torture.

The report also noted sweeping restrictions on religious freedom in longtime U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.

“They don’t allow any non-Islamic persons to have religious freedom, so I don’t see progress there,” Cook told reporters, according to AFP.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168164

The problem is with the funding dispersed by U.S.-funded NGOs, explained NGO Monitor head Professor Gerald Steinberg. He named USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) as two organizations funded by the U.S. government that in turn fund local Arabs groups, some of which work against the U.S. government’s stated goals.

One example given in the report is the case of MIFTAH, a Palestinian Authority-based NGO. The NED give MIFTAH over $178,000 from 2007 to 2012.

MIFTAH is “centrally involved in anti-Israel campaigns and antisemitism, including repetition of the infamous blood libel and allegations of ‘the slaughter of Palestinian children,’ ‘massacre,’ ‘cultural genocide,’ ‘war crimes,’ and ‘apartheid,’” the report stated.

NED agreed to fund MIFTAH based on its own evaluation of its activities, without an independent evaluation.

A second NGO, Windows’ Youth Media Program, received $750,000 from USAID. While the group is ostensibly “a tool for Israeli and Palestinian participants to learn about each other and to communicate with each other about the conflict,” according to its own description, in reality it has become “a platform for incitement and promotion of conflict, including comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany,” NGO Monitor reports.

USAID also gave over $1.6 million to the Parents Circle Family Forum, a group for Jewish and Arab bereaved parents. NGO Monitor noted that the group is highly controversial in Israel due to its one-sided presentation of the conflict, including the use of the term “Nakba” (literally “disaster”) on one of its Facebook pages to refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel.

Some U.S.-funded groups even expressed open support for terrorism. The Palestinian NGO Network, which received an NED grant of over $34,000, stated that a clause against terrorism that the U.S. asked NGOs to sign “ignores the legal Palestinians’ right of resistance against the Israeli occupation.” A second NED-funded Arab NGO, Al-Dameer, similarly referred to terrorism as the “right to resist.”

NGO Monitor criticized a response from NED as self-contradictory. NED stated in response to NGO Monitor’s findings, “NED is a bipartisan American institution whose mission is to help build peaceful civil societies. Accordingly, it does not take positions on matters of public policy or controversy… We would not withdraw support for a group simply because its views on issues, or the language its members use to describe events, may be controversial or even in some respects objectionable.”

“This response negates the moral and legal responsibility of the funder for the activities of the grantee, and the clear contradiction between hate speech and ‘democracy-building projects,’” NGO Monitor stated.

NGO Monitor proposed that U.S.-government linked funding agencies be required to take NGOs’ agendas into account when making decisions regarding funding, rather than focusing only on specific projects.

While NGO Monitor was critical of current policy, it praised the U.S. government for its willingness to reconsider. “It should be noted that the U.S. government’s responsiveness and willingness to ‘review carefully’ its policies stand in sharp contrast to the secrecy practiced by many European countries and, in particular, the European Union,” the group said.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168170

Videos streaming in daily from Syria document this Islamist influence, which comes in the form of executions and torture carried out in the name of Islam, among other things.

The embedded video, from Saraqeb in the Idlib province of northwestern Syria, shows the carrying out of sentences handed down by a rebel sharia field court.

Hundreds of local residents gathered to hear the sentence being pronounced by a rebel. Two residents were found guilty of offenses against sharia and sentenced to 40-50 lashes each.

The elder man was convicted of having his daughter, who had divorced her first husband, married to a second man during the “cooling off” period of three months required by sharia law. He did this ten days before the 3-month period had ended and was sentenced to 50 lashes.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168175

According to the White House, Obama and Suleiman spoke by telephone after about 30 Hizbullah terrorists, including one senior commander, were killed in fierce fighting in the Syrian town of Qusayr.

“President Obama expressed his appreciation to President Suleiman and the Lebanese people for keeping Lebanon’s borders open and hosting refugees from Syria, and pledged continued U.S. support to help Lebanon manage this challenge,” the White House said in a statement summarizing the two leaders’ phone call.

The statement said the two agreed that “all parties should respect Lebanon’s policy of disassociation from the conflict in Syria and avoid actions that will involve the Lebanese people in the conflict.”

The Hizbullah official who was killed Sunday was identified as Fady al-Jazzar, who is considered to be a major Hizbullah leader and was imprisoned in Israel until he returned to Lebanon in a prisoner-exchange deal with Israel.

Initially, the Lebanese-based Hizbullah denied it was assisting Assad quell the rebellion against him, but last year as the ongoing civil war in Syria continued, the terror group led by Hassan Nasrallah publicly offered to place itself at Assad’s disposal.

Hizbullah’s involvement in the Syrian civil war has been criticized both by the Syrian rebels as well as by political forces in Lebanon which oppose Hizbullah. The Syrian civil war has spilled into Lebanon on more than one occasion.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168159

CNN reported that at least seven of the dead were children from Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, which lay directly in the path of the monster storm’s wall of wind.

75 students and staff members had been huddled at the school when the storm hit, said the report.

As nightfall approached, determined searchers in hard hats dug in the debris for students possibly trapped, but authorities described the work as a recovery, not rescue, effort.

A temporary flight restriction was put in place over the school so that aircraft would stay away and emergency officials on the ground might hear any cries for help, said Lynn Lunsford with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The preliminary rating of damage created by the tornado is at least EF4 (winds 166 to 200 mph) — the second-most severe classification on a scale of zero to five — the National Weather Service said.

The tornado was estimated to be at least two miles wide at one point as it moved through Moore, according to CNN.

Twenty patients, including 12 adults and eight children, were in trauma rooms at Oklahoma University (OU) Medical Center and at the Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center, spokesman Scott Coppenbarger told CNN.

Injuries ranged from minor to critical, he said.

Interstate 35 in Moore was closed as a result of debris from the tornado, Oklahoma Department of Transportation spokesman Cole Hackett said. Crews were heading to the north-south highway to start the cleanup process.

“People are trapped. You are going to see the devastation for days to come,” said Betsy Randolph, spokeswoman for Oklahoma Highway Patrol. She did not say how many people were trapped.

More than 38,000 electricity customers in Oklahoma are without power, according to local power providers.

The severe weather came after tornadoes and powerful storms ripped through Oklahoma and the Midwest earlier Monday and on Sunday.

Forecasters had said that the destructive weather, which killed at least two people, was perhaps just a preview.

Even before Monday afternoon’s devastation, residents in areas hard hit by weekend storms were combing through rubble where their homes once stood, reported CNN.

An estimated 300 homes were damaged or destroyed across Oklahoma in weekend weather, Red Cross spokesman Ken Garcia said.

Two men, both in their 70s, were confirmed dead as a result of an earlier tornado that hit Shawnee, the report said.

As many as 28 tornadoes were reported in Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Iowa, according to the National Weather Service, with Oklahoma and Kansas the hardest hit.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168167

The tweet came from Israel Radio’s diplomatic correspondent Chico Menashe. In his tweet, Menashe wrote “The U.S. has apologized to Israel for leaking details of the attack in Syria. Senior administration officials said to their [Israeli] counterparts that they are examining the issue and that low-level [officials] were responsible for the leak.”

In addition, Menashe tweeted, “US officials told that they [will] review the matter. The leak forced Assad to react harshly.”

According to Pentagon sources, the tweets by Menashe were true, and the U.S. has apologized to Israel for the leak, which could have put Israeli lives in danger. The sources said that the Pentagon was investigating the matter. Israel has still not confirmed that it was involved in the attack.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168157

The new tools are being integrated as part of the IDF’s range of measures for curbing violent riots in Judea and Samaria.

Soldiers of the Central Command have already begun using protective suits, and they will receive hundreds more in the coming month. The protective suits are designed to absorb shocks, stones and clubs.

“This suit provides a wider possibility for the soldier to approach and even to run, and it gives the soldiers more confidence,” Maj. Yuval Yaron, head of weapons and technology for the Central Command, told the IDF Website. He added that the suits are lightweight and have been proven to be extremely effective.

The Central Command is also looking into the possibility of integrating a new non-lethal bullet to replace its rubber bullets. The new variety is a 40-millimeter bullet with a sponge tip, giving it the advantage of being safe at close range.

Maj. Yaron stated that the new bullets are currently undergoing testing at the Chief Medical Officer’s headquarters and are expected to be integrated by the end of the year, according to the IDF blog.

Last month, the Central Command’s Fire Formation received dozens of GPS units made by GARMIN, which specializes in satellite navigation devices.

The devices are designed for navigation in the field, and they allow users to establish specialized routes. “It is a very user-friendly device which is designated for soldiers from special units only, at present,” Maj. Yaron explained.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168141

One of the sixteen men has reported links to the 1994 murder of sixteen-year-old yeshiva student Ari Halberstam in a terror attack on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Muaffaq Askar, who was arrested last week in New York, has long been suspected of supplying Rashid Baz with weapons he used to attack a van carrying 15 Lubavitch students on the Brooklyn Bridge.

Baz reportedly called Askar his “Palestinian uncle. ”

The cigarette-smuggling scheme is believed to have cost New York state millions of dollars in sales tax revenue, according to authorities, with investigators saying that they uncovered $55 million in illegal cigarette sales.

“This case started because we were being vigilant about terrorism,” police commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement. “We discovered that individuals who were on our radar for links to known terrorists were engaged in a massive raid on the New York Treasury in the form of cigarette tax avoidance.”

According to reports, the proceeds from the smuggling scheme are believed to have gone to support the terrorist organizations of Hamas and Hizbullah.

“The proceeds from this alleged scheme can be used to fund a host of other criminal acts that threaten national security and public safety of Americans at home and abroad,” said James T. Hayes Jr., special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, according to CNN.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168139

The residents notified the IDF.

A resident, Uri Arnon, told the Tazpit News Agency: “I felt we were going back 75 years, losing our hold on the land. The Arabs no longer feel the need to hide their murderous tendencies, announcing out loud that they wish to annihilate us.”

An IDF spokesman said that the flag was hung on an electrical line, and that they were waiting to professionals to come and remove it.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168146

Lapid said he would not stop the so-called “natural expansion” of the Jewish communities, nor curtail the financial incentives offered to Israelis to move there. He said that eastern Jerusalem, liberated by Israel in the Six Day War, must stay Israeli, because “we didn’t come here for nothing.”

Lapid said that tens of thousands of Jews would someday be uprooted from what he described as “remote settlements,” but that this problem should be set aside for now. According to the NYT, he advocated the immediate creation of an interim Palestinian state in parts of the West Bank where no Jews live, with final borders drawn in perhaps three, four or five years.

“While he described the two-state solution as ‘crucial’ to preserving Israel as a Jewish nation, he offered no hints of Israeli concessions that could break the stalemate in the peace process,” NYT reporters wrote in their summary of the interview. “Instead, he repeatedly said he hoped that Secretary of State John Kerry, who is scheduled to arrive here next week for his fourth visit in two months, would ‘jump-start’ it.”

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168138

The regime is mindful of violent street protests that social networkers inspired after the last elections over claims of fraud, the report said. The authorities deny such claims, but have not explained exactly why service has become slower.

Businesses, banks and even state organizations are not spared by the widespread disruption in the Internet, local media say. “The Internet is in a coma,” the Ghanoon daily was quoted as having said in a report in early this month.

“It only happens in Iran: the election comes, the Internet goes,” it said, quoting a tweet in Farsi.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and numerous other sites, including thousands of Western ones, have been censored in Iran since massive street demonstrations that followed the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.

Those protests, stifled by a heavy-handed crackdown that led to numerous arrests and even deaths, were instigated online and observers say the authorities are choking the Internet to prevent a recurrence.

One DVD vendor, who sells illegal copies of Western movies downloaded online, said, according to AFP, that “you can forget about downloading stuff; the bandwidth drops every other minute.”

A network supervisor at a major Internet service provider in Tehran said his company had been unable to address complaints about slower speeds, particularly accessing pages using the HTTPS secure communications protocol.

“Browsing (the net) is difficult due to the low speed. Even checking e-mails is a pain,” he said. “Sometimes, loading a secure Google page takes a few long seconds,” he added.

The problem is not limited to slower speeds, but also affects what people can actually access.

Earlier this month, an Iranian IT website reported that the last remaining software that enables users to bypass filters imposed on net traffic “has become practically inaccessible.”

Authorities refuse to officially confirm the new restraints, but former officials and media reports have accused the Supreme Council of Cyberspace of ordering them.

The council, set up in March 2012, is tasked with guarding Iranians from “dangers” on the Internet while enabling “a maximum utilization of its opportunities,” according to AFP.

The complaints come as Iran prepares to elect its new president on June 14, but the authorities reject claims that there is any link with that and the current problems. The disruptions are also linked to Iran’s stated plan of rolling out a national intranet that it says will be faster, more secure and clean of “inappropriate” content, observers say.

A total of 686 candidates are vying to replace Ahmadinejad, who cannot run for a third straight term according to Iranian law, in the country’s upcoming national election.

Among those who have registered to be considered for the post are Ahmadinejad’s top aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei and former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

Iran’s former nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rowhani, has also joined the race, accusing the incumbent of needlessly incurring crippling economic sanctions.

The current nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, is also a presidential candidate. He pledged last week to “resist” western demands regarding his country’s nuclear program if he is elected.

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168132

No one was reported hurt in the incident.

The IDF’s general assessment is that the gunfire is spillover from the fighting in Syria, between forces loyal to President Bashar Assad and rebels.

There have been several incidents of fire from Syria hitting Israel in the last few months, including mortar shells. While the IDF said it saw the shells as “strays,” it responded with fire on some of the occasions.

Security experts have cast doubt, in the last 24 hours, on the reports that Syria has pointed missiles at Tel Aviv, to be fired if Israel attacks Syrian targets again.  

Article source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/168134