Canada freezes trade with Iran over nuclear ambitions & human rights record

Canada first nation to completely disengage from Iranian imports and exports calling Iran the biggest threat to global security.

By REUTERS

 

 

OTTAWA – Canada will freeze all remaining trade with Iran to protest Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and its human rights record, Foreign Minister John Baird said on Wednesday.
John Baird visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem - Photo by Sebastian Scheiner-AP

John Baird visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem – Photo: Sebastian Scheiner/AP

Canada, which has had increasingly poor relations with Iran for more than a decade, had already imposed a series of trade sanctions. In 2012, bilateral trade was worth around C$135 million ($130 million).

Baird said Canada was particularly concerned by the failure of the United Nations’ nuclear agency this month to persuade Iran to let it resume an investigation into suspected atomic bomb research.

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Robert De Niro to Attend Peres’ Birthday Party in June

One of America’s

greatest Hollywood

actors to arrive in June for President Shimon Peres’ 90th birthday extravaganza. 

Itamar Eichner

Robert De Niro, considered one of the greatest American actors of all times, will arrive in Israel next month to attend the Israeli Presidential Conference and take part in President Shimon Peres‘ 90th birthday celebrations, Yedioth Ahronoth has learned.

Robert De Niro - Photo EPA

Robert De Niro – Photo: EPA

De Niro, 70, has won two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, and has starred in 74 films, many of which have become box-office hits, including “The Godfather,” “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “The Deer Hunter.” Continue Reading »

eBay halts bid for ‘Jewish Spot in Heaven’ at $100,000 citing rule violation

eBay was flooded with bids for ‘My Portion in Olam Habaah (Heaven) offered by a Jewish man from New Jersey.
Within just a few hours the price was nearly $100,000, but then eBay closed the site down.

By Debra Nussbaum Cohen

 
Want to make sure you land a spot in heaven?

No need to bother yourself with fulfilling commandments or doing good deeds. But it’s definitely going to cost you plenty.

Ari Mandel

Ari Mandel

Bidders flooded eBay with bids for “My Portion in Olam Habaah (Heaven),” which has been listed for sale by a Jewish man from Teaneck, N.J. The price started at 99 cents and skyrocketed within hours to nearly $100,000. Continue Reading »

4th Time in Month Synagogue Defaced

Synagogue established & frequented by Holocaust survivors is defaced with crosses, sending one member into shock.

By Maayana Miskin

 

 

Jews who came to pray at the Haohel synagogue in Bat Yam on Wednesday morning were shocked and appalled to find that it had been defaced for the fourth time in a month.

Vandalism at Haohel synagogue, Bat Yam - Photo Moetza Datit Bat Yam

Vandalism at Haohel synagogue, Bat Yam – Photo: Moetza Datit Bat Yam

This time, vandals spray-painted two large crosses on the building, one on either side of the main entrance.

The gabbai, who is tasked with helping to run the synagogue, was one of the first on the scene. Continue Reading »

Bennett Tells Peres: We have no more land to give away

Senior gov’t minister challenges President Shimon Peres for suggesting Jerusalem is ready to continue peace negotiations on Arab terms.

By  Tommy Mueller

 

Israeli Economic and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett this week publicly disagreed with President Shimon Peres that Israel has any more land to give in an already failed land-for-peace process.

Naftali Bennett

Naftali Bennett

“Every time we leave an area, more people are killed,” said Bennett in response to Peres’ appearance at the World Economic Forum in neighboring Jordan, where the Israeli president gushed that Israel is prepared to pay almost any price for a peace deal with the Palestinians.

Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party and an influential member of the ruling coalition, said Peres’ vision of birthing a Palestinian Arab state on ancient Jewish lands is beyond faulty: “Now is the time to make it clear that this is our country and it is not for sale.” Continue Reading »

Axis of Evil: Syrian chemical weapons, Hezbollah rockets, Iranian nuclear program

 

By Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters

 

The radical axis of Iran, Syria and Hezbollah has crossed all red lines recently, Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday.

Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman Avigdor Lieberman – Photo: AP

Speaking at a meeting of his committee, Lieberman said that Iran was moving at a “crazy pace” toward obtaining a nuclear weapon, and that he hoped Israel would be able to make the correct decisions. Continue Reading »

Infamous Israeli ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ restaurant owner facing U.S. deportation

It apears Samy Bouzaglo’s worst crime wasn’t sassing Ramsey on TV, but what was discussed at the US immigration court proceedings.

 Samy and Amy Bouzaglo, Amy's baking company

Samy and Amy Bouzaglo of Amy’s Baking Company. – Photo: Facebook

Bouzaglo, who runs Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro with his wife Amy, might get deported. To Israel.

His lawyer had no comment on how Bouzaglo ended up in immigration court proceedings, but it seems it has something to do with jail time the Moroccan-born Israeli did for drug distribution and extortion charges before his arrival in the US 13 years ago.

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Terrorist who killed 38 Israelis elevated to PA adviser to cease hunger strike

Madman behind 1978 Coastal Road massacre made adviser to President Abbas, when he stopped his hunger-strike after being ignored & publicly humiliated.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

 

 

Hussein Fayyad, one of the commanders of the terror group that carried out the 1978 Coastal Road massacre, revealed on Tuesday that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had appointed him as one of his advisers.

Coastal Road Massacre Bus - Photo by Wikimedia Commons

Coastal Road Massacre Bus – Photo by Wikimedia Commons

The attack, which led to the killing of 38 Israeli civilians, including 13 children, was planned and carried out by Abbas’s Fatah faction.

Fayyad, who was released in a prisoner swap with Israel in 1985, said that Abbas signed a decree in 2008 promoting him to the position of “advisor” to the PA president.

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Soldier lightly injured as his ‘Chariot’ overturns during IDF tank training

 

Tank rolls over during training

after it

 diverged from its route

 in Zeelim base in southern Israel. A soldier was lightly injured and taken to hospital.

By Yoav Zitun

A tank diverged from its route and rolled over on Tuesday during an IDF training exercise in the southern base of Zeelim. One soldier was lightly injured and taken to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.

Merkava Mark III tank flips over - Photo courtesy IDF

Merkava Mark III tank flips over – Photo courtesy IDF

Three other soldiers who were manning the tank were not injured, but were taken for medical examinations nonetheless.

The reserve brigade commander, who commanded the exercise, arrived at the the scene with senior officers to examine the circumstances of the accident. Continue Reading »

World’s Oldest Complete Torah Scroll Discovered in Italy

The University of Bologna reports that an 850-year-old Jewish Scroll, written in the Babylonian tradition, had been mislabeled by a librarian in 1889.

An Italian university has found what it claims to be the oldest complete Torah scroll known to exist, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

torah scrolls, Hebrew

A Torah scroll – Photo: Dreamstime

The scroll, which was found at the library of the University of Bologna, was believed to be no more than a few hundred years old, the report said. But recent carbon dating tests suggest it was written some 850 years ago, making it the oldest complete Torah ever found, Mauro Perani, the university’s Hebrew professor said. Continue Reading »

Arab trespasser: ‘This Isn’t Jerusalem, it’s Palestine’

After moving to Jerusalem 10 years ago, a woman describes daily Arab terror in her neighborhood. As the police speak eloquently, ‘The situation gets worse from day to day.’

By Maayana Miskin

 

Ten years ago Batya Kayman and her newlywed husband decided to move from New York to Jerusalem and to build their home in the Jewish state. The couple moved to the French Hill (Giva Hatzarfatit) neighborhood, fulfilling their dream of aliyah.

Now, ten years on, the dream is becoming a nightmare, Batya Kayman told Arutz Sheva.

Jewish families in the neighborhood are constantly harassed by Arab youth from surrounding Arab neighborhoods, she said. Continue Reading »

Germany adds $800 million for home care to remaining Holocaust survivors

The announcement of additional funding comes amid controversy over revelations related to a bungled investigations in 2001, that failed to detect a fraud at the Holocaust restitution organization.

By Uriel Heilman

 

NEW YORK (JTA) – The German government agreed to significantly expand its funding of home care for infirm Holocaust survivors and relax eligibility criteria for restitution programs to include Jews who spent time in so-called open ghettos.

Germans. Germans Yad Vashem, yad vashem

German officials lay a wreath at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem as Claims Conference officials look on, May 23, 2013. – Photo: Sasson Tiram

The agreement, reached after negotiations in Israel with the Claims Conference, will result in approximately $800 million in new funding for home care for Holocaust survivors from 2014 to 2017.

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Switzerland refuses entry to Saudi cleric for anti-Semitic rhetoric

‘Gulfnews’ wrote that the Swiss gov’t refused radical Saudi cleric Muhammad al-Arefe because of his misogynist & antisemitic ideologies.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

 

 

BERLIN – The Swiss government extended its ban of the radical Saudi Islamist scholar Muhammad al-Arefe because of his anti-Semitic and misogynist ideologies.

Mohammed Al-Arefe - Photo Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Mohammed Al-Arefe – Photo Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The website GulfNews.com reported on his denial of entry into Switzerland on Monday.

The Swiss government initially barred al-Arefe from entering the country in December to attend the second annual conference of the Swiss Central Islamic Council.

Germany permitted al-Arefe to deliver talks in April and last year at an Islamic center that houses a kindergarten in the city of Mainz.

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Gov’t ‘Stealing’ Jordan Valley Land for new PA City

Jordan Valley Council chief: We will fight to prevent the construction of a PA city on council lands.

By David Lev

David Alhiani, chairman of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, told Arutz Sheva in an interview Tuesday that Israel was set to lose the Valley – and it was all the fault of the government. The construction of a new Arab city in the Jordan Valley, as announced by the Civil Administration, will effectively close off a large portion of the Valley to Israelis, he said.

Greenhouses in the Jordan Valley - Photo Hagai Huberman

Greenhouses in the Jordan Valley – Photo Hagai Huberman

“The city will consist of over 1,100 lots, and will have housing for 10,000 people,” Alhiani said.

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Video: Israel’s PM says his compromises for peace lacks reciprocation

Netanyahu says at global forum, ‘anti-Semitism is back in fashion.’

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

“We are prepared to compromise for genuine peace, but it’s not reciprocated,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Monday.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu  - IsraelMFA Screenshot

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – Israel MFA Screenshot

In a video message to the delegates at the 4th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that anti-Semitism has taken a new form since the rise of Israel, and that it is a myth it has disappeared since the Holocaust. Continue Reading »