Archive for October 25, 2018

Egyptian and church officials upset after Police subdue Monk in Jerusalem

Police and Coptic priests scuffle outside Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher in protest of planned restoration work; Egyptian Foreign Ministry condemns behavior of Israel Police officers’ handling of the incident.

By AP

 

A scuffle between police forces and Coptic priests at a major Christian holy site in Jerusalem on Wednesday drew condemnation from Egypt and churches in the Holy Land.

Police and Coptic priests wrangled outside a contested chapel at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

Israel Police contain rowdy Coptic priests protesting outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Continue Reading »

Holocaust institute switches trips from Poland to Ukraine over ‘Holocaust Law’

The Israeli Holocaust education institute said the end of trips to Poland is to send “a clear message of rejection of the state’s interference with the narrative of the Holocaust,” when it outlawed ‘claims of Polish collaboration’ during the nazi genocide.

By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

 

A Holocaust education institute that trains guides for study trips abroad said it will switch it activities to Ukraine from Poland following that country’s law prohibiting some rhetoric about the genocide.

The Shem Olam Institute, located in a small village in central Israel and which includes a small museum, focuses on religious life during the Holocaust, and has so far trained some 20 guides for Holocaust study trips in Poland. Continue Reading »

$777m deal: Israel Aerospace Industries to fit 7 Indian navy ships with Barak 8

State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries signs an additional contract worth $777 million to supply the Barak 8, LRSAM air and missile defense systems on 7 Indian navy ships.

By Reuters

 

State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has won an additional $777 million contract to supply LRSAM air and missile defense systems to seven ships in the Indian navy, the company said on Wednesday.

The contract is with India’s state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), which is the main contractor in the project, IAI said.The LRSAM, part of the Barak 8 family, is an air and missile defense system used by Israel’s navy as well as India’s navy, air and land forces. Continue Reading »

NY Dem congressional candidate disapproves of US Embassy in Jerusalem

WATCH New York congressional candidate, who says Israel isn’t a ‘Jewish democracy’, debates Republican opponent, Rep. John Faso who is very pro-Israel.

By Elad Benari

 

A Democratic congressional candidate in New York is under fire for denying Israel is a “Jewish democracy” during a debate against his Republican opponent.

Antonio Delgado, who is running against Rep. John Faso in New York’s 19th Congressional District, made the comment during debate on Monday, reported The Washington Free Beacon.

Delgado, who said his wife and children are Jewish, was asked at the debate whether he agreed with President Donald Trump’s decision to relocate the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

Arab-Israeli Christian Soldier: IDF is Most Moral Army in the World

After learning of Harvard University’s decision to host members of the radical anti-IDF organization, “Breaking the Silence,” Yoseph Haddad felt compelled to speak up as an ex-‘minority soldier’ in the IDF.

By Israel Today Staff

 

Israel is facing increased efforts to besmirch both its governmental policies and the conduct of its military, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Christian Arab, Yoseph Haddad, Defends Israel – Photo: Ynet [unattributed]

But that has also resulted in a growing number of minority citizens and soldiers coming forward and exposing the half-truths and outright deceptions employed by the Jewish state’s detractors.

Among them is Yoseph Haddad, a 33-year-old Arab Israeli Christian from Nazareth who served proudly in the IDF during the Second Intifada and the Second Lebanon War. Continue Reading »

After a year in hiding, Biafra statehood leader pops up in Jerusalem

Noting he received help from Israel’s Mossad, the wanted Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu said, “I owe my survival to the State of Israel.”

BY JTA

 

JERUSALEM — Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu announced that he is in Israel a year after he disappeared from his home in southeast Nigeria.

Kanu has been campaigning for an independent state called Biafra in south-eastern Nigeria.

A video live-streamed on Friday on social media showed him praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, wearing a kipa and tallit.

Kanu claims the Igbo people, who are the majority in southeast Nigeria, are a lost tribe of Israel and that he will lead them to the promised land of Biafra. Continue Reading »

IDF exposes Hezbollah exploiting agricultural NGO posts for military use

IDF: Hezbollah is using multiple posts under the auspices of the NGO environmental group, ‘Green Without Borders’ to observe and report on IDF troop movements, a violation of UN Resolution 1701.

By Mordechai Sones

 

The IDF has revealed another Hezbollah position under the auspices of the “Green Without Borders” agricultural front organization.

“Hezbollah violates Resolution 1701 on a regular basis, operating in the area south of the Litani River, using civilian camouflage and reinforcing military capabilities in the rural areas of the Shi’ite villages in violation of UN resolution,” the IDF said.

Hezbollah uses Green Without Boundaries as a front for operations in the contact zone and establishes observation posts for gathering information about IDF troop movements. Continue Reading »

Israeli martial-arts NGO takes regional coexistence award

Budo for Peace, an Israeli NGO dedicated to coexistence, was recognized for its ‘outstanding contribution to peace in the world using the power of sport’ at the 2018 Peace and Sport Regional Forum in Greece.

By Brian Blum

 

When does fighting contribute to fostering peace? When it’s part of an Israeli-run martial arts program that trains young Jews and Arabs in Israel, the Palestinian Authority territories and the wider Middle East.

Budo for Peace was named NGO of the Year at the 2018 Peace and Sport Regional Forum last week in Rhodes, Greece.

The group’s nomination for the Peace and Sport Award followed its February 2018 annual international seminar, which included 80 international senseis (teachers) and 800 Jewish and Arab youth martial-arts representatives from as far afield as Iran and Greece. Continue Reading »

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin calls to establish a ‘Reverse Birthright’

In bid to strengthen Israel-Diaspora ties, President Rivlin says a ‘Reverse Birthright’ will facilitate truly honest conversations between Israelis and the Jewish diaspora communities worldwide, “We need to talk, we have to talk, and we need to listen. We are not ‘strategic allies’; we are family.”

By i24NEWS

 

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin at JFNA GA, 22. October 2018 – Photo: Mark Neiman (GPO) the establishment of a ‘Reverse Taglit-Birthright’ program during his address to the General Assembly (GA) of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) on Monday, in what appeared to be an effort to bolster ties with Jewish diaspora communities abroad. Continue Reading »

Palestinian terrorist shot dead, IDF soldier wounded in stabbing attack

An IDF soldier was lightly wounded in yet another knife attack near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron. Quick response by Israeli security forces left the Palestinian terrorist dead by gunfire.

By David Rosenberg

 

An Israeli soldier was stabbed by an Arab terrorist in the city of Hevron Monday morning.

The attack occurred between the Avraham Avinu neighborhood and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron, when an Arab terrorist carrying a pair of scissors lunged at a group of IDF soldiers, stabbing one of them.

The terrorist attack was near the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron. – Photo: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT

Israeli security forces opened fire on the terrorist, killing him. Continue Reading »

Jordan’s King Abdullah gives annulment notice of 1994 Peace Treaty Annex

Pressured by recent protests, Jordan’s King Abdullah gives Israel formal notice of termination to land leasing rights that allowed Israeli use of Jordanian parcels in the Naharayim/Baqura and Zofar/Al-Ghamr areas.

By i24NEWS

 

Jordan’s King Abdullah announced on Sunday his decision to terminate an appendix of the 1994 Israel-Jordan/Wadi Araba peace treaty relating to the lease of the kingdoms’ sovereign land to the Jewish state.

Under Annex I (b) and (c) Jordan leased the Naharayim/Baqura and the Zofar/Al-Ghamr areas, formally under Jordanian sovereignty, to Israel for a period of 25 years which was to be automatically renewed for the same period on an ongoing basis. Continue Reading »

Irony of Ironies: UN trusts Israelis above all others to defend their personnel

With 61 UN peacekeepers having been killed in Africa just last year, apparently Israel’s aggressive approach to security which is condemned regularly by the UN General Assembly, their Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council and UNESCO, it seems that’s no longer important as they trust no one more than Israel to keep their personnel safe.

By Yossi Aloni

 

According to the United Nations, it is Israel’s aggressive approach to security that is one of the primary obstacles to peace in the Middle East.

So, it was with some surprise that Israelis learned last week that the United Nations had contracted out security for its personnel and assets in Africa to none other than Israeli security companies. Continue Reading »

Hebrew U students welcome Lara Alqasem with “Have you no shame?” posters

After Israel’s Supreme Court nixed the deportation of pro-BDS student Alqasem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem students hung posters just ahead of her arrival, saying, “We don’t want you here!”

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

Dozens of anti-BDS anti-terror posters directed at master’s degree candidate Lara Alqasem were hung and distributed today, Sunday, on Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus ahead of Alqasem’s arrival.

Poster at Hebrew Uuniversity – Im Tirtzu

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday evening against the state’s position that Alqasem is prohibited from entering the country under Israel’s anti-BDS law, which bars non-citizen supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement from visiting Israel. Continue Reading »

Gazans seriously injured by Israeli aircraft while launching incendiary balloons

In second airstrike in 2 days, Israeli aircraft strike Palestinian cell launching incendiary balloons on Israel, leaving 2 seriously injured in Gaza.

By i24NEWS

 

An Israeli aircraft struck a group of Palestinians said to be launching incendiary balloons from Southern Gaza Strip into Israeli territory on Saturday, an IDF statement confirmed.

Palestinian media reported that two Palestinians were wounded in the strike. One of the injured is said to be in critical condition.

Continue Reading »

The ‘lost deal’: US paid UNRWA in 1952 to end Arab refugee problem

REVEALED: US-Israel historian Kobby Barda has uncovered the ‘forgotten’ chapter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: US President Truman’s administration gave the Arab nations and Israel $1.5 billion [in today’s equivalency] to resolve the Middle East refugee problem. – But only Israel fulfilled its obligation.

By Eldad Beck

 

Kobby Barda couldn’t believe what he was seeing. While researching the establishment of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee under the auspices of the Ruderman Program for American Jewish Studies at the University of Haifa, Barda found his way to the personal archive of one Isaiah Leo “Si” Kenen, a Canadian-born lawyer, journalist and philanthropist who was one of the founders of the pro-Israel lobby. Continue Reading »