Report: Iran, not Israel, killed nuclear scientist in 2007
(JNS.org) A new report by The Media Line news agency indicates that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, not Israel, was behind the mysterious deaths of Iranian nuclear scientists in 2007. Since the incident, conspiracy theories have claimed that the Jewish state assassinated the scientists.
Mahboobeh Hosseinpour—the sister of Iranian nuclear physicist Ardeshir Hosseinpour, who was allegedly “gassed” to death in 2007—says her brother was murdered by the Revolutionary Guard because he would not cooperate with its efforts to build an atomic bomb.
Hosseinpour, 54, told The Media Line that her sister-in-law, Sara Araghi, went to her husband’s office at Shiraz University and found evidence that the room was searched and that items were missing, including a photo of the scientist with then-Iranian President Mohammed Khatami. Araghi also found a DVD of the late Hosseinpour’s nuclear research, containing formulas for building an atomic bomb 12 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb as well as methods for neutralizing it.
Israeli government tackles hitchhiking in Judea and Samaria
(JNS.org) Following the abduction and murder of Jewish teens Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Frenkel while they were hitchhiking in Gush Etzion in June, the Israeli Education Ministry is working to prevent students at the 22 yeshivas and religious girls’ schools in Judea and Samaria from taking rides with strangers.
One of the first projects is organized transportation for students, to which the ministry allocated about $2.7 million at the beginning of this school year. The transportation includes about 200 buses per week which on Sundays pick up students from nearby cities, including Jerusalem, Beersheba, Kfar Saba, and Netanya, and on Thursdays return them to their hometowns for the weekend.
“This is a very important initiative that inspires feelings of security in the students and staff,” said Rabbi David Rabinowitz of the Makor Chaim yeshiva in Kfar Etzion, Israel Hayom reported.
Benny Fisher, the director of rural education at the Education Ministry, said the buses will not pick up hitchhiking students. “In cases where students live inside Judea and Samaria, the bus’s route will enter the town and drop the student off safely in a protected and well-lit area,” he said.
“The schools are responsible for signing the students up for transportation and for ensuring that every student has the transportation solution that they need,” added Fisher.
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Netanyahu after U.S. criticism: Jerusalem construction ‘not settlements’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday rejected U.S. government criticism of an Israeli construction plan in the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Givat Hamatos.
“I think [the Obama administration] should be acquainted with the facts first,” Netanyahu said in a NBC News interview with Andrea Mitchell in New York, after returning there from Washington, DC, where he had met with U.S. President Barack Obama earlier in the day. “You know? First of all, these are not settlements. These are neighborhoods of Jerusalem. We have Arab neighborhoods and we have Jewish neighborhoods.”
In response to reports on Wednesday of the publication of a plan, already approved by the Jerusalem Municipality two years ago, to construct 2,500 residential units in Givat Hamatos, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “The United States is deeply concerned by reports that the Israeli government has moved forward with the planning process in a sensitive area of east Jerusalem.”
“This development will only draw condemnation from the international community, distance Israel from even its closest allies, poison the atmosphere, not only with the Palestinians but also with the very Arab governments with which Prime Minister Netanyahu said he wanted to build relations,” said Earnest.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki issued a similar statement, saying that going ahead with the construction would “call into question Israel’s ultimate commitment to a peaceful negotiated settlement with the Palestinians.”
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At White House, Netanyahu warns Obama not to ease up on Iran
(JNS.org) During a meeting at the White House, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned U.S. President Barack Obama about the danger of leaving Iran with nuclear capabilities.
“Iran seeks a deal that would lift the tough sanctions that you worked so hard to put in place and leave it as a threshold nuclear power,” Netanyahu told Obama during a press conference before their private meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “And I firmly hope under your leadership that would not happen.”
In negotiations with Iran, the P5+1 powers—U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany— have supported scaling back Iran’s ability to enrich uranium to 5 percent. But Israel opposes this measure and has called for a complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program.
Netanyahu also conveyed his hopes of getting Arab states to join in on peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, something the prime minister has recently expressed in speeches at the U.N. and before American Jewish leaders in New York.
“There is something that is changing in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said. “Out of the new situation there is a commonality of interests between Israel and the leading Arab states, and I think that that we should work very hard together to seize upon the common interests and build positive progress to advance a more secure, prosperous and peaceful Middle East.”
Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama said he hopes the two sides will “find ways to change the status quo so that both Israeli citizens are safe in their own homes, and schoolchildren in their schools, from the possibility of rocket fire, but also that we don’t have the tragedy of Palestinian children being killed as well.”
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14 groups urge colleges to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism
(JNS.org) A varied group of 14 organizations has issued a letter to more than 2,500 U.S. colleges and universities that urges them to protect Jewish students on campus in light of rising anti-Semitism in America and abroad.
The organizations—including Alpha Epsilon Pi, AMCHA Initiative, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, Americans for Peace and Tolerance, Christians United for Israel, Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), David Horowitz Freedom Center, Hasbara Fellowships, Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center Campus Outreach, StandWithUs, and the Zionist Organization of America—say in the letter that “none of us should tolerate a campus climate of fear or disrespect, which can seriously impair the physical and psychological health of students and create conditions that negatively affect their learning and their ability to achieve their full potential.”
In particular, the letter raises concern over the actions of the anti-Israel campus group called Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which the letter’s signatories note has a history of “harassing and intimidating Jewish students.” The letter goes on to cite several incidents on campuses, including a recent one at Temple University in which a pro-Israel student was physically and verbally assaulted by SJP members, as well as SJP’s planting of anti-Israel mock eviction notices under students’ dorm rooms.
“While justifying its hatred and bigotry as protected under the First Amendment, the SJP employs tactics geared to silencing and marginalizing the views of Jewish students who support Israel,” the letter says.
The letter also cited that these schools are responsible for protecting Jewish students from anti-Semitism under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. “Jews around the world are being held collectively responsible for Israel’s actions, which are defensive and undertaken to protect its people,” says the letter. “This is anti-Semitism, according to U.S. government standards.”
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Eric Cantor fights subpoena to testify about Bank of China terror funding
(JNS.org) Former U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is fighting a subpoena calling on him to testify in a lawsuit that accuses the Bank of China of funding terrorist organizations, the Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday. In the case, the Israeli legal NGO Shurat HaDin is representing 22 families of American victims of terror attacks in Israel from 2003-2008.
The bank is also accused of forcing Israel to block the testimony of Israeli witnesses who knew about the bank’s terror-related financial activities. Cantor was asked to testify about his possible knowledge of the bank’s obstruction of witness testimony, based on conversations the former Virginia congressman had on the subject with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former U.S. ambassadors to Israel Ron Dermer and Michael Oren, and other Israel officials.
Attorney Eleni M. Roumel of the U.S. House of Representatives Office of General Counsel, however, has signed a motion to squash the subpoena for Cantor to testify. Roumel said that Cantor is constitutionally protected from being deposed about anything related to legislation or other aspects of his former congressional position, barring “extraordinary circumstances,” which according to Roumel do not exist in this case. Shurat HaDin is disputing this claim, saying Cantor’s conversations with Israeli officials were not part of his regular duties.
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South African group threatens to bar nurses from using Israeli circumcision device
(JNS.org) The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), an ally group of the country’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party and a proponent of the movement to boycott Israel, is protesting South Africa’s consideration of approving an Israeli-developed circumcision device.
“We have a problem that the device comes from Israel. We need to boycott everything that comes from that pariah state,” Sizwe Pamla, a spokesman for a public sector union that is part of COSATU, toldReuters.
Many South Africans undergo traditional circumcision as a right of passage to manhood, especially in the Xhosa culture, but many die as a result of blood loss or infection caused by the procedure. The South African government is studying the Israeli device, PrePex, to determine whether to officially sanction its use in the country.
PrePex, developed by the Israeli company Circ MedTech, is a non-surgical and disposable device that has been endorsed by the World Health Organization. PrePex is being used in several other African nations such as Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya.
The device has not yet been used in South African hospitals. If the country approves the device, COSATU-affiliated nurses will refuse to perform circumcision procedures with it, Pamla said.
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Netanyahu to Ban Ki-moon: Israel faces double standard at U.N.
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday that Israel faces a double standard at the world body.
When the two leaders met in New York amid the 69th U.N. General Assembly, Netanyahu “declared that there was no justice in the fact that the standard applied to Israel was different than that applied to other countries,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement, referring to the high death toll in the Syrian civil war while Israel—not Syria—is frequently targeted for criticism at the U.N.
Calling the U.N.’s conduct towards Israel “disproportionate,” Netanyahu said that unlike Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Jewish state did not direct attacks at civilians during the recent conflict in Gaza. Israel “regrets any harm done to innocent civilians,” said the prime minister.
Repeating a theme from his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Monday, Netanyahu told the secretary-general that Hamas is committing a double war crime in Gaza by using its civilians as human shields while simultaneously targeting Israeli civilians with rocket fire.
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