Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, source of past controversy on Israel, to resign
(JNS.org) U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, a past source of controversy due to his statements about Israel, will resign.
The New York Times, citing senior U.S. officials, reported Monday that President Barack Obama decided to push for Hagel’s resignation “as a recognition that the threat from the Islamic State would require different kind[s] of skills than those that Mr. Hagel was brought on to employ.”
While the Times explained in its report that Hagel “came in to manage the Afghanistan combat withdrawal and the shrinking Pentagon budget in the era of budget sequestration,” the remaining two years of Obama’s presidency “will demand a different kind of focus” from the defense secretary post, an administration official said.
A former Republican U.S. senator from Nebraska, Hagel came under heavy criticism from some Jewish organizations and from legislators on both sides of the political spectrum for his record on Israel during a historically tight battle for confirmation in late 2012 and early 2013. Among Hagel’s most controversial past comments was that “the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people” in Washington, DC, a quote he gave former Middle East peace negotiator Aaron David Miller for the book 2008 book The Much Too Promised Land.
In his confirmation hearing for defense secretary in January 2013, Hagel mistakenly expressed support for a U.S. policy of “containment” in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat. He was eventually confirmed in a 58-41 Senate vote. Before Hagel, no defense secretary had ever been confirmed with more than 11 opposing votes.
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Israeli Arab arrested for attending Islamic State training camp
(JNS.org) Hamza Sami Sari Magamsa, an Israeli Arab in his 20s who allegedly trained at a camp of the Islamic State terror group in Syria, was arrested upon his return to Israel, authorities said Sunday.
Magamsa, a resident of the northern town of Yafia, is charged with contacting a foreign agent, being part of an unlawful association, conspiracy, and unlawful travel. He was arrested Oct. 24, but the story was embargoed until Sunday at the request of law-enforcement officials.
According to the Israel Police, Magamsa told the Shin Bet security agency that he arrived in Turkey on Oct. 5. Together with two other Yafia residents, he crossed into Syria and arrived at an Islamic State recruiting center. The three were then transported to a training base, where they were taught how to handle weapons and underwent physical training.
The Shin Bet expressed concern about the trend of Israeli Arabs going to Syria for such training.
“These Israeli Arabs undergo military training there and are exposed to jihadi ideology, and there is a real danger that they will be used by the terrorists for hostile action against Israel and as an asset for intelligence gathering on the state,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.
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Jerusalem launches security program in wake of Palestinian terror attacks
(JNS.org) In the wake of a recent string of Palestinian terror attacks, the Jerusalem municipality on Sunday sent 80 new patrol vehicles manned by security guards to the city’s Safra Square for a day of security training from Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and other officials.
The training was part of Barkat’s program—launched Sunday in collaboration with the Israel Police—to strengthen civilian and personal security in Jerusalem and in its educational institutions. Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, meanwhile, is considering reintroducing the presence of security officers on Jerusalem’s public buses and trains and at stops for both.
While Barkat, Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, and Israel Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino toured Jerusalem on Sunday, a riot broke out in the Arab neighborhood of Isawiya, with masked young men throwing stones at Israeli Border Police officers. Four officers were lightly injured, Israel Hayom reported.
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Iran nuclear deadline missed again, talks expected to resume next month
(JNS.org) The Nov. 24 deadline for negotiating a deal on Iran’s nuclear program expired on Monday, but world powers and the Islamic Republic are expected to continue talks next month.
“Given progress made this weekend, talks headed to likely extension with experts and negotiating teams reconvening in December at a yet-to-be-determined location,” an anonymous Western diplomat said in an email to Reuters.
The original interim deal between Iran and the P5+1 powers, reached in November 2013, led to an easing of some sanctions on Iran while a final deal is being negotiated. The Nov. 24 deadline was set through a four-month extension to the initially missed July 20 deadline for an agreement.
While world powers want to severely curtail Iran’s enrichment capability or have enriched fuel sent abroad for processing, Iran is seeking to retain its full ability to enrich uranium. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program. 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.
Talks with world powers have been derailed by Iran’s refusal to cooperate with a probe by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a U.N.-affiliated nuclear watchdog. Iran had agreed to provide the IAEA with information on experiments with nuclear detonators, work on high-explosive charges used in nuclear blasts, and studies on the calculation of nuclear explosive yields. But the IAEA said this month that Iran has only provided information on the detonators.
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Iran says it gave Hezbollah missiles that can reach southern Israel
(JNS.org) Iran said it has given the Hezbollah terror group—which is based in Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbor—hundreds of missiles with 160-220 mile ranges, making them capable of hitting the southern Israeli city of Dimona.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force Brig. Gen. Seyed Majid Moussavi said the missiles, called Fateh missiles, fly at a speed of 2,800 miles per hour and carry an 1,100 pound warhead.
“Our strategic guiding principle is the appropriate arming of Hezbollah and Hamas with advanced, modern weapons in order to allow the resistance groups to deal with the bloodthirsty Zionist regime,” Moussavi said, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.
“The missiles that Iran most recently gave to Hezbollah will allow the organization to reach every point in Israel, including the most guarded facilities of the Zionist occupation forces,” he added.
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Israeli cabinet approves measure formalizing Israel’s status as Jewish state
(JNS.org) The Israeli cabinet on Sunday voted in favor of legislation that cements Israel’s status as a Jewish state.
The measure, whose opponents included Yesh Atid party head Yair Lapid and Hatnuah party head Tzipi Livni, confirms that Israel is the national home of the Jewish people and a place where Jews have the historical right to realize their aspiration for self-determination. Additionally, that right to national self-determination in Israel is unique to Jews, the legislation states. The rights of all minorities in Israel are also protected.
“Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. There are those who wish to see the democratic aspect overshadow the Jewish aspect, and there are those who wish to see the Jewish aspect overshadow the democratic aspect. The principles of the bill that I present here today ensure that these two values are equal and are given equal consideration,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said before the bill’s passage.
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Germany’s Merkel opposes unilateral recognition of Palestinian state
(JNS.org) German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed opposition to unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, setting Germany apart from some other European countries who have recently endorsed Palestinian unilateralism.
The Swedish government officially recognized “Palestine” on Oct. 30, and Spain’s parliament last week approved a non-binding resolution recognizing a Palestinian state following similar motions in the legislatures of Great Britain and Ireland.
But Merkel told a press conference on Friday that “unilateral recognition of the Palestinian state won’t move us forward” towards the goal of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, which Germany supports.
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Palestinians riot again in West Bank, Jewish men attacked in Jerusalem
(JNS.org) Palestinian rioters took to the street in Hebron and other West Bank cities on Friday following afternoon prayers amid Hamas’s latest call for a “Day of Rage” against Israel.
In Hebron, Palestinian protesters threw stones, fireworks, and Molotov cocktails at Israel Defense Forces, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Additionally, a Jewish man was stabbed and another Jewish man was beaten in an altercation in eastern Jerusalem. According to police reports, the two victims, who sustained light injuries, said they were attacked by Arab men as they were walking to their yeshiva. Police are investigating the incident.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, meanwhile, said in a statement from Ramallah on Friday, “You mustn’t come close to our mosques, to our churches. And we won’t come close to your synagogues.”
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Wellesley College students fear rise in anti-Semitism after Jewish staffers’ firings
(JNS.org) Jewish students at Wellesley College, a Boston-area school for women, fear that anti-Semitism is growing on campus following what they call the school administration’s lax response to the anti-Israel activities of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) as well as its decision to fire the school’s Hillel director and Jewish chaplain.
“I firmly believe this college is becoming increasingly anti-Semitic,” Jordan Hannink, a junior at Wellesley, told Haaretz.
Several posters have been plastered on walls around the campus “with images of Palestinian children who were killed or wounded during the Gaza war.” Another poster in the student center asks, “What does Zionism mean to you?” Responses to that question that were subsequently written on the poster include “genocide,” “apartheid,” and “murder,” according to Haaretz.
Jewish students said they had turned to the school’s Hillel branch for support in their fight against campus anti-Zionism, but that those efforts were undermined by the school’s decision to fire Hillel director Patti Scheinman and Jewish chaplain David Bernat. School officials cited “restructuring” as the reason for the firings.
Wellesley Jewish students said the abrupt firings made them feel “like we just lost our support system and are on our own,” one student told Haaretz. Additionally, efforts by Jewish students to have dialogue with SJP were scuttled by SJP’s refusal to engage Jewish students, due to the anti-Israel’s groups policy of “anti-normalization” of Jewish and pro-Israel groups.
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