Ted Cruz, announcing presidential run, vows to support Israel ‘unapologetically’
(JNS.org) U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), upon announcing that he will run for president, said he would support Israel “unapologetically.”
“Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel,” Cruz told an audience at Virginia’s Liberty University on Monday.
Earlier this month, Cruz—now the first official candidate in the 2016 presidential race—told Israel Hayom that the Obama administration is not doing enough to defeat Islamic terrorism and is implementing an Iran policy that will lead to the Islamic Republic acquiring nuclear weapons.
“You need to understand that the American people and the American Congress stand beside Israel,” Cruz told the Israeli newspaper. “I’m very sorry the current administration in Washington is exhibiting unprecedented antagonism toward Israel, and by doing so is harming the relationship and even jeopardizing the security of Israel and the national security of the United States.”
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White House chief of staff: Israel’s ‘occupation’ of disputed territories ‘must end’
(JNS.org) Continuing the wave of Obama administration criticism of Israel following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s re-election, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough on Monday called for the end of Israel’s “occupation” of the disputed territories.
“An occupation that has lasted for almost 50 years must end, and the Palestinian people must have the right to live in and govern themselves in their own sovereign state,” McDonough said at the J Street lobby’s annual conference in Washington, DC.
Despite the fact that Netanyahu has reaffirmed his support for a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes a Jewish state, McDonough focused on pre-election comments in which the prime minister had apparently disavowed a two-state solution. Netanyahu later clarified that it was the reality on the ground that had changed, not his position on the issue.
“After the election, the prime minister said that he had not changed his position, but for many in Israel and in the international community, such contradictory comments call into question his commitment to a two-state solution. … We cannot simply pretend that those [pre-election] comments were never made,” McDonough said.
The chief of staff’s remarks follow post-election criticism by White House and State Department spokespeople, and then by Obama himself, of Netanyahu’s pre-election comments on a Palestinian state and Israeli Arab voters. Obama told The Huffington Post that his administration would “evaluate” its “options” in the Middle East after Netanyahu’s comments on a two-state solution.
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Netanyahu apologizes for election-day comments on Arab voters
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday apologized for election-day comments in which he warned that Israeli Arabs were putting his government “in danger” by coming out “en masse” to vote.
“Voter turnout in the Arab sector is three times higher. The threat is real: Abu Mazen’s (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) calls and American money are getting the Arab vote out. Go and vote,” Netanyahu had said March 17.
After his remarks drew criticism from Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, American Jewish organizations, and President Barack Obama, Netanyahu said Monday, “I know the things I said a few days ago hurt some of Israel’s citizens and hurt Israel’s Arabs. I had no intention to do that. I apologize for it.”
“My actions as prime minister, including the massive investments in minority groups, prove the complete opposite,” said Netanyahu. “I equally think that no authority outside of Israel should meddle in our democratic processes. I see myself as the prime minister of every one of you, of all Israeli citizens, without any difference of religion, race, or gender. I see all Israeli citizens as partners in the building of a thriving and secure Israel for all Israeli citizens.”
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Jewish sites attacked in U.K. and Hungary
(JNS.org) A group of assailants entered a synagogue in London on Sunday and attacked worshippers and property, with reports indicating that some attackers shouted, “Kill the Jews.”
Those inside Ahavas Torah synagogue had to defend themselves with chairs against the mob, which physically assaulted at least one person and smashed windows. British police later arrested six people in connection with the attack.
Despite the attackers reported shouting of “Kill the Jews,” Jewish officials said after the attack that the incident was not motived by anti-Semitism and was instead an “anti-social” attack, reported the Times of Israel. The Jewish neighborhood patrol group Shomrim said in a statement, “The incident is not believed to be a targeted or planned attack, although some anti-Semitic remarks may have been made by some of the group.”
Meanwhile, in Hungary, about 20 Jewish graves were vandalized in the northeastern city of Gyongyos. The graves were so damaged that some of the human remains were found scattered about in a manner described as “unprecedented” by the leader of the local Jewish community, Peter Weisz, according to the Associated Press.
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Brooklyn father of 7 at Jerusalem funeral: ‘we cannot understand the master plan’
(JNS.org) The seven children of the Sassoon family who died over the weekend in a fire at their home in Brooklyn were laid to rest at Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuhot Cemetery on Monday.
“I paid the ultimate sacrifice. Here before you are seven innocent lambs,” their father, Gabriel Sassoon, who was away at a conference at the time of the fire, said at their funeral service, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“They were such innocent children. This was a sacrifice for the Jewish people. I thought about my children’s future, I was looking forward to their mitzvot, I wanted grandchildren, but the Lord thought otherwise—to take them as a sacrifice at the height of their beauty. In the end it is for their benefit and for our benefit, but we cannot understand the master plan,” he said.
The Sassoon family had lived in Israel until moving to Brooklyn a year-and-a-half ago. Gabriel’s wife, Gayle, and daughter Siporah, 15, escaped the fire by jumping from a second-floor window. They remain in critical condition at a New York hospital. Authorities attributed the fire to an unknown malfunction in an electric hot plate, which is used by observant families to keep food warm on Shabbat. The Sassoon family’s victims included Eliane, 16; Rivkah, 11; Sara, 6; David, 12; Yeshua, 10; Moshe, 8; and Yaakob, 5.
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U.S. boycotts U.N. discussion on alleged Israeli violations in disputed Palestinian territories
(JNS.org) The United States boycotted a discussion by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on alleged Israeli violations in the disputed Palestinian territories, signaling American support for Israel in the world body despite ongoing tension between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Today (Monday) the United States, in support of Israel, made no statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council debate on alleged Israeli violations of human rights in the Palestinian territories, otherwise known as Item 7,” U.S. Ambassador to the UNHRC Keith Harper said. “Our non-participation in this debate underscores our position that Item 7 lacks legitimacy, as it did last year when we also refrained from speaking. The United States strongly and unequivocally opposes the very existence of Agenda Item 7 and any HRC resolutions that come from it.”
The U.S., along with several other Western countries, have long boycotted the discussion of Item 7—which mandates that Israel be discussed at every UNHRC meeting, a distinction no other country shares. The agenda item is used as a platform by Arab and Muslim-majority countries to criticize the Jewish state.
America’s boycott of the discussion comes despite recent reports that the Obama administration is considering a change in the longstanding U.S. policy of opposing U.N. actions that single out Israel for criticism.
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Egypt’s El-Sisi reiterates call for ‘religious revolution’ in Islam
(JNS.org) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi reiterated his call for a “religious revolution” in Islam, in which values of tolerance should be promoted in the face of growing extremism.
In an interview with the Egyptian state-run Holy Koran radio station, El-Sisi advocated for a “revolution in religious views,” saying the Islamic world needs to rethink and revolt “for religion and not against it,” Ahram Online reported.
Egyptians have faced a growing threat from Islamic State-affiliated terror groups in the Sinai Peninsula and in Libya. Islamic State-linked terrorists have launched repeated attacks against Egyptian security forces and civilians, including the murder of 21 Egyptian Christians last month in Libya.
In a Jan. 1 speech at Egypt’s historic Al-Azhar University, El-Sisi had declared an ambitious plan for a “revolution” in Islam, with the goal of reforming a faith that he believes has made the Muslim world a source of “destruction” that is “making enemies of the whole world.”
“So 1.6 billion people [in the Muslim world] will kill the entire world of 7 billion? That’s impossible… We need a religious revolution,” he said.
El-Sisi’s vision includes purging Islam of extremist intolerance and violence, elements that terror groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State use as recruitment tools.
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman
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