National Poll: 45% of Israelis support unilateral withdrawal from most of the West Bank

Rafi Smith poll: 80% of Israelis support IDF presence in West Bank in the case of unilateral (civilian) withdrawal until ‘peace agreement’ is signed.

 

Almost half of the Israeli population supports a unilateral withdrawal from large sections of the Palestinian territories based on the pre-1967 lines, according to a poll conducted by Rafi Smith for the Blue White Future movement.

Foreign tourists on trip to W. Bank settlements - Photo: REUTERS

Foreign tourists on trip to W. Bank settlements – Photo: REUTERS

The poll was released ahead of an election debate between the “Zionist parties” hosted by the movement at Tel Aviv University on Sunday.

Forty-five percent of respondents answered they would back a unilateral withdrawal while maintaining the large settlement blocs including western Samaria, Kedumim, Jerusalem, Ma’aleh Adumim and Gush Etzion.

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Congress requests that Obama shut PLO office as reprisal for UN vote

In the letter signed by more than half the US House of Representatives, were also calls for defunding of UN-affiliated organizations that accept the PLO for membership.

By JTA

WASHINGTON – Just over half of the U.S. House of Representatives called on President Obama to shut down the PLO office in Washington as punishment for its ascension in United Nations status.

Palestinian President Abbas

Palestinian President Abbas in Ramallah, after the UN vote. – Photo by AP

“One important way of expressing U.S. disapproval would be to send the message that such actions are not cost-free and that, at a minimum, they result in setbacks to U.S.-Palestinian Continue Reading »

Prime Minister Netanyahu: Israel is adapting to the dramatic changes in Syria

Netanyahu told his ministers at their weekly cabinet meeting that Israel is cooperating with the U.S. and int’l community ahead of the Assad regime’s upcoming downfall.

By and DPA

 

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel is getting ready for the downfall of President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, and the implications this will have for the regime’s chemical weapons cache.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. – Photo by Olivier Fitoussi

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, the prime minister said that Israel “is following dramatic developments in Syria, cooperating with the U.S. and the international community, and taking the necessary steps to prepare for the possibility of radical changes to the regime with all the consequences these may hold for networks of sensitive weapons.” Continue Reading »

Anti-Israeli propaganda wrapped up in a Story of Bethlehem.

Squeezing a Story Out of Bethlehem is a great way to seek understanding and good-will, but a few in the media without scruples see this as a propaganda bonanza.

By

 

Every year around this time, it’s the same tired old story. A journalist attempts to find a Christmas angle for Palestinian suffering, most often focusing on Bethlehem’s Palestinian Christian residents. This year is no different and Harriet Sherwood of The Guardian and sister Sunday paper The Observer is the journalist filling the seasonal role.

Hamas rally in Bethlehem – Photo: honestreporting.com

The Guardian regularly trashes or undermines Jewish historical claims to the land of Israel that go back to biblical times. Continue Reading »

Israeli Defense Expert: Syria’s Chemical Weapons Are Secure

Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal is secure for now, says an Israel defense official, Amos Gilad.

At some point, the various splinter groups may begin to also fight each other. But for now, they are still united against a common enemy: Assad.

By Chana Ya’ar

 

According to Defense Ministry military expert Amos Gilad, for the moment, there appears to be a balance of power between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and opposition forces.

בסיס נשק כימי בספירה. קרבות ניטשו סביב המקום

Syrian Chemical weapon base

It is that delicate balance that is keeping the chemical weapons in check, Gilad told listeners in an interview broadcast Sunday morning on IDF Army Radio.  Continue Reading »

Ukrainian, French, American, Danish nationals & 4 women among newest grads of IAF pilots.

50% of latest graduates are eldest sons or daughters, 74% are members of youth movements & the Air Force’s first religious woman to graduate.

By Lilach Shoval

 

 

The 165th class of Israel Defense Forces air force pilots will graduate this Thursday at a graduation ceremony to be attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz and Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel.

A new generation of pilots completes the 165th training course.-
Photo: IDF Spokesman’s Unit

 

Among this year’s graduates are four women, three of whom will serve as navigators and one who will serve as a flight engineer.

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Australian Tycoon Saves Sydney’s Chabad Headquarters

 “This transaction will undoubtedly increase community confidence in the long-term stability of Yeshiva, bringing much-awaited certainty to parents, teachers & the extended Chabad community.” commented Rabbi Feldman.

By JTA

 

SYDNEY – An Australian property tycoon has staved off a financial crisis that threatened the closure of the headquarters of Sydney’s Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Rabbi Pinchus Feldman, Harry Triguboff and Rabbi Dovid Slavin with Yeshiva students – Photo: Ingrid Shakenovsky

Harry Triguboff, a longstanding benefactor of the ultra-Orthodox organization, purchased two Chabad buildings in Bondi Dec. 20 for a reported $6 million, enabling the beleaguered organization to pay off debts that threatened to cripple its ability to operate across Sydney.
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Israel to join NATO activities for 2013

Israel’s addition into the 2013 NATO activities follows granting Turkey’s request for deployment of Patriot missiles along their border with Syria.

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JPOST CORRESPONDENT

 

WASHINGTON – Israel has received approval to participate in NATO activities in 2013 that had been held up amid tensions with Turkey, Israeli officials told The Jerusalem Post.

The officials said the approval had come as Turkey’s request that NATO station Patriot missile batteries along its border with Syria was granted, leading them to assess that NATO was using the deployment as leverage to induce Ankara to thaw its relations with Israel. Continue Reading »

Jerusalem cabbie shot after trying to run over Police officer

Border Guard officer lightly injured after Arab taxi driver attempts to run him over; driver mildly wounded from gunfire.

Police say attempted murder was nationalistically motivated

Noam (Dabul) Dvir

 

An Arab taxi driver was shot in the leg Sunday after apparently trying to run over a Border Guard officer.

Border Guard Policemen in Jerusalem – Photo: Reuters

Both men are in mild condition. The officer was treated on site and the driver was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.

The police are investigating the incident as a nationalistically motivated attack.

According to available details, the driver, a 39-year-old man from the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem, arrived at an east Jerusalem police station and rammed into a delivery van trying to exit the compound. Continue Reading »

2 Christian towns threatened by Islamists: Attack Assad or be killed

UN investigators described the 21-month conflict as “overtly sectarian in nature” as armed Islamists threaten Christians with death if they don’t fight Assad.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

 

Heavily-armed Islamists, many linked with Al Qaeda, have deepened their presence in the Syrian uprising and threaten Christians with death if they don’t work against Assad.

A resident holds prayer beads near buildings, damaged by missiles fired by a Syrian fighter jet near

A resident holds prayer beads near buildings, damaged by missiles fired by a Syrian fighter jet near – Reuters

They warned two Christian towns on Saturday they will be attacked if they do not evict regime forces, as the new Greek Orthodox patriarch said Syria’s often-fearful Christians will stay put and urged a peaceful end to the conflict, according to AFP.

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‘PA won’t allow E-1 settlement project to happen’ or the PA will dissolve

 

Saturday Abbas threatened to dissolve the PA if building Israeli homes continues & if the ‘stalemate in the peace process’ persists.

Abbas: Palestinians are “holding contacts on all levels to stop Israeli project that aims to sabotage the peace process.”

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

The Palestinian Authority will not allow Israeli plans to build in the E1 area of Jerusalem to be realized, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.

Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas – Photo: Marc Israël Sellem

Abbas said the building plans are “a red line and we will not allow it to happen.”

Speaking at the opening session of the Fatah Advisory Council entitled “statehood and international legitimacy,” the PA president said “we are holding contacts on all levels to stop this Israeli project that aims to sabotage the peace process,” as quoted by Wafa.

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‘124-year-old’ Arab-Israeli woman thanks Israel before she died

Mariam Amash, who according to Israeli registry was born in 1888, dies after being admitted to Hadera hospital.
Grandson: ‘She was the oldest woman in the world’

Hassan Shaalan

 

Mariam Amash – Photo: Hassan Shaalan

Mariam Amash of the Arab-Israeli village of Jisr a-Zarka died Saturday morning. According to the Interior Ministry’s population registry, she was 124 years old. The listing was based on a birth certificate issued by Turkish authorities who ruled the region at the time.

You can say that our lives were better before, but I still want to thank the Israeli gov’t for the help it has given us.

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Yiddish becoming popular among Israeli Arabs

1/4 of Yiddish students at Bar-Ilan University are Arab. Yusuf Alakili of Kfar Kassem admits,  ‘I have always felt a connection to this language,’

By Dudi Goldman

 

“I find a certain mystery in Yiddish, a refined and enigmatic musical note. I cannot explain it, but I have always felt a connection to this language.”

‘Why is this magnificent language neglected?’ Yiddish literature – Photo: Ahimeir Porat

Contrary to what one might expect, the speaker is not a Polish poet or a German philosopher. He is Yusuf Alakili, 50, of the Arab Israeli town of Kfar Kassem, who is working on his master’s degree at Bar-Ilan University’s Literature of the Jewish People Department, while studying Yiddish for his own pleasure. Continue Reading »

50 of Bnei Menashe community of India move to Israel

 

Israel’s Chief rabbi recognized Bnei Menashe as a ‘Lost Tribe’ in 2005, but only 1,700 moved to Israel before the gov’t stopped granting visas

Gov’t recently reversed policy, reopening doors for immigration for the 7,200 remaining in India

The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

 

 

 

A group of 50 Jews said to descend from one of the 10 Lost Tribes prepared Thursday to immigrate to Israel from their village in northeastern India.

Ingathering of the exiles: Bnei Menashe pray prior to their departure for Israel. – Photo: AP

The members of the Bnei Menashe community prayed in their local synagogue and then hugged their crying relatives before heading off to the airport in the Manipur state capital of Imphal, 55 kilometers (34 miles) away.

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Hundreds of fragments from pre-WWII Greek Jewish graves finally found

The remains of destroyed Jewish graves were uncovered in Thessaloniki by police after a 70-year search.

 

The 668 fragments were found buried in a plot of land in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, following a 70-year search for the remains of graves smashed when the city’s main Jewish cemetery was destroyed.

Headstones destroyed during the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II.

Headstones destroyed during the Nazi occupation of Greece during World War II. – Photo by AP

The head of the city’s Jewish community, David Saltiel, said most of the gravestones found dated from the mid-1800s up until World War II.

“This is our history,” Saltiel, head of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece, told The Associated Press. Continue Reading »