NY police ‘very cognizant’ of potential Iranian attack on city
“Obviously if there’s any action involving Israel and Iran we have to be very cognizant of the potential of retaliation here in New York City,” NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at the NYPD’s Shield anti-terrorism conference, according to the Post.
At the conference, NYPD Lt. Kevin Yorke noted that Iran’s nuclear program, and the global tension that it causes, is the source of “a number of very significant plots and attacks.”
Polls show Netanyahu has easy re-election road ahead
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks set for easy re-election early next year, and may end up with a bigger coalition than he currently has, according to polls.
Citing deadlocked budget disputes with coalition allies and looming security challenges such as Iran’s nuclear program, Netanyahu on Oct. 9 moved the legislative election, originally slated for October 2013, to January or February.
A survey in the Maariv newspaper predicted Netanyahu’s rightist Likud party taking 29 of the Knesset’s 120 seats, up from its current 27. Likud’s two most powerful rivals, the center-Left Labor and a new centrist movement under former TV anchor Yair Lapid, would win 17 seats each, Maariv found.
Projecting from its own poll, the Haaretz newspaper said the next coalition government, led by Likud and comprising mostly religious or nationalist parties, could command 68 seats, up from today’s 66.
Palestinian arrested over stabbing of Gush Etzion resident
(JNS.org) An 18-year-old Palestinian from the village of Husan, near Beitar Illit, was arrested on Wednesday evening as he was trying to flee after allegedly stabbing a Gush Etzion man in the neck, Israel Hayom reported. The victim was taken to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem after the stabbing.
The victim was walking along the main road near the entrance to Beitar Illit around 7 p.m. when a man appeared from behind him and stabbed him in his neck. He was able to fend off the attacker and was injured relatively lightly.
“The injured man was conscious and suffered a slight wound in his neck,” Ziad Dawit, a senior Magen David Adom medic who treated the victim, said.
The attacker fled the area on foot but was caught by soldiers at the entrance to the city. Under questioning, he said he had decided to commit the crime on his own.
Hamas chief: ‘We have largely failed’
(JNS.org) Hamas’s outgoing political chief Khaled Mashaal admitted that Hamas has made many mistakes governing Gaza and that it should not serve as a model for other countries.
Speaking at a conference in Qatar on Islamism and democracy Mashaal told the audience that Hamas tried “to combine resistance [against Israel] and governance” but its experience has largely failed and “should not be taken as a model unless for learning a lesson,” the Times of Israel reported, citing Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat.
Mashaal is referring to Hamas’s rule over Gaza, which it violently took control of in 2007 from the Palestinian Authority. International demands have been placed on Hamas to force it to abandon terrorism and recognize peace agreements with Israel.
The Hamas chief announced recently that he is stepping down from the terrorist organization’s leadership over differences with its Gaza leadership. Mashaal had been Hamas’s leader “in exile” in Syria until the group abandoned its office in Syria for Qatar amid the violent civil war. Recently, an Iranian newspaper with ties to the government called Mashaal a “Zionist agent” and a “traitor” for abandoning Syria.
Massive U.S.-Israel air defense simulation set for late October
(JNS.org) The United States and Israel are scheduled to hold its largest-ever joint defense exercise in Israel on Oct. 21.
Dubbed the Austere Challenge 12 (AC12), the exercise was originally scheduled for last spring but was postponed over regional tensions with Iran. While the Iran threat continues, an IDF spokesman told the Jerusalem Post that the drill was “unrelated to any pinpoint developments in the region.”
The three-week air defense exercise will test cooperation between the militaries by simulating various missile defense scenarios, and is expected to end with a live-fire interception of a decoy incoming Patriot missile.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org and reprinted with permission