JNS news briefs: November 18, 2014

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Terror attack on Jerusalem synagogue kills 4, including 3 Americans

(JNS.org) A terrorist attack on the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood on Tuesday morning killed four Jewish worshippers, including three American citizens, and wounded at least eight others.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened an emergency security meeting at his office, saying that Israel “will respond with a heavy hand to the brutal murder of Jews who came to pray and were met by reprehensible murderers.” Netanyahu also blamed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for inciting the violence that led to the attack.

“This is the direct result of incitement being led by Hamas and Abbas, incitement which the international community is irresponsibly ignoring,” Netanyahu said.

Rasan and Oudai Abu Jamal, two Arab terrorists from eastern Jerusalem, attacked worshippers inside the synagogue with butcher knives, axes, and guns, killing four people. The terrorists were then killed in a shootout with police. The Israel Police reported that the terrorists were affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The three American victims included Moshe Twersky, 59, head of the English-speaking Yeshiva Toras Moshe in Jerusalem; Har Nof resident Aryeh Kupinsky, 43; and Har Nof resident Kalman Zeev Levine, 55. The fourth victim was British-born Avraham Shmuel Goldberg, 68.

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Israeli technology to protect Germanys new transport planes

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Haifa-based Elbit Systems Ltd. will equip Germany’s new Airbus A400 fleet of transport planes with Israeli-developed laser technology to counter the threat of shoulder missiles, Elbit announced Monday.

Elbit said it had been awarded a contract to install its “J-MUSIC multi-spectral Directed Infrared Counter Measure (DIRCM) systems for the first phase of the German air force’s self-protection program.” The project, which will last 12 months, is part of a joint endeavor with the German corporation Diehl Defense.

“Designed to protect large military and commercial aircraft against attacks by ground to air heat-seeking man-portable missiles (MANPADS), the J-MUSIC systems will be integrated into a multi-turret DIRCM system, ensuring 360-degree protection of the aircraft,” Elbit said, noting that it has “completed extensive testing of the J-MUSIC system and has already delivered systems to equip several types of aircraft to various customers.”

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Wounded Temple Mount activist speaks out for first time since shooting

(JNS.org) Jewish Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick, who was seriously wounded in an Oct. 29 shooting attempt on his life, on Monday spoke for the first time about the attack.

“I am not in the hospital because I had appendicitis. I am not here because I was shot for being a redhead. I am here because someone thought they would attack Israel,” Glick said, speaking to Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau, who had come to visit him at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

“He [the attacker] came up to me and stood in front of me. I, in my naivete, did not suspect anything. He said to me, ‘I am very sorry but you are an enemy of Al-Aqsa,’ and then he shot me. There was someone with me, Shai [Malka, director of the Likud party’s nationalist camp], and he told me, ‘Yehuda, we need you,’ and then we ran,” said Glick.

 

Israeli Druze leader: We are not Palestinians

(JNS.org) Israeli Druze “are not Palestinians,” a Druze leader said regarding a proposed law to officially codify Israel’s status as a “Jewish state.”

As opposed to Muslim Arabs, members of the Druze community tend to be pro-Israel.

“We are not Palestinians and do not have religious or cultural connections with them, but are full Israeli citizens. I want the state to be a Jewish state and not one of ‘all its citizens,’” said Atta Farhat, the head of the Druze Zionist Council for Israel, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Farhat said Jews “respect others and their way of life.”

“We see what is happening in Iraq, Egypt, and other Arab countries. We don’t want to live under a government of darkness, but where we have freedom,” added Farhat.

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Kansas City shooter surprised victims werent Jewish

(JNS.org) The man charged with murdering three people in shootings at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City in and a nearby retirement village last April said he was surprised to learn that his victims were not Jewish.

White supremacist Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr., 73, of Aurora, Mo., is accused of killing Dr. William Lewis Corporon, 69, Corporon’s 14-year-old grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, and 53-year-old Terri LaManno. All three victims were Christian, but Miller told the Kansas City Star he went to the two locations “for the specific purpose of killing Jews.”

Miller said he “was convinced there would be all Jews or mostly Jews” at the locations, but that the shootings still accomplished his goal of making “Jews feel less secure.”

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United Arab Emirates designates two U.S. Muslim organizations as terror groups

(JNS.org) The United Arab Emirates (UAE) officially designated 83 groups as terrorist organizations on Saturday, including two U.S.-based Muslim organizations—the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim American Society (MAS).

Other terrorist groups blacklisted by the UAE include al-Qaeda and its Syrian-affiliated the al-Nusra Front, Islamic State, Boko Haram, Hezbollah, and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Emirates News Agency reported.

CAIR has close ties with the Hamas terrorist group and its parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood. In 2007, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the FBI’s case against the Hamas-linked Holy Land Foundation, which was eventually found guilty of aiding Hamas.

MAS also has purported ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. According to an investigation by the Chicago Tribune, MAS was partially formed by U.S.-based Muslim Brotherhood members.

The UAE, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia have stepped up cooperation against Islamic extremism. Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are participating in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, while Egypt has cracked down on the Muslim Brotherhood as well as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, the Sinai-based terror group which recently declared allegiance to Islamic State.

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Egypt to double Gaza buffer zone after discovery of longer smuggling tunnels

(JNS.org) The Egyptian army has announced plans to double its security buffer zone along the Gaza border to 1 kilometer (about six-tenths of a mile) in an effort to end weapons smuggling by terrorist groups in the region.

Egypt’s decision came after the discovery of longer tunnels—spanning between 800 and 1,000 meters (2,625 to 3,280 feet)—under the Gaza border, Al-Ahram reported.

The initial plan to create the buffer zone came after an upsurge in terrorist attacks against Egyptian military and police personnel in the Sinai Peninsula by terrorist groups such as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which recently declared allegiance to the Islamic State.

Egypt has accused Gaza-ruling Hamas—an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is now a state-banned terrorist organization in Egypt—of supporting terror groups in the Sinai Peninsula.

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