Jimmy Carter says Israeli-Palestinian conflict ‘one of the origins’ of Islamic terrorism
(JNS.org) Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter blamed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as fueling Muslim terrorist attacks and contributing to the recent wave of terrorism in France.
During an appearance on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” host Jon Stewart asked Carter what he thought were the factors behind the recent attacks in Paris.
“Well, one of the origins for it is the Palestinian problem,” Carter said. “And this aggravates people who are affiliated in any way with the Arab people who live in the West Bank and Gaza, what they are doing now—what’s being done to them. So I think that’s part of it.”
Carter, who accused Israel of becoming an “apartheid state” in his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” and has met with leaders of the Hamas terrorist group, did not elaborate on how the “Palestinian problem” caused the recent attacks in France nor how solving the Israeli-Palestinian issue would resolve the violent conflicts currently plaguing the Arab world.
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BBC reporter apologizes for anti-Israel remarks to Jewish woman at Paris rally
(JNS.org) BBC reporter Tim Willcox has apologized for a “poorly phrased question” after telling a woman, who was later identified as Chava, an Israeli who is the daughter of Polish Holocaust survivors, that the Palestinians “suffer hugely at Jewish hands” during an interview at Sunday’s anti-terror rally in Paris.
Willcox interviewed a Jewish woman who said that Jews were targets of religiously motivated hatred in France, describing the situation as “going back to the days of 1930s Europe.” Willcox then asked the woman, “Do you think that can be resolved before it is too late?”
The woman replied that “we must not be afraid to say that Jews are a target now,” after which point Willcox said that critics of Israel’s policy “would suggest the Palestinians suffered hugely at Jewish hands as well.”
Willcox added, “You understand everything is seen from different perspectives?” The woman replied, “Of course.”
Following its airing, the report caused outrage across social media, with many people calling for Willcox to be fired. On Monday, Willcox tweeted an apology, saying he is “really sorry for any offense caused by a poorly phrased question in a live interview in Paris yesterday—it was entirely unintentional.”
A BBC spokeswoman defended the reporter, saying, “Tim Willcox has apologized for what he accepts was a poorly phrased question during an in-depth live interview with two friends, one Jewish and of Israeli birth, the other of Algerian Muslim heritage, where they discussed a wide range of issues affecting both the Muslim and Jewish communities in France. … He had no intention of causing offense.”
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Egypt’s Grand Mufti warns Charlie Hebdo against publishing Mohammed cartoon
(JNS.org) Egypt’s Grand Mufti has warned the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo against publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on the cover of its latest edition.
“This edition will cause a new wave of hatred in French and Western society in general and what the magazine is doing does not serve coexistence or a dialog between civilizations,” the office of Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam, one of the region’s most influential Muslim clerics, said in a statement, Reuters reported.
“This is an unwarranted provocation against the feelings of… Muslims around the world,” the statement added.
On the cover of its Jan. 14 edition, Charlie Hebdo will feature a cartoon of Mohammed holding a sign saying, “Je Suis Charlie” (I Am Charlie), with a headline above the cartoon reading “Tout Est Pardonne” (All Is Forgiven).
While the Grand Mufti called the attack on Charlie Hebdo as a “terrorist” act, he called the magazine’s decision to run the new cartoon a “racist act” that would incite more Muslim violence.
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At funeral, Netanyahu says Paris supermarket victims ‘killed solely for being Jews’
(JNS.org) On Tuesday, thousands of people attended the funeral of the four Jewish victims of last Friday’s Islamist terror attack on a Paris kosher supermarket at Jerusalem’s Har HaMenuchot Cemetery.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the funeral that the victims—Yoav Hattab, 22; Yohan Cohen, 22; Philippe Braham, 45; and François-Michel Saada, 55—were “killed solely for being Jews.”
“Their lives were cut short in an attack of hatred by a lowly murderer. … I have been saying for many years and I say it again today: [Islamist terrorists] are not only enemies of the Jewish people, they are enemies of all mankind. It is time for all people of culture to unite and uproot these enemies from our midst,” said Netanyahu.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said, “Yoav, Yohan, Philippe, and Francois-Michel, this is not how we wanted to welcome you to Israel. This is not how we wanted you to arrive in the Land of Israel. This is not how we wanted to see you come home, to the State of Israel, and to Jerusalem, its capital. We wanted you alive and we wanted for you, life. At moments such as these, I stand before you, brokenhearted, shaken and pained, and with me stands and cries an entire nation.”
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Israeli Arab man indicted for trying to join Syrian jihadist rebels
(JNS.org) An Arab resident of the Israeli city of Qalansawe was indicted at the Kfar Saba Magistrates’ Court on Monday for traveling to Syria to join the ranks of jihadist rebel forces in the area.
According to the Shin Bet security agency, 21-year-old Yusef Nasrallah admitted during his investigation that he went to Syria on April 18 last year to join the rebels. He was arrested by Syrian forces a few hours after crossing the border.
Nasrallah was held in Syria for eight months, during which time he was subjected to multiple investigations and asked for information about Israeli security facilities. According to the Shin Bet, Nasrallah was also tortured while in Syria. After being released by Syrian forces, he returned to Israel by way of Jordan and was arrested shortly after entering the country. Israeli security forces said he was in poor health upon his return.
The indictment against Nasrallah states, “The defendant had hoped to be killed while fighting [in Syria], in accordance with his religious belief that it would make him a ‘shahid’ [martyr] and he would go to heaven, where he would be reunited with his friend who died in a car accident.”
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Historic aircraft used to rescue Iraqi Jews to be brought to Israel
(JNS.org) A Curtiss C-46 Commando transport aircraft used in 1947’s clandestine Operation Michaelberg, during which 100 Iraqi Jews were rescued and brought to then-British Mandatory Palestine, will soon return to Israel after being saved from a metal scrap yard in Argentina.
During the mid-1940s, concerns grew for the fate of the Jews of Iraq due to increasing persecution by their Arab neighbors. The British denied the Jewish community’s petition to allow Iraqi Jews to enter Israel legally, leading to the decision to mount a clandestine rescue operation and smuggle them into the country. The rescue operation was designed by the Aliyah Bet group, which operated as part of the Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organization that operated in Israel in defiance of the British Mandate. The secret operation was carried out in August and September 1947.
Former Israeli Knesset speaker Shlomo Hillel, one of the individuals involved in Operation Michaelberg, recently learned of the whereabouts of the historic plane and that its current owner had planned for it to be scrapped. Hillel and Israeli businessman Meshulam Riklis successfully negotiated with the C-46’s owner, and the plane is scheduled to arrive at its new home—the Atlit Detention Camp Museum, which is dedicated to the history of pre-state Israel immigration efforts—in several weeks.
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China’s Hainan Airlines to launch Tel Aviv-Beijing route
(JNS.org) China’s Hainan Airlines has filed a request with Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority to operate three weekly direct flights between Beijing and Tel Aviv, starting in September.
The flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, days on which Israel’s El Al Airlines does not operate flights on the Tel Aviv-Beijing route. The move by Hainan Airlines, China’s fourth-largest carrier, is the result of efforts by Israeli Tourism Minister Uzi Landau, Tourism Ministry Director-General Amir Halevy, and Israeli Ambassador to China Matan Vilnai.
Over the past year, Israeli officials highlighted to Hainan Airlines officials the economic viability of operating regular flights between Beijing and Ben-Gurion International Airport. Until now, only El Al has operated flights on that route.
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Israeli-directed drama ‘The Affair’ wins Golden Globe award
(JNS.org) An Israeli-directed drama, The Affair, won the prize for best television drama at the Golden Globe awards on Sunday.
The Affair airs on the Showtime network. Co-created by Israeli director, producer, and writer Hagai Levi, the show details the story of an affair between two married people—told from both the male and female perspectives.
Actress Ruth Wilson, who stars in the show, also won an award for best actress in a drama series.
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Hamas-supporting Erdogan blasts Netanyahu for attending Paris anti-terror rally
(JNS.org) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strong supporter of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for attending Sunday’s mass anti-terrorism rally in Paris and accused Netanyahu of “state terrorism.”
“I also hardly understand how [Netanyahu] dared to go there. For once, you give an account for the children, women you massacred,” Erdogan said, referring to last summer’s Gaza war, during a joint press conference with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ankara, AFP reported.
“How can you see this individual who carries out state terrorism by massacring 2,500 people in Gaza waving his hand?” Erdogan added.
Abbas and Netanyahu, along with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, took part in Sunday’s rally in Paris to commemorate the 17 people who were killed in three Islamist terror attacks in the French capital last week.
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France deploying thousands of security personnel to protect Jewish sites
(JNS.org) France announced that it is deploying 10,000 soldiers in an unprecedented mobilization meant to protect sensitive sites across the country. Additionally, the country is assigning nearly 5,000 security personnel to protect Jewish sites.
Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the soldiers would be deployed starting on Tuesday evening in what he called “the first mobilization on this scale on our territory,” the New York Times reported. The decision came after an emergency meeting convened by French President Francois Hollande on ways to secure the country against further Islamist terror attacks.
In addition to the military deployment, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that 4,700 police officers and other security personnel would be posted to guard the country’s 700 Jewish schools and institutions.
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Hamas slams Abbas for ‘hypocrisy’ over attending Paris anti-terror rally
(JNS.org) Hamas slammed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for attending the mass anti-terror rally in Paris on Sunday.
“This behavior is part of the hypocrisy and political juggling act Abbas is used to; he thinks that this will earn the sympathy of nations,” said Hamas senior official Mahmoud Zahar, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. “First he should take care of his own people.”
The Hamas statement follows recent reports that the unity government between Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah party has ended. Hamas, the Palestinian terror group that rules Gaza, has accused Abbas of ignoring Gaza and reconstruction efforts there following last summer’s war.
“Abbas wants to look as if he fights terrorism, even though he does not know the meaning of terrorism,” Zahar said.
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Netanyahu visits attacked kosher supermarket, addresses memorial at Paris synagogue
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday visited Hyper Cacher, the kosher supermarket in Paris where Muslim terrorist Amedy Coulibaly took nearly 20 shoppers hostage and killed four of the hostages.
Netanyahu met with Celine Shreki, one of the surviving hostages.
“A direct line leads between the attacks of extremist Islam around the world to the attack that took place here at a kosher supermarket in the heart of Paris,” Netanyahu said. “I expect all of the leaders, with whom we marched in the streets of Paris yesterday, to fight terrorism wherever it is, also when it is directed against Israel and Jews. Insofar as it depends on me, I will always see to it that Israel marches in the first row of nations vis-à-vis its security and its future.”
In fact, Netanyahu was literally pictured marching in the front row of Sunday’s mass rally against terrorism in Paris, which was attended by more than 40 world leaders. Also on Sunday, the prime minister addressed a memorial ceremony for the victims of the Hyper Cacher and Charlie Hebdo terror attacks at Paris’s Grand Synagogue.
“Justice and truth are with us,” Netanyahu said. “And here is the truth: Radical Islam is an enemy to us all. Not Islam, not regular extremists, but radical Islam. The enemy has many names—Islamic State, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Nusra, Hezbollah—but all are branches of the same poisonous tree.”
“Those [Palestinian terrorists] who massacred Jews at a synagogue in Jerusalem [last November] and those who massacred Jews and journalists in Paris belong to the same murderous terrorist movement—they must be condemned and fought against equally,” added Netanyahu.
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