Measure to bar envoy involved in Iran hostage crisis passes House, Senate
(JNS.org) In a unanimous voice vote on Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill that would bar the newly appointed Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Hamid Aboutalebi from entering America. Aboutalebi was part of an extremist student group that stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, taking 52 U.S. diplomats hostage for 444 days.
Four days after a similar vote in the U.S. Senate, the House approved a bill that would bar entry into the U.S. by any proposed U.N. representative who has engaged in espionage or terrorism or who may pose a threat to national security. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) praised the Senate and House for adopting the measure and urged President Barack Obama to sign the legislation.
“The appointment [of Aboutalebi] reflects the long history of Iranian terrorist activity throughout the world, which continues to this day,” AIPAC said, adding that the legislation “sends a strong message that America will take a firm stand against purveyors of terror directed at the United States and its allies.”
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Jerusalem court convicts Islamic Movement head of obstructing police operations
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court on Thursday convicted Islamic Movement head Sheikh Raed Salah of obstructing a police officer in the line of duty.
Salah was accused of interfering with police officers while they were questioning his wife when he accompanied her to enter Israel from Jordan in 2011, via the Allenby Bridge border crossing. The court, which ruled that Salah “sought to frustrate the search of his wife because to him it represented an affront to his honor,” is set to issue its sentencing at a later date.
In March, Salah was already sentenced to eight months in prison after the same Jerusalem court found him guilty of inciting violence in a speech he gave at a 2007 Friday prayer service in eastern Jerusalem. During that speech, Salah urged the Muslim world to launch a “bloody intifada” against Israel and called on participants to become “shahids” (martyrs) for the Palestinian cause.
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Bereaved Israeli families stage mock Passover seder to protest prisoner release
(JNS.org) Bereaved families and victims of Palestinian terrorist attacks staged a mock Passover seder as part of a demonstration outside the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem on Thursday, Israel Hayom reported.
The families and members of the Almagor Terror Victims Association arranged the table with matzot, wine, food, and seder plates, but instead of people sitting at the chairs there were pictures of the 183 victims of the terrorists freed in the last three stages of the Palestinian terrorist prisoner release by Israel, as part of the ongoing U.S.-brokered negotiations with the Palestinian Authority.
At the center of the table was a picture of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, whom the bereaved families hold responsible for releasing the terrorists.
“These are the people that will not be at their families’ Passover seder because they were murdered by the released terrorists,” said Almagor Chairman Meir Indor. “We are here to remind John Kerry, who blamed Israel for the ‘poof’ [of peace talks faltering], of the price that was paid by Israeli society for its goodwill gestures to the Palestinians and the false hopes of politicians. Let us remind Kerry that the ‘poof moment’ is done by the murderers with their bullets and not by building a neighborhood in Gilo in Jerusalem.”
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Naftali Bennett threatens to quit Israeli coalition over prisoner release
(JNS.org) Israeli Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett, the leader of the Habayit Hayehudi party, announced Thursday that if Israeli Arab prisoners are released as part of a U.S.-brokered deal to extend the Israeli-Palestinians peace talks, he and his party would leave the governing coalition.
“If the emerging deal includes releasing murderers with Israeli citizenship, it is an attack on Israeli sovereignty. And not only that—it would be completed despite the Palestinians not revoking their request to join international [organizations],” Bennett said, Israel Hayom reported.
The minister’s comments came after the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams met in Jerusalem on Thursday for talks mediated by U.S. special envoy Martin Indyk.
An American official said the draft deal being discussed would “approve extending talks with the Palestinians for about nine months, until January 2015.”
According to the draft deal, Israel would go ahead with the fourth stage of the prisoner release, in which 26 terrorists jailed before the Oslo Accords were signed would be released. The government would meet again and approve the release of around 12 Israeli Arab terrorists, the clause that was a “red line” for Bennett, and another 400-450 Palestinian prisoners who did not kill anyone but are serving time for security offenses related to their membership in terrorist organizations.
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Cornell student government tables Israel divestment, averting Passover vote
(JNS.org) Cornell University’s Student Assembly on Thursday voted 15-8 (with one abstention) to indefinitely table a resolution that asked the university to divest from companies doing business with Israel.
If the Students for Justice in Palestine-initiated resolution had not been tabled in Thursday’s initial discussion, it would have been up for a formal vote on April 17, in the middle of the Passover, likely harming the ability of Jewish students visiting their families for the holiday to fight the anti-Israel measure.
William Jacobson, a clinical professor at Cornell Law School,wrote on his Legal Insurrection blog that the “intention to bring the resolution to the Student Assembly was not made in regular order, was concealed from Jewish and pro-Israel groups on campus even though it has been in the works for weeks.”
Students for Justice in Palestine has also planned a “National Day of Action” for April 16, the second day of Passover. According to its advertisement on Facebook, the day is a “call to end university complicity in Israeli Apartheid” and will feature sit-ins, rallies, and teach-ins.
“This is yet another example of how anti-Israel activists are afraid to be challenged by those who disagree with them, and prefer to silence or marginalize opposing voices instead,” said Brett Cohen, national campus director for the pro-Israel education group StandWithUs. “Many Jewish students will not have the opportunity to make their voices heard because they will be away from campus with their families, or otherwise preoccupied because of the holiday.”
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State Dept. designates Sinai group as terror org. for attacks on Israel, others
(JNS.org) The U.S. State Department on Wednesday designated Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (ABM), a group operating in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
According to the State Department, ABM—which shares an ideology with al-Qaeda but isn’t a formal affiliate—is responsible for attacks on Israel, Egyptian security services, and tourists in the Sinai Peninsula. The terror group formed in the wake of the 2011 Egyptian revolution.
The attacks on Israel have included a July 2012 bombing of a Sinai natural gas pipeline to Israel, an August 2012 rocket attack on the southern Israeli city Eilat, and a September 2012 attack on an Israeli border patrol that killed one soldier and injured another. ABM has also been involved in numerous attacks on Egyptian military and government officials.
Furthermore, ABM was responsible for the February 2014 bombing of a tour bus that killed three South Korean Christian tourists and their Egyptian driver as they prepared to cross the border into Israel.
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Israel successfully launches new spy satellite
(JNS.org) Israel successfully launched a new spy satellite into orbit on Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced.
The “Ofek 10” satellite, launched in cooperation with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), is expected to be used to keep tabs on Iran and terrorist groups in the Middle East.
According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the Ofek 10 is a radar-based observation satellite that has advanced photography capabilities during daylight, at night and in any weather condition.
“The Ofek 10 satellite should improve Israel’s intelligence capability and allow the defense establishment to better deal with threats near and far,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said in a statement.
“We are continuing to strengthen our tremendous qualitative and technological advantage over our neighbors,” Ya’alon added.
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Israel is a ‘paradise’ for Christians, says Israeli Christian leader
(JNS.org) Israeli Christian leader Shadi Khalloul, spokesman for the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum, called Israel a “paradise” for Christians as part of a wide-ranging interview on the status of Middle East Christians with the Italian newspaper Informazione Corretta.
“Israel is a paradise for us. Israel is the paradise for Christians from the Middle East,” Khalloul said. “In Israel we enjoy freedom and have rights, we can say what we want, organise activities, found associations, and that is why we can be so active in society.”
Khalloul is part of a group of Israeli Christians who are seeking greater integration into Israeli life, including volunteering for military service, as well as promoting an Israeli-Christian identity that is separate from Israeli-Arab Muslims.
“We are Israeli by citizenship, Aramean by nationality and Christian by religion,” Khalloul said. “This is our identity. We are not Arabs. Christians have abandoned their identity when Arab nationalism and pan-Arabism have developed, but if you consider Christians in the Middle East today, that choice was not rewarding.”
Last month, Khalloul, along with 150 other Christians, staged a protest outside the European Union’s Embassy in Israel to demand that the EU do more to protect Middle East Christians.
“The West and Europe need to step up and do something for the Christians in Iraq, Syria, as they did in Lebanon in 1960s. They must stop Islamic and Arab terrorism, be it Sunni or Shi’i. They must take action to protect Christians, through sanctions and guaranteeing security,” Khalloul said in the interview.
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