Archive for June 29, 2013

Israeli Rabbi Decrees: Grass is kosher if it’s medicinal

If grass is administered to relieve pain, then the person giving it is “performing a mitzvah,” and the person using the drug is using it “in a kosher fashion.”

By JTA

 

 

TEL AVIV (JTA) — An Israeli Orthodox rabbi ruled that distributing and smoking medicinal marijuana is kosher, but using weed for fun is forbidden.

Marijuana leaf - Photo Reuters

Marijuana leaf – Photo Reuters

Efraim Zalmanovich, the rabbi of Mazkeret Batia, a town south of Tel Aviv, made the distinction in a recent halachic ruling, NRG, the news site of the Maariv daily reported on Friday. Leading rabbis frequently weigh in on matters of reconciling halacha, or Jewish law, with modern living. Continue Reading »

German intelligence maintains concealment of Eichmann related materials

German Federal Court rules against intelligence services releasing classified Eichmann files that may reveal the post-war gov’t knew of his whereabouts and gave assistance to Israel’s Mossad in apprehending the Nazi official in Argentina.

By Ynet

A German court has prevented the publication of secret intelligence documents regarding the senior Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, the British paper The Daily Mail has reported.

Eichmann trial – Photo: Government Press Office

Assessments believe that the documents reveal that the West Germany’s intelligence knew of the Nazi officer’s post-war whereabouts, and had in the passed blocked the publication possibly fearing embarrassing senior German officials’ secret Nazi past

The Daily Mail reported that the German Federal Administrative Court rejected Thursday a request lodged by the German daily paper Bild to receive the Eichmann related files. Continue Reading »

Terror attack averted when sniper rifles with silencers seized by police

A major disaster has been averted with the 3 Palestinians men caught in possession of weapons in West Bank village.

By Itamar Fleishman

A Border Guard force arrested three Palestinians near the village of Al-Khader in the West Bank on Thursday. The three were carrying sniper rifles, silencers, telescopic sights, magazines and a pocketknife.

כלי הנשק שנתפסו. מעורר דאגה

Confiscated arms

They were turned over for questioning to security forces, who say they admitted they were planning a terror attack. The weapons were discovered during a search in the village after a Molotov cocktail was hurled at a Border Guard vehicle. The forces spotted a car with three men who raised their suspicion and ordered it to stop. Continue Reading »

Hamas reiterates for Kerry: Palestinians will never recognize Israel

This is why peace is impossible – Hamas will never recognize Israel, and the Palestinians supporting Hamas grows each year.

By Israel Today Staff

 

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh this week reiterated that the Palestinian Arabs as a whole will never recognize Israel’s right to exist, and certainly not to exist as the Jewish state.

Haniyeh: Palestinians will never recognize Israel

“We had two wars…but Palestinians did not and will not recognize Israel,” Bethlehem-based news agency Ma’an quoted Haniyeh as saying as he welcomed a solidarity visit by international activists.

Why should anyone care what Hamas says at this point? Continue Reading »

Even if you give up all the land, it won’t solve Israel’s problems

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of “Infidel” says, “From the perspective of the Arab leaders, reaching a two-state solution is to betray God. If you want peace and not merely a process, you must make peace with the people. The negotiators themselves are of no importance.”

By Dror Eydar

 

 

There is something dignified in the quiet, determined manner of Ayaan Hirsi Ali as she rises from the audience and walks towards the podium to deliver her lecture. Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s intricate history starts in Somalia, where she was born to a Muslim family. At the age of five she underwent female genital mutilation.

Continue Reading »

Madonna may be house hunting in Tel Aviv

Madonna was photographed with a brochure for the Meier on Rothschild tower, a luxury housing development going up in Tel Aviv.

Madonna at the 2013 Billboard Music Award in Las Vegas, May 19, 2013. - PR PHOTOS

Madonna at the 2013 Billboard Music Award in Las Vegas, May 19, 2013. – PR PHOTOS

Users of a Facebook page for Israeli Madonna fans wondering the very same thing blew up the shot and discovered that this wasn’t just any white folder, but a brochure for the Meier on Rothschild tower, a luxury housing development going up in Tel Aviv. 

Continue Reading »

Iron Dome deployed near Haifa amid heightened tensions on Northern borders

IDF: The Anti-rocket battery move was dictated by changes in security situation.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

 

The IDF deployed an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery in the Haifa area early Friday morning, amid heightened tensions in the North stemming from the ongoing Syrian civil war.

Iron Dome battery deployed in North

Iron Dome battery deployed in North – Photo: Ben Hartman

The IDF Spokesman’s Office stated that Iron Dome batteries are redeployed periodically in accordance with appraisals of the security situation.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz told pilots receiving their wings at the Hatzerim Air Base Thursday, “The region is shaking, from south to north.

Continue Reading »

Naval Soldier killed falling from moving train

 

Navy soldier’s tragic death appears to have happened after falling from moving train on which he jumped on to retrieve his forgotten backpack, on his way back to base.

Ilana Curiel

What was initially thought to be suicide now appears to be a tragic accident: Navy combat soldier Hanan Maman was killed falling from a moving train after forgetting his backpack in the train, an investigation into his death on Thursday suggests.

מוות מחריד בין אשדוד לאשקלון

Soldier jumped on train to retrieve backpack

Police suspect the soldier documented the event on his cell phone, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

According to the investigation, Maman, who was on his way to his base in Ashdod, forgot his backpack before getting off at the Ashdod railway station. Continue Reading »

Egypt hurts Gaza’s tunnel smuggling operations curtailing taxes to Hamas

Egypt deploys security reinforcements & sets up roadblocks across the huge Sinai desert running from the Suez Canal east to the Gaza border, causing shortages in the Palestinian enclave and hurting smuggling taxes to Hamas’ leaders.

 

An Egyptian security crackdown has severely disrupted smuggling to the neighboring Gaza Strip, causing a fuel shortage, doubling the price of building materials and shutting down some construction sites in the Hamas-ruled territory.

Tunnel smugglerEgypt’s military clamped down on the lawless Sinai Peninsula, which abuts Gaza, in the run-up to mass protests planned for Sunday by Egyptian opposition activists trying to force out the country’s president, Mohammed Morsi. Continue Reading »

Dr. David: Here’s How Mohammed al-Dura Really Died

Dr. Yehuda David who won his own Supreme Court case in France, regrets not being part of the latest Al-Dura hoax slander suit, & gives Mohammed al-Dura’s real cause of death.

By Maayana Miskin

 

The Israeli doctor who won a libel suit victory in the Mohammed al-Dura case regrets that he was unable to help French media analyst Philippe Karsenty to do the same.

Dr. Yehuda David won his case in France’s Supreme Court in 2012 after being accused of libel for revealing that Jamal Al-Dura, Mohammed al-Dura’s father, had lied. Karsenty lost his own Supreme Court case this week, and was convicted of defamation for accusing French state television of deliberately staging the hoax. Continue Reading »

IDF Chief Ganz: The Flames are Creeping Up on Nasrallah

 

In graduation ceremony of Air Force’s 166 flight course, IDF chief says Israel should prepare for ‘changing reality.’ Over 200 Hezbollah operatives killed in fighting rebels in Syria & Lebanon with thousands injured.

By Ilana Curiel

 

 

“Syria is still bleeding, and in Lebanon the flames have started to creep up on Nasrallah,” said IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz Thursday, at the graduation ceremony of the IAF’s 166 flight course, adding that the Israeli Air Force is “the strategic arm of the IDF; it can make our enemies pay, anytime, anywhere.”

מזכ"ל חיזבאללה נסראללה (צילום: EPA)

Gantz: Nasrallah is burning – Photo: EPA

“All fronts – from south to north – are turbulent,” Gantz noted. Continue Reading »

UN demands Assad & Rebels halt all military activity in Golan Heights

UN Security Council extends mandate of UNDOF deployed on Syrian-Israeli border.

By Reuters and

 

 

The UN Security Council has demanded a halt to all military activity by the Syrian government and opposition fighters on the Golan Heights and called for stepped up measures to protect peacekeepers who have been caught in crossfire.

UN peacekeeping soldiers from Austria near the Quneitra border crossing between Israel and Syria, June 2013. - Photo by Reuters

UN peacekeeping soldiers from Austria near the Quneitra border crossing between Israel and Syria, June 2013. – Photo by Reuters

A resolution adopted unanimously by the council on Thursday extended the mandate of the UN force monitoring the disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights until December 31. Continue Reading »

Golan Peacekeepers now to be Armed with Machine Guns

UNSC upgrades UNDOF peacekeepers with machine guns, extra body armor & more armored vehicles.

By Gil Ronen

 

The UN Security Council on Thursday backed UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights carrying machine guns, as fallout from the Syria war increases in the ceasefire zone, AFP reported.

UN base outside of Quneitra, Golan Heights – Photo IsraelandStuffPP

UN base outside of Quneitra, Golan Heights – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP 

The 15-member council passed a resolution to extend the mandate of the force, which monitors a three-decade-old ceasefire between Syria and Israel, but which called on Syrian government and opposition fighters to stay out of the zone.

The council strongly condemned three abductions of UN peacekeepers in the Golan since March and expressed “grave concern” at violations of the 1974 ceasefire accord. Continue Reading »

Victory for Syrian rebels may bring broader regional war

 

Rebel forces being trained and armed by Washington are mostly radical Islamists, with many of them loyal to Al Qaeda.

By Israel Today Staff

 

A cousin and outspoken critic of embattled Syrian dictator Bashar Assad warned that if the rebel forces that America is now arming succeed in taking over the country, it will lead to a regional war including Israel and Turkey.

Warning: Victory for Syrian rebels means regional war

Syrian rebels – Photo from Israel Today

 

Speaking to Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz from New York, Ribal Assad noted that the rebels making up the Free Syrian Army are primarily Islamic extremists “who are worse than Nazis.” Continue Reading »

New housings in Jerusalem approved on eve of Kerry visit

The additional housing units are part of a 1,000-housing unit project approved in August 2011 for Har Homa and other Jerusalem neighborhoods.

 

 

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Jerusalem municipality issued construction permits to build 69 new housing units in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Homa.

Har Homa neighborhood in Jerusalem, – Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Wednesday’s approval comes a day before the planned arrival of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as he attempts to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the peace negotiating table.

The housing units are part of a 1,000-housing unit project approved in August 2011 for Har Homa and other nearby communities.

Continue Reading »