NPR News: 01-27-2024 1PM EST
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Day: January 27, 2024
The most powerful thing you can do for “never again” is to stand with Israel as we defeat the terrorist monsters promising “again and again.”🇮🇱
— Eylon Levy (@EylonALevy) January 27, 2024
Untold story of Azerbaijani Schindler, who saved thousands of Jews from Holocaust #WeRemember #HolocaustRemembranceDay pic.twitter.com/IqdiuE0x6J
— Nasimi Aghayev🇦🇿 (@NasimiAghayev) January 27, 2024
Long past time to abolish UNRWA. Interesting question whether some senior UNRWA officials might face criminal exposure in their home countries for providing material support to a terrorist organization.
— David Frum (@davidfrum) January 26, 2024
Reuters: Unidentified gunmen killed nine Pakistani workers in a restive southeastern border area of Iran on Saturday, Pakistan’s ambassador and Iranian state media said, amid efforts by the two countries to mend ties after tit-for-tat attacks.
“Deeply shocked by horrifying killing of 9 Pakistanis in Saravan. Embassy…
Reuters: Chinese officials have asked their Iranian counterparts to help rein in attacks on ships in the Red Sea by the Iran-backed Houthis, or risk harming business relations with Beijing, four Iranian sources and a diplomat familiar with the matter said.
The discussions about the attacks…
NEW DELHI — A powerful Hindu group said several mosques in India were built over demolished Hindu temples, apparently hardening its stance in a decadeslong sectarian dispute just days after a huge temple was inaugurated on the site of a razed mosque.
The comments from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party, come after Modi and the RSS chief led Monday’s consecration of the temple on the site of a 16th-century mosque demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992.
The fight over claims to holy sites has divided Hindu-majority India, which has the world’s third-largest Muslim population, since independence from British rule in 1947.
Four days after the temple was inaugurated in the northern city of Ayodhya, a lawyer for Hindu petitioners said the Archaeological Survey of India had determined that a 17th century mosque in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, in Modi’s parliamentary constituency, had been built over a destroyed a Hindu temple.
The Archaeological Survey did not respond to a request for comment.
Late Friday, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar questioned whether Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque and three others, including the razed one in Ayodhya on the site where many Hindus believe Lord Ram was born, were mosques at all.
“Whether we should consider them mosques or not, the people of the country and the world should think about it,” Kumar told Reuters in an interview, referring to the sites in Gyanvapi, Ayodhya, one other in Uttar Pradesh state and one in Madhya Pradesh. “They should stand with the truth, or they should stand with the wrong?”
In the group’s first reaction to the Gyanvapi findings, Kumar said, “Accept the truth. Hold dialogs and let the judiciary decide.”
Raising questions about the mosques does not mean Hindu groups comprise “an anti-mosque movement,” he said. “This is not an anti-Islam movement. This is a movement to seek the truth that should be welcomed by the world.”
“Nothing political”
Muslim groups are disputing the assertions of Hindu groups in court.
Zufar Ahmad Faruqi, chairman of the Sunni Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh, said the group has “confidence in the judiciary that it will do what is correct.”
“We want to live in harmony and peacefully while protecting the monuments as they are,” he said. “Nothing political about it; we are in the court and facing it legally.”
The Modi-led opening of the Ayodhya temple fulfilled a 35-year-old pledge of his Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of a general election due in May. He is expected to win a third straight term, the longest stretch since India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
The razing of the Ayodhya mosque sparked riots across India that authorities say killed at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. Hindu groups have for decades said that Muslim Mughal rulers built monuments and places of worship after destroying ancient Hindu structures.
Indian law bars the conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of places of worship as they existed at the time of independence — except for the Ayodhya shrine. The Supreme Court is hearing challenges to the law.
The court this month halted plans for a survey of another centuries-old mosque in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous and politically important state, to determine if it contained Hindu relics and symbols.
NEW DELHI — A powerful Hindu group said several mosques in India were built over demolished Hindu temples, apparently hardening its stance in a decadeslong sectarian dispute just days after a huge temple was inaugurated on the site of a razed mosque.
The comments from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party, come after Modi and the RSS chief led Monday’s consecration of the temple on the site of a 16th-century mosque demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992.
The fight over claims to holy sites has divided Hindu-majority India, which has the world’s third-largest Muslim population, since independence from British rule in 1947.
Four days after the temple was inaugurated in the northern city of Ayodhya, a lawyer for Hindu petitioners said the Archaeological Survey of India had determined that a 17th century mosque in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, in Modi’s parliamentary constituency, had been built over a destroyed a Hindu temple.
The Archaeological Survey did not respond to a request for comment.
Late Friday, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar questioned whether Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque and three others, including the razed one in Ayodhya on the site where many Hindus believe Lord Ram was born, were mosques at all.
“Whether we should consider them mosques or not, the people of the country and the world should think about it,” Kumar told Reuters in an interview, referring to the sites in Gyanvapi, Ayodhya, one other in Uttar Pradesh state and one in Madhya Pradesh. “They should stand with the truth, or they should stand with the wrong?”
In the group’s first reaction to the Gyanvapi findings, Kumar said, “Accept the truth. Hold dialogs and let the judiciary decide.”
Raising questions about the mosques does not mean Hindu groups comprise “an anti-mosque movement,” he said. “This is not an anti-Islam movement. This is a movement to seek the truth that should be welcomed by the world.”
“Nothing political”
Muslim groups are disputing the assertions of Hindu groups in court.
Zufar Ahmad Faruqi, chairman of the Sunni Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh, said the group has “confidence in the judiciary that it will do what is correct.”
“We want to live in harmony and peacefully while protecting the monuments as they are,” he said. “Nothing political about it; we are in the court and facing it legally.”
The Modi-led opening of the Ayodhya temple fulfilled a 35-year-old pledge of his Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of a general election due in May. He is expected to win a third straight term, the longest stretch since India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
The razing of the Ayodhya mosque sparked riots across India that authorities say killed at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. Hindu groups have for decades said that Muslim Mughal rulers built monuments and places of worship after destroying ancient Hindu structures.
Indian law bars the conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of places of worship as they existed at the time of independence — except for the Ayodhya shrine. The Supreme Court is hearing challenges to the law.
The court this month halted plans for a survey of another centuries-old mosque in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous and politically important state, to determine if it contained Hindu relics and symbols.
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More than 40 former senior Israeli military commanders and intelligence officials, business leaders and diplomats are calling for the “immediate removal” of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office.
In a letter delivered to Israeli President Isaac Herzog and the Knesset on Thursday, the group argues that Netanyahu poses a “clear and present danger” to the state of Israel for as long as he remains in leadership.
“As key contributors to the country’s defense and to one of the world’s strongest economies over the past decades, we strongly believe that Netanyahu represents an existential and ongoing threat to the people and to the state of Israel, and that Israel has leaders capable of replacing him immediately,” the letter states.
The 43 undersigned officials include former IDF chiefs Moshe Ya’alon and Dan Haloutz, Tamir Pardo and Danny Yatom, who were directors of the Mossad intelligence agency, and Nadav Argaman and Yaakov Peri, who led the Shin Bet security agency.
NETANYAHU REJECTS PALESTINIAN STATE IN POSTWAR SCENARIO, PROMPTING CRITICISM FROM THE US
Several CEOs, former ambassadors and academics also signed the letter, including Nobel Prize Laureates Aaron Ciechanover, Avram Hershko and Dan Schectman.
The coalition slams Netanyahu’s government as being full of incompetent or corrupt ministers, accuses the prime minister of forming a coalition with “extremist parties” and asserts that he has undermined democracy in Israel by pushing a series of controversial judicial reforms. Further, they assign blame to Netanyahu for security lapses they say precipitated and enabled the October 7 attack, during which Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.
“We believe that Netanyahu bears primary responsibility for creating the circumstances leading to the brutal massacre of over 1,200 Israelis and others, the injury of over 4,500, and the kidnapping of more than 230 individuals, of whom over 130 are still held in Hamas captivity,” the letter reads. “The victims’ blood is on Netanyahu’s hands.”
The letter was also sent to U.S. national security officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and members of Congress.
EU CHIEF SAYS ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR HAMAS’ SURGE TO POWER IN GAZA: ‘FINANCED BY THE GOVERNMENT’
It comes as Netanyahu faces a “no confidence” motion filed by opposition leaders amid war against Hamas. Critics say Netanyahu has served as prime minister for too long — 13 of the last 14 years — and that he was responsible for appointing officials and developing security plans that failed to prevent the October 7 massacre. Even before the war, controversy over Netanyahu’s judicial reform plan led to widespread unrest in Israel throughout the summer, with tens of thousands of citizens protesting the move.
The Israeli Supreme Court dealt a blow to Netanyahu’s judicial reform plans earlier this month, striking down a law that would have banned judges from overturning government decisions the court deems “unreasonable.” In an 8-7 decision, the court ruled that the law threatened “severe and unprecedented harm to the core character of the State of Israel as a democratic country.”
The letter accuses Netanyahu of fomenting political unrest that has been exploited by Israel’s enemies.
“Leaders of Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas openly praised what they correctly saw as a destabilizing and erosive process of Israel’s stability, led by Netanyahu, and seized the opportunity to harm and damage Israel’s security,” it says.
ISRAELI SUPREME COURT HANDS NETANYAHU A LOSS ON JUDICIAL OVERHAUL AS HAMAS WAR RAGES
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell voiced these criticisms last week, stating plainly that Netanyahu’s government financed Hamas to weaken the then-governing Palestinian Authority.
“Yes, Hamas was financed by the government of Israel in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority led by Fatah,” Borrell said during a speech at the University of Valladolid, according to Reuters.
The letter elaborates, alleging that Netanyahu channeled hundreds of millions of dollars from Qatar to strengthen the military infrastructure of Hamas in the years before the terror group assumed control of Gaza and the West Bank. Netanyahu has previously denied such allegations.
“Netanyahu is incompetent,” said Haim Tomer, a former Mossad intelligence division chief who signed the letter demanding Netanyahu’s ouster.
“I think when you judge Netanyahu by deeds, by his activities, not by his speeches in American media or in Israeli media, but by his, I would say, activities, you see that he lacks strategy, even doesn’t . . . he’s not ready to discuss seriously what we call the end scenario or the endgame of the wars in Gaza and in Lebanon,” Tomer told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Tomer emphasized that those who signed the letter were not calling for violent action against Netanyahu or for the prime minister to be removed from office illegally. He said the coalition is urging a legal process in which a new prime minister and new government will be elected.
“I think since the 7th of October, people started to understand . . . that this leadership is not taking the nation toward a positive and right direction,” Tomer said.
However, Caroline Glick, an Israeli Middle East expert, said that Netanyahu’s unpopularity is overstated by his critics.
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“Polls from the past week published by Israel’s Channel 14 show that the downward trend in support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud Party and his right-religious coalition has been reversed. Netanyahu is leading his challengers Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid by eight and sixteen points, respectively,” Glick told Fox News Digital.
“During the ten months that preceded the Hamas invasion and slaughter, the same retired security chiefs and academics refused to accept the election results and played leading roles in an unprecedented assault on the right of Israel’s citizens to elect the nation’s leaders. They even tried to tear apart the IDF by calling for reservists not to serve. Their actions polarized and weakened Israel’s leadership and social cohesion,” Glick argued.
“When seen in context, their latest letter makes sense in two ways. It is consistent with their longstanding effort to use any justification to nullify the results of the last election, and it is also an effort to deflect their responsibility for weakening the country onto their political opponents,” she said.
Fox News Digital’s Lawrence Richard and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.