Green Dome: Trees to protect southern Israeli trains from rockets
(JNS.org) Workers have started planting hundreds of trees along the train tracks leading from Asheklon to Sderot in southern Israel in an attempt to protect the trains and passengers on that line from rocket attacks, Israel Hayom reported.
After consulting with experts, Israel Railways and the country’s Defense Ministry decided to plant several hundred trees, a tactic that will conceal the railway cars without harming the environment.
In May, a Hamas video discovered by Israeli forces revealed that the new train line might be vulnerable to missile fire from Gaza. The video depicted detailed Palestinian surveillance of an Israeli passenger train from a distance of a few hundred meters away.
After security officials assessed the railway line and discovered that some sections of the track were exposed to rocket fire, a decision was made to suspend railway service on the line during Operation Protective Edge. The trains resumed running after the cease-fire was announced.
Netanyahu thanks Christians for support during Gaza campaign
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) Executive Director Dr. Juergen Buehler last week, thanking the Christian Zionist organization for its support of Israel during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
“The support of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem has been a source of strength and encouragement for the citizens of Israel and the soldiers defending them,” Netanyahu wrote,Israel Hayom reported.
During Operation Protective Edge, the organization raised more than $277,000 for nine public bomb shelters for the residents of communities adjacent to the Israel-Gaza border, including Kibbutz Kfar Aza and the southern Bedouin village of Umm Batin.
ICEJ sent hundreds of residents of the south, including people with special needs and at-risk youths, on vacations around Israel and abroad, offering them an escape from the incessant rocket fire. The organization also sent food and clothing to Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza, organized public diplomacy campaigns for Israel overseas, and held pro-Israel rallies worldwide, including in Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, and South Africa.
Parents of slain Israeli boy call on U.N. chief to investigate Hamas
(JNS.org) Gila and Doron Tregerman—the parents of 4-year-old Daniel Tregerman, who was recently killed when a Gaza mortar hit their home—sent a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging him to investigate Hamas for war crimes as part of the U.N. inquiry into the Gaza conflict.
“The investigation Committee is not asked to investigate how terrorists shoot out of U.N. buildings and schools. … The Committee is not asked to investigate how inside buildings of the United Nations and in hospitals in Gaza terrorist infrastructure flourishes and maintains over time, or how from these places terrorists left for activity aimed against innocent people,” the Tregermans wrote.
The letter was sent before a three-member panel appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is set to begin an investigation into Israel’s actions during Operation Protective Edge. The UNHRC mandate does not call for an investigation into Hamas’s actions. The Israeli government has called the probe a “kangaroo court” and has promised not to cooperate.
Just days before the final Gaza cease-fire on Aug. 22, Daniel was killed when shrapnel from a mortar landed in his family’s living room.
“Daniel was killed from a mortar shell that was fired by Hamas members from an elementary school for boys in Gaza City. It wasn’t a stray shell. It wasn’t accidental death,” his parents wrote.
“Can you imagine our life, Mr. Secretary-General? How do you live in constant fear of mortar shell and terrorists emerging from tunnels?” they added.
Jewish celebrity Joan Rivers dies at 81
(JNS.org) Famed Jewish-American comedian, actress, and talk-show host Joan Rivers died Thursday at the age of 81. Rivers underwent surgery on Aug. 28 in New York City when she had a cardiac arrest. Since then she had been unconscious, sedated, and on life support.
“It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my mother, Joan Rivers. … She passed peacefully at 1:17 p.m. surrounded by family and close friends. My son and I would like to thank the doctors, nurses, and staff of Mount Sinai Hospital for the amazing care they provided for my mother,” her daughter, Melissa Rivers, said in statement.
Before the surgery, Rivers still had a very active presence in American media and pop culture. She co-hosted the popular E! TV show “Fashion Police” and critiqued outfits worn by celebrities at award shows.
Known for her sarcastic and sometimes controversial humor, Rivers most recently garnered attention for her epic on-camera defense of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
“Let me just tell you, if New Jersey were firing rockets into New York, we would wipe them out. If we heard they were digging tunnels from New Jersey to New York, we would get rid of Jersey. … Don’t put your God damn things in private homes, don’t put your weapon stashes in private homes,” she said in the TMZ video interview, blasting Hamas terrorists.
At Vatican, Shimon Peres proposes ‘United Nations of religions’
(JNS.org) Former Israeli President Shimon Peres met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Thursday to discuss a number of proposals on forming a united front against terrorism, including the idea to create a “United Religions” organization to combat religious extremism.
In his meeting, Peres told the pontiff that the Arab world recognizes the growing threat of terrorism that is being carried out by groups like the Islamic State. He said the Arab world “can join forces with Israel, the United States, and the European Union in the united front against terror in which religious leaders play a pivotal role, led by Your Holiness.”
In an interview with the Italian newspaper Famiglia Cristiana, Peres continued his call for world religious leaders to come together, proposing a de facto “United Nations of religions.”
“The U.N. has had its day,” Peres said. “What we need is an organization of religions, a United Nations of religions. It would be the best way to fight these terrorists who kill in the name of faith, because the majority of people are not like them, practice their religion without killing anyone, even without thinking about it.”
Pope Francis also met with Jordanian Prince El Hassan bin Talal, who is the co-founder of the Geneva-based Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue. The prince briefed the pontiff on the foundation’s work amid the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East.
In August, the Vatican called on Muslim leaders to “unequivocally condemn” the violence being carried about by terrorist groups like Islamic State against Christians and other minorities in the Middle East. The Vatican even hinted that it would break off interreligious dialogue with Muslim leaders if nothing is done to address the issue.
Ohio student leader’s bloody ALS Ice Bucket Challenge urges boycott of Israel
(JNS.org) Ohio University’s (OU) student body president, Megan Marzec, posted a video online in which she performed the “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” with a bucket of blood in order to promote a boycott of Israel.
In the video, Marzec said that “as student senate president, I’m sending a message of student concern about the genocide in Gaza and the occupation of Palestine by the Israeli state.”
“I’m urging you and OU to divest and cut all ties to academic and other Israeli institutions and businesses… This bucket of blood symbolizes the thousands of displaced and murdered Palestinians—atrocities which OU is directly complacent in through cultural and economic ties with the Israeli state,” she added before dousing herself with the blood.
Shortly after the video’s release, the OU student senate distanced itself from Marzec’s actions, tweeting, “On behalf of the student senate, we humbly apologize for the video President Megan Marzec posted.”
IDF court indicts Hamas mastermind for teens’ kidnapping, murder
(JNS.org) The IDF military court on Thursday indicted Hamas mastermind Hussam Hassan Kawasme for the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers Gilad Shaar (16), Naftali Frenkel (16), and Eyal Yifrach (19) in June.
“In an intelligence operation launched by the Shin Bet, Hussam Kawasme was tracked down arrested in a hideout in the Shuafat refugee camp,” stated the Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency. “He is the son of a family whose sons have been involved in severe terror attacks on behalf of Hamas.”
One of Kawasme’s brothers, Hassin, is currently in prison for involvement in the March 2011 bombing attack on the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, and another Kawasme brother, Mahmoud, was imprisoned for involvement in an August 2004 double suicide bombing in Beersheba that killed 16 Israelis. The Shin Bet described Hussam Kawasme, 40, as a command-level Hamas operative who raised money for June’s kidnapping with the help of Mahmoud Kawasme, who had been released and expelled by Israel to the Gaza Strip as part of the 2011 deal that secured Hamas captive Gilad Shalit’s freedom.
Hussam Kawasme allegedly used the money to buy a vehicle that was then used to kidnap the three teenagers. The two suspects in the actual kidnapping and murder are Marwan Qawasme and Amar Abu Aisha, and both are still on the run.
Jewish Agency reaches out to Jews fleeing eastern Ukraine
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Jewish Agency opened a new center in Ukraine last week, meant to offer assistance to Jews who fled the eastern part of the country over the fighting between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian separatists.
The crisis in Ukraine and the sharp increase in anti-Semitic attacks have prompted hundreds of the country’s Jews to seek ways to immigrate to Israel.
The Jewish Agency’s center, which includes a Hebrew-language course, has been set up in Dnipropetrovsk, southeast of Kiev, an area where many Ukrainian Jews have fled to.
“We hold Hebrew classes almost every day,” Jewish Agency envoy to Ukraine Max Loria said Wednesday. “The Jewish refugees learn to speak Hebrew and they also learn about Israel’s history and about the customs in Israel today, with the aim of preparing them for life in Israel.”
Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, who was born in the Ukrainian city of Donetsk, said, “Growing up in Donetsk, no one could have ever imagined a war between Russia and Ukraine. Today, things have spun out of control and many Jews have become refugees. Our challenge now is to help them and to convince them that Israel is the best place for them.”
Last week, Rabbi Pinchas Vishedski, the leader of Donetsk’s Jewish community, described the effects of fighting on the city as “a humanitarian crisis,” adding that the exodus of the city’s Jews was a “churban”—the Hebrew term for destruction. “We need everyone’s prayers,” he said.
Donetsk’s Jewish community once numbered 10,000 people, but it is believed that only about 1,000 Jews remain in the city. According to the U.N., some 2,600 people have been killed and more than 340,000 people have been displaced since the crisis in eastern Ukraine began in April. The area was once home to more than 25,000 Jews, but thousands have fled the region since the hostilities began.
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