REPORT: SAUDI CROWN PRINCE SAID PALESTINIANS SHOULD 'SHUT UP' OR MAKE PEACE

“It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining.”

BY ERIC SUMNER MAY 1, 2018

audi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is reportedly fed up with the Palestinians.

Bin Salman, heir to the desert kingdom's thrown, said in a closed-door meeting that Palestinians should accept peace negotiations or "shut up and stop complaining," according to Channel 10 journalist Barak Ravid. The crown prince reportedly made the remarks when speaking with leaders of several Jewish groups while in New York on March 27.

“In the last several decades the Palestinian leadership has missed one opportunity after the other and rejected all the peace proposals it was given,” bin Salman said according to a wire sent by the Israeli consulate in New York to Israel’s foreign ministry in Jerusalem that summarized the meeting, as well as information from several US and Israeli diplomats with knowledge of the meeting.

“It is about time the Palestinians take the proposals and agree to come to the negotiations table or shut up and stop complaining,” he continued.

Bin Salman's reported remarks are the latest addition to what some have pegged as a budding Israeli-Saudi bromance. The young prince is known to hold different views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than his father, King Salman, and past Saudi kings, having openly supported Israel's right to exist.

"I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land," bin Salman told The Atlantic last month.

The crown prince also reportedly emphasized in the meeting that the Iranian threat took precedence over the Palestinian issue as far as Saudi Arabia is concerned.

"The Palestinian issue is not a top priority for the Saudi government or for the Saudi public," he reportedly said. "There are much more urgent and important issues to deal with — like Iran."

Even so, the crown prince added, a formal peace agreement must be advanced before Arab states normalize relations with Israel.

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a massive cache of secret documents, obtained in an exceptional Israeli intelligence operation this year, showing that Iran had developed a secret nuclear weapons program and that it lied when it claimed otherwise. Iran's quest for nuclear weapons and its recent adventurism throughout the Middle East seem to have played a role in softening Saudi Arabia's stance on Israel.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-plo/palestinian-forum-convenes-after-22-years-beset-by-division-idUSKBN1I1101

Palestinian forum convenes after 22 years, beset by division

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (Reuters) - A powerful but rarely convened assembly that calls itself the Palestinian “supreme authority” met for the first time in 22 years on Monday, with boycotts and rifts suggesting it will struggle to achieve its stated goal of unity.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during the Palestinian National Council meeting in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank April 30, 2018. Palestinian President Office (PPO)/Handout via REUTERS

In a two-hour opening address to the Palestinian National Council (PNC) President Mahmoud Abbas criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s decisions last year to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and to move the U.S. Embassy to the city.

Abbas told the de facto parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organisation that the American stance favoring Israel might require “tough decisions in the near future.”

“If America wants to offer something let them say they support the two-state solution with east Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and that it (U.S.) is no longer a sole mediator,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested on Monday he was open to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, saying a “two-party solution” was likely in his first extensive comments on peace efforts since taking the job last week.

“With respect to the two-state solution, the parties will ultimately make the decision. We are certainly open to a two-party solution as a likely outcome,” Pompeo said at a news conference in Jordan after a visit to Israel.

Abbas is expected to use the four-day meeting of the PNC to renew his legitimacy and to install loyalists in powerful positions to begin shaping his legacy.

The 82-year-old leader told the 600 PNC members present that the council - powerful but little-known outside Palestinian political circles - was “very important because it protects the Palestinian dream.”

However his handling of the meeting has met with widespread criticism - about the location of the session, its timing and who is and is not attending.

Islamist groups have boycotted it, and earlier on Monday Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh dismissed the session as a “clapping party” for Abbas.

“Is it logical that the PLO be the sole representative of the Palestinian people when it does not include Hamas and Islamic Jihad?” asked Haniyeh.

Hamas defeated Abbas’s western-backed Fatah in parliamentary elections in 2006 and has been locked in rivalry with it since. Attempts at reconciliation have faltered over power-sharing disputes.

In his speech Abbas restated his demand that Hamas relinquish full control of Gaza to his western-based Palestinian Authority, whose power base is in the West Bank.

But not all the criticism came from outsiders. Three factions within the umbrella PLO said they would boycott the 700-member assembly, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the second largest group.

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“COLLECTIVE YAWN”

Mahdi Abdul-Hadi, a Jerusalem-based analyst, said Abbas seemed intent on driving through his own agenda and replacing enemies with loyalists on the PLO’s powerful Executive Committee, whose members are appointed by the PNC.

“He needs to re-inject legitimacy and the recognition of his authority,” said Abdul-Hadi.

On its website the PNC says it “represents the supreme authority of the Palestinian people in all their places of residence.”

But its aging leadership - Abbas will be 83 later this year and PNC chairman Saleem Al-Zanoon is 85 - has many younger Palestinians questioning its relevance, especially those who can barely remember its last full meeting in 1996.

“This PNC will not deliver me or my generation; it won’t deliver the diaspora or Gaza. The PNC is not delivering an entire generation that views these meetings with a collective yawn,” said Diana Buttu, a Canadian-born former legal adviser to Palestinian peace negotiators, who now lives in Haifa.

“Abbas may think that this will grant him ‘legitimacy’ but the question remains - legitimacy from whom?”

U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov welcomed the meeting, but urged Abbas to work for unity. “The leadership has a responsibility to end divisions and the deteriorating economic, humanitarian and social situation in Gaza,” he said in a statement.

Reporting by Stephen Farrell, Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi, Editing by William Maclean and Richard Balmforth

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Insurgents start leaving south Damascus pocket, release hostages

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Dozens of hostages held by militants in northern Syria reached army lines on Tuesday, launching a deal for insurgents to quit an enclave south of Damascus, state media and a monitor said.

A soldier loyal to Syria's President Bashar al Assad forces talks to a woman in a bus after they were released by militants from Idlib, Syria May 1, 2018. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

State news agency SANA said 42 people were freed in the first step of the agreement, arriving in government territory at a crossing near Aleppo city.

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People are seen in the bus released by militants from Idlib, Syria May 1, 2018. SANA/Handout via REUTERS

Women, children, and men including some soldiers wept and hugged on the bus, live on state TV. Islamist rebels had kidnapped the people in a village in rural Idlib as they swept into the province three years ago.

South of Damascus, buses shuttled 200 fighters and relatives out of the Yarmouk enclave under the swap between the government and insurgents, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Slideshow (5 Images)

The fleet arrived at the same crossing near Aleppo in the early hours, the UK-based war monitoring group said. The fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly linked to al-Qaeda, would go to Idlib in the northwest near the Turkish border.

President Bashar al-Assad’s military and its allies have pushed to crush the last insurgent footholds around the capital Damascus through a string of offensives and withdrawal deals.

The pocket south of Damascus includes zones held by Islamic State and others by rebel factions, which have fought each other. It has been the focus of intense fighting since the Syrian army recaptured eastern Ghouta last month with Russian and Iranian help.

Bombing has left parts of the once-teeming Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in ruins, and the United Nations raised warnings over the fate of civilians still stuck there.

The evacuation deal for Tahrir al-Sham to surrender also includes allowing people to leave two pro-government Shi’ite villages, which the insurgents have encircled in Idlib.

State media said ambulances carried some critically ill patients out of the villages, al-Foua and Kefraya, on Tuesday morning in the first step of the agreement.

Reporting by Ellen Francis, Editing by William Maclean

Uhhh Ohhh

https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-04-30-autism-is-highest-in-areas-with-the-highest-vaccination-rates.html

Stunning finding reveals autism is highest in areas with the highest vaccination rates

Monday, April 30, 2018 by: Vicki Batts

The surge of autism diagnoses in recent years has left many people looking for an explanation. Oft-labeled a “conspiracy theory,” or something to that effect, the suspicion that vaccines are a potential cause of autism is on the rise. New research from the Canadian government has indirectly shown that in highly vaccinated populations, autism rates are noticeably higher. These shocking findings are sure to leave vaccine propagandists reeling while they try to somehow discredit the findings of a government agency.

As The World Mercury Project reports, Canada ranks in the “top 10” countries for autism rates. In 2018, it was revealed that 1 in 66 Canadian children were on the autism spectrum, based on data collected in 2015.

The Public Health Agency of Canada even crafted the “National ASD Surveillance System,” or NASS, to track the number of people diagnosed with autism. The system was intended to provide a look at autism diagnoses “both across regions and over time.”

The agency’s efforts proved successful, showing a steady increase in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses since 2003 — as well as substantial differences from region to region.

As The World Mercury Project explains, six provinces British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Quebec and one Canadian territory (Yukon) were featured in the research.

The three regions with the highest autism prevalence were Newfoundland and Labrador (1 in 57), Prince Edward Island (1 in 59) and Quebec (1 in 65). Comparatively, the Yukon boasted significantly lower rates of autism, at just 1 in 125.

Moreover, the provinces with the highest rates of autism seem to have experienced a massive increase in ASD diagnoses in recent years. Newfoundland and Labrador went from 6 to 19.6 per 1,000 — a 227 percent increase, while Prince Edward Island went from 5 to 17.7 per 1,000 — marking a 254 percent increase. Most shocking, however, is the data from Quebec, which shows that ASD diagnoses went from 3.5 to 15.7 per 1,000 — a staggering 349 percent increase.

Vaccine dogma blocks any legitimate scientific analysis that might show vaccine safety to be less than perfect

One health practitioner has dared to speak out, after noticing an undeniable “coincidence” among the provinces: Those with the highest rates of autism also have the highest rates of vaccination.

As Dr. Zimmerman, from British Columbia, notes, there was a report on vaccination coverage in Canadian kids published back in 2013 — just two years before the data for the ASD survey was collected.

And what do you know: At that time, Newfoundland and Labrador had the highest rates of vaccination, while the Yukon had the lowest. Now data also shows that Newfoundland and Labrador have the highest rates of autism, while the Yukon seems to have the lowest. Who would have thought?

While correlation does not always equal causation, the fact of the matter is that this is an association worth investigating. Moreover, countless parents have reported a sudden change in their child post-vaccination — which to any scientist worth their salt, should at least be cause for concern.

Sadly, vaccine dogma has become so ingrained in our society that the very notion of even questioning vaccine safety is seen as an outrageous act of total lunacy. Indeed, those who dare to even suggest that vaccines contain harmful ingredients are labeled as “crackpots,” “conspiracy theorists” and deniers of “real” science. In a truly Orwellian fashion, anyone who posits that vaccines have the potential to harm children is labeled “anti-science.”

In reality, the belief that vaccines are completely innocuous is what’s “anti-science,” as it disregards the mountains of evidence that vaccines can and do harm children every year. Who’s really benefiting from all this vaccine totalitarianism?

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https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/mystery-explosions-iranian-base-syria-register-earthquake

==An Iranian military base and arms depot in northern Syria reportedly came under missile attack on Saturday night, triggering explosions so powerful they registered as a 2.6 magnitude earthquake.

The state news agency SANA reported only that enemy projectiles had targeted “military positions in the countryside of Hama and Aleppo provinces”==

around 10:30 PM, and that military “authorities are working to identify the cause of the explosions.”

Posts on social media put some of the explosions at a location around 10 miles southeast of Hama, in a place called “Mountain 47” (Jabal 47), near a village named Taqsees. Video clips showed what appeared to be massive secondary explosions.

At the same time, the France-based European-Mediterranean Seismological Center, citing seismological data from Turkey and Lebanon, reported a 2.6 magnitude quake at 10:40 PM, 10 miles south-east of Hama.