Analysis: – A Case of Negligence & Tragedy

 

How does a ‘Prisoner X’ go from being an idealistic Zionist Jew to ending his life by suicide in Block 15 at Ayalon Prison?

By OR HELLER

 

Two words immediately come to mind in connection with the Ben Zygier-Alon-Allen affair: Tragedy and negligence.

Ben Zygier at his wedding, captured from an image broadcast by ABC News.

Ben Zygier at his wedding, captured from an image broadcast by ABC News. Photo: ABC Screenshot

Why tragedy? Because at the end of the day, we’re talking about a young, idealistic Australian Zionist Jew who left a comfortable life in a quiet Melbourne suburb and made aliya at the age of 19, joined the IDF, and then later the Mossad.

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Palestinians demonstrate violently for imprisoned hunger strikers

About  200 Palestinians throw stones at IDF &  Police during West Bank demonstration in support of prisoners on hunger strikes.

Security forces respond with tear gas. MK Tibi: Region will burn if any hunger-striking prisoner die.

By Elior Levy

 

Protesters at a Palestinian demonstration in support of prisoners on a hunger strike clashed on Friday with Israeli troops and Border Guard officers.

Stone-throwing PalistaniansThe IDF said that during the protest, held at the Bituniya crossing near Ofer Prison, about 200 Palestinians threw rocks at the soldiers who responded with tear gas during the rally in the West Bank.

One soldier was lightly wounded by stones hurled in his direction. Continue Reading »

Photo of 2 dead Gaza children from Israeli Gaza-strike wins World Press Photo prize

Paul Hansen, a Swedish photographer  wins top photojournalism award for haunting picture captured during Palestinian children’s funeral.

Explicit images of violence in the Middle East was a dominant theme in the competition.

Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award Friday for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.

World Press Photo Paul Hansen Gaza

Paul Hansen’s winning photo depicts funeral of two Gaza children killed in Israeli strike. – Photo: AP

The picture shows a group of men marching the dead bodies through a narrow street in Gaza City. Continue Reading »

Polish call to Ashton: Make Efforts to Acknowledge Hizbullah as Terror Group

Polish MEP Michal Tomasz Kaminski has called on EU’s Ashton to step up Europe’s efforts to designate Hizbullah a terrorist organization and stop their operations in EU member states as bases for money-laundering & fundraising.

By Elad Benari

 

Polish MEP Michal Tomasz Kaminski on Thursday called on EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to step up Europe’s efforts to designate Hizbullah a terrorist organization after last week’s Bulgarian’s report that the Lebanese group was behind the terror attack on Israeli tourists in Burgas in July 2012.

Hezbollah rocket launcher

Hezbollah rocket launcher, used to kill Israeli civilians, in violation to the Geneva Conventions

The European Jewish Press (EJP) reported that in a written question to Ashton, ahead of Monday’s meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers where the issue is likely to come under discussion, Kaminski asked why the EU remains “reluctant to call Hizbulllah by its proper name”, after Ashton’s official response to the Burgas findings expressed “the need for a reflection over the outcome of the investigation.” Continue Reading »

Israel also faces existential economic threat, but from within

The threat:  Today, Ultra-Orthodox & Arab populations largely do not contribute to the mainstream workforce or pay taxes. 

By Israel Today Staff

 

Outgoing Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer this week stated that Israel has one of the strongest and most resilient economies in the world.

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer says he is more optimistic about the Israeli economy than he was two months ago. – Photo: Dudi Vaaknin

 

However, Israel is facing a very serious existential threat… well, many existential threats, really, but one of those threats is the economy itself.

Israel is a fully welfare state, and there are two large sectors – the ultra-Orthodox Jews and the Arabs – which largely do not contribute to the mainstream workforce or pay taxes. Continue Reading »

Israel’s ever-challenging diplomatic conundrum

Having the U.S. to impose a solution will be completely self-defeating as it hardens the Palestinian readiness to come to the negotiating table, since Israel will be delivered on a silver platter anyway, and makes any real diplomatic progress more difficult than ever.

By Dore Gold

In light of developments over the last few years, there has been a growing realization in Israel that the chances of reaching a complete final status agreement with the Palestinians are presently extremely small. This is not just an ideological position coming out of certain quarters in Israel, but it is also the professional view of practitioners who have been involved in the political process itself.

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Polish Culture Ministry ends grant for Holocaust journal

Holocaust Studies and Materials has been funded by the Ministry of Culture since its inception 8 years ago. The Center for Holocaust Research filed an appeal against the ministry’s decision to discontinue assistance.

By JTA

 

WARSAW — Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage will not continue funding a Holocaust journal.

Polish Center for Holocaust Research

 

The decision not to renew funding for the journal Holocaust Studies and Materials, published by Polish Center for Holocaust Research, was announced last week.

The Ministry of Culture provides grants for what it considers to be the most important national magazines. This year, however, the ministry changed the rules by which it allocates grants. Continue Reading »

Bulgaria Police deport Hamas delegation, ‘persona non gratae’

The Police raid on the residences of visiting Hamas delegation was allegedly prompted by Israeli, British & US political pressure.

A Bulgarian gov’t spokesperson denies reports of meeting with Hamas representatives, reporting that the Palestinians were in Sofia on “private visitation.”

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Bulgarian security forces on Friday raided the temporary residences of a visiting Hamas delegation in Sofia, and then expelled the officials from the country, Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.

Bulgarian PoliceMa’an quoted a statement released by Hamas’ Change and Reform parliamentary list as saying the that the Bulgarian move was at least in part prompted by Israeli, US and British pressure.On

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Synagogue near Auschwitz may Collapse

The head of the Jewish center in nearby Oswiecim reports that the only shul near the former Nazi death camp may give way if sloping ground beneath it isn’t reinforced.

Associated Press

 

An official says the only synagogue near the former Nazi death camp of Auschwitz may crumble if the sloping ground it stands on is not reinforced soon.

Entrance to Auschwitz death camp Photo: AFP

Entrance to Auschwitz death camp – Photo: AFP

The Lomdei Mishnayot Synagogue is the only one still in existence in Oswiecim, the southern city where Nazi Germans ran the Auschwitz camp during World War II. It was rededicated in 2000 to try to rekindle the Jewish life that was vibrant in the city before the war. Continue Reading »

Stolen Paintings to be Returned to Jewish Owners

The heirs of 2 Jewish families whose paintings were stolen during World War II will receive 7 paintings from France.

By Elad Benari

 

France will return seven paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries to the heirs of two Jewish families whose artworks were stolen during World War II, the French culture ministry told AFP on Thursday.

Six paintings by Italian and German artists will be returned to Thomas Selldorff, the octogenarian grandson of Austrian textile magnate Richard Neumann, who was forced to flee his country in 1938.

Neumann came with part of his art collection to Paris but fled to Spain when the Nazis occupied France and eventually reached Cuba, where he settled. Continue Reading »

How Easy it was for Brooklyn College to Legitimized BDS

Op-ed: Few institutions in the US are as anti-Israel as the average American campus

By KC Johnson  and Asaf Romirowsky

 

The controversy over a “panel discussion” at Brooklyn College has little to do with free speech, and everything to do with politicization of the academia — in this case, by disingenuous anti-Israel ideologues.

archivesBack in December, the political science department at Brooklyn College, a public institution partially supported by taxpayers’ dollars, formally voted to sign on to a talk that took place on February 7th. A student group had scheduled an address by University of California professor Judith Butler and graduate student Omar Barghouti to propagandize on behalf of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. Continue Reading »

Contrary to Hamas declaration, Bulgarian gov’t denies inviting, meeting Hamas

Gov’t denies official meetings with Hamas legislators in 1st visit to EU country since its 2003 terrorist classification.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

 

BERLIN – The Bulgarian government flatly rejected on Thursday meetings between official representatives of the government and Hamas. Vessela Tcherneva, the spokeswoman for the Bulgarian foreign ministry, told the Jerusalem Post that “the news about an official visit of Hamas is wrong and false” and no one has invited Hamas from the side of the government.”
Hamas spokesperson MUSHIR AL-MASRI

Hamas spokesperson MUSHIR AL-MASRI – Photo: REUTERS

She added that the Hamas representatives are “on a private visitation of a NGO” in Sofia.

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Turkey requests cooperation with Israel in importing Israeli natural gas

Turkey’s building conglomerate Zorlu Group will construct an undersea pipeline from Israel’s offshore gas-platform to Turkey’s southern coast.

By Itai Trilnick and Avi Bar-Eli

The Turkish conglomerate Zorlu Group has been working in recent months to convince the Israeli government and the Leviathan gas field partners to approve energy exports to Turkey, TheMarker has learned.

Bloomberg

Zorlu is also a giant in real estate: Pedestrians by the huge 65,000 square-meter business center it’s building in Istanbul. – Photo by Bloomberg

Zorlu’s plan is to lay an undersea pipeline from the Leviathan field 130 kilometers off Haifa to Turkey’s south coast. The pipeline would deliver between 8 billion and 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Continue Reading »

UN ‘Concerned’ For Imprisoned Hunger Striking Arab Terrorists

A UN official has voiced concern over the health & well-being of hunger-striking Palestinian Authority terrorist prisoners.

By Elad Benari

 

A United Nations official on Wednesday expressed concern about the well-being of Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist detainees in Israeli prisons and in particular about the condition of hunger striker Samer Issawi, AFP reports.

A UN statement quoted in the report said that Humanitarian Coordinator James W. Rawley met in Ramallah with the PA’s prisoner affairs minister, Issa Qaraqe.

During the meeting, Rawley “expressed the United Nations’ continued concern about Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody,” according to the statement.

“They discussed the situation of four Palestinian detainees currently on hunger strike and, in particular, the critical health condition of one Palestinian detainee, Samer Issawi, who has been on hunger strike for more than 200 days,” it said, according to AFP. Continue Reading »

Brooklyn College investigates the ejection of Jewish students from its BDS event

The host of the event was the Brooklyn College Students for Justice in Palestine, who’s aim is “helping end Israeli apartheid and the illegal occupation of Palestine.”

 

By JTA

NEW YORK — Brooklyn College launched a probe into allegations that Jewish students were wrongly ejected from an event hosted by the school in support of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Palestinians call for a boycott

Palestinians call for a boycott – Photo: REUTERS

Karen Gould, the college’s president, on Wednesday ordered officials to conduct a “thorough independent review” of allegations that four members of the Jewish student group Hillel were told to leave the gathering organized by a pro-Palestinian group on campus last week. Continue Reading »