China’s prime minister visits Auschwitz

Wen Jiabao pays visit to death camp during official visit to Poland; says ‘the tragedy of Auschwitz is the tragedy of all humanity’

 

China’s prime minister paid homage on Friday to the victims of the Nazi Auschwitz death camp, saying lessons drawn from it should help build a safer world.

Laid yellow and red flowers .  Auschwitz death camp Photo: Shutterstock

Laid yellow and red flowers . Auschwitz death camp - Photo: Shutterstock

Wen Jiabao paid the visit to the Auschwitz memorial on Friday, following two days of political and business talks with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and President Bronislaw Komorowski in Warsaw

At the memorial in southern Poland, Wen walked through the former camp’s main gate and laid yellow and red flowers at the Death Wall where the Germans executed masses of people during World War II. Continue Reading »

Iran seeks expanded IRGC presence in Gaza Strip

LONDON — Iran has been pressing to expand its presence in the Gaza
Strip.

Arab diplomatic sources said the Iranian leadership was urging the Hamas
government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to allow additional military
trainers into the Gaza Strip.

The sources said Iran, particularly its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, wants to build a credible military force in the Gaza Strip to confront Israel in any future regional war.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei greets Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. /AFP

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei greets Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. /AFP

“Iran wants Gaza to be as capable as Hizbullah,” a diplomatic
source said. “This means that Hamas and its allies would have tens of thousands of missiles and rockets that could paralyze central and southern Israel.” Continue Reading »

Electric Corp. urgently seeking new gas supplier

Needs 5-month stopgap until Israeli gas starts flowing.

Needing to fill the energy void left by the Egyptians canceling the sale of natural gas to Israel, the Israel Electric Corporation is trolling the world for a new source. The IEC has published an international tender for purchase of imported liquefied natural gas, hoping to start buying as much as $700 million to $850 million worth on December 1, 2012.

Gas drilling rig

Gas drilling rig

The plan is for up to 16 huge LNG tankers, each holding 130,000 cubic meters of LNG, to dock at a Cypriot port, where the gas would be unloaded onto a vessel the IEC would lease from the American firm Excelerate Energy.

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Obama lifts Palestinian aid barrier

US president signs waiver releasing $192 aid package frozen by Congress. Obama says aiding Palestinian Authority is ‘important for security interests of United States’

President Barack Obama has signed a waiver declaring that aid to the Palestinian Authority is “important to the security interests of the United States,” removing a block on such funding.

Obama Photo: AP

Obama - Photo: AP

In a memo sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, published by the White House, the president said it was appropriate to release funds to the authority, which administers the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A provision of The Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act of 2012 said none of the funds “may be obligated or expended with respect to providing funds to the Palestinian Authority.” Continue Reading »

Holocaust Memorial, Synagogue Defaced in Geneva

Members of the Jewish community in Geneva find anti-Semitic symbols on a Holocaust monument and local synagogue.

Members of the Jewish community in Geneva, Switzerland, woke up on Friday morning and discovered that anti-Semitic symbols had been sprayed overnight on a monument to Holocaust victims who had lived in the city, according to a Channel 2 News report.

Anti-Semitism (illustration)

Anti-Semitism (illustration) - archive photo

The report said that symbols had also been sprayed on the outer wall of a local synagogue.

Dr. Yitzhak Dayan, the Chief Rabbi of Geneva, told Channel 2 News that he believed the timing of the incident was not accidental. Continue Reading »

Israelis to sue Swiss banks for refusing to return money deposited during Holocaust

The plaintiffs say they intend to file the lawsuit next week in U.S. court, under a U.S. law enabling them to sue foreign states in matters pertaining to the Holocaust.

 

Two Israelis are preparing to file a NIS 1 billion lawsuit against the Swiss government and two Swiss banks for allegedly refusing to return money and valuables deposited by their parents shortly before World War II.

Credit Suisse bank in Zurich.

Credit Suisse bank in Zurich - Photo by: AP

The plaintiffs say they intend to file the lawsuit next week in U.S. court, under a U.S. law enabling them to sue foreign states in matters pertaining to the Holocaust.

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Syria’s Grand Mufti Blames Arab Spring on West, Israel

The Grand Mufti of Syria says the Arab Spring is nothing but a Western plot that will “benefit the Zionist entity”.

The Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, has described the battle that is currently taking place in Syria as a “battle against our roots” and has claimed that the Arab Spring is nothing but a Western plot.

Smoke rises from Syrian shelling of Homs

Smoke rises from Syrian shelling of Homs - Photo by Reuters

According to a report on Thursday in the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Hassoun said that “if Syria collapses, this will lead to the collapse of neighboring states, starting with Lebanon and ending with Saudi Arabia, through Jordan and Iraq; this is because the plan for the Arab and Islamic world is to ensure that no strong state remains, and for our people to kill one another.” Continue Reading »

Attackers throw Molotov cocktails at TA migrants

Neighborhood activist: Those who incite racism should go to jail; police do not consider incident “serious.”

 

Unidentified attackers on Friday threw Molotov cocktails at four houses and one kindergarten connected to a community of African asylum seekers in the Shapira neighborhood of Tel Aviv.

African migrants protest in Tel Aviv - Photo: Reuters

African migrants protest in Tel Aviv - Photo: Reuters

No one was injured, but there was property damage, and neighbors believed that the attack was organized and specifically directed against the refugees. Police arrived in the neighborhood to investigate the case after the incident.

Police would not comment in detail on what they referred to as the “attempted arson.”

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Essay by Kasim Hafeez – Muslim, Zionist and proud

Op-ed: His father praised Hitler, but Kasim Hafeez writes about love for Israel, Jewish people

 

I am a Zionist, a proud Muslim Zionist, and I love Israel, but this was not always the case. In fact, for many years I was quite the extreme opposite. I experienced the high levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity taking place on British university campuses, because I was the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel activist.

Growing up in the Muslim community in the UK I was exposed to materials and opinions at best condemning Israel, painting Jews as usurpers and murderers, and at worse calling for the wholesale destruction of the “Zionist Entity” and all Jews. Continue Reading »

Jewish refugee rights is an unsolved human rights issue

The issue of Jewish refugee rights is not a spanner in the works. It remains a key, unresolved human rights issue.

Refael Bigio remembers the moment in 1962 that the regime of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser seized his family’s property. Police had cordoned off the Bigio bottling plant at 14 Aswan Street in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. A policeman barked at Bigio and his father: “Hand over the keys!”

The Forgotten Million Jewish Refugees Expelled from Arab countries

The Forgotten Million Jewish Refugees Expelled from Arab countries

The nightmare of dispossession that was destined to afflict some 870,000 Jews across the Arab world – forced out or expelled with just the shirts on their backs – had caught up with the Bigio family. Continue Reading »

New York Times Ad Slams BDS

An ad placed in the New York Times on Wednesday accused BDS supporters of contributing to anti-Semitism worldwide.

American conservative writer and advocate, David Horowitz, placed an advertisement in the New York Times on Wednesday, accusing supporters of the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement of contributing to anti-Semitism worldwide.

“The Holocaust began with boycotts of Jewish stores and ended with death camps,” the ad begins. “The calls for a new Holocaust can be heard throughout the Middle East and Europe as well.”

It also references Mohammed Merah, the terrorist who killed 4 people at a Jewish school in Toulouse, France last month, claiming that “ancient blood libels” supported by the BDS movement contributed to the murders. Continue Reading »

India: Iranian was Watching Jewish Sites

India has expelled an Iranian man who gathered information on Jewish sites and local Jewish businessmen.

India has expelled an Iranian man accused of gathering information on Jewish sites in the city of Pune. 40-year-old Hamid Kashkouli passed his findings on to Iran.

One of the sites Kashkouli spied on was the local Chabad House. In 2008 a Chabad House was among the targets when terrorists launched a multi-pronged attack in Mumbai. Nine were murdered, among them Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 28.

Kashkouli had been in India as a PhD student. However, in his three years in the country, he made no progress in his doctorate work. Continue Reading »

‘Arabs attacked us on Independence Day’

Tzipi Shukrun recalls brutal attack on her family during barbecue in heart of Jerusalem; assailants used chains, shouted ‘yahud’

Three members of the Shukrun family were hospitalized overnight Thursday following an attack by a group of young Arabs. Two of the family members were moderately wounded in the attack, while the third suffered light injuries.

Police said they are looking into the possibility that the attack was nationalistically-motivated, but are exploring other possibilities as well

“I tried running away with my children and sister, but they kept coming back to hit us,” Tzipi Shukrun told Ynet. “They kids are traumatized.”

The family arrived at a park located in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the Jerusalem Cinematheque, to celebrate Independence Day. Continue Reading »

Experts: Iran Preparing for Cyberwar Against U.S.

Experts say Iran is busy acquiring the technical know-how to launch a cyber-attack on the United States and its allies.

Iran is busy acquiring the technical know-how to launch a potentially crippling cyber-attack on the United States and its allies, experts told a congressional hearing on Thursday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Photo by Reuters

“Over the past three years, the Iranian regime has invested heavily in both defensive and offensive capabilities in cyberspace,” Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, was quoted by AFP as having told a House Homeland Security subcommittee.

He added, “Equally significant, its leaders now increasingly appear to view cyber-warfare as a potential avenue of action against the United States.” Continue Reading »

Egypt’s women urge MPs not to pass early marriage, sex-after-death laws

Egyptian women object to 2 new laws: legalizing the marriage of girls from the age of 14 & allowing husbands to have sex with dead wife within 6 hours following her death.

 

The parliamentary attacks on women’s rights has drawn great criticism from women’s organizations in Egypt. (File photo)
The parliamentary attacks on women’s rights has drawn great criticism from women’s organizations in Egypt – File photo-Al Arabiya

Egypt’s National Council for Women (NCW) has appealed to the Islamist-dominated parliament not to approve two controversial laws on the minimum age of marriage and allowing a husband to have sex with his dead wife within six hours of her death according to a report in an Egyptian newspaper.

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