IDF soldier injured in rock attack in West Bank
By Justin Jalil
The Times of Israel website
In IDF soldier was lightly injured on Sunday afternoon after being hit with stones in Deir Nizam, a Palestinian village near Ramallah in the West Bank.
The soldier, identified as an officer, was taken to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem after suffering a dislocated shoulder and bruising to the neck, according to the news site NRG. No arrests or further injuries were reported.
Earlier Sunday, a Palestinian vehicle approached soldiers in the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem. According to the soldiers, the vehicle attempted to hit the soldiers. A manhunt was underway for the driver.
In a separate incident, a Molotov cocktail was thrown near the tomb of Simeon the Just in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, causing no damage or injuries. Police are investigating.
The IDF fired warning shots to disperse a gathering near Gaza’s southern border with Israel, according to the Walla news site. The episode ended without incident; no injuries were reported.
Prince Charles says he fears for Christians in Middle East
By AFP
The Times of Israel website
LONDON (AP) – Britain’s Prince Charles says he fears there will be “very, very few” Christians left in the Middle East after the turmoil wracking the region.
The heir to the British throne, who is on a trip to the region, told the BBC that the plight of Christians persecuted by Islamic extremists was “a most agonizing situation,” though it was important to remember they were just one persecuted minority among many around the world.
“But at the same time I fear that the problems in the Middle East are not going to go away immediately,” the prince said in a pre-recorded interview with “The Sunday Hour” radio program. “And so there is a danger that there is going to be very, very few left.”
He appealed for more work to build bridges between religions.
If he succeeds his mother Queen Elizabeth II as monarch, Charles will become temporal head of the Church of England and take the title “Defender of the Faith.” He said that although the title refers to the Anglican faith, he believed the role involved protecting others’ freedom to worship.
“It always seems to me that while at the same time being Defender of the Faith you can also be protector of faiths,” he said.
Defying Shiite mainstream, Lebanese cleric reaches out to Jews
By Elhanan Miller
The Times of Israel website
Israelis usually associate Shiite clerics in Lebanon with terror group Hezbollah, a powerful religious organization committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. But a Beirut-based cleric is surprising the public by spreading messages of peace and nonviolence in Hebrew on social media.
“We call on rabbis, priests and Muslim clerics – both Sunni and Shia – to underplay religious traditions and texts that call for violence, since they are more dangerous than nuclear weapons,” wrote Sayyed Muhammad Ali Husseini, secretary general of the Shiite group the Arabic Islamic Council, in Hebrew on his Facebook page Sunday.
Just days after Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah warned of a possible war with Israel following an attack by his organization that left two IDF soldiers dead on the border with Lebanon, Husseini said that religious texts must be historically contextualized rather than used to incite perpetual violence.
“Various religious texts calling for the use of violence and ruthlessness to achieve goals are extremely dangerous when used by groups we have warned against in the past,” he continued. “These texts religiously sanction acts of violence and murder. Obviously, these are texts that were implemented in specific, limited situations; they cannot necessarily be applied to our time, since every situation has its own unique circumstances.”
This was not the first time that Husseini directly addressed an Israeli audience. On January 19, he posted a video on Facebook directed at “our cousins, the children of Isaac son of Abraham.”
“We believe that not all Jews are bad [just as] not all Muslims are terrorists. Let us cousins put our conflicts aside and stay away from evil and hatred. Let us unite in peace and love,” he said in broken Hebrew.
Following the burning alive of Jordanian pilot Muaz Kasasbeh last week by the Islamic State in Syria, Husseini wrote on Facebook, “We heard and saw yesterday how our brother in humanity was burned. Has the Holocaust returned once again?”
Breaking from the traditional Shiite loyalty to the Iranian leadership, Husseini has also spoken out publicly against what he dubbed the complete Iranian domination of Lebanon.
US sends arms to Lebanese in bid to stem jihadi gains
By AFP
The Times of Israel website
BEIRUT, Lebanon – The Lebanese army received a shipment of US weapons on Sunday, an embassy official told AFP, to help in the fight against jihadists who have staged incursions from Syria.
“The Lebanese military received 72 M198 power supply (howitzers), and more than 25 million rounds of artillery, mortar and rifle ammunition,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
An AFP photographer at the Beirut port also saw several Humvees, howitzers, ammunition containers and other military vehicles arriving.
In a statement, the US embassy said the aid is worth $25 million, adding that the 26 million rounds of ammunition included small, medium and heavy artillery rounds.
“Support for the (Lebanese military) remains a top priority for the United States. Recent attacks against Lebanon’s army only strengthen America’s resolve to stand in solidarity with the people of Lebanon to confront these threats,” said the embassy.
It added: “The United States is providing top of the line weapons to the (Lebanese army) to help Lebanon’s brave soldiers in their confrontation with the terrorists.”
In recent months, Lebanon’s army has fought several battles against jihadists streaming in from across the restive border with Syria.
The deadliest battle took place last August in the border town of Arsal.
The jihadists withdrew after a deal brokered by Lebanese Sunni clerics, but they took with them more than two dozen army and police hostages.
Retrial date set for al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt
By Merrit Kennedy
The Times of Israel website
CAIRO (AP) – Court officials say the retrial of two detained al-Jazeera English journalists will begin on February 12 in a case widely dismissed by rights groups as a sham.
Their colleague Peter Greste was released earlier this month and deported to Australia.
Canada’s now-former Foreign Minister John Baird said earlier this month, just prior to his recent resignation, that Canadian-Egyptian Mohammed Fahmy could be imminently released after renouncing his Egyptian nationality.
It was not immediately clear how the retrial would affect that process.
Egyptian authorities accused the journalists of providing a platform for ousted President Mohammed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, now declared a terrorist organization. But authorities provided no concrete evidence.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.