Canadian Minister John Baird expresses support for commemorating the Munich attacks

Canada Throws Its Support Behind Israel’s Efforts to Gain Moment of Silence at Olympics

Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, called Dr. Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to express Canada’s support for Israel’s request for a moment of silence to commemorate the Israeli athletes murdered during the solemn 1972 terrorist attack in Munich.

 Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird

- Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird

Last month it was announced that the IOC denied Israel’s request, made on behalf of the families of the 11 victims, for the moment of silence but Rogge said he had no choice but to reject the request. Continue Reading »

Putin to visit Israel amid Syria, Iran concerns

Russian president to visit Israel for first time in 7 years as Moscow’s arming of Assad, impediments to harsher sanctions against Iranian nuclear program, support of unilateral PA moves at odds with Israeli positions.

By HERB KEINON, JPOST.COM STAFF

Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to make his first official visit to Israel since 2005, although the exact date for the visit has not yet been determined, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Vladimir Putin addresses supporters

Vladimir Putin addresses supporters - Photo: REUTERS/Aleksey Nikolskyi/RIA Novosti/Pool

News of Putin’s expected visit came as Russia was the center of controversy for its continued support of Syrian President Bashar Assad, despite his brutal crackdown on dissenters.

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Gaza kindergartners want to ‘blow up Zionists’

Kids at Islamic Jihad kindergarten celebrate end of year by demonstrating how Palestinian prisoners are ‘tortured’ in Israel. Teacher: We educate them to love resistance, Palestine

By Elior Levy

 

 

Children attending a kindergarten in Gaza that is run by Islamic Jihad celebrated their graduation by dressing up in army attire, waving toy rifles and chanting anti-Israel slogans.

“It is our obligation to educate the children to love the resistance, Palestine and Jerusalem, so they will recognize the importance of Palestine and who its enemy is,” the kindergarten’s director said.

 

מדמים חייל שמטביע עצור פלסטיני

'Palestinian prisoner tortured.'

 

The children were dressed up in uniforms of Jihad’s armed-wing, the al-Quds Brigades, and each of them received a toy rifle. Continue Reading »

Mass. Jews: Romney kept his distance as governor, but was a great leader of healthcare reform

The Republican nominee would prefer to woo the U.S. Jewish community with his commitment to Israel than his visionary role in the healthcare reform.

By Dina Kraft

BOSTON – Mitt Romney is remembered by some in Massachusetts’ Jewish community as a distant figure on a grassroots level, a governor with whom their main interaction came during the effort to pass a groundbreaking healthcare reform providing near-universal coverage for state residents.

Today it’s the very subject that the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president wishes would disappear.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, June 8, 2012.

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney reach out to shake his hand - Photo by AP

 

“He was an absolutely key visionary player in the reform that was passed,” said Rabbi Jonah Pesner, who in 2006, when the legislation was approved, was co-chair of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization, an interfaith group that helped push the bi-partisan effort for healthcare reform in Massachusetts as part of a broader coalition advocating for change. Continue Reading »

Missile Attack on Tel Aviv Might Force Evacuation

The entire population of Tel Aviv would be evacuated if unconventional missiles were to strike the city, a Home Front officer says.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

 

The entire population of Tel Aviv would be evacuated if unconventional missiles were to strike the city, a Home Front officer told the AFP news agency in an interview.

Colonel Adam Zusman, chief of the Home Front Command in metropolitan Tel Aviv, told the interviewer, “In case of a missile attack on the center of Israel, especially unconventional, the population from Tel Aviv and other cities will be evacuated and relocated in other areas of the country. Continue Reading »

Vatican and Israel sign a historic economic agreement for the first time.

The Vatican is about to “indirectly” recognize Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, considered by many Palestinians as the capital of their future independent state, it was reported by the news media today.

 

This would be done if the project of an economic agreement between the Jewish state and the Holy See, which contains no distinction between sovereign Israel and the territories occupied by it in 1967, is approved by both parties, the news media reported.

The lack of a preamble containing that distinction is at the center of the tension between Christian denominations and Palestinian Liberation Organization or PLO and the Vatican. Continue Reading »

Dan Margalit: The writing was on the wall

Perhaps words can’t physically kill the body, but they certainly do kill. They kill the cultural and democratic national norms that obligate us to honor the memory of the Holocaust.

By Dan Margalit

 

There is no way of knowing who spray-painted shockingly offensive slogans on the walls of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial on Monday, but the style of the writing suggests that it was particularly radical members of the decidedly anti-Zionist extremist ultra-Orthodox public. Conceivably, someone could have written “thank you, Hitler” and criticized Israel’s ultra-Orthodox just to divert suspicion away from themselves, as Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau has speculated, but for now, the suspicion stands until proven otherwise. Continue Reading »

Israelis now eligible for E2 investor visa to the US

US president signs law adding Israel to list of countries whose citizens are eligible; Israel is among top 20 investors in the US.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

US President Barak Obama on Monday signed a law that adds Israel to the list of countries whose citizens are eligible to receive E2 investor visas.

 

Israeli passports  - Photo: Thinkstock/Imagebank
Israeli passports  – Photo: Thinkstock/Imagebank

Among those eligible for the investors’ visa are businesspeople and representatives of companies who have made significant investments in the United States or opened businesses there.

Commercial Attache in Washington Ohad Cohen praised the new law, saying “We live in a world where investments are an important part of the ability to conduct trade and there is no doubt that the new law is an important step toward necessary improvements regarding visas, which will contribute to the expansion of trade between the (two) countries.” Continue Reading »

MKs to meet Egyptian MPs in Washington

Days after presidential election in Egypt, Israeli members of Knesset will meet with Egyptian counterparts, including members of Muslim Brotherhood, in effort to pave way for talks between higher echelons

By Moran Azulay

 

A delegation of members of Knesset will travel to Washington next week and meet with Egyptian parliament members, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ynet reported Monday.

Anti-Israel protest in Cairo Photo: AFP

Anti-Israel protest in Cairo - Photo: AFP

The rare meeting will take place days after the second round of presidential elections in Egypt, and will be mediated by American officials.

The MKs, including Yitzhak Vaknin (Shas) and Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beiteinu), are scheduled to leave for Washington on Sunday, and will stay in the US capital for four days, during which they will attend a conference and meet with their Egyptian counterparts. Continue Reading »

UN-Backed PA NGO to Children: Replace Cigarettes with Guns

PA-based NGO supported by UN branches puts on a puppet show, tells kids to see Jews as “enemies” who kill Arab youth.

By Elad Benari

 

A Palestinian Authority-based NGO, the Burj Luq-Luq Social Center Society organization, recently performed a puppet show for children in east Jerusalem to promote non-smoking.

The educational message delivered by the puppets, however, instructed children to replace cigarettes with machine guns. A video of the puppet show was uploaded to the NGO’s website. It was accessed by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) research organization, which monitors and translates the PA-based media. The organization translated the video and presented it on its website. Continue Reading »

Khamenei adviser: Islamic countries need nukes

Forghani, who formerly called on Iran to annihilate Israel, argues that Islamic Republic needs nukes to repel US threat.

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK

 

While Iran continues to deny its nuclear program is anything but peaceful, the Islamic Republic’s Revolutionary Guards-linked Fars News published an op-ed on Monday arguing that Islamic countries – and Iran – need a nuclear arsenal.

Islamic countries need nukes - Photo: Thinkstock/Imagebank

Islamic countries need nukes - Photo: Thinkstock/Imagebank

The op-ed, entitled “Nuclear Confrontation: The Islamic World Needs to have the Atomic Bomb”, is written in Persian by Alireza Forghani, an analyst and strategy strategist allied with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

After citing Khamenei, Forghani writes that the “Islamic world should arise and scream that an atomic bomb is our right, and so smash America’s and Israel’s dreams.”

Continue Reading »

Bedouins block Sinai-Israel passage

Truck drivers say Bedouins protesting Cairo’s policy towards them burn tires, but allow Gaza-bound vehicles through

By Ynet

 

A group of Egyptian Bedouins blocked on Monday the main road leading to the Nitzana border crossing between the Sinai Peninsula and Israel, the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reported.

Archives Photo: AP

Archives - Photo: AP

According to the report, the Bedouins blocked the passage as an act of protest against the detention of Bedouins in the Sinai by Egyptian authorities.

Truck drivers reported seeing burning tires and rocks along the road, as well as gunmen armed with machine guns.

However, the truck drivers said, vehicles that were headed to Gaza, including fuel tankers delivering diesel from Qatar, were allowed through. Continue Reading »

Forbes presents: The richest rabbis in Israel

Descendents of the Baba Sali known for working miracles – which seem to include accumulating bills and coins – top the list.

Descendents of Rabbi Israel Abuhatzeira, or “the Baba Sali,” a renowned Kabbalist who immigrated to Israel from Morocco and founded his court in Netivot, are known as righteous men, knowledgeable in Kabbalah, and miracle workers – though it is possible that their miracle is accumulating bills and coins.

Two of the “admorim” (admor is an acronym in Hebrew for our master, our teacher, and our rabbi ) from the Abuhatzeira dynasty top the list of wealthiest rabbis published by Forbes Israel this week, as part of a comprehensive briefing on the “Baba” economy in Israel. Continue Reading »

Peres Will Ask Obama for Humanitarian Pardon for Pollard

President Shimon Peres will ask President Barack Obama to grant a pardon for Jonathan Pollard on humanitarian grounds.

By Chana Ya’ar

 

President Shimon Peres will ask President Barack Obama to grant a pardon for Jonathan Pollard on humanitarian grounds.

Shimon Peres and Jonathan Pollard

Shimon Peres and Jonathan Pollard - INN archive photo

Pollard, incarcerated for some 27 years on a single charge of passing classified information to an ally (Israel), has been in increasingly poor health. He was hospitalized several times over the past year, including for emergency surgery.

Peres has said he will discuss the issue of a pardon for Pollard with Obama during a private meeting. Continue Reading »

‘If he could, Assad would do to us what he’s doing to his own people’

Israel Hayom Staff, Eli Leon and News Agencies

 

 

IDF Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh warns Syrian missiles “can reach any point in Israel and therefore we must remain vigilant” • Syria is believed to possess the world’s largest stockpile of chemical weapons, including some of the deadliest chemical agents known, such as sarin and the nerve agent VX. Their chemical agents have already been integrated in warheads mounted on advanced Scud missiles.

 

Syria possesses the largest chemical weapons stocks in the world, including missiles and rockets that can reach any point in Israel, Israel Defense Forces Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj.
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