JNS news briefs: August 11, 2014

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Egypt’s El-Sisi and Saudi King Abdullah meet in Jeddah

(JNS.org) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah at a royal palace in Jeddah on Sunday.

The two leaders of the Arab world’s most populous and wealthy states met to discuss both regional and international issues, including the conflict in Gaza and the situation in Iraq, Al-Arabiya reported.

“There is no doubt that the meeting between the leadership of the two countries is important in light of the current circumstance of the Arab and Muslim nation,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said,  according to the Saudi state news agency SPA.

Many in the Arab world have criticized the two leaders for their soft response to Israel’s campaign against Hamas. Analysts speculate that both leaders favor Israel weakening or destroying Hamas, an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared a terrorist organization by Egypt and Saudi Arabia last year. Egypt is currently leading efforts to broker a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

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Israeli government approves ‘economic Iron Dome’ for southern Israel

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israeli government on Sunday approved a financial aid package to rehabilitate the southern communities most affected by Hamas rocket fire during Operation Protective Edge.

The plan, formulated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and other top ministers, will see the immediate transfer of $6.6 million in auxiliary funding to the Gaza vicinity communities, and an additional $3.9 million to the southern city of Sderot.

As part of the multi-year plan, the full costs of which are estimated at $120.5 million, the Israeli government will fund the restoration and construction of public parks, sports centers, and public and cultural institutions in southern Israel, as well as invest in the fortification of existing daycare centers, public building and infrastructure.

“It is clear that beyond the need to restore peace and quiet in the south and all across Israel, we also have to make a special effort to nurture the south, as part of meeting our national challenges. We will do so is the shortest timeframe possible,” Netanyahu said Sunday.

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Report: Hamas executed dozens of terror tunnel diggers

(JNS.org) Hamas has executed dozens of terror tunnel diggers during the past couple of weeks over fears that they could pass along information to Israel, according to the Israel news site Mako, citing a source in Gaza familiar with the tunnel industry.

“They would take the diggers, about a hundred men, in vans with blindfolds so that they wouldn’t know the location of the tunnels and at the end of the day would blindfold them again and return them to their homes,” claims the Gaza source. “They feared that maybe one of them was collaborating with Israel.”

According to the Gaza source, each group of excavators worked in 8 to 12 hour shifts and were paid $150 to $300 a month.

“They were very cruel,” the Gaza source added. “They annihilated some of the diggers because there was a rumor circulating that a few of them had worked with Israel or had been in touch with Israeli civilians.

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U.S. bombing ISIS in Yazidi region of Iraq

(JNS.org) U.S. warplanes began bombing terrorists from the jihadist terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) Friday on order by President Barack Obama, who said the U.S. must act to prevent “genocide.”

ISIS terrorists have been brutally executing Christians and Yazidis in the areas they have taken over, including beheadings and crucifixions.

ISIS have ordered Yazidis, a Kurdish religious minority, to convert or die. Tens of thousands of Yazidis have fled from areas taken over by ISIS and have gathered on a mountain, where they have limited access to food and water. In addition to the air strikes, the U.S. is also dropping supplies to the refugees.

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Hillary Clinton: Blame Hamas for Gaza civilian deaths

(JNS.org) Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Hamas ultimately bears the “responsibility” for the civilian casualties in Gaza.

In a wide-ranging interview conducted by The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Clinton harshly criticized Hamas for starting the conflict and placing civilians in harm’s way by “embedding rockets and command-and-control facilities and tunnel entrances in civilian areas.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that Hamas initiated this conflict and wanted to do so in order to leverage its position,” Clinton said.

In referencing the civilian casualties in Gaza, Clinton said that all democracies, including the United States, have made mistakes that resulted in civilian deaths.

“I don’t know a nation, no matter what its values are—and I think that democratic nations have demonstrably better values in a conflict position—that hasn’t made errors, but ultimately the responsibility rests with Hamas.”

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South Korea interested in purchasing Iron Dome system

(JNS.org) South Korea is reportedly interested in purchasing Israel’s highly successful Iron Dome missile defense system to protect itself against rockets that could potentially be launched from North Korea.

Developed by Israeli defense company Rafael Systems, the Iron Dome system has scored a 90 percent success rate in shooting down Hamas’s short-range rockets that target Israeli civilian areas, according to Israeli officials.

“[South Korea] is very worried not only about rockets, but other things as well … You can certainly include them in the club of interested countries,” Rafael CEO Yedidia Yaari told Israel’s Army Radio, adding that Rafael representatives have visited South Korea’s capital Seoul.

The U.S. Congress recently approved an additional $225 million in emergency funding for Iron Dome.

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BBC urges caution on Gaza casualty figures

(JNS.org) A report from the BBC’s head of statistics urges caution on using Gaza casualty figures from Palestinian sources, saying that the “conclusions being drawn from them may be premature” due to the high ratio of combat-aged men being killed.

According to the BBC, most news organizations have been using casualty figures provided by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), which most recently reported that 1,843 Palestinians, 66 Israelis and one Thai national had been killed since Operation Protective Edge began on July 8th.

“Of those Palestinians, the status of 279 could not be identified, at least 1,354 were civilians, including 415 children and 214 women, the UN body reported,” the BBC said.

However, the BBC said that among the civilian deaths, there are “more than three times as many men killed as women, while three times as many civilian men killed as fighters.”

It is impossible to know for sure “how many of the dead in Gaza are civilians and how many were fighters.”

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Israel accepts new ceasefire proposal, despite continued rocket attacks

(JNS.org) The Israeli government has accepted another 72-hour despite heavy rocket fire from Gaza on Sunday.

The Israeli government said in a statement that it accepted the Egyptian brokered ceasefire that took effect at midnight local time. The head of the Palestinian delegation in Cairo, Azzam al-Ahmed, said that all the Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, had accepted ceasefire, the New York Times reported.

According to a statement from the Egyptian government, the ceasefire will allow for the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza as well as the resumption of negotiations for a permanent ceasefire.

Just minutes before the ceasefire was scheduled to go into effect, rocket fire could be heard throughout southern Israel as well as over the greater Tel Aviv area.

If the ceasefire holds, Israeli diplomats said they will return to Cairo on Monday to continue negotiations.

Hamas refused to renew a previous 72-hour ceasefire last week and resumed rocket fire two hours before it was set to expire last Friday.

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Professor loses University of Illinois appointment over anti-Israel tweets

(JNS.org) A professor who was set to begin a position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign had his job offer rescinded due to controversial tweets he posted about Israel.

Steven Salaita, a former associate professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, tweeted on Aug. 2, “When will the attack on #Gaza end? What is left for #Israel to prove? Who is left for Israel to kill? This is the logic of genocide.”

“#Israel is rounding up people and murdering them at point-blank range. The word ‘genocide’ is more germane the more news we hear,” he also tweeted.

Inside Higher Ed reported that due to concern over the tweets, University of Illinois Chancellor Phyllis Wise informed Salaita that his appointment would not be submitted to the school’s board of directors for approval.

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MK Shaked: Obama admin. doesnt understand rules of the jungle

(JNS.org) Israeli MK Ayelet Shaked slammed the Obama administration’s Mideast policy during remarks to U.S. Evangelical Christian pastors at the Knesset on Thursday.

“I want to thank you for your support for Israel,”Shaked told the pastors, who were in Israel as part of a solidarity mission organized by Christians United For Israel (CUFI).

Shaked thanked the U.S. for approving additional Iron Dome missile defense system funding, but said the Obama administration “lacks a fundamental understanding of the Middle East.”

“They don’t understand the rules of the jungle,”Shaked said when describing recent cease-fire efforts by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who included Hamas supporters Qatar and Turkey in talks.

CUFI Executive Director David Brog reacted to Shaked’s comments by explaining that CUFI “has a clear policy—we do not interfere in internal Israeli politics.”

“The people of Israel are the only people who have the right to make the decisions about war and peace, on which their future depends,” Brog told JNS.org.

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