Report: Netanyahu, Abbas met secretly in Jordan before cease-fire
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Jordanian newspaper Al Ghad reported Thursday that several days before the cease-fire agreement struck between Israel and Hamas on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas secretly met in the Jordanian capital of Amman.
According to the report, the secret meeting was initiated and sponsored by Jordan. The report did not specify the topics discussed in the meeting, but it has been suggested that the two touched on the cease-fire in Gaza. Last month, Jordan presented a proposal for a lasting cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, based on the earlier American proposal.
The report of the secret meeting was not confirmed by either Israel or the Palestinians. Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz (Hatnuah) told Israel Radio on Thursday that if the report is true, “it proves that Netanyahu is fulfilling his responsibility to the state, by exploring every avenue to create a new diplomatic reality.”
62 Israeli soldiers wounded in Gaza still hospitalized
(JNS.org) Sixty-two Israeli soldiers who were wounded during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza as of Thursday remain hospitalized in various medical facilities nationwide, including at the Sheba, Soroka, Hadassah, and Rambam hospitals.
Seven soldiers are in serious condition, while some 40 others have started their rehabilitation process at central Israel’s Beit Loewenstein Rehabilitation Center, Israel Hayom reported.
Five civilians injured as a result of the fighting are still hospitalized as well. One is in serious condition, three are in moderate condition, and one has started rehabilitation.
According to the Israeli Health Ministry, hospitals nationwide have treated 2,354 Israelis who were wounded during the operation. The ministry noted that 2,500 Israelis suffering from anxiety sought the help of mental health crisis centers.
Magen David Adom emergency services said its paramedics treated 842 civilians during the 50-day military campaign.
Israel set to receive 4th Dolphin-class submarine
(JNS.org) Israel’s fourth Dolphin-class submarine will arrive from Germany, where it was constructed, by the end of the year. The advanced submarine, named the INS Tanin, was originally scheduled to sail to Israel in 2013, but its journey was delayed.
After arriving in Israel, the submarine will undergo operational preparations and have Israeli systems installed onboard, according to Israel Hayom. This process will take several months, after which the submarine will become operational.
A fifth Dolphin-class submarine, the INS Rahav, is expected to arrive in Israel next year. In February 2013, then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak signed an agreement with Germany for the construction and delivery of a sixth Dolphin-class submarine. A name has yet to be chosen for this submarine, and it is not expected to arrive in Israel until around 2019.
The cost of each of the three new submarines is around half a billion dollars. Dolphin submarines are considered to be versatile multipurpose vessels able to carry out a wide variety of missions.
Police suspect Israeli Arab drug dealers aided Hezbollah
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Shin Bet security agency and the Israel Police recently arrested a number of Israeli Arabs on suspicion of providing intelligence to Hezbollah terrorist agents, it was revealed on Thursday when a gag order was lifted.
The suspects were arrested at the end of July for alleged drug deals with operatives working with Hezbollah in Lebanon. During the course of their interrogation, it was revealed that they had been in contact with George Nimar, a Lebanese drug dealer and Hezbollah operative.
The investigation revealed that Nimar had planned to transfer ammunition and drugs into Israel and that extensive preparatory work had been done along the border between Lebanon and Israel ahead of the planned smuggling operation.
Several of the suspects, all residents of towns in northern Israel, had been in contact with Nimar in the past, and one of them was apprehended with illegal weapons in his possession.
Hamas has suffered ‘greatest blow’ since its founding, Netanyahu says
(JNS.org) In his first address since the latest Gaza cease-fire went into effect, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Hamas has suffered the “greatest blow since the organization’s founding.”
According to Netanyahu, among Israel’s achievements during the 50-day Operation Protective Edge was the destruction of Hamas’s terror tunnels, that some 1,000 Hamas fighters were killed “including very senior commanders,” and that “thousands of rocket arsenals, launch sites and weapons caches were destroyed along with hundreds of command centers.”
Additionally, Netanyahu noted that Israel had accepted every Egyptian-brokered cease-fire from the start of the conflict, while Hamas conditioned its compliance on whether or not its demands were met.
“[Hamas] demanded a seaport and did not achieve this; they demanded an airport and did not achieve this; they demanded the release of prisoners placed back under arrest following the murder of the three murdered Israeli boys; they demanded monetary compensation and salaries which they did not receive; they demanded that negotiations be conducted by Turkey or Qatar and this they did not get,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister also spoke about the growing threat of Islamic radicalism in the Middle East and how Israel’s mission successfully convinced the international community “that Hamas, ISIS, and al-Qaeda are all part of the same family.”
Alluding to Arab states like Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates who have come out firmly against the growing threat of Islamic radicalism, Netanyahu said that there are now “new possibilities” in the region for Israel with “moderate regional states,” adding that “we’ll try to advance those possibilities.”
Islamic State actions in Iraq are ‘attempted genocide,’ says Catholic patriarch
(JNS.org) Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace Joseph III Younan called the Islamic State terror group’s actions in Iraq “pure and simple religious cleansing and attempted genocide” following a visit to the region.
Younan was in Iraq this week as part of a delegation of Catholic and Orthodox patriarchs who visited the Kurdistan capital of Irbil to give moral and spiritual support to hundreds of thousands of displaced Christians and other minorities there.
“What we, the five patriarchs, saw in Ankawa, Irbil, and other cities of Kurdistan was something indescribable in terms of the violation of human rights and the threat of disappearing of various communities among the vulnerable minorities of Northern Iraq,” Younan said, the Catholic News Service reported.
Younan added that he saw “hundreds of families still living on the streets, exposed to an unbearable heat wave, lacking the basic needs and primarily fearing for their future.”
The delegation of patriarchs is set to attend the Sept. 9-11 In Defense of Christians (IDC) Inaugural Summit for Middle East Christians in Washington, DC. At the IDC summit, the patriarchs hope to press international leaders to commit themselves to the survival of Christians in the Middle East.
Palestinian Fatah official: ‘there are no innocent Israelis’
(JNS.org) An official of Fatah—the party led by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas that entered into a unity government with the Hamas terrorist group before the escalation of the recent conflict—recently said “there are no innocent Israelis.”
Senior Palestinian official and Fatah leader Abbas Zaki said Aug. 22 that he opposes the PA joining the International Criminal Court because the move means Palestinians who shoot Israelis could be tried in international courts.
“I’m against signing the Rome Statute (i.e., joining the International Criminal Court) as long as our country is occupied. If tomorrow you shoot, they’ll say you signed an agreement. This is not meant for people who want to liberate their country… I think the [Palestinian] people’s weapon is pure—they don’t want to kill. By the way, there are no innocent Israelis,” Zaki said, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported Aug. 27.
This is not the first time Zaki has spoken in favor of Palestinian violence against Israelis. “Allah will gather them (Israelis) so we can kill them,” he said earlier this year, according to PMW.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu asks Dutch pension fund to divest from Israel
(JNS.org) Anti-Israel activist South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu asked the world’s third-largest pension fund, the Dutch ABP, to “strike a powerful, non-violent blow for peace in the Middle East” by divesting from three Israeli banks.
An ABP spokeswoman confirmed that the fund will consider Tutu’s request, as well as a request from the Dutch lobby group Christians for Israel to continue investing in the banks.
The three Israeli banks in question are Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank. ABP has about 51 million euros ($67 million) worth of holdings in the banks.
In a letter to ABP, Tutu wrote that investing in the banks enables “the expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories, and profit from the illegal seizure of this land.”
“Your Board has a choice—continue to turn a blind eye to the facts and claim ABP investments are somehow ring-fenced from bolstering Israel’s occupation, or join the growing movement towards divestment, which will reduce the company’s risk, respect international law and strike a powerful, non-violent blow for peace in the Middle East,” wrote Tutu, Reuters reported.
Another Dutch pension fund, PGGM, in January pulled investments from five Israeli banks, including the three named named in Tutu’s letter to ABP.
Syrian mortar fire continues to spill into Israel
(JNS.org) Syrian mortar fire continued to spill into Israel on Wednesday, striking the Golan Heights and wounding a 52-year-old Israeli man.
The latest incident in the Golan Heights comes as an Israeli soldier was wounded by a stray mortar shell from the fighting in Syria. The Israel Defense Forces responded with artillery fire at Syria.
“There was errant fire from the internal fighting in Syria and an officer was moderately wounded in the Golan Heights,” an IDF spokesperson said, AFP reported.
Fighting between the Syrian government and rebel forces at the United Nations-monitored Quneitra border crossing has increased over the past few days. According to reports, rebels from the al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group Al-Nusra Front have taken control of the border crossing. The Israeli government has warned local farmers to evacuate the area.
Israeli robotics company that helps the paralyzed walk again to go public
(JNS.org) ReWalk Robotics, the Israeli company that developed an exoskeleton system enabling paralyzed people to walk again, has announced that it is going public with the hope of making its system more widely available.
The company announced Wednesday that it will go public on New York’s NASDAQ stock exchange and hopes to raise $50 million by offering 3.4 million shares in a price range of $14-$16. The initial public offering (IPO) is set to take place in the second week of September under the symbol RWLK.
The announcement follows last month’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of ReWalk’s exoskeleton system. The system was developed Dr. Amit Goffer, who became a quadriplegic after an accident in 1997, and allows paralyzed people to independently walk on their own by using computers and motion sensors built into the robotic frame. The system has also proven to have both physical and mental benefits for its users. ReWalk currently offers two systems, one designed for patients in rehabilitation and another for personal use at home.
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