Excerpts: Hamas vows destruction of Israel. 300 Chinese with ISIS. Israel
P.M. rejects any Palestinian ultimatum via U.N. French police dismantle
jihadist network December 15, 2014

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 15 Dec.’14:”Hamas holds Gaza military parade, vows
Israel’s destruction” , Reuters

SUBJECT: Hamas vows Israel’s destruction

QUOTE:”Abu Ubaida praised Iran for supplying Hamas with money and weapons”

FULL TEXT:GAZA — Vowing to destroy Israel, Hamas paraded some 2,000 of its
armed fighters and truck-mounted rockets through Gaza on Sunday[14 Dec.],
marking its 27th anniversary with its biggest show of force since the end of
the Gaza war this summer.

A ceasefire in August halted 50 days of fighting with Israel in which local
health officials said more than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians,
were killed. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six
civilians.

At the parade, a senior Hamas leader reaffirmed the Islamist movement's
founding charter's pledge to destroy Israel.

"This illusion called Israel will be removed. It will be removed at the
hands of the Qassem Brigades," said Khalil Al Hayya, a top Hamas leader,
referring to the movement's armed wing.

In recent years, some Hamas leaders have said they would accept a
Palestinian state on land Israel occupied in a 1967 war in return for a
long-term truce but would continue to refuse to recognise its enemy's right
to exist.

Abu Ubaida, the brigades' spokesman, said another confrontation with Israel
might be inevitable unless tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed
in the Gaza Strip in last summer's conflict are rebuilt soon.

"We will accept no less than the rebuilding of everything that was destroyed
by the savage Zionist aggression," said the masked spokesman, whose group is
shunned by the West as a terrorist organisation.

Palestinians have voiced disappointment over the slow pace of reconstruction
and a limited flow of building material into Gaza since international donors
pledged more than $5 billion in October.

Both Israel and Egypt — which is battling Islamist militants in neighbouring
Sinai — are concerned Hamas could use such material for weaponry.

Israel has said Hamas has been test-firing rockets into the Mediterranean in
recent weeks and Gaza residents have reported hearing explosions. Hamas has
neither confirmed nor denied such tests.

Trucks carrying what Hamas said were three-long range rockets, and other
vehicles with multiple-launcher rockets drove in the parade. A drone with
Hamas markings was on one flatbed truck, and another unmanned aircraft,
identified by the group as one of its own, flew overhead, as did an Israeli
fighter jet.

During the war, Hamas long-range rockets disrupted daily life in Israel's
major cities. Most were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Addressing a crowd of several thousand in the rain, Abu Ubaida praised Iran
for supplying Hamas with money and weapons. Relations with Tehran have been
strained by Hamas' hostility towards Iran's closest regional ally, Syrian
President Bashar Assad.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 from Fatah forces loyal to
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Both groups signed a unity deal in
April but are divided over how to administer the Gaza Strip




+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 15 Dec,’14:”Around 300 Chinese fight alongside
ISIS”, Michael Martina -Reuters
SUBJECT 300 Chinese with ISIS

QUOTE:”About 300 Chinese people are fighting alongside the Islamic State in
Iraq and Syria”

About 300 Chinese people are fighting alongside the Islamic State in Iraq
and Syria, a Chinese state-run newspaper said on Monday[15 Dec.], a rare
tally that is likely to fuel worry in China that militants pose a threat to
security.

China has expressed concern about the rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and
Syria in the Middle East, nervous about the effect it could have on its
Xinjiang region.

But it has also shown no sign of wanting to join U.S. efforts to use
military force against the group.

Chinese members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) are travelling
to Syria via Turkey to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known
as ISIS, the Global Times, a tabloid run by China’s ruling Communist Party’s
official newspaper, the People’s Daily, said.

“According to information from various sources, including security officers
from Iraq’s Kurdish region, Syria and Lebanon, around 300 Chinese extremists
are fighting with ISIS in Iraq and Syria,” the Global Times reported.

Chinese officials blame the ETIM for carrying out attacks in Xinjiang, home
to the Muslim Uighur people. But the government has been vague about how
many people from China are fighting in the Middle East.

In July, China’s envoy to the Middle East, Wu Sike, cited media reports when
he said about 100 Chinese citizens, most of them from the ETIM, were in the
Middle East fighting or being trained.

China says ETIM militants are also holed up along the ungoverned
Afghan-Pakistani border and want to create a separate state in Xinjiang,
though many foreign experts doubt the group’s cohesiveness.

Instead, human rights advocates argue that economic marginalization of
Uighurs and curbs on their culture and religion are main causes of ethnic
violence in Xinjiang that has killed hundreds of people in the past two
years.

China has criticized the Turkish government for offering shelter to Uighur
refugees who have fled China through southeast Asia and said such a channel
creates security risks


+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 15 Dec.’14:”Israel P.M. Rejects any
Palestinian UIltimatum Through U.N.”, Agence France Press
SUBJECT: Israel P.M. rejects any Palestinian ultimatum via U.N.
QUOTE:”Netanyahu:’ In the reality in which Islamic terrorism is reaching
out to all corners of the globe, we will rebuff any attempt that would put
this terrorism inside our home’ “
FULL TEXT:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday[15 Dec.] rejected any
Palestinian attempt to set an ultimatum through a UN Security Council
resolution for Israel to end its occupation.

"We will not accept attempts to dictate to us unilateral moves on a limited
timetable," he said in a statement before heading for Rome to meet U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry.

"In the reality in which Islamic terrorism is reaching out to all corners of
the globe, we will rebuff any attempt that would put this terrorism inside
our home.

"We will stand firm in the face of any diktat."

The Palestinians on Sunday announced they would present a draft resolution
to the Security Council on Wednesday setting a two-year deadline for Israel
to withdraw from occupied Palestinian territories.

Kerry and Netanyahu were to meet later Monday to discuss the vote, with the
U.S. expected to veto the draft.

Netanyahu on Sunday ruled out the possibility of a withdrawal from the
occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem.

European countries have been trying to cobble together a draft which would
win consensus at the 15-member Security Council, with the new text simply
calling for a return to peace talks aimed at achieving a two-state solution.

Previous rounds of U.S.-brokered talks between the Israelis and Palestinians
have failed, with the most recent ending in April amid bitter
recriminations.

SourceAgence France Presse


++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 15 Dec.’14:”French Police Dismantle Network
Sending Jihadist Fighers to Syria”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: French police dismantle jihadist network

QUOTE:”France . which has Europe’s largest Muslim population, has been
facing the fact that hundreds of its citizens have openly joined jihadist
groups in Iraq and Syria and have even called for attacks on the homeland”

FULL TEXT:French police launched raids across the country early on Monday[15
Dec.], dismantling a network sending jihadist fighters to Syria, a police
source told Agence France Presse.

Elite and anti-terror police units descended on around a dozen targets,
mostly in the southern region of Toulouse, but also around Paris and in the
northern region of Normandy, the source said on condition of anonymity.

It was not immediately clear how many people were arrested.

In recent months France, which has Europe's largest Muslim population, has
been facing the fact that hundreds of its citizens have openly joined
jihadist groups in Iraq and Syria and have even called for attacks on their
homeland.

The new reality was driven home in a video from the Islamic State group
released in mid-November, showing three Kalashnikov-wielding Frenchmen
burning their passports and calling on Muslims to join them or stage attacks
in France.

A grisly execution video released around the same time featured at least one
French citizen who hailed from a small village in Normandy and converted to
Islam in his teens.

Almost 1,000 French nationals from a wide range of backgrounds are estimated
to have left to join jihadists in Iraq and Syria, including some 400 thought
to be currently fighting on the ground and almost 50 who were killed.

According to figured published in the Le Monde newspaper in November, about
a quarter of those who left to join the jihadists were converts to Islam,
with many coming from everyday French backgrounds

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA