Iran warns Western powers against ‘illegitimate demands’ in nuclear talks
(JNS.org) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned Western countries against making “humiliating, illegitimate demands” in the ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program.
“I am confident that a comprehensive agreement is within reach,” Zarif wrote in separate letters to Western counterparts, the Mehrnews agency reported Wednesday. “But we will firmly resist any humiliating, illegitimate demands.”
After the Nov. 24 deadline for negotiating a nuclear deal expired last month, the talks between Iran and the P5+1 powers—the U.S., France, Germany, Russia, China, and Britain—were extended to June 30, 2015. The original interim nuclear deal, reached in November 2013 and extended after a missed deadline last July, led to an easing of some sanctions on Iran.
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.
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New housing approved in Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee on Wednesday approved construction permits for 243 housing units in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramot in northern Jerusalem, marking the final procedural step before construction will begin. Ramot is located beyond the 1949 armistice line with Jordan.
The committee also approved requests submitted by developers for construction easements for 270 housing units in Ramot and Har Homa. The purpose of the easements was to increase planning flexibility for projects that were already approved, the Jerusalem Municipality said.
Addressing the usual criticism of construction across the 1949 armistice line, the Jerusalem Municipality said, “There is no change in the policy of the municipality in recent years and we will continue to build in all neighborhoods of the city, for Jews and Arabs alike, according to the master plan. In the coming years, it is expected tens of thousands of housing units will be built in all sectors of the city. New construction in Jerusalem is essential for the city’s development and for allowing young people and students to live here and buy an apartment.”
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IDF committee recommends high honor for Gaza war hero
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The military committee that examined soldiers’ activities during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge recommended to Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz that the Medal of Courage—Israel’s second-highest military honor—be given to a soldier who ran into a Hamas tunnel to try to save a comrade.
Lt. Eitan Fund, 23, of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance company, endangered his life in an effort to save Lt. Hadar Goldin after Goldin was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.
During a confrontation between IDF soldiers and Hamas in Gaza, Fund noticed a hidden entrance into a tunnel. When Goldin was discovered missing, Fund did not hesitate to run into the tunnel to try to find him, despite the obvious danger. He found some of Goldin’s equipment, but nothing more. Goldin was later declared killed in action.
The Medal of Courage is granted for “an act of gallantry during combat duty at the risk of one’s life.”
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Michael Oren, Israel’s former envoy to U.S., joins new Israeli political party
(JNS.org) Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2009-13 as well as a noted historian and author, has joined the new Kulanu political party led by former Israeli communications minister Moshe Kahlon.
At a news conference in Tel Aviv, Kahlon said that the American-born Oren is the right man to fix both Israel’s image problem abroad and its frayed relationship with key allies like the U.S.
“Unfortunately, allies of Israel are distancing themselves and our relations aren’t what they were in the past,” Kahlon said, the Jerusalem Post reported. “Michael Oren is the right person to handle this responsibility. He proved that even when there are disagreements, he can maintain close ties. Michael is the best in his field.”
Oren is the author of several best-selling books, including “Power, Faith, and Fantasy” and “Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East.”
“Israel is at a critical junction,” Oren said. “I couldn’t look from the side and do nothing when Israel is under diplomatic attack.”
Recent polls project that Kahlon’s centrist Kulanu party will receive around 12 seats in next March’s Israeli Knesset elections. Kahlon might play the role of “kingmaker” in the formation of either a left-wing or right-wing governing coalition.
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No ‘Merry Christmas’ for Israel: NGOs use holiday season to bash Jewish state
(JNS.org) Various non-governmental organizations are conveying a much different message than “Merry Christmas” to Israel this holiday season. A new report by the watchdog group NGO Monitor documents how a number of advocacy organizations and charities are using Christmas to wage “political warfare” against the Jewish state.
According to the NGO Monitor report, titled “Come All Ye Haters: NGO Exploitation of Religious Themes to Demonize Israel,” in 2014 groups such as Pax Christi, Sabeel, Amos Trust, Holy Land Trust, Israel Committee Against House Demolitions, Adalah-NY, Wi’iam, and Bethlehem Bible College are using religious themes to advance anti-Israel campaigns such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
NGO Monitor said that these groups use rhetoric that reflects “anti-Semitic theology and sentiments such as comparing Israel to 1st century Romans, portraying Israel as inherently oppressive, and referring to the ‘tribal god’ of Judaism.”
“NGOs exploit religious sources and biblical verses as part of their political warfare against Israel. The traditional Christian themes are introduced into a simplistic, one-sided narrative of the conflict that omits terrorism, Hamas control of Gaza, and Israel’s basic security needs to protect its civilian population,” the report said.
The report added that the NGOs it discusses use “offensive and inflammatory” rhetoric in Christmas carols, holiday messages and cards, nativity scenes, and other avenues. NGO Monitor said that this year’s common theme for Christmas is the promotion of anti-Israel political advocacy under the guise of “religious obligation motivation.”
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