Egypt President Mohamed Morsi ousted by military
(JNS.org) Mohamed Morsi, the Islamist president of Egypt whose rule sparked protests that had engulfed the country since last Friday, was removed from power on Wednesday by the Egyptian military.
The constitution of Egypt was also suspended. Egypt Army Chief General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said in a televised speech that Adly Mansour, chief justice of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court, would temporarily assume the presidency until a new election is held.
Morsi’s ouster, which comes shortly after the one-year anniversary of his rise to power on June 30, 2012, marks the second time in less than three years that the president of Egypt has fallen. Hosni Mubarak resigned in February 2011, ceding control to the military following the popular revolt against him.
Unlike Mubarak, Morsi refused to yield to the popular movement against him, and was instead forced out. He said in a speech before being overthrown by the military, “The price of preserving legitimacy is my life. Legitimacy is the only guarantee to preserve the country.” Morsi later tweeted that the military’s actions represented “a full coup, categorically rejected by all the free men of our nation.”
After Morsi had rejected the military’s ultimatum to surrender to public pressure and resign within 48 hours, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, headed by General al-Sisi, posted on Facebook, “We swear to God that we will sacrifice our blood for Egypt and its people against all terrorists, extremists and ignorant [group].”
On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians gathered around Cairo’s Tahrir Square to urge Morsi to step down on the one-year anniversary of his election.
“It’s the same politics as Mubarak but we are in a worse situation,” said Sameh al-Masri, one of the organizers on the main stage of Sunday’s protest, Al-Jazeera reported. “Poverty is increasing, inflation is increasing. It’s much worse than Mubarak.”
The protests against Morsi were part of a campaign started last month known as Tamarod, which had gathered more than 22 million signatures on a petition calling for Morsi’s resignation.
Tighten Iran sanctions before Islamic Republic reaches nucler goal, U.S. Reps. say
(JNS.org) Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) and the committee’s ranking member U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), in addition to 43 other members of the committee, in a July 1 letter urged U.S. President Barack Obama to increase pressure on Iran to discontinue its nuclear weapons program.
Despite western sanctions, Iran, which recently elected so-called reformist Hassan Rohani as president to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinijad, continues to import a high grade of refined alumina ore from several European countries, including Germany and France. The alumina ore is possibly being used to make missile components.
The importing of such material has so far been excluded from European sanctions on Iran, though “after July 1, new sanctions will blacklist metals trade with Iran… and should include alumina,” said Mark Dubowitz, a frequent advisor to the Obama administration on Iran sanctions, according to Reuters.
In their letter, the House Foreign Affairs Committee members wrote that Iran’s election “unfortunately has done nothing to suggest a reversal of Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capacity… It is important that you leave no doubt in the minds of the Iranian government that the United States will do all it can to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.”
*
Record-breaking $5 million Jewish camping gift for MetroWest NJ community
(JNS.org) The Jewish Community Foundation of Greater MetroWest NJ (JCF) on July 3 announced that it has received a $5 million Jewish camping gift, representing a record-breaking amount for North America.
Given in support of a permanent Jewish camping fund, the gift “will create the first endowed full-time Jewish camp position in a federation in North America,” according to a press release from the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, of which the JCF is the planned giving and endowment arm.
“[The gift] will also provide ongoing support for several related programs: as many as 250 incentive grants for first-time overnight campers each summer, more affordable camp options for families, a ‘pipeline’ program to encourage Jewish day campers to transition to Jewish overnight camp, and ‘innovations; funding for programs that bring the power of Jewish camp to the community year-round,” the press release said.
Jeremy Fingerman, chief executive officer of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, said in a statement that the Greater MetroWest community’s Jewish camping efforts “will set the standard for others across North America.”
*
Amy Winehouse exhibit opens in London Jewish Museum
(JNS.org) The London Jewish Museum has opened a new exhibit on British-Jewish singer Amy Winehouse, who died in 2011 at the age of 27. “Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait” displays items from Winehouse’s childhood and drama school years, as well as her years in the music industry.
In the last years of her life, Winehouse may have been better known for battling drugs and alcohol than for her singing, but she was also “simply a little Jewish kid from North London with a big talent,” her older brother Alex describes. Visitors to the exhibit will see the singer’s school uniforms and “Dr. Seuss” books, and learn that her hobbies included reading Charles Bukowski and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, solving Sudoku puzzles, and more.
“It’s a story that people don’t know about Amy, her family story… You can forget there’s a person behind the hype,” London Jewish Museum Chief Executive Abigail Morris said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. The exhibition opened Wednesday and will run through Sept. 15 of this year.
*
German paper’s cartoon depicting Israel as wild monster draws ire
(JNS.org) Israeli Ambassador to Germany Yakov Hadas-Handelsman and Jewish activists have criticized a major Munich newspaper, Süddeutsche Zeitung, for publishing a cartoon demonizing Israel.
The cartoon depicted Israel as a wild monster about to feast with a fork and a knife while being served by a woman, along with with the wording, “Germany is serving. Israel has been given weapons for decades and partly free of charge. Israel’s enemies think it is a ravenous Moloch.”
Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Rabbi Abraham Cooper said, “the characterization of the Jewish state as a ravenous Moloch—an idol to whom children were sacrificed—is a blatant anti-Semitic canard,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
Hadas-Handelsman wrote a letter to Kurt Kister, the German paper’s editor-in-chief, stating that the drawing crosses the “limits of acceptable journalistic presentation.”
*
Poll reveals skepticism on Kerry peace efforts
(JNS.org) A large percentage of Israelis and Palestinians view peace efforts by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry with skepticism, says a new poll conducted by Harry S. Truman Institute at Hebrew University and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
The poll also revealed that while 57 percent of the Israeli respondents supported mutual recognition of Israeli and Palestinian national identity in a final status agreement and 37 percent opposed that step, only 42 percent of Palestinians supported mutual recognition and 56 percent were against it.
According to the poll, only 27 percent of Palestinians and 10 percent of the Israelis think the two sides “will return to negotiations and violence will stop,” while 34 percent of Israelis and 31 percent of Palestinians “believe that negotiations will resume but some armed attacks will continue as well.”
Forty-four percent of Israelis and 15 percent of Palestinians think that the two sides will not return to negotiations and that “armed attacks will not stop.” A strong majority of both Israelis (68 percent) and Palestinians (69 percent) do not think there will be a Palestinian state within five years.
Since taking office in February, Kerry has made five visits to Israel and the Palestinian territories in a bid to restart peace talks. After concluding his most recent trip on Sunday, Kerry expressed disappointment in the conduct of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
‘Christian Century’ under fire for ties with editor from magazine accused of anti-Semitism
(JNS.org) The Christian Century, a mainline Christian magazine based in Chicago, has come under fire from the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) for its ties to James M. Wall, an associate editor at the controversial Veterans News Now (VNN), who appears on the publication’s masthead.
According to CAMERA, VNN is a magazine that “traffics in ugly anti-Semitic tropes and imagery,” including several recent pieces that highlighted “Jesus’ Aryan identity” and a pro-Iran piece titled “Abraham is Not My Father.” On the front page of VNN on July 3, an article titled “Earth’s alpha predator: Zionist Mafia” argues that the American public has been “brainwashed by lies” from the Zionists.
“I am shocked by Christian Century’s decision to keep Wall on the masthead, but I probably shouldn’t be. The publication, which has a long history of difficulties related to Jews and Israel, has never been all that alarmed by Islamist anti-Semitism in the Middle East, so why should they care about home-grown anti-Semitism in the U.S.?” Dexter Van Zile, CAMERA’s Christian media analyst, told JNS.org.
In a statement to CAMERA, David Heim, executive editor at The Christian Century, defended Wall’s association with his magazine.
“James Wall did a lot for our magazine,” Heim said. “He deserves to be on our masthead.”
Heim added that he appreciates the different perspectives Wall brings to understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org