Former Democratic senator Joe Lieberman supports Netanyahu’s Congress speech
(JNS.org) Former Connecticut senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Lieberman called on members of Congress to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech about Iran’s nuclear program on March 3.
Lieberman, a Shabbat-observant Jew, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed published Monday that the 23 House of Representatives Democrats who asked House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to postpone Netanyahu’s address should “go to the joint meeting [of Congress] and hear what the prime minister has to say.”
“Go because this is about determining how best to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons and not just another Washington test of partisan and political loyalty,” Lieberman wrote. “Go because—regardless of what you think of the leaders involved or their actions in this case—you are a strong supporter of America’s alliance with Israel, and you don’t want it to become a partisan matter.”
The White House has opposed Netanyahu’s speech on the grounds that Boehner did not consult with President Barack Obama about the invitation. Vice President Joe Biden, the president of the U.S. Senate, is skipping the speech.
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Report: CIA tried to contact Hamas, despite official U.S. ban
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Citing leaked spy cables obtained by Al Jazeera, The Guardian reported on Monday that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempted to communicate with Hamas through back channels, despite a U.S. government ban on contact with the Palestinian terrorist group.
According to the report, the CIA was “anxious to make inroads with Hamas, or recruit agents, inside the Gaza Strip.” A CIA agent reportedly discussed the possibility of gaining access to Hamas during a 2012 meeting in eastern Jerusalem with a South African intelligence agent.
A cable sent to Pretoria in June 2012 said the CIA “seems to be desperate to make inroads into Hamas in Gaza and possibly would like SSA (South African State Security Agency) to assist them in gaining access.”
The South African intelligence agent believed acceding to the CIA request would allow the SSA to understand U.S. intelligence priorities. “If SSA was to link [the CIA officer] with Hamas, SSA stand the chance of benefitting from that interaction in that we would establish the collection priorities and requirements of LS829 (the South African code name for the CIA),” the cable said.
In response to the report, a CIA spokesperson said, “[The] CIA supports the overall U.S. government effort to combat international terrorism by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence on foreign terrorist groups and individuals. [The] CIA conducts those intelligence activities in compliance with the United States constitution, federal statutes, and presidential directives.”
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Bank of Israel sets interest rate at all-time low
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) After a several-month period of keeping interest rates steady at 0.25 percent, the Bank of Israel on Monday lowered the rate to 0.1 percent, the lowest in Israel’s history.
The new interest rate is 0.4 percentage points lower than it was during the height of the global financial crisis in 2009, when Stanley Fischer was at the helm of the bank.
“The decision to reduce the interest rate for March 2015 by 0.15 percentage points to 0.10 percent is consistent with the Bank of Israel’s monetary policy, which is intended to return the inflation rate to within the price stability target of 1 to 3 percent a year over the next 12 months, and to support growth while maintaining financial stability,” the bank said in a statement. “The path of the interest rate in the future depends on developments in the inflation environment, growth in Israel and in the global economy, the monetary policies of major central banks, and developments in the exchange rate of the shekel.”
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Berlin Jewish magazine to be delivered in blank envelope as safety precaution
(JNS.org) A monthly Jewish magazine in the German capital of Berlin will begin to be delivered inside blank envelopes in order to conceal that subscribers are receiving the magazine and to protect them from potential anti-Semitic harassment and violence.
“We decided to do so despite the significant additional costs, to reduce the likelihood of hostility towards our more than 10,000 community members,” said Jüdisches Berlin magazine spokesman Ilan Kiesling, according to Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper.
“Israelis are beaten up in Berlin solely on the grounds that they are Israeli Jews. We are not yet—I repeat yet—at the stage where Jews are being murdered in Germany just because they are Jews. But measures have to be taken to protect the democratic rule of law,” wrote Gideon Joffe, the head of the Jewish Community of Berlin, which publishes the magazine, in a letter inside the magazine’s latest issue.
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Israel’s Shin Bet arrests members of Hebron-based Hamas terror cell
(JNS.org) Israel’s Shin Bet Israel security agency on Monday announced the arrest of nearly a dozen members of a Hamas terror cell in Hebron. The terrorists were planning attacks on multiple targets, including a failed attack on Israel Defense Forces soldiers and suicide bombings.
A total of 11 Palestinian terrorist suspects were arrested by the Shin Bet, including lead suspects Sahaib Mamun Saltan, 20, from Hebron, and his cousin Salam Abbas Saltan, 28, a Hamas terrorist operative who recently served a term in an Israeli jail. A number of explosive devices and weapons were found during the arrest, which took place in January but was not announced until Monday.
According to the Shin Bet, the two lead suspects admitted that they attempted a terror attack in December 2014 in the Jewish town of Tel Rumeida near Hebron. The terrorists planned to detonate a small explosive device to draw IDF soldiers in, and then to detonate a larger device. But the bombs failed to explode due to a technical glitch, the suspects said.
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Palestinian discord hindering Gaza reconstruction, Arab League head says
(JNS.org) Discord between the Palestinian terror group Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) is hindering efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said.
“The internal differences and the absence of cooperation between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas are behind the delay in reconstructing the Gaza Strip,” Elaraby told the U.K.-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat.
Last October, following the summer war between Israel and Hamas, international donors pledged $5.4 billion in aid to reconstruct Gaza during a conference in Cairo. Elaraby said that he is working with donor countries to help facilitate reconstruction efforts through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.
Elaraby also condemned Egypt for recently designating Hamas’s “military wing,” the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization.
Last year, Hamas and Fatah (the political party that controls the PA) signed an agreement to form a unity government. But the two sides have continued open hostilities, and Hamas has said the unity deal is dead.
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