Fatah Official Hails New York Times Move
Deputy Secretary General of the Fatah Revolutionary Council Fayez Abou Aita told Breitbart Jerusalem that the New York Times’s publication of an op-ed written by Palestinian prisoner and convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti was a “very positive step” for the Palestinians.
The Times faced public outcry for initially failing to note that Barghouti was convicted of planning multiple deadly terrorist attacks against Israelis (see editorial, page 7).
As Breitbart Jerusalem reported earlier on Tuesday, Barghouti, who is serving five life terms for the murder of Israelis and a Christian monk, was initially described by the New York Times only as “a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian.” Barghouti, however, is also an architect of the deadly Second Palestinian Intifada responsible for the deaths of scores of Israeli civilians.
In the conversation with Breitbart Jerusalem, Aita stated: “The publication of Marwan Barghouti’s essay in the New York Times is considered by the Palestinians a respectable stance of freedom of the press and reflects the position of those who support the free press in regards to Barghouti as a true warrior fighting for a just cause and the liberation of an occupied homeland.
“The publication of the essay in the New York Times is a very positive step and we appreciate international media and their addressing of the prisoner issue, particularly that of the leader Barghouti, a leader who enjoys immense support from the Palestinian people and a leader who contributed to the struggle for the national liberation of the Palestinians, which cost him dozens of years of his life in Israeli prison and exile from the [Palestinian] territories by the occupation government.”
Aita added that “anyone who treats Barghouti as a Palestinian leader and warrior for the freedom of his homeland – that means he supports the struggle for the national liberation of the Palestinians.”
Trump Should Have Read This Reporter’s Article
President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to call for an investigation into “who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday” – referring to the anti-Trump Tax Day March held Saturday in Washington and at least 60 other locations.
Trump may have missed a Breitbart News exclusive investigative article penned by this reporter on February 16 titled, “Soros Groups Behind Massive Anti-Trump Tax Day Protest Plot.”
While there is no immediate information on who directly bankrolled this specific protest movement, Breitbart News found that most of the listed partners and support organizers of the march are openly financed by George Soros or have close links to Soros financing.
Trump’s tweet itself received widespread news media coverage. However, scores of major news media articles reviewed by this reporter failed to document the Soros ties to the tax march.
A query about protest financing sent to the e-mail address for press inquiries listed on the Tax Day March website was not answered as of this writing.
Organizers of the March claim to be “ordinary Americans, community organizers, advocates, and people from all walks of life and all backgrounds joining together to raise our voices and send a bold message to this administration.”
In February, Breitbart News reported on a section of the Tax Day March website titled, “Who is organizing it?” The website listed the following eight groups, six of which are either funded by Soros or tied to Soros financing: American Federation of Teachers, Americans for Tax Fairness, Center for Popular Democracy, Indivisible Project, MoveOn.Org, Our Revolution, and The Working Families Party.
Leaders of January’s Women’s March coalition reportedly helped organize the Tax March, which USA Today described as a “sequel” to the massive march. Buzzfeed took note of the comparison to the Women’s March in a piece titled, “Progressives Want Tax Day To Be The Next Women’s March Protest.”
Soros reportedly has ties to more than 50 partners of the Women’s March. This journalist first reported on the march leaders’ close associations with Soros.
Terrorists’ Weapons Were Stolen From Other Terrorists
Wilayat Sinai, ISIS’s affiliate in Egypt, has been using sniper rifles intended to reach Hamas in the Gaza Strip that were captured in Sinai, a senior Hamas official told Breitbart Jerusalem.
In light of increasing tensions between Hamas and ISIS in Sinai due in part to Hamas’s growing ties to the Egyptian government and the arrest of hundreds of ISIS supporters in Gaza, Wilayat Sinai militants have been targeting and capturing weapons shipments meant for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing in Gaza.
ISIS’s Sinai affiliate recently published a video in which its fighters can be seen killing Egyptian soldiers from long range with advanced sniper rifles. Military analysts said the weapons seen in the video were most likely captured by ISIS from Shi’ite militias and the Iraqi army during combat in Syria and Iraq.
According to the Hamas source, one type of rifle seen in the video was part of a weapons shipment meant to reach the Gaza Strip that was captured by ISIS in Sinai.
A number of different types of rifles can be seen in the video, said the source, “but one of them, a Steyr, was part of a shipment to the al-Qassam Brigades that was captured by IS in Sinai. This shipment included hundreds of rockets and parts of rockets.”
The Hamas source told Breitbart Jerusalem that for the time being the group has decided to invest in developing its connections with Egypt and won’t risk renewing cooperation with ISIS in Sinai, fearing Egyptian retaliation.
The source said that relations between Hamas and Egypt “are the key to stability in the Gaza Strip and to the possibility of beginning a serious process of reconstruction in the Gaza Strip despite the attempts of the Palestinian Authority to destroy these efforts – and we won’t risk our relations with Egypt for the weapons captured by IS in Sinai.”