JNS news briefs: November 21, 2014

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Shipment of knives and fireworks seized en route to eastern Jerusalem
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A massive shipment of weapons bound for the Beit Hanina neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem was intercepted by Israeli authorities on Thursday at the Ashdod port.

The recipients of the cargo, sent from China, claimed they were receiving a shipment of Christmas decorations—but an inspection of the containers revealed otherwise. Five residents of northern Israel were arrested in connection to the shipment, and two containers filled with pyrotechnic devices, fireworks, commando knives, swords, brass knuckles, spikes, and stun guns were confiscated.

Last week, three residents of northern Israel arrived in Ashdod with power of attorney documents to release the containers from customs. The three men arrived with two large moving trucks and took the containers to a warehouse in Afula, where they had intended to distribute their contents.

Jerusalem Police detectives intercepted the shipment before the contents could be unloaded and arrested the three men, the owner of the warehouse, and a warehouse employee.

In an attempt to cover up the weapons, the containers did have some Christmas decorations inside.
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Terrorist admits he intentionally rammed car into IDF soldiers in Gush Etzion
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Palestinian man who recently hit three Israeli soldiers with his car in Gush Etzion reversed a previous statement that the incident was an accident, admitting to wanting to carry out a terrorist attack, according to information released for publication on Thursday.

Hamam Mesalmeh said he was inspired to ram a truck into three soldiers by an attack earlier on the same day, Nov. 5, in which terrorist Ibrahim al-Akri rammed his car into a crowd of pedestrians waiting at a light rail station in Jerusalem, killing two people.

Security camera footage from a nearby army fortification on the night of the Gush Etzion attack showed three Kfir Brigade soldiers patrolling on the side of the road, and then Mesalmeh’s vehicle coming in quickly, hitting them and fleeing the scene.

Police and military forces swarmed the scene immediately after the attack, setting up impromptu checkpoints and sweeping the area of the vehicle used in the attack. The three soldiers sustained various degrees of injuries, and one of them remains in serious condition in the hospital.

Mesalmeh had turned himself in the next day, claiming he hit the soldiers by accident. The camera footage and other evidence from the scene, however, pointed to an intentional attack. In his confession, Mesalmeh said the aim of the attack was to avenge Israel’s actions in Gaza during the summer’s Operation Protective Edge.

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Two Israeli films make list of finalists for best short film at Oscars
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Two Israeli films have made the list of 10 finalists for best short film at next February’s 87th Academy Awards (Oscars).

On finalist is the 40-minute “Aya”—directed by Michal Brezis and Oded Binnun, and starring Sarah Adler and Ulrich Thomsen—the story of a woman who mistakenly picks up the wrong person from the airport, yet the man decides to maintain the pretense.

The other Israeli finalist is “Summer Vacation,” or “Chofesh Hagadol” in Hebrew. The 22-minute film was directed by Tal Granit and Sharon Maymon, and stars Yiftach Klein, Oded Leopold, and Hilla Vidor. In the film, a family goes on vacation to a beautiful sunny island, yet one member simply wants to get away from it all. The film contended at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

The final listings for the 2015 Oscars will be announced on Jan. 15.
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Albert Einstein letter to New York businessman sells for $12,500
(JNS.org) A letter written in 1939 by Albert Einstein, the renowned Jewish scientist and father of the theory of relativity, was sold for $12,500 on Thursday at Nate D. Sanders Auctions in Los Angeles.

In the letter, Einstein thanks New York businessman Isidore Zelniker for helping Jews who fled Nazi-occupied Europe.

”My dear Mr. Zelniker: May I offer my sincere congratulations to you on the splendid work you have undertaken on behalf of the refugees during Dedication Week. The power of resistance which has enabled the Jewish people to survive for thousands of years has been based to a large extent on traditions of mutual helpfulness,” Einstein wrote.

“In these years of affliction our readiness to help one another is being put to an especially severe test. May we stand this test as well as did our fathers before us. We have no other means of self-defense than our solidarity and our knowledge that the cause for which we are suffering is a momentous and sacred cause. It must be a source of deep gratification to you to be making so important a contribution toward rescuing our persecuted fellow-Jews from their calamitous peril and leading them toward a better future,” adds the letter.
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Israeli forces prevent Hamas attack on Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
(JNS.org) Israeli security forces revealed Thursday that they prevented a Hamas assassination attempt against Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

According to a joint statement by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Shin Bet security agency, and the Israeli police, a three-member Hamas terror cell had purchased an RPG rocket launcher that they intended to use to fire at the foreign minister’s car.

The leader of the terrorist plot was 37-year-old Ibrahim Salim Muhammad al-Zir, a resident of the Harmela village near Bethlehem. Al-Zir has already been incarcerated in Israel for offenses related to involvement with Hamas.

The Judea Military Court indicted the members of the Hamas cell, which also included 35-year-old Ziad Salim Mahmoud al-Zir and 31-year-old Adnan Amin Mahmoud al-Zir, for conspiring to premeditated manslaughter and conspiring to trade in arms.
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Iran nuclear deadline likely to be extended until March
(JNS.org) The deadline for negotiating a deal on Iran’s nuclear program may be extended from Nov. 24 to next March due to sharp differences between Iran and world powers, diplomatic officials said.

“Some kind of interim agreement at this point is likely, or perhaps at best a framework agreement by Monday that needs to be worked out in the coming weeks and months,” a Western diplomat told Reuters.

The original interim deal between Iran and the P5+1 powers (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany) was signed in November 2013 and led to an easing of some sanctions on Iran. The interim deal was meant to allow for further negotiations to produce a final framework, but the deadline for that framework has been repeatedly pushed back.

Talks between Iran and the P5+1 have been stalled for some time, largely over differences regarding Iran’s ability to enrich uranium and lifting Western-imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic. World powers want to severely curtail enrichment capability or have enriched fuel sent abroad for processing, while Iran wants to retain its ability to enrich uranium.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program, including its enrichment capabilities. Many leading U.S. Republican legislators, ahead of their party’s forthcoming control of both houses of Congress in January, have expressed similar sentiments and have promised to block any “bad deal” with Iran that allows the country to retain enrichment capability.
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Former senior U.S. officials slam ‘unjust denial of parole’ for Jonathan Pollard
(JNS.org) Eight former senior U.S. officials have written a letter to President Barack Obama that strongly protest the “unjust denial of parole” for Jonathan Pollard, an American citizen convicted of spying for Israel in 1985.

The Campaign for the Release of Jonathan Pollard on Wednesday said a U.S. Justice Department parole board has rejected a request to have Pollard released. The group quoted U.S. officials as saying that freeing Pollard would “constitute contempt for the severity of the offense and promote a lack of respect for the law.”

The former officials’ letter, meanwhile, blasted the parole process as “deeply flawed” and called the U.S. government’s contention that Pollard’s espionage “was the greatest compromise of U.S. security to that date” a “patently false claim.” That claim “is not supported by any evidence in the public record or the classified file [on Pollard],” the officials added.

The letter was signed by individuals with extensive first-hand knowledge of the Pollard case, including R. James Woolsey, former director of the CIA; Dennis DeConcini, former chair of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee; David F. Durenburger, also a former chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee; Robert C. MacFarlane, former U.S. National Security Advisor; Lawrence J. Korb, former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense; Prof. Angelo Codevilla, a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer; Lee Hamilton, former chair of the House Select Committee on Intelligence; and attorney Bernard W. Nussbaum, former White House counsel.

While the Campaign for the Release of Jonathan Pollard did not reveal any further details on the parole hearing, it suggested that it would soon release evidence highlighting the White House’s attempts to prevent Pollard from being released.

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Israel to demolish homes of Palestinian terrorists who attacked synagogue
(JNS.org) The Israeli government will demolish the homes of four Palestinian terrorists in eastern Jerusalem, including the two terrorists responsible for the bloody Nov. 18 attack on a Jerusalem synagogue. The families of the terrorists received demolition notices from the Israeli police Thursday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu advanced the demolition of terrorists’ homes after the attack, in which four rabbis—including three American citizens—and an Israeli Druze police officer were killed. At least seven other Jewish worshippers were injured.

Separately, Netanyahu condemned a decision by Ashkelon Mayor Itamar Shimoni to suspend Israeli Arab workers in response to the recent uptick in Palestinian violence.

“There is no place for discrimination against Israeli Arabs,” Netanyahu said. Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett added that “99 percent of Israeli Arabs are completely loyal” to Israel, the Associated Press reported.

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