Archive for December 23, 2012

Jerusalem cabbie shot after trying to run over Police officer

Border Guard officer lightly injured after Arab taxi driver attempts to run him over; driver mildly wounded from gunfire.

Police say attempted murder was nationalistically motivated

Noam (Dabul) Dvir

 

An Arab taxi driver was shot in the leg Sunday after apparently trying to run over a Border Guard officer.

Border Guard Policemen in Jerusalem – Photo: Reuters

Both men are in mild condition. The officer was treated on site and the driver was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.

The police are investigating the incident as a nationalistically motivated attack.

According to available details, the driver, a 39-year-old man from the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem, arrived at an east Jerusalem police station and rammed into a delivery van trying to exit the compound. Continue Reading »

2 Christian towns threatened by Islamists: Attack Assad or be killed

UN investigators described the 21-month conflict as “overtly sectarian in nature” as armed Islamists threaten Christians with death if they don’t fight Assad.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

 

Heavily-armed Islamists, many linked with Al Qaeda, have deepened their presence in the Syrian uprising and threaten Christians with death if they don’t work against Assad.

A resident holds prayer beads near buildings, damaged by missiles fired by a Syrian fighter jet near

A resident holds prayer beads near buildings, damaged by missiles fired by a Syrian fighter jet near – Reuters

They warned two Christian towns on Saturday they will be attacked if they do not evict regime forces, as the new Greek Orthodox patriarch said Syria’s often-fearful Christians will stay put and urged a peaceful end to the conflict, according to AFP.

Continue Reading »

‘PA won’t allow E-1 settlement project to happen’ or the PA will dissolve

 

Saturday Abbas threatened to dissolve the PA if building Israeli homes continues & if the ‘stalemate in the peace process’ persists.

Abbas: Palestinians are “holding contacts on all levels to stop Israeli project that aims to sabotage the peace process.”

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

The Palestinian Authority will not allow Israeli plans to build in the E1 area of Jerusalem to be realized, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas – Photo: Marc Israël Sellem

Abbas said the building plans are “a red line and we will not allow it to happen.”

Speaking at the opening session of the Fatah Advisory Council entitled “statehood and international legitimacy,” the PA president said “we are holding contacts on all levels to stop this Israeli project that aims to sabotage the peace process,” as quoted by Wafa.

Continue Reading »

‘124-year-old’ Arab-Israeli woman thanks Israel before she died

Mariam Amash, who according to Israeli registry was born in 1888, dies after being admitted to Hadera hospital.
Grandson: ‘She was the oldest woman in the world’

Hassan Shaalan

 

Mariam Amash – Photo: Hassan Shaalan

Mariam Amash of the Arab-Israeli village of Jisr a-Zarka died Saturday morning. According to the Interior Ministry’s population registry, she was 124 years old. The listing was based on a birth certificate issued by Turkish authorities who ruled the region at the time.

You can say that our lives were better before, but I still want to thank the Israeli gov’t for the help it has given us.

Continue Reading »

Yiddish becoming popular among Israeli Arabs

1/4 of Yiddish students at Bar-Ilan University are Arab. Yusuf Alakili of Kfar Kassem admits,  ‘I have always felt a connection to this language,’

By Dudi Goldman

 

“I find a certain mystery in Yiddish, a refined and enigmatic musical note. I cannot explain it, but I have always felt a connection to this language.”

‘Why is this magnificent language neglected?’ Yiddish literature – Photo: Ahimeir Porat

Contrary to what one might expect, the speaker is not a Polish poet or a German philosopher. He is Yusuf Alakili, 50, of the Arab Israeli town of Kfar Kassem, who is working on his master’s degree at Bar-Ilan University’s Literature of the Jewish People Department, while studying Yiddish for his own pleasure. Continue Reading »

50 of Bnei Menashe community of India move to Israel

 

Israel’s Chief rabbi recognized Bnei Menashe as a ‘Lost Tribe’ in 2005, but only 1,700 moved to Israel before the gov’t stopped granting visas

Gov’t recently reversed policy, reopening doors for immigration for the 7,200 remaining in India

The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

 

 

 

A group of 50 Jews said to descend from one of the 10 Lost Tribes prepared Thursday to immigrate to Israel from their village in northeastern India.

Ingathering of the exiles: Bnei Menashe pray prior to their departure for Israel. – Photo: AP

The members of the Bnei Menashe community prayed in their local synagogue and then hugged their crying relatives before heading off to the airport in the Manipur state capital of Imphal, 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.

Continue Reading »

Hundreds of fragments from pre-WWII Greek Jewish graves finally found

The remains of destroyed Jewish graves were uncovered in Thessaloniki by police after a 70-year search.

 

The 668 fragments were found buried in a plot of land in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, following a 70-year search for the remains of graves smashed when the city’s main Jewish cemetery was destroyed.

Headstones destroyed during the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II.

Headstones destroyed during the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II. – Photo by AP

The head of the city’s Jewish community, David Saltiel, said most of the gravestones found dated from the mid-1800s up until World War II.

“This is our history,” Saltiel, head of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, told The Associated Press. Continue Reading »

Why the ‘Iranian crisis’ is on the back burner….for now.

According to Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak: “the moment of truth” had been delayed by “8 to 10 months.”

By Dore Gold

At the end of October, Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave a revealing interview to London’s Daily Telegraph in which he explained why the urgency around the Iranian issue had changed. Iran was still progressing toward its goal of obtaining nuclear weapons. Israel was still concerned with Iran’s stock of 20 percent enriched uranium that could be converted very quickly to weapons-grade uranium.

Dore Gold – from facebook

Dore Gold – from facebook

But during the course of 2012, Tehran took nearly 40% of its 20%-uranium stock and converted it into fuel rods, which could not be used for nuclear weapons.

Continue Reading »

73 Senators sign AIPAC-backed letter urging more restrictions on Iran

The time for limited confidence-building measures is over.

By JTA

 

WASHINGTON  — A letter backed by AIPAC urging President Obama to keep up pressure on Iran even as he negotiates with the regime garnered signatures from 73 U.S. Senators.

US Senate

US Senate

“We strongly believe there should be absolutely no diminution of pressure on the Iranians until the totality of their nuclear program has been addressed,” reads the letter, initiated by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) and Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and signed by another 70 senators. “The time for limited confidence-building measures is over.”

The letter, sent Thursday and backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, says the senators “remain very skeptical of any proposal that would allow the current Iranian government to possess an enrichment capability in any form, given its long track record of deceptive and illicit conduct.” Continue Reading »

Israel’s PM: I will ignore int’l condemnation of building homes in Jerusalem

PM Netanyahu says Israel will continue to build in east Jerusalem despite condemnation from UN and the international community.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, HERB KEINON

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday said he would ignore the international community’s condemnation of prospective building plans for Jerusalem across the Green Line, in an interview aired in part on Channel 2.

The interview is scheduled to air in full on Saturday.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - Photo: Pool/Haim Zach

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – Photo: Pool/Haim Zach

“The Western Wall is not occupied territory, and I don’t care what the United Nations says,” Netanyahu declared in reference to the plans.

“We are living in the Jewish State,” Netanyahu said, and “The capital of the Jewish state, for 3,000 years, has been Jerusalem.

Continue Reading »

IDF report: Soldier failed to discharge his weapon at intruders

Official inquiry into IDF base break-in finds that the soldier standing guard at the site called out ‘who’s there?’ twice, before opening observation post’s door.

Army: Soldier acted appropriately

Yoav Zitun

A probe into an incident that saw two Palestinians breaking into an IDF base found that the soldier guarding the entrance to the site failed to discharge his weapon before being overpowered by the intruders.

Observation tower (Illustration) Photo: Amit Magal

Observation tower (Illustration) – Photo: Amit Magal

The break-in occurred around 1:45 am Friday as a storm raged in the area of the base, which overlooks the Palestinian village of Al-Ram near Jerusalem. The intruders managed to cut the perimeter fence, taking advantage of the boisterous weather to slip into the military facility undetected. Continue Reading »

5 Palestinians wounded by IDF on Gaza border

IDF says troops reacted ‘according to set procedures’ when the Gazans did not heed calls to exit the border fence area.

Gaza medics say the men are lightly to moderately wounded & not in life threatening condition.

By Reuters

 

Israel Defense Forces troops patrolling the border with the Gaza strip on Friday shot and wounded five Palestinians who were in an area on the Gaza side which Israel deems off limits, the IDF and Gaza medics said.

An IDF patrol vehicle near the Israel-Gaza border.

An IDF patrol vehicle near the Israel-Gaza border. – Photo by Eliyahu Hershkovitz

Gaza medical officials said the five agricultural workers suffered light to moderate wounds and were not in a life threatening condition. Continue Reading »

PM Netanyahu: I don’t care what the UN says about settlement construction

With int’l criticism of Israel’s planned construction in E. Jerusalem, Judea & Samaria peaking, the PM says in a television interview it is Israel’s right to build in Jerusalem.

 

Amid increasing international criticism of Israel’s recent approval of construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a television interview on Friday that he doesn’t “care what the UN says.”

PM Netanyahu speaks at UN General Assembly Sept 27, 2012.

PM Benjamin Netanyahu seen through the glass of a television booth as he addresses the 67th UN General Assembly in New York, Sept. 27, 2012. – Photo by Reuters

In the wake of the UN vote on Palestinian non-member state status, Israel announced plans to advance a long-frozen project for the E-1 corridor, which links the city of Jerusalem with the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim. Continue Reading »

Israel beefs up cyber defenses

This war is being fought from the keyboard, and when Israel presses ‘Enter’ it’s no less effective than a soldier opening fire on the battlefield.

By Ryan Jones

 

Israel’s Shabak internal security agency, also known as Shin Bet, has opened a new cyber defense division to help in the escalating cyber war with Iran and other enemies of the state.

In an interview with Yediot Ahronot, an officer in this new division said that in addition to the thousands of low-level cyber attacks Israel fends off every day from individual hackers, there are also a regular number of attacks by foreign government agencies. Continue Reading »

Egypt to allow once banned Pro-Palestinian activists to enter Gaza

“Welcome to Palestine” group blocked under Mubarak but not under Morsi gov’t, allowed to enter Gaza

French organization hopes to open new chapter in France-Gaza relations and prefers their supplies to Gaza arrive legitimately than through smuggling tunnels.

By Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

 

 

A hundred French, European and Egyptian activists are hoping to enter the Gaza strip for the first time through Egypt next week, French coordinator Olivia Zemor, of the organization “Welcome to Palestine,” told journalists on Thursday.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. In April Israel detained and then released activists who had arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport.

Continue Reading »