Archive for January 9, 2014

The Enemy of my Enemy

 

 

According to Palestinian sources, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Amir Salman bin Sultan and two senior military officers made a clandestine early December visit to Israel where they had talks with senior defense officials and reportedly even met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Photo by: Fahad Shaheed/reuters

A few weeks earlier, according to Iranian sources, Saudi Intelligence Director Prince Bandar bin Sultan (the deputy defense minister’s brother) had a long, detailed covert meeting with Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo, in which they discussed “containing Iran by any possible means.” Continue Reading »

Egypt’s leading daily presents its latest “Zionist conspiracy” theory

Egypt’s top newspaper is basically using a camel-droppings angle in its latest ‘Jews-poisoning-the-well’ story.

What is strange here is that Al-Ahram effectively admits this is a conspiracy theory. Weird…

 

 

Today, the most widely circulating Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram, has run a front-page report headlined in red and bold, ”Israeli conspiracy on Sinai’s underground water.” 

Camel

Is this a Zionist camel? – Photo source: the commentator

In a black bold lead, the report stresses that ”liberating Sinai and restoring its territories from Israeli occupation was not merely our dream; the dream was to develop this region to be our real exit from all economic troubles.”

Continue Reading »

Pro-Israel law professor appointed new Canadian ambassador to Israel

Report says Canada’s PM will visit Israel this month for the first time as show of support for Israel.

 

 

A Toronto law professor critical of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas was named Canada’s next ambassador to Israel, the National Post reported Wednesday.

Canada's PM Stephen Harper, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper, left, shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a bilateral meeting in New York on September 28, 2012. – Photo: AP

According to the report, the appointment of Hebrew University alumna Vivian Bercovici reflects Ottawa’s increasingly pro-Israeli line.

As a columnist to the Toronto Star, Bercovici frequently censured the Palestinian leaders for “their collective ideological commitment to the total destruction of the state of Israel, which they regard as a blasphemous blight on the Arab and Muslim worlds,” the Post said, adding that she also slated the United Nations for lagging in action to fight human rights violations in Iran and Egypt. Continue Reading »

Mother of 4: ‘They Threw Stones at My Car to Kill Me’

33 year old mother of 4 said after attacked while driving in Samaria, ‘There’s glass in my eyes and mouth.’

By Ari Yashar

 

Wednesday morning Arabs threw rocks at the car of a resident of Karnei Shomron as she drove on Highway 55 in Samaria.

The shattered windshield – Shomron Regional Council

The driver, a 33 year-old mother of 4, briefly lost control of her car as the rocks shattered her windshield, showering her with broken glass.

“There’s glass in my eyes and mouth,” said the woman, noting “they threw the stone to kill me.”

She called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to respond harshly to “the increase in attacks that aim to cut off the lives of residents.” Continue Reading »

Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee to host auto racing track

Cars will race on the unused runways of Kiryat Shmona’s abandoned airfield with restriction from the Civil Aviation Authority that there will be no damage to the aviation infrastructure.

 

 

A court Tuesday paved the way for the opening of an auto racing track in Kiryat Shmona when it rejected a petition to delay a tender issued by the municipality.

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing driver Takuma Sato of Japan, Indianapolis Motor Speedway

A scene from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, soon to grace Kiryat Shmona. – Photo: Reuters

The ruling culminated a legal saga that began last May, when the city’s economic corporation sought permission from the Civil Aviation Authority to hold car races on the runways of a local airfield that hadn’t been used in years. Continue Reading »

American group won’t consider academic boycott of Israel, but the idea raises hackles

Though the MSA won’t consider a boycott of Israeli universities, it will consider a resolution calling on the U.S. State Dept. to oppose the entry of American academics seeking to interact with West Bank & Gaza universities.

 

 

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Until recently, the rule of thumb in the pro-Israel community was that the bigger the academic group, the less likely it was to consider a boycott of Israeli colleagues.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Professor Cary Nelson says if the Modern Language Association adopts a measure on academic freedom in Israel, it could pave the way to a wider boycott of Israeli academia.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Professor Cary Nelson says if the Modern Language Association adopts a measure on academic freedom in Israel, it could pave the way to a wider boycott of Israeli academia.

Continue Reading »

Liberman quips: Suddenly Herzl has become Israeli Arabs’ ‘national hero’

FM Liberman in reference to moving Israel’s border: There is no reason why Israeli Arabs (living on border with PA territory) “should not join their brethren under full Palestinian sovereignty and become citizens of the future Palestinian state that they want so badly.”

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

 

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman questioned the loyalty of some Israeli Arabs to the State of Israel on Wednesday in response to criticism over his recent statement about a possible future peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Avigdor Lieberman.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman – Photo: Olivier Fitoussi

Liberman said his party would only support a peace treaty if there were territory and population transfers of Israeli Arabs into a future Palestinian state. Continue Reading »

Female IDF Soldiers Can Now Choose to Be Kashrut Inspectors

The new position opened up within the IDF for female soldiers, following a new Chief Rabbinate policy allowing women to serve as kashrut inspectors.

By Ari Yashar

 

The IDF has decided to let female soldiers serve as kashrut (Jewish dietary law) inspectors for the first time. Brigadier General Rachel Tevet Vizel, Advisor to the Chief of Staff on Women’s Issues, was behind the new move, although she notes female soldiers have yet to request the position.

Vizel told Kipa that regarding standards of religious public services, the IDF follows the policy of the state as established by the Chief Rabbinate and the Religious Services Ministry, and therefore women have not been allowed to serve as kashrut inspectors till now. Continue Reading »

70 years later: Hitchcock’s long-abandoned Holocaust film restored

 

With the restoration of actual Holocaust imagery almost complete, how will 21st-Century audiences respond to the footage that traumatized the king of thrillers?

 

A Holocaust documentary created by thriller film master Alfred Hitchcock based on Soviet and British footage of World War II camps will finally be screened to the public in its entirety nearly 70 years after it was made, The Independent revealed on Wednesday.

Nazi Holocaust

A young woman at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany shouts ‘Shoot them, kill them as they killed our families’ as Allied troops supervise Germans, 1945. – Photo : AP

The film, which took longer to create than Hitchcock and patron Sidney Bernstein anticipated, was put in the drawer in 1945 when the Allied military government apparently decided that a documentary highlighting the German atrocities would do more harm than good. Continue Reading »

Long Overdue: Greek school to finally present graduation diplomas to Holocaust survivors

The graduation certificates of 157 Jewish students who fled Thessaloniki for their lives or were deported to Nazi concentration camp were found by Greek teacher.

By

 

 

A teacher at a school in Greece will present recently discovered graduation certificates to 157 Jewish students who fled Thessaloniki or were deported to Nazi death camps, or to their descendants.

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki. – Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

Antonio Crescenzi, a teacher at the Italian School in Thessaloniki, found a trove of old documents by accident about a decade ago. After sorting through them he realized their significance, he told the Israeli Maariv daily. Continue Reading »

Judgment: Jewish girl’s hair set alight after saying ‘let’s burn the Jew’ was not racist

Canadian Judge’s verdict:  High school student who lit Jewish girl’s hair on fire saying WW II theme, ‘let’s burn the Jew’, did not commit hate crime.

By Dalit Halevi, Ari Yashar

 

In Canada, a Winnipeg provincial court judge recently ruled that a 2011 altercation at a local high school, in which a student lit a 15-year-old Jewish student’s hair on fire with a lighter while saying “let’s burn the Jew,” was not a hate crime.

‘Let’s Burn the Jew’ Not Racist – Photo: Thinkstock

The judge claimed despite the facts of the case that the offender, who pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon, did not mean to burn the girl’s hair or target her because she was Jewish. Continue Reading »

UK Reporter: Snowden still has Israel-U.S. secrets to expose

 

Continue Reading »

Dead Sea water level continues to fall despite winter storms

Even though the Dead Sea’s level continues to fall, Lake Kinneret in the Galilee celebrated an increase of 11 cm. during the same period.

 

 

As rainstorms barreled through Israel in December, drenching fields and filling up reservoirs, the Dead Sea’s water level continued to drop.

The Dead Sea. - Photo: REUTERS

The Dead Sea. – Photo: REUTERS

By early January, the Dead Sea fell to 427.82 meters below sea level, three centimeters lower than the 427.79 m. below sea level measured the month before, according to Dead Sea and Arava Science Center researcher Eli Raz, citing raw data from the Water Authority’s Hydrological Services. Continue Reading »

US envoy to Israel: Soon Kerry to Present Draft on Israel-Palestinian Deal

 

Ambassador Shapiro relayed that the U.S. proposal will include security arrangements,  Jerusalem borders, & including other ‘core issues’

Associated Press

The US ambassador to Israel says a framework proposal on all issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be presented to both sides soon.

Kerry and Abbas last week (Photo: AP)

Kerry and Abbas last week – Photo: AP

Dan Shapiro told Israel Radio on Tuesday that the proposal will include security arrangements, borders, Jerusalem and all the other “core issues.”

He said it will be presented to the Israelis and the Palestinians in a few weeks’ time.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has been visiting the region often since talks resumed last July, shuttling between Israel and Palestinian leaders to mediate talks. Continue Reading »

Video: Filipina caregiver is year’s ‘feel-good story’ on Israeli reality TV

 


On this season’s reality show ‘X-Factor Israel’  finalist Rose Fostanes, a Filipina care-giver to an ailing Israeli, has finally found fame.

 

 

A 47-year-old Filipina caregiver has emerged as the newest star of Israeli reality television, putting a human face on the thousands of foreign workers who toil away in menial, back-breaking jobs in this country.

New Diva (for web)

Rose Fostanes on the X-Factor set. – Photo: AP

Local viewers of this country’s myriad reality shows have grown accustomed to successful candidates from various backgrounds, including black-clad ultra-Orthodox Jews, Ethiopian immigrants and a German convert to Judaism who became a celebrity chef. Continue Reading »