JNS news briefs: November 19, 2014

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Iranian spy reaches plea deal, will serve 7-8 years in Israeli prison
(JNS.org) Ali Mansouri, 58, an Iranian national arrested more than a year ago on suspicion of spying for Iran against Israel, will confess to the charges against him after initially denying them and will be sentenced to a prison term of seven to eight years. Mansouri’s plea deal will be presented to the Lod District Court in central Israel.

In October 2013, Mansouri was indicted on charges of spying for Iran. When he was arrested, Israeli authorities recovered many photographs of various Israeli sites, including Ben-Gurion International Airport, the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, and several defense-related sites.

It was discovered that Mansouri had entered Israel several times using a Belgian passport under the name of “Alex Mans,” and posed as a businessman. In reality, however, Mansouri was working for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ special ops unit—a body responsible for multiple terror attacks against Israeli targets around the world.

According to the charges, Mansouri arrived in Israel to build a network that was to be used by a more senior Iranian agent in the future. He initially denied the allegations, but subsequently said the Iranians forced him to act by threatening to harm his family. He is expected to admit to the amended charges of contact with a foreign agent and espionage.

Terrorists’ hometown celebrates Jerusalem synagogue massacre
(JNS.org) Residents of the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, the hometown of the perpetrators of Tuesday’s synagogue attack, celebrated the attack and expressed pride in the actions of their native sons.

The terrorists, cousins Rasan and Oudai Abu Jamal, were shot dead by security forces after their bloody assault that killed five Jewish worshippers and injured seven others. “We are proud of what they did,” said one family member of the terrorists. “They are heroic martyrs.”

The celebrations in Jabel Mukaber quickly turned into violent disturbances, with rioters throwing stones and other objects at police stationed in the area. In an incident near the Old City of Jerusalem’s New Gate, a Jewish cyclist was hit with sticks and thrown off his bike by two Arab attackers, Israel Hayom reported.

Israeli Druze policeman succumbs to wounds from synagogue attack
(JNS.org) Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Zidan Saif, a 30-year-old Israeli Druze policeman, died in the hospital Tuesday night from injuries he suffered during a shootout with the terrorists who carried out Tuesday’s synagogue attack in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem. Saif is the fifth fatality in the attack.

Saif was among the first two police officers to arrive at the scene of the slaughter, and one of three policemen credited with quelling the attack and preventing further injuries and death. He and another traffic officer arrived first, followed by a forensics officer. The two traffic officers approached the entrance to the synagogue and carried out a gun battle with the two terrorists.

Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Moafaq Tarif said that many Druze serve in the Israeli security forces and work on a daily basis to eliminate terror risks for Israel. “We are proud of our sons who fearlessly fight against terror attacks,” he said, according to Israel Hayom.

“It is a black day for Israeli society and the state of Israel when citizens are murdered for being Jewish,” said Tarif. “The Druze people condemn this disgusting act of terror in which Palestinian terrorists slaughtered and massacred innocent citizens. We cannot allow the citizens of this country to be murdered on a daily basis.”

Iraqi Christian village holds first mass since Islamic State invasion
(JNS.org) The small Iraqi Christian village of Telskuf, located in Iraq’s contested Nineveh Province, on Sunday held its first mass since last summer’s invasion of the village by Islamic State jihadists.

“We celebrated the Eucharist this Sunday in one of Nineveh province’s villages—the first time since the locals were forced out last August by ISIS jihadists,” Father Paulus Thabit Makku, a Chaldean Catholic priest from Mosul, told Fides News.

Telskuf, located about 19 miles north of Mosul, is a predominately Assyrian Christian village with about 11,000 residents. In early August, Islamic State jihadists seized the village. While the Kurdish Peshmerga forces retook the village about a week later, it has remained abandoned due to nearby fighting.

According to reports, the mass was celebrated in Telskuf’s Saint Georges Chaldean church by refugees from the town who returned briefly to ring the church’s bell and to hold a brief mass before returning back to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Most of the town’s former residents still speak Aramaic, the ancient language of the Assyrian people, and the village is home to several ancient churches and monasteries.

Spain’s ruling Popular Party rejects recognition of Palestinian statehood
(JNS.org) Spain’s ruling Popular Party rejected unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood and insisted that recognition could only come through peace talks with Israel.

“The recognition of a Palestinian state should be promoted in a coordinated manner within the EU, in the framework of a final settlement in the Middle East,” Alfonso Alonso, spokesman for the Popular Party, said in a statement, Spain’s Caracol Radio reported.

The statement came just hours before Spain’s parliament was to vote on a non-binding motion that would “recognize Palestine as a state.” The resolution was put forward by the opposition Socialist Workers’ Party last month.

The center-right Popular Party, led by Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, controls 184 seats in Spain’s Congress of Deputies, while the Socialist Workers’ Party controls 110.

The motion in Spain follows a growing debate in Europe over recognizing Palestinian statehood. Sweden recently became the first European Union member to officially recognize “Palestine.” The British Parliament as well as Ireland also approved such recognition in non-binding votes, and similar proposals have been put forth in France.

Israel to consider relaxing gun laws after Jerusalem synagogue terror attack
(JNS.org) Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonvitch ordered a probe to examine easing restrictions on gun laws following the gruesome terror attack on a Jerusalem synagogue that left five dead and seven injured on Tuesday.

According to a spokesperson for Aharonovitch, the minister would examine easing restrictions for security personnel and ex-military officers, but did not clarify if any changes would apply to the general public, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Aharonovitch also ordered a beefed-up security presence throughout Israel, including deploying more companies of Border Patrol officers, reinforcing police patrols, and setting up more checkpoints outside of Arab villages.

At the scene of the terror attack on Tuesday, Aharonvitch promised that the Israeli government would do everything it can to prevent future attacks.

“We are not in an easy period, [we are in] a period of terror attacks. I cannot promise that there won’t be another terror attack, but I can I promise we are doing everything we can to prevent it,” he said.

While Obama says Palestinians ‘want peace,’ factions glorify synagogue attack
(JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama, who “strongly” condemned the murder of four Jewish worshippers in a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday, also said that “the majority of Palestinians and Israelis overwhelmingly want peace” despite the fact that various Palestinian factions have expressed support for the terror attack.

Two Arab terrorists from eastern Jerusalem attacked Jewish worshippers inside the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue with butcher knives, axes, and guns, killing five people—three of whom were American citizens.

“There is and can be no justification for such attacks against innocent civilians,” Obama said in a statement, adding, “This is a tragedy for both nations, Israel and the United States.”

Despite Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s public condemnation of the attack, his adviser—PA Chairman Sultan Abu Al-Einein—called the attack a “heroic operation” on his Facebook page and referred to the terrorists as “martyrs.”

A Fatah spokesperson also said that his group “welcomed the martyrdom-seeking operation (Istish’had) in Jerusalem,” and was “escorting the martyrs (shahids) of the Abu Jamal family to paradise,” Palestinian Media Watch reported.

Palestinian leaders and media outlets also blamed the terrorist attack on the recent death of an Arab bus driver in eastern Jerusalem several, despite autopsy findings showing that the driver committed suicide.

Meanwhile, Hamas-affiliated social media pages were filled with graphic posts on Tuesday exhibiting violent and anti-Semitic cartoons that praised the terror attack. One of the images showed the terrorists wielding knives and axes while the victims are lying bleeding on the floor. One of the terrorists holds a bloody ax and a knife while exclaiming “Where are they?”—to indicate that he is seeking more victims.

Orthodox man beaten and called ‘dirty bloody Jew’ in Brooklyn
(JNS.org) An Orthodox Jewish man was beaten and subjected to anti-Semitic insults in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

The victim, 53, was waiting for a train in the Williamsburg neighborhood when one of three suspects approached him and tried to steal something from his pocket. When the victim turned around and caught the thief, he was called a “dirty bloody Jew,” according to police, the New York Daily News reported.

The suspect attacker then spit at the victim, grabbed his umbrella, and used it to hit the victim on the head before fleeing the scene. The victim pursued his attacker, but was then assaulted by a second suspect from behind, who called him a a “f***ing Jew” and kicked him several times. A bystander who tried to intervene was also attacked before the suspects fled onto a train.

The New York Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the assault.

JNS BLOG

Western media twists Jerusalem terrorist attack narrative
In the wake of a terrorist attack on the Kehilat Bnei Torah synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood on Tuesday morning—which killed four rabbis, including three American citizens, and wounded at least eight other Jewish worshippers—Western media organizations rushed to downplay the culpability of the Palestinian terrorists in the attack.

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

The U.K.-based newspaper The Guardian published a Reuters story about the attack that was originally headlined “Palestinians kill four in Jerusalem synagogue attack,” but changed the headline to “Four worshippers killed in attack on Jerusalem synagogue.” As documented by the Jerusalem Post, The Guardian also removed all references to Palestinians from the text of the article, writing only that “two men” had perpetuated the attack.

A Canadian Broadcasting Corporation article on the attack was headlined “Jerusalem police fatally shoot 2 after apparent synagogue attack,” implying that most of the culpability lies with Israeli police for responding to the attack.

In what might have been an accidental, though still a highly irresponsible gaffe, CNN mislabeled its initial TV coverage of the terror attack with the headline, “Deadly attack on Jerusalem mosque.”

Such factual errors—as well as alterations to the context surrounding terrorist attacks and other violence by Palestinians against Israelis—is nothing new, as frequently documented by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA).

When a Palestinian driver ran over pedestrians in Jerusalem last month, after which point police officers responded by shooting the assailant as they likely would do if such an incident occurred anywhere else, the initial Associated Press headline was “Israeli Police shoot man in East Jerusalem.” This initial headline, though later revised, was online for some time and omitted the entire terror attack that provided the context for the police shooting.Z

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