Palestinians say Israel 'playing with fire' by closing Temple Mount gate

The Jerusalem Police detained five east Jerusalem Arabs who tried to enter the premises of the Golden Gate, which has been closed by a court order. The Palestinian Authority on Monday warned that Israel was “playing with fire” after clashes erupted at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem over the closure of the Golden Gate site – also known as the Gate of Mercy – to Muslim worshipers. The PA also accused Israel of “waging war on Islam” and called on the intervention of the international community. The Jerusalem Police detained five east Jerusalem Arabs who tried to enter the premises of the Golden Gate, which has been closed by a court order. Palestinians claim that Israel is planning to turn the area into a prayer site for Jews. The site, which once housed the offices of the Islamic Heritage Committee, was closed by the Jerusalem Police in 2003 after it was revealed that the committee was involved in political activities. In 2017, a court issued an order to keep the site closed until further notice.

https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Police-chase-suspect-onto-Temple-Mount-developing-report-580994

Israel closes gate to Al-Aqsa Mosque

During the daytime, the Israeli military police facilitated the entry of 70 Israeli Jewish settlers, including 20 students of religious Jewish schools into Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Activists published several pictures on social media showing the Israeli military police beating and brutally attacking Palestinian worshippers.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190219-israel-closes-gate-to-al-aqsa-mosque/

Jordan protests over Israel violations of Al-Aqsa Mosque

Jordan yesterday lodged a protest note with the Israeli foreign ministry, slamming provocative Israeli actions against Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jordanian news agency Petra reported.

Al-Qudah demanded Israel “act in accordance with international law and immediately reopen the gates, respect the sanctity of the holy place, stop hampering the entry of worshippers, withdraw its security forces from Al-Aqsa Mosque and respect the feelings of Muslims.”

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190219-jordan-protests-over-israel-violations-of-al-aqsa-mosque/

Third Temple time = Anti-Christ

ICE Issues New Guidance on Petitions for Child Brides

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced new rules Friday to scrutinize petitions to bring in underage spouses to the U.S., after data showed thousands of requests by men to bring in child and adolescent brides had been approved.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it was updating guidance to adjudicators that stresses marriages involving minors warrant special attention. They must ensure the marriage was lawful where it was celebrated, and is legal in the state where they will live, and that it is bona fide and the minor consented freely to it.

The Associated Press last month obtained data showing there were more than 5,000 cases of adults petitioning on behalf of minors and nearly 3,000 examples of minors seeking to bring in older spouses or fiancées.

The approval of the petitions is the first of a two-step visa process, and USCIS had already said it has taken steps to better flag and vet the petitions.

They are legal. The Immigration and Nationality Act does not set minimum age requirements for the person making the request or for that person’s spouse or fiancée. By contrast, to bring in a parent from overseas, a petitioner has to be at least 21 years old.

And in weighing petitions, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services goes by whether the marriage is legal in the spouse or fiancée’s home country and then whether the marriage would be legal in the state where the petitioner lives.

Marriage between adults and minors is not uncommon in the U.S., and most states allow children to marry with some restrictions.

But the data raise questions about whether the immigration system may be enabling forced marriage and about how U.S. laws may be compounding the problem despite efforts to limit child and forced marriage.

The USCIS changes will not stop child marriage — age limits must be set by Congress, and states — but officials hope it will help detect instances where a spouse is in the marriage against her will.

“USCIS is taking action to the maximum extent permitted under current immigration law to highlight special considerations in the adjudication of marriage-based immigrant petitions involving a minor,” said USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna. “While these are steps in the right direction, ultimately it is up to Congress to bring more certainty and legal clarity to this process for both petitioners and USCIS officers.”

There is a two-step process for obtaining U.S. immigration visas and green cards. Petitions are first considered by USCIS. If granted, they must be approved by the State Department. Overall, there were 3.5 million petitions received from budget years 2007 through 2017.

Over that period, there were 5,556 approvals for those seeking to bring minor spouses or fiancées, and 2,926 approvals by minors seeking to bring in older spouses, according to the data. Additionally, there were 204 for minors by minors. Petitions can be filed by U.S. citizens or permanent residents. In nearly all the cases, the girls were the younger person in relationship.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson said he was pleased to see the guidance.

“Despite this improvement, Congress still needs to act to close this loophole — I look forward to continue working with my colleagues on legislation to do just that,” the Wisconsin Republican said.

https://www.courthousenews.com/ice-issues-new-guidance-on-petitions-for-child-brides/

U.S. Taxpayers Fund Border Walls in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Lebanon

American taxpayers are continuing to fund border security measures and border walls in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Lebanon with President Trump’s signing of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending bill.

While the United States-Mexico border received only $1.3 billion for construction of a border wall at the overwhelmed southern border with soaring illegal immigration, foreign countries are getting help from American taxpayers to secure their borders.

The Republican-Democrat spending bill signed by Trump last week provides Pakistan with at least $15 million in U.S. taxpayer money for “border security programs” as well as funding for “cross border stabilization” between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

n total, the spending bill provides about $6 billion in American taxpayer money to finance foreign militaries, some of which can be used by Lebanon to “strengthen border security and combat terrorism.”

The spending bill provides about $112.5 million in U.S. taxpayer money for economic support for Egypt, including $10 million for scholarships for Egyptian students. Egypt’s military receives about $1.3 billion in the spending bill, some of which can be for border security programs.

https://chimpplanet.blogspot.com/2019/02/us-taxpayers-fund-border-walls-in.html

Staged Chemical Attack Videos And Other Trends In Modern Propaganda

The scandal regarding the fake hospital video published by the White Helmets as a proof of the Douma chemical attack has reached its peak in the media and has caused reaction on the diplomatic level.

On February 13, BBC Syria’s producer Riam Dalati came out with a statement that “After almost 6 months of investigations” he “can prove without a doubt that the Douma Hospital scene was staged” and “no fatalities had occurred in the hospital.” Dalati added that he believes that “the attack did happen” but no Sarin was used and “everything else around the attack was manufactured for maximum effect.”

“I can tell you that Jaysh al-Islam ruled Douma with an iron fist. They coopted activists, doctors and humanitarians with fear and intimidation. In fact, one of the 3 or 4 people filming the scene was Dr. Abu Bakr Hanan, a “brute and shifty” doctor affiliated with Jaysh Al-Islam. The narrative was that “there weren’t enough drs [doctors]” but here is one filming and not taking part of the rescue efforts. Will keep the rest for later,” he wrote in a tweet chain on the topic.

An interesting fact that despite the confidence that the attack did take place and no Sarin was used, Dalati was not able to name the chemical substance used and said that it is up to the OPCW to make conclusions.

Even this halfway contradiction to the “Assad did it” version caused a wide attention because BBC was among the mainstream media organizations fueling anti-Assad hysteria when the video first appeared in April 2018. This joint propaganda effort became a formal justification of the US-led cruise missile attack on Syria.

Dalati’s statement widely circulated independent media organizations and was even commented by the Russian defense and foreign ministries. Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the revelation as a “theater of absurd.”

“Over the past years, and not only in Syria, we have seen just a tragic farce performed by the Western community and mass media, which on the one hand, speak about the high democratic goals and how they care about the civilians of a sovereign state, and on the other hand, they just do not give a damn about all laws, the international law, freedoms and rights of a nation and certain people,” Zakharova stressed.

She compared this case with the situation developing around Iraq prior to the start of the US intervention and recalled how then US ambassador to the UN Colin Powell was convincing the international community that there is a need to rescue “Iraq, Iraqi nation and democracy”.

The Russian Defense Ministry also commented on the issue by saying that Russia is not surprised by the appearance of new discrediting details.

“Many of today’s top-ranking politicians in the United States and Europe, then tearing their throats in ‘defending the peaceful Syrians from the terrible chemical attacks of the regime” and sanctioning missile and air strikes on Syria, will try to forget the topic in order to avoid moral, political and criminal liability,” defense ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said.

https://southfront.org/staged-chemical-attack-videos-and-other-trends-in-modern-propaganda/

How the rule of the rabbis is fuelling a holy war in Israel

Palestinians, the secular and women all face a harsher environment as theocratic tendencies are entrenched

In which country did a senior, state-salaried cleric urge his followers last week to become “warriors”, emulating a group of young men who had murdered a woman of another faith?

The cleric did so with impunity. In fact, he was only echoing other highly placed colleagues who have endorsed a book – again without penalty – urging their disciples to murder babies belonging to other religions.

Where can the head of the clergy call black people “monkeys” and urge the expulsion of other religious communities?

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/how-rule-rabbis-fuelling-holy-war-israel

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>>5266578

2/2

Haitian Authorities Arrest Americans Transporting Cache of Weapons amid Uprising

“President Jovenel Moise has brought home mercenaries to assassinate not only a desperate people who are clamoring for his resignation by demonstrating peacefully but especially his political opponents.” — Haitian online publication Vedeth

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — Even as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks to inspire a military coup against the elected president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, evidence is mounting that the U.S. government is enabling American mercenaries to violently quell a popular uprising in Haiti.

MintPress News previously examined the parallels between the uprising in Haiti and the Yellow Vest movement in France: both explicitly take aim at the economic oligarchy and government austerity policies; both have been the subject of violent crackdowns by the police; and the governments of both countries have gotten a free pass from Washington and its sympathetic media.

Five Americans and three others were arrested in Haiti on Sunday after they were discovered transporting a cache of weapons. Haitians have been engaged in an all-out uprising against the government for the past 10 days.

More

https://www.mintpressnews.com/haitia-authorities-arrest-americans-transporting-cache-of-weapons-amid-uprising/255265/

>>5266509

Kinda lame Q.

Don't reply to shills!

US Seeks To Split Syria And Create Quasi-State On Euphrates West Bank: Russia

On Febraury 19, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov commented on the US policy regarding the conflict in Syria. Lavrov said that the US is attempting to to split Syria and create a quasi-state on the Euphrates River’s east bank. This is why Wahington is opposing to the return of the Damascus government there.

“They are actively investing and are forcing their allies to pay for redevelopment of that part of Syria. However, they are prohibiting their allies to invest in the restructuring of the infrastructure of the other parts of Syria which are controlled by the legitimate government,” Lavrov noted.

These remarks came amid reports that the Kurdish-dominatedSyrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are working to finalize their operation against ISIS in the Euphrates Valley.

Meanwhile, the SDF released a detailed statement on its plans after the elimination of the last ISIS-held pocket on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. The group demanded Damascus to recognize the “self-declared and effective autonomy in the northeast” and vowed to “liberate” the Afrin region from Turkish forces.

https://southfront.org/us-seeks-to-split-syria-and-create-quasi-state-on-euphrates-west-bank-russia/

The First Rule of AIPAC Is: You Do Not Talk about AIPAC

Washington’s political establishment went berserk when US Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) publicly noted that US-Israel relations are “all about the Benjamins” – slang for $100 bills, referring to money shoveled at American politicians by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

Omar was accused of antisemitism – immediately by Republicans, shortly after by members of her own party – and bullied into apologizing. She may or may not be prejudiced against Jews, but even if she is, that wasn’t her real offense.

Her real offense was publicly mentioning the irrefutable fact that many members of Congress take their marching orders from a foreign power’s lobbying apparatus (an apparatus not, as required by law, registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act), at least partly because those marching orders come with promises of significant donations to those politicians’ campaigns.

AIPAC itself doesn’t make direct donations to political campaigns. But AIPAC and other pro-Israel lobbying groups like Christians United For Israel punch well above their weight in American politics, largely by motivating their supporters to financially support and work for “pro-Israel” candidates in general elections and help weed out “anti-Israel” candidates in party primaries.

By the way, “pro-Israel” in this context always means “supportive of the jingoism of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party,” and never “supportive of the many Israelis who’d like peace with the Palestinian Arabs.”

One AIPAC supporter alone, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, spent $65 million getting Republicans elected, including $25 million supporting Donald Trump, in 2016. But that $25 million was only put into action after Trump retreated from his early position of “neutrality” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, publicly prostrated himself to AIPAC in a speech at one of its events, and pronounced himself “the most pro-Israel presidential candidate in history.”

But: We’re not supposed to talk about that. Ever. And it’s easy to see why.

If most Americans noticed that many members of Congress (as well as most presidents) are selling their influence over US policy to a foreign power, we might do something about it.

For decades, howling “antisemitism” any time the matter came up proved an effective tactic for shutting down public discussion of the “special relationship” under which Israel receives lavish foreign aid subsidies, effective control of US foreign policy in the Middle East, and lately even state (and pending federal) legislation requiring government contractors to sign loyalty oaths to Israel’s government.

The Israeli lobby’s power to prevent that discussion seems to be slipping, however. Why? In part because the lobby’s money and political support, which used to be spent buying both sides of the partisan aisle, has begun tilting heavily Republican in recent years, freeing some Democrats to not “stay bought.” And in part because the newest generation of politicians includes some like Ilhan Omar who aren’t for sale (to Israel, anyway).

Decades of unquestioning obedience to the Israel lobby has drawn the US into needless and costly conflicts not even remotely related to the defense of the United States. We’ll be better off when the “special relationship,” and the corruption underlying it, ends.

https://original.antiwar.com/thomas-knapp/2019/02/18/the-first-rule-of-aipac-is-you-do-not-talk-about-aipac/

>>5266859

Keep protecting Israel baker

>>5266409 Israel closes gate to Al-Aqsa Mosque

>>5266578, >>5266676 How the rule of the rabbis is fuelling a holy war in Israel

Why hiding Israel digs baker?

>>5267034

thank you