Israeli officials blast Obama’s demand of ‘unconditional’cease-fire
(JNS.org) Israeli officials expressed outrages on Monday after U.S. President Barack Obama urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce an “immediate, unconditional humanitarian cease-fire” in Gaza.
In a statement about a phone call between the two leaders, the White House said Obama “underscored the enduring importance of ensuring Israel’s security, protecting civilians, alleviating Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, and enacting a sustainable cease-fire that both allows Palestinians in Gaza to lead normal lives and addresses Gaza’s long-term development and economic needs, while strengthening the Palestinian Authority.”
Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel said on Army Radio that the U.S. should “go focus on Syria.”
“It was obvious that international pressure would mount eventually. …The [Palestinian] rocket threat needs to be tackled. The tunnel threat is being addressed, but it is not enough,”he said.
MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said, “The American proposal serves only the interests of Hamas. For the first time in years there is an overwhelming majority of Israelis who support the continuation of the operation. The Israeli government needs to change the rules of the game in Gaza and defeat Hamas.”
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin said the “fact that Hamas is still shooting means that it is not afraid.”
“We cannot allow Hamas to leave this confrontation with victories,”he said, Israel Hayom reported.
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Egypt destroys 13 Gaza tunnels, hunts Islamist terrorists
(JNS.org) The Egyptian military announced on Sunday that its engineering forces located and destroyed 13 cross-border smuggling tunnels dug by Palestinians in Gaza. The tunnels connect Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula.
According to the statement, Egyptian security forces are investing immense efforts into preventing contraband from entering Egypt from Gaza. So far, Egyptian authorities have found and destroyed more than 1,600 smuggling tunnels.
Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities are also making every effort to apprehend radical Islamist terror operatives in northern Sinai who pose a threat to Egypt’s military personnel. The Egyptian military said Sunday that Egyptian security forces killed 11 terrorists in the northern Sinai.
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Survey: Israel Hayom remains top-read weekday newspaper in Israel
(JNS.org) Israel Hayom is the most widely read daily newspaper in Israel on weekdays, a new Target Group Index (TGI) report revealed Monday. According to the survey, which analyzed the public’s exposure to newspapers and radio in Israel in the first half of 2014, Israel Hayom has a 39.8-percent market share.
Israel Hayom has now been Israel’s most widely read weekday newspaper for more than four years. In the latest survey, the newspaper expanded its lead over the newspaper ranked second, Yedioth Ahronoth, to a gap of more than 5 percent. Yedioth Ahronoth had a weekday market share of 34.5 percent.
On weekends, Israel Hayom’s exposure rose from about 33 percent last year to 34 percent, narrowing the gap between the newspaper and Yedioth Ahronoth, which has a weekend readership of 38 percent.
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10 more IDF soldiers killed in Gaza
(JNS.org) Ten more Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officers and soldiers were killed in ground battles in Gaza over the weekend, bringing the IDF death toll to 43 in the current conflict with Hamas.
Staff Sgt. Gal Basson, 21, from Holon, was killed in action just three months before his scheduled release from the IDF. He was “a giant hero who departed for battle knowing he was risking his life,” his aunt Orit said, according to Israel Hayom.
Staff Sgt. Guy Boyland, 21, was a combat engineer who immigrated to Israel with his parents from New Zealand.
“We had no contact with him for three weeks or a month and we were all worried about him,” his aunt, Rotem Gofar, told reporters. “There are no words to describe the sorrow and loss.”
Staff Sgt. Amit Yeori, 20, from Jerusalem, “was always modest and made do with little. …He never asked for a care package, never a visit, never extra time off,” said his father, Shahar.
The other IDF fatalities were Sgt. First Class (res.) Barak Refael Degorker, 27, from Gan Yavne; Chief Warrant Officer in the Paratroopers Brigade Rami Kahlon, 39, from Hadera; Lt. Roi Peles, 21, from Tel Aviv; Capt. Liad Lavi, 22, from Sde Nitzan; Master Sgt. (res.) Yair Ashkenazi, 36, from Rehovot; Staff Sgt. Guy Levy, 21, from Kfar Vradim; Staff Sgt. Avraham Grintzvaig, 20, from Petach Tikva.
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Terror attack thwarted by border police near Jerusalem
(JNS.org)Israeli border policemen thwarted a potential major terrorist attack on Sunday morning when they discovered a powerful explosive device in a car at the Beitar checkpoint on Route 367 southwest of Jerusalem.
The vehicle aroused suspicions of the border policemen at the checkpoint, and they ordered it to pull over. The driver, a Palestinian male, balked, prompting a policeman to reach inside the vehicle to try to grab the keys. The driver sped up, with half the policeman’s body still inside the vehicle. The policeman was able to point his weapon at the driver, who then halted the vehicle.
An explosive device was found in the vehicle and was neutralized by sappers. The driver was taken in for questioning by Israeli security forces.
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Israel approves criminal investigation against Arab MK Zoabi
(JNS.org) Israeli Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein on Friday approved a criminal investigation against Israeli-Arab Member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi (Balad) for suspicion of incitement to violence and offending a public servant.
“Last Sunday (July 20), when a police officer from the Nazareth police station had just finished giving testimony [against riot suspects] at the city’s Magistrate’s Court and went to stand with another officer before a large mob, MK Zoabi harshly verbally abused the officers,”the Israel Police said in a statement.
Zoabi, an outspoken opponent of Israel who participated in the 2010 flotilla that tried to break the naval blockade on Gaza, said in June that the kidnappers of the three murdered Israeli teens were “not terrorists.”
“The time has come for MK Zoabi to be punished for her incitement against the state of Israel,”MK Miri Regev (Likud) said.
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ADL scrutinized over interfaith camp coordinators ’alleged ties to Al-Qaeda terrorist
(JNS.org) The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is being scrutinized over the alleged ties staffers at its interfaith camp in New Hampshire have to a convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist.
Charles Jacobs and Ilya Feoktistov of the Boston-based advocacy group Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) wrote in an article for American Thinker that brothers Bilal and Ammaar Mirza—who have been involved with the ADL’s New Hampshire camp for several years, first as campers and later as staffers—have been “active in a Boston-area extremist Islamist movement”and are also supporters of convicted Al-Qaeda terrorist Tarek Mehanna.
Mehanna, a pharmacist from Sudbury, Mass., was convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda in 2012.Jacobs and Feoktistov wrote that Bilal and Ammaar have been frequently seen “taking active part in multiple rallies organized by the so-called ‘Free Tarek ’movement,”also noting that several members of that movement have been tied to anti-Semitic statements in online postings with titles such as “Close Guantanamo Bay, Reopen Auschwitz.”
ADL’s New England office did not return a JNS.org request for comment.
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ISIS blows up Tomb of Jonah in Iraq
(JNS.org) A new video shows jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) blowing up the Tomb of Jonah in Mosul, Iraq.
Several residents of Mosul confirmed to the Associated Press that the Tomb of Jonah, which is housed inside an ancient Mosque, was completely destroyed.
In early July, a different video was circulated showing a jihadist from ISIS allegedly smashing the Tomb of Jonah. But that video was later proven to be fabricated.
Jonah, from the Hebrew Bible’s Book of Jonah, was a prophet called upon by God to proclaim judgment to the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh, near modern-day Mosul. According to the story, Jonah famously fleed God’s instructions and was swallowed by a giant fish, causing him to repent for his sins. Jonah is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, who refer to him as “Younis”in Arabic.
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(JNS.org) Hamas was likely planning a major attack on Israel during Rosh Hashanah using its complex system of tunnels under the Israel-Gaza border, Israeli security sources said.
According to the report, Hamas planned to send 200 terrorists at a time through tunnels to attack several western Negev towns and to kidnap and kill as many Israelis as possible, NRG reported.
The current Israel Defense Forces operation in Gaza resulted in the premature exposure of the networks of tunnels, enabling Israel to prevent a major disaster.
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Missing Israeli soldier declared dead
(JNS.org) Israeli soldier St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul, 20, who was declared missing after a July 20 attack on his armored personnel carrier (APC) that left six other Israeli soldiers dead, was declared dead by the head Israel Defense Forces (IDF) rabbi on Friday.
After he was initially declared missing, Hamas claimed that it kidnapped Shaul. But the IDF had rejected that claim.
The APC carrying Shaul and other soldiers from the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion was destroyed when it drove over an explosive device that detonated, the Jerusalem Post reported. Shaul’s body has yet to be recovered.
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Israel ranks ‘very high’on U.N. human development index
(JNS.org) Israel ranks 19th in the world in the United Nations’Human Development Index for 2014, according to the U.N.’s 2014 Human Development Report, released July 24.
Israel is among 49 nations the report ranks as having “very high human development.”The report, titled “Sustaining Human Progress: Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience,”states that the Human Development Index is a measure of achievements in key dimensions such as a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living.
The report ranks 187 countries as having “very high, “high,”“medium”or “low” human development. Among Israel’s neighbors, Saudi Arabia was placed 34th, Lebanon 65th, Turkey 69th, Iran 75th, Jordan 77th, Egypt 110th, and Syria 118th.
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IDF: Hamas prevented civilians from evacuating UNRWA shelter in Gaza
(JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) accused Hamas of preventing civilians from evacuating a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) shelter in the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun, where at least 16 people were killed and more than 200 were injured in an apparent strike on the compound last week.
“Hamas prevented civilians from evacuating the area during the window that the IDF gave them,”the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.
The IDF said Hamas fired from Beit Hanoun and that soldiers responded by targeting the source of the fire.
UNRWA spokesman Chris Guiness initially tweeted that Israel was responsible, tweeting “BREAKING NEWS: UNRWA school sheltering displaced in #Gaza takes a direct hit from Israeli fire, 5 injured RT.” But several hours later, Guiness retracted his statement, tweeting, “When I have double checked and confirmed information about reports of the UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun #Gaza I will tweet. Should be soon RT.”
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Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: referendum must end ‘Zionist state’s
(JNS.org) Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for a referendum among Jews and Arabs living in Israel to end the “Zionist state”and suggested that armed resistance might be necessary until such a vote can be held.
“There are logical and practical means to this end, which is for people who live and belong there to pick the government of their choice through a referendum. That would be the end of a usurping fake regime,”Khamenei said in a speech to university students in Tehran, reported Yedioth Ahronoth.
“Israel’s annihilation is the only real cure,”he said, adding that his statement “doesn’t mean destroying Jews in this region.”
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Reuven Rivlin sworn in as Israeli president
(JNS.org) As Israeli soldiers continued to battle Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, Reuven Rivlin was sworn into office as Israel’s 10th president on July 24 at the Knesset.
Outgoing President Shimon Peres, 90, dedicated his last days in office to visiting bereaved families of fallen soldiers and traveling around the country to lift the spirits of Israeli citizens.
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Egyptian army thwarts terror attack near Israeli border
(JNS.org) The Egyptian army thwarted a terror attack near the Israeli border on Wednesday night, July 23, an Egyptian military source said.
According to the source, a suicide bomber attempted to approach the Israeli Kerem Shalom military base from the Sinai. The suicide bomber, who carried an explosive device and wore an explosive belt on his body, was shot dead as he was running to the Israeli border, Ma’an News Agency reported.
Additionally, the Egyptian military destroyed a vehicle in the Sinai that was loaded with grad rockets and launchers intended to be fired against Israeli and Egyptian military bases.
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