March 2012 Archives

Fast Day in Memory of Esther’s ‘Life-Threatening Request’

Wednesday’s “Fast of Esther” is in memory of her risking her life by approaching the Persian king, her husband, to save the country’s Jews.

Wednesday’s “Fast of Esther” is in memory of her risking her life by approaching the Persian king, her husband, to save the country’s Jews.

The “Fast of Esther” begins Wednesday morning in memory of her risking her life by approaching the Persian king, her husband, in order to launch a series of events that ended with her asking him to save the Jews from the king’s wicked second-in-command, Haman.

The fast day started at 4.29 a.m. in Israel and ends at 6:04 p.m., Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Jewish News | Tags: Esther, Jews, Purim

Jordanian Ex-intel chief: Jordan can’t take in Syrian refugees

General Abu Rashid visits J’lem, says that Israel must think carefully about having so many Palestinians on its border.

Jordan is fearful of receiving Palestinian refugees from Syria, as it has neither the resources nor the infrastructure to accommodate them, Gen.

Mansour Abu Rashid, chairman of the Amman Center for Peace and Development, said in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

Jordan Muslim Brotherhood supporters - Photo By Reuters/Muhammad Hamed

Abu Rashid, a former head of Jordanian intelligence, was participating in a symposium hosted by the Truman Institute for the Advancement of Peace and the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations to honor the memory of Dave Kimche, who had been a central figure in the Mossad and a Foreign Ministry director-general.

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: Jordan, Palestinian, refugees

‘Hamas won’t aid Iran if war breaks out’

Salah Bardawil says Hamas ‘won’t do Iran’s bidding in any war’; adds group will not escalate situation with Israel simply at Tehran’s request

Hamas will not automatically side with Iran in case of a military conflict with Israel, the Guardian reported Tuesday.

Senior Politburo member in Gaza Strip Salah Bardawil said that Hamas “will not do Iran’s bidding in any war with Israel, and will not launch rockets at Israel at Tehran’s request.”

Salah Bardawil - Photo: AP

“If there is a war between two powers, Hamas will not be part of such a war,” Bardawil was quoted as saying. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: hamas, Salah Bardawil

Peres, Mark Zuckerberg launch president’s international Facebook page

Peres invited Facebook users around the world to ‘like’ his page and post their own suggestions for advancing world peace.

President Shimon Peres and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg launched the president’s international Facebook page on Tuesday, with Zuckerberg to first to press ‘like’ to the page.

The festivities began at 7 P.M. Israel time (9 A.M. P.S.T.), with a live press conference with web surfers from around the world. Peres and Zuckerberg then launched the page officially at 8 P.M. Israel time (10 A.M. P.S.T.).

Shimon Peres and Mark Zuckerberg - GPO - 6.3.2012

Shimon Peres and Mark Zuckerberg launching Peres' international Facebook page, March 6, 2012. - Photo by: GPO

Answering a question on the role of social media in promoting peace in the Middle East, Peres said that what networks such as Facebook were doing was “convince people they don’t have reason to hate.

Category: Israel News | Tags: Facebook, Shimon Peres

Gingrich Vows to Replace Iran’s Regime

GOP contender Newt Gingrich all but declared war on Iran’s Mullahs during the AIPAC conference saying he would do away with their regime.

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich sought to upstage his fellow Republican contenders on Tuesday by saying he would “undermine and replace the Iranian dictatorship.”

Gingrich made his pledge at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference on Tuesday, where would-be Republican presidential candidates are seeking to score Jewish votes.

Newt Gingirch - photo by Reuter

“[I will] undermine and replace the Iranian dictatorship by every available method short of war,” Gingrich said via satellite to AIPAC attendees. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: AIPAC, Iran, Newt Gingrich

Obama: There’ll be a price to pay for premature Iran strike

There will be consequences for both US and Israel for such a move, the US president says, warns against “casualness” of talk by American politicians “beating the drums of war.”

WASHINGTON – US President Barack Obama warned Tuesday that there would be consequences for the United States as well as Israel if a premature strike is launched on Iran.

“This is not just an issue of Israeli interests. This is an issue of American interests,” he said at a last-minute press conference. “It’s also not just an issue of consequences for Israel if action is taken prematurely. There are consequences for the United States as well.” Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: AIPAC, Iran, Obama

‘Israel is world leader in medical marijuana use’

Anesthesiologist and pain relief expert tells Knesset Committee on Drug Abuse that Israel is leader in the field.

Medical Marijuana or cannabis (pot or weed) - Photo By MCT

Israel is the world leader in medical marijuana use, anesthesiologist and pain relief expert Dr. Bareket Schiff-Keren told the Knesset Committee on Drug Abuse on Tuesday.

In addition, Israel Police representative Eyal Zilberman told the committee that medical marijuana is being sold on the black market, and the fields to grow the drug are not properly secured to prevent theft.

Approximately 15 tons of medicinal cannabis are stolen each year, according to the police.

Category: Israel News | Tags: marijuana

French PM knocks halal, kosher laws as campaign heats up

Francois Fillon suggests Muslims, Jews give up ritual slaughter as President Sarkozy steps up their efforts to woo far-right voters

France’s prime minister urged Muslims and Jews to consider scrapping their halal and kosher slaughter laws on Monday as President Nicolas Sarkozy and his allies stepped up their efforts to woo far-right voters.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon made the suggestion after Sarkozy called at the weekend for butchers to clearly label meat slaughtered according to religious laws and his allies warned immigrants might impose halal meat on French schoolchildren.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon - Photo: Reuters

Fillon and other conservative leaders linked this tough stand on ritually prepared meat to issues such as immigration and French identity that the far-right National Front uses to tap into resentment against Europe’s largest Muslim minority. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: France, kosher

Chief Rabbis: Don’t Ascend Temple Mount

Chief Rabbis Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Yonah Metzger joined by other top rabbis in proclaiming Mount off grounds.

Chief Sephardic Rabbi (Rav) Rabbi Shlomo Amar has published a call to believers not to ascend to the Temple Mount. The call appears under the heading “avoid ascending to the Mount and touching its edge,” which is attributed to Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk.

Rav Amar’s declaration was co-signed by former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Rav Eliyahu Bakshi Doron; Rav Shalom Cohen, Head of Porat Yosef Yeshiva in the Old City of Jerusalem’ Old City Rabbi Rav Avigdor Neventzal, and Kotel Rabbi, Rav Shmuel Rabinovich. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Jewish News | Tags: Temple Mount

In Egypt, Honor killings defy attempts at reform

Two murders in Egypt point to persistence of practice that crosses class, religion

By Reuters/Mohammed Salem

Sarah, a 23-year-old university graduate from Aswan, recalls the day she heard that her cousin had been killed. “I was at university here in Cairo when my mother called me last summer.” It was months later, but Sarah had rarely spoken about it and tears welled up even as she tried to gather her thoughts and recollections.

“My mom told me that my cousin, who I had grown up with and had played with all the time, had been killed,” she continues. But how and under what circumstances her mother wouldn’t say. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Egypt, Honor killings

Turkey’s Jewish narrative: Tolerance and dark side

Turkey has opened its doors to Syrians fleeing violence but the anniversary of the deaths of more than 750 Jewish refugees who were denied shelter by Turkey in World War II is constant reminder of perennial tensions

As Turkey welcomes Syrians fleeing violence, the anniversary last Friday of the deaths of more than 750 Jewish refugees who were denied shelter by Turkeyin World War II was a reminder of perennial tension between pragmatic and humanitarian impulses.

The SS Struma, whose passengers fled Romania and docked in Istanbul, was denied entry to Palestinian territory by colonial power Britain. On February 23, 1942, Turkey towed the vessel to the Black Sea and set it adrift. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News, Mid-East News |

Betrayed by history and the present

It’s bad enough that pioneering families at Har Tuv lost their village in the 1948 war. It’s even worse how the authorities are treating their descendants.

For years, descendants of the founders of Har Tuv near Beit Shemesh have felt betrayed by the Israeli establishment. Their agricultural community, founded in 1895 by Zionist pioneers from Bulgaria, became the only Jewish community in the new state that was not re-established after it was destroyed in the 1948 War of Independence.

A photo of residents of Har Tuv before the War of Independence. - Photo by: Emil Salman

The local regional council did not use the name Har Tuv (Mountain of Goodness ); it was reserved for a nearby industrial zone.

Category: Israel News, Jewish News |

Another ‘Fogel Copycat’ Attack Foiled

An Arab woman with large knife arrested near fence of Emanuel, one day after two terrorists tried to enter Elon Moreh.

The latest terror trend among Arabs in Samaria may be an effort to copy the horrific slaughter in Itamar a year ago, in which five members of a single family were murdered with a knife.

Police from the Samaria Region arrested an Arab woman near the perimeter fence of the city of Emanuel Tuesday morning. She was carrying a large knife.

The woman, 32, was identified by a military force near the village of Imtin, next to Emanuel, located in central Samaria and near the city of Ariel and the communities of Karnei and Ginot Shomron. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: terrorist

israelandstuffcom | March 5, 2012

Egyptian militants blow up pipeline carrying gas to Israel

Previous bombings of the pipeline have been blamed on Islamist militants who have stepped up ac-tivity in the Sinai since downfall of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian security officials say militants have again blown up a gas pipeline in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula that transports fuel to neighboring Israel.

The attack on the pipeline is the 12th since the popular uprising that ousted longtime Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak last year.

Police officials said gunmen attacked the pipeline in the north Sinai city of el-Arish on Monday. There were no details on the extent of damage. Previous explosions have shut down gas flow for days or weeks. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: pipeline

israelandstuffcom | March 5, 2012