Explosion at Iran’s underground nuclear site?
(JNS.org) Conflicting reports have emerged over news of an explosion at Iran’s underground nuclear site at Fordow last week.
The news website WND first reported the alleged blast, quoting a defected Iranian intelligence officer who claimed a massive explosion occurred at the facility at 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 21, partially destroying the site and trapping more than 240 people underground.
On Monday, however, Iranian officials denied the explosion.
“The false news of an explosion at Fordow is Western propaganda ahead of nuclear negotiations to influence their process and outcome,” IRNA quoted deputy Iranian nuclear energy agency chief Saeed Shamseddin Bar Broudi as saying, Reuters reported.
The London Times, on the other hand, reported that sources within the Israeli government have confirmed that an explosion happened last week and intelligence officials are investigating the reports.
Israeli officials, meanwhile, are downplaying any Israeli knowledge or involvement.
“I read about it in the paper,” Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon told Army Radio early Monday morning, Israel Hayom reported.
“We’ve heard about worms, viruses and explosions in the past,” Ya’alon said. “All of these efforts delay Iran’s nuclear program. If such disturbances hadn’t hit Iran in the last number of years, Tehran would have developed a military nuclear program a long time ago.”
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) quarterly report issued on Nov. 16, Iran’s work on the deep underground nuclear site, Fordow, near the holy city of Qom, is nearly complete. It now has the full capacity of 2,784 centrifuges.
Iran touts missile program, says it launches monkey into space
(JNS.org) While experts fear progress in Iran’s ballistic missile program, Iranian media is claiming the Islamic Republic has successfully launched a space rocket containing a live monkey into sub-orbital space.
According to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the monkey was launched in a Kavoshgar rocket and reached a height of more than 75 miles.
The Kavoshgar (explorer) rocket is related to the Safir (ambassador) rocket, which was Iran’s first successful space launch vehicle in 2009. According to Globalsecurity.org, both rockets belong to the Shahab rocket family, a medium range rocket based off of North Korea’s No-dong missile.
In a press statement, Iran’s defense ministry bragged that the launch was “another giant step” for their space program.
According to the U.S. Institute of Peace, Iran has the largest and most diverse ballistic missile arsenal in the Middle East. Many western analysts believe that Iran’s space program is a cover for its ballistic missile program.
Missile expert Bruno Gruselle of France’s Foundation for Strategic Research told Reuters that if the report is true, the launch would be a significant step for Iran.
“If you can show that you are able to protect a vehicle of this sort from re-entry, then you can probably protect a military warhead and make it survive the high temperatures and high pressures of re-entering,” Gruselle said.
Reuters said it has been unable to independently confirm the rocket launch.
UK paper sparks outrage with cartoon of Bibi
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The UK’s Sunday Times newspaper sparked a controversy on Sunday when it ran a cartoon featuring an anti-Semitic caricature of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall using the blood of Palestinians for cement.
The crass image was entitled “Israeli elections—will cementing peace continue?” and featured a large-nosed Netanyahu laying bricks over bleeding Palestinians writhing amid the bricks.
“The Sunday Times has clearly lost its moral bearings, publishing a cartoon with a blatantly anti-Semitic theme and motif which is a modern-day evocation of the ancient ‘blood libel’ charge leveled at Jews,” said the Anti-Defamation League’s International Affairs Director, Michael A. Salberg.
Salberg called on The Times to issue an immediate response.
European Jewish Congress President Dr. Moshe Kantor called for the an apology from The Sunday Times, which published the cartoon on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“This cartoon would be offensive at any time of the year, but to publish it on International Holocaust Remembrance Day is sickening and expresses a deeply troubling mindset,” Kantor said.
“This insensitivity demands an immediate apology from both the cartoonist and the paper’s editors.
A spokesperson from The Times said that the cartoon was not anti-Semitic, and was aimed at Netanyahu and his policies, not Israel in general, or Jewish people.
Criticism mounts over Hagel’s Iran views
(JNS.org) Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel is facing criticism from conservative groups over his connection to the progressive Ploughshares Foundation.
The Ploughshares Foundation grants money to several leading progressive organizations, including National Iranian American Council (NIAC), the Center for American Progress (CAP) and J Street. Leaders for these groups have been outspoken supporters of the former Nebraska senator’s nomination.
These groups are considered to favor eliminating Iran sanctions sanctions on Iran and oppose military action against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
Additionally, the Washington Free Beacon reported that the NIAC has been suspected by some of “concealing illicit ties to the Iranian regime.”
“On Iran, his presence in the Obama administration would inject a much-needed dose of clear-sighted realism and strategic thinking,” NIAC President Trita Parsi recently wrote in the Huffington Post, defending Hagel’s positions.
“The nomination of Chuck Hagel is alarming for the future of U.S. foreign policy,” said Saba Farzan, a senior fellow and head of Iran research at the Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin, the Free Beacon reported.
“At the forefront within the debate happening in the US’s capital is that groups like NIAC cheer for Mr. Hagel,” Farzan said.
Meanwhile, as the battle over Hagel’s confirmation heats up, conservative SuperPAC groups such as the newly formed Americans for a Strong Defense have launched a media blitz of their own in several states to urge voters to persuade their senators to oppose Hagel.
The ads slam Hagel as “anti-gay, anti-woman and anti-Israel,” according to the New York Times.
Hagel’s senate hearings are expected to commence in early February.
Report: Global anti-Semitism increased nearly 45 percent
(JNS.org) Global anti-Semitism rose nearly 45 percent in 2012, according to a report presented by Israeli Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein to the Israeli cabinet, Israel Hayom reported.
Using statistics gathered from the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University, the report found that terror threats, attacks, verbal and physical street assaults, and vandalism against Jewish targets rose globally in 2012, particularly in Western Europe.
The report blamed the rise of Islamist movements and neo-Nazi groups in Europe and elsewhere as the cause for the spike.
Surprisingly, despite the rise of Islamist groups and Israel’s recent offensive in Gaza, anti-Semitism in the Middle East did not rise significantly. The report speculated that this was likely due to Arab preoccupation with internal issues and the short duration of the Gaza conflict.
As a result, Edelstein noted that this proves there is little connection between Israel’s policies and anti-Semitism.
“During Operation Pillar of Defense and following it, there was no sharp increase in anti-Semitic incidents. There is no doubt that as part of anti-Semitism there are anti-Zionist approaches and delegitimization of the State of Israel, but unfortunately, no policy of the State of Israel will diminish these manifestations of racist hatred against Jews,” he said.
Speaking to JNS.org in late 2012, Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, the director of the American Jewish Committee’s Paris office echoed similar conclusions.
“What is worrying now, since the murders in Toulouse, [is that] there has been an increase in anti-Semitic attacks unrelated to the Middle East events,” Rodan-Benzaquen said.
Netanyahu links Iranian threat to Holocaust remembrance
(JNS.org) World leaders, Holocaust survivors and religious leaders came together on Sunday to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a clear link to Iran’s nuclear efforts and the Nazis’ efforts to annihilate the Jews.
“Anti-Semitism has not disappeared and — to our regret — neither has the desire to destroy a considerable part of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. They exist and they are strong,” Netanyahu said, the Times of Israel reported.
Jan. 27 marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945 and was designated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2005 by the United Nations.
From the Vatican, Pope Benedict II warned against the horrors of the Holocaust being committed again.
“The memory of this immense tragedy, which above all struck so harshly the Jewish people, must represent for everyone a constant warning so that the horrors of the past are not repeated,” said the Pope, the Associated Press reported.
The U.S. also reaffirmed a commitment to preventing the Holocaust’s recurrence.
“The United States, along with the international community, resolves to stand in the way of any tyrant or dictator who commits crimes against humanity, and stay true to the principle of ‘Never Again,’” President Barack Obama said in a statement.
Not all leaders steered clear of controversy on the solemn day. Former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi, who is seeking office again with an alliance of far-right Italian politicians, caused outrage over comments defending Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini at a Holocaust ceremony, Reuters reported.
At Yad Vashem—Israel’s Holocaust Museum—a special memorial was put on display that features personal Holocaust-related items gathered from survivors or their descendants.
“Through these examples, we have tried to bring to light items whose stories both explain the individual story and provide testimony to join the array of personal accounts that make up the narrative of the Holocaust,” Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said in a press release.
Barak: Syria proves countries can’t always get outside support
(JNS.org) Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said global inaction on the violence in Syria is a sign that most countries cannot count on outside support or protection, even in terrible circumstances. It is widely understood that he was referring to Israel.
Barak said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that this inaction discourages Israelis from supporting uncertain moves for peace such as the exchange of territories with the Palestinians.
In Syria, Barak said, thousands of people are being “slaughtered by their own leader and the world doesn’t move,” according to the Associated Press. Even “unspeakable atrocities” do not guarantee “that there will be enough sense of purpose, sense of direction, unity of political will, readiness to translate it into action… in a way that will put an end to it.”
When it comes to Iran, he added, there “should be a readiness and capability to launch a surgical operation” if sanctions are deemed ineffective.
Left-wing Israeli activist concedes border changes necessary
(JNS.org) An Israeli kibbutz movement leader and left-wing activist said removing Israeli residents from communities located beyond Israel’s pre-1967 borders (the “Green Line”) is no longer a viable solution to the conflict over territory with the Palestinians.
“I believe the topic of two states for two peoples will come up, but I don’t think there’s any way that hundreds of thousands [of Jews] will be moved from their homes to inside the green line,” said Yoel Marshak, head of the Kibbutz Movement’s task force, according to Israel National News. “There will be agreements, or an autonomy, that will allow two nations to live side by side… The struggle today is not to remove settlements, but to find creative solutions,” he added.
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