Hamas said set to recognize Palestine on 1967 borders, but not Israel - By Dov Lieber - http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-said-set-to-recognize-1967-borders-but-not-israel/
In bid to bolster its regional legitimacy, terror group will also break off ties with the Muslim Brotherhood - report
Hamas is reportedly planning to endorse a state of Palestine along the 1967 borders - a move that would be a monumental shift from the group's long-held policy of reclaiming all of historic Palestine - though it won't recognize Israel's legitimacy.
The new policy will be announced in amendments to Hamas's charter that is to be published in April, after the group's political bureau completes its internal elections, the Pan-Arab daily a-Sharq al-Awsat reported Tuesday, citing sources within the Islamist terror group.
The new policy is being crafted in order to engage regional and international partners, such as Egypt, the report said.
The report follows a number of statements by senior Hamas leaders in recent months to the effect that the group will recognize the 1967 borders, but not the State of Israel.
Hamas is a terror group that seeks the destruction of Israel and has fought three major rounds of conflict against it since seizing Gaza in 2007. Over the years, it has fired thousands of rockets into Israel, tunneled under the border to carry out attacks, and orchestrated suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis.
"All of Hamas bodies, whether affiliated with its political wing or military brigades, contributed to drafting the declaration," the Hamas sources said.
Talk of "the 1967 borders" generally refers to the pre-1967 lines between Israel and the territory it captured in that year's Six-Day War from Jordan (in Jerusalem and the West Bank), Egypt (Gaza and the Sinai) and Syria (the Golan Heights).
The amendments to the charter were reportedly worked out during a meeting in Doha, Qatar, which was attended by outgoing Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal; his projected successor, former Gaza prime minister Ismail Haniyeh; and senior Hamas member Moussa Abu Marzouk. The report did not say when the meeting took place.
Hamas is also planning to officially break ties with its parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the report.
The charter amendments will reportedly call for "separation from any foreign body or organization."
Hamas was founded in the late 1980s as the Palestinian branch of the Brotherhood.
Hamas is also intending to declare that it only opposes "the Israeli occupation," as opposed to all Jews, in an effort to deflect accusations that it is anti-Semitic.
Hamas's current charter, written in 1988, contains a cocktail of Nazi, Communist and Islamist anti-Semitic tropes and conspiracy theories, including that Jews were behind the French and Russian revolutions and the two world wars, that they control the media and the UN, that they infiltrated the Freemasons, and that they funded colonialism with their wealth.
In January, Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al-Jazeera: "You will find in this document clear words that we [sic] against the Zionists, against the occupation of our lands and we will resist the occupiers, whoever they were. And we are not against anyone regarding to this religion or to his race."
While Hamdan sought to give the impression that Hamas is not anti-Semitic (he is not the first leader in the group to do so), Hamas's official media is rife with anti-Semitic messages, often wrapped in Islamist rhetoric.
In a live broadcast on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV in January, Hamas MP Marwan Abu Ras accused Jews of recruiting prostitutes into the army "in order to lure Arabs into their traps," and claimed Jewish leaders send "AIDS-infected girls to fornicate with Muslim youths.
"My brothers, know that people, stones, and trees all hate [the Jews]. Everyone on Earth hates this filthy nation, a nation extrinsic to Mankind. This fact was elucidated by the Quran and the Sunna," Abu Ras said.
While Hamas leaders in the past have at times expressed to English-language news outlets they would accept a Palestinian state along the pre-1967 lines, the group's official spokespeople and media frequently continue to promise to liberate the entire land of historic Palestine, including the entire State of Israel.
Hezbollah's Ongoing Threat To US National Security - By Steven Emerson - http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=1080
Most analyses of Hezbollah focus on the terrorist group's intervention in Syria, or its threat to Israel.
But the Iranian-backed organization maintains a significant presence in and near the United States, threatening national US security.
Current American proposals to strengthen our borders and immigration measures may be limited in addressing this important, yet poorly understood, threat.
A recent Al-Arabiya article examines Hezbollah's ability to build advanced tunnels on the southern US border, enabling Hezbollah terrorists and Mexican cartel operatives to infiltrate the United States.
Relations between Iranian-backed proxies -- including Hezbollah -- and Latin American drug cartels are well established. Mexican gang members learn from Hezbollah's combat experience and their use of advanced weaponry.
Hezbollah, in turn, derives a significant portion of its finances from the drug trade and other illicit activities.
In recent years, security officials in southwestern US states have noticed a rise in tattoos featuring Hezbollah's insignia among imprisoned drug cartel operatives.
This surprising trend indicates a strengthened relationship between the terrorist group and Mexican gang members. Additionally, Iranian operatives who infiltrate Latin America seek to convert individuals to its extremist Shiite ideology.
Over the years, pro Iranian websites have proliferated across Latin America, in an attempt to cultivate support for the Islamic Republic.
Powerful Latin American politicians also help Iran and Hezbollah penetrate the region, and threaten the United States.
In February, CNN received a 2013 secret intelligence document from several Latin American countries demonstrating ties between Venezuelan Vice President Tarreck El Aissami and 173 Venezuelan identification cards and passports issued to people from the Middle East -- including Hezbollah operatives. El Aissami "took charge of issuing, granting visas and nationalizing citizens from different countries, especially Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Iranians, and Iraqis," the report shows.
Furthermore, Iranian and Hezbollah operatives have cultivated and consolidated operating bases in South America, especially in the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay.
The region has a large Muslim population, with significant numbers of Hezbollah sympathizers, and is ripe therefore for recruitment, arms smuggling and drug trafficking.
Hezbollah continues to exploit other Lebanese Shiite diaspora communities, including in the United States, to strengthen its presence worldwide.
And in 2011, the United States disrupted a plot led by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in cooperation with a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington.
The problematic nexus between Hezbollah and Mexican drug cartels enables Hezbollah to make inroads into the United States through its porous border with Mexico.
Some American intelligence reports also show that Hezbollah maintains a significant network of sleeper cells in the United States.
Though Hezbollah has not conducted a major attack on US soil, the group could decide to strike key American sites should US-Iran relations deteriorate.
Preparations to combat Islamist terrorism broadly should strongly consider the nuanced and growing Hezbollah threat to US national security.
Netanyahu: Iran responsible for more than 80% of Israel's security concerns - By Herb Keinon - http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Benjamin-Netanyahu/Netanyahu-Iran-responsible-for-more-than-80-percent-of-Israels-security-concerns-483354
According to foreign reports, Israel has acted on a number of occasions to disrupt arms shipments from Iran intended for Hezbollah.
Iran is responsible for more than 80% of Israel's security problems, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, quoting one of the country's security agencies.
"We are not deterred, and are also building out strength," he said at a ceremony in the Foreign Ministry marking 25 years to the bombing of the embassy in Buenos Aires. "Since the attack in Argentina, Israel has gotten much stronger."
Netanyahu said that it was clear from the very beginning that Iran was behind that bombing, which killed 29 people, including Israeli diplomats, and injured 250 more.
"Iran initiated and planned it, and Hezbollah, which does what it [Iran] says, carried it out," he said.
That alliance will be foremost on Netanyahu's mind when he travels to Russia on Thursday. The premier has made clear in recent weeks that Jerusalem is very concerned that Iran is increasingly establishing a permanent foothold in Syria, and he will discuss this - and the close Iranian-Hezbollah alliance - when he meets in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We will strongly oppose arming Hezbollah with dangerous weapons," Netanyahu said. "Our red-lines are thick and clear, and we do not hesitate to act in order to preserve them."
According to foreign reports, Israel has acted on a number of occasions to disrupt arms shipments from Iran intended for Hezbollah.
If the 1992 bombing wasn't enough proof of the reach of Iran's terrorist tentacles, the blast two years later at the AMIA building in Buenos Aires - where 87 people were killed and 100 injured - was another indication of the Islamic republic's malicious designs, Netanyahu said.
"Iran is the greatest generator of terrorism in the world," Netanyahu said, adding there is a need to fight this terrorism which is just one of of Iran's arms of aggression. He said the other arms included its desire for nuclear arms, its development of ballistic missiles, and its sowing of instability through the Middle East.
In addition, he said, the Iranian regime "continue to threaten Israel with destruction."
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