Jewish Democrats ask White House to tone down criticism of Netanyahu
(JNS.org) In a meeting with deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes, a dozen Jewish Democrats serving in the House of Representatives asked the White House to tone down its criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his statements on the peace process.
The Jewish lawmakers told Rhodes that the White House “had to stop acting as if the Israeli prime minister’s comments are the only thing holding up a peace process” while not “expressing a word of disappointment about Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas,” Politico reported.
Netanyahu came under fire from the Obama administration after saying before his re-election that his government would not support a two-state solution. The prime minister later clarified that he supports a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes Israel as a Jewish state.
Jewish Democrats also reportedly told the White House that the Obama administration is making it difficult for them to persuade their constituents to support a possible nuclear deal with Iran.
“You want us to go out and say the administration’s got Israel’s back. How are you going to get us to say that when our constituents believe that the administration is stabbing Israel in the back?” an anonymous Democratic Jewish member of Congress told Politico.
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Israeli security forces arrest Israeli Arab for joining Islamic State
(JNS.org) Israel’s Shin Bet security agency announced Monday that it recently arrested an Israeli Arab man from Jerusalem for traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State terror group.
Khalil Adel Khalil, 25, was arrested March 1 after admitting to interrogators that he, along with an associate, Sami a-Aziz Abu Sneina, began planning to join Islamic State last August after watching recruitment videos online.
After training in a gym on Hebrew University’s Mt. Scopus campus and telling his family that he was leaving to make the Hajj Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, Khalil and his friend left for Greece and then Turkey in January, and eventually arrived at an Islamic State safe house on the Turkish-Syrian border. There with other Islamic State recruits from around the world, the two were smuggled into Syria. Khalil returned several weeks later to Israel, where he was arrested.
The Shin Bet noted that the latest arrest was part of a growing trend of Israeli Arabs interested in joining Islamic State. About 40 Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have gone to Syria to fight with terror groups there amid the country’s civil war.
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Israel seeks 21-year prison sentence for Hamas rocket mastermind
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel’s Beersheba Regional Court convicted senior Hamas official and Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades military academy commander Dirar Abu Sisi of crimes against Israel’s security. Abu Sisi is best known for his part in engineering Hamas rockets, which earned him the nickname “father of the rockets.”
Abu Sisi agreed to a plea bargain under which he admitted to five of the nine charges against him. The prosecution has announced that it will request a 21-year prison sentence for him.
According to the indictment, Abu Sisi was appointed by Hamas military wing leaders Mohammed Deif and Ahmed Jabari—who was later assassinated by Israel—to establish a Hamas military academy. As part of this task, he created a training program for Hamas operatives. He also developed several types of rockets and mortars, and worked to expand the range of Hamas rockets.
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Israeli Navy’s new submarine poised to begin operations
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israeli Navy’s fourth submarine, the INS Tanin, which arrived in Israel last September, is scheduled to begin operations in the next few months.
Since it docked in Israel, the Tanin has undergone a series of tests and has been equipped with Israeli weapons, communications, and intelligence systems. At 223 feet, the new submarine is longer than the others in the navy’s fleet. Its size allows it to be fitted with fuel tanks that let it move noiselessly and remain submerged for longer than the other submarines can.
The Tanin is the first air-independent propulsion (AIP) class submarine acquired by the Israeli Navy. The German-made vessels are capable of submerging for extended periods of time.
According to reports, AIP-class submarines can carry long-range torpedoes and are expected to give Israel second-strike capability in the event of a nuclear attack.
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Hackers threaten Israel with ‘electronic holocaust’ on April 7
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Hacker groups on Sunday posted a threat that they would launch a cyberattack against Israel on April 7. The groups that posted notices promising an “electronic holocaust” included a group identified with the international hacker network Anonymous.
One of the threats featured a clip uploaded to YouTube that said, “We are Anonymous. This is a message to the Zionist entity: We are coming to punish you for your crimes in the Palestinian territories.”
In the past, computer experts have explained that in April—when Israel generally marks Holocaust Memorial Day—underground groups try to launch coordinated cyberattacks against Israel and other targets. Thus far, the attacks have mainly comprised attempts to shut down websites and have not caused significant damage. Generally, the purpose of publishing warnings such as the one sent out on Sunday is to draft additional hackers to the mission.
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Netanyahu: Iran’s aggression in Yemen and elsewhere must be stopped
(JNS.org) As Iran provides weapons, money, and training to the Houthi rebels who are overtaking Yemen, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned that Iran “is conquering the Middle East.”
“This is correctly seen by all the countries in the Middle East as a strategic move to dominate the region, and therefore we are witnessing something quite unprecedented,” Netanyahu told a visiting delegation of U.S. senators. “And as Israel and the Arab countries see Iran progressing with its aggression to conquer Yemen and the Bab-el-Mandeb straits, [nuclear] talks continue as usual and go on, on a deal that from everything that we hear paves Iran’s way to the bomb.”
Netanyahu said he believes “the most important thing is to make sure that Iran doesn’t get a path to the bomb and that Iran’s aggression in Yemen and elsewhere, including around Israel’s borders, is stopped.”
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Israeli doctors save life of Iraqi Christian toddler with heart defect
(JNS.org) Maryam Mansour, an 18-month-old Iraqi Christian girl with a serious heart defect whose family fled the Islamic State terror group, received a lifesaving operation at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.
Maryam was evacuated to Hadassah by the Shevet Achim organization, which works to secure treatment in Israel for children throughout the Middle East born with cardiac problems. Maryam underwent successful surgery at the hospital’s Pediatric Cardiology Department.
“This was a situation in which the heart problem was complicated and included the heart being located on the right side [of the body], a large hole between the ventricles, and other issues,” said the department’s head, Professor Azaria Rein, Israel Hayom reported.
Maryam’s mother, Lina, said after the operation, “I’m a little stressed because my daughter is hooked up to all sorts of machines, but the doctors told me she’s all right. I really miss my other children and my husband, who are in Iraq, but it’s important to me that the little one gets better.”
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Israeli envoy: U.N. ignores murder of Christians in Arab states
(JNS.org) The international community is turning a blind eye to the murder of minorities in the Arab world, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor said Friday.
“Last year police in Saudi Arabia stormed a Christian prayer meeting and arrested its entire congregation, including women and children. … In 2013, three Iranian Christians were caught selling bibles, found guilty of ‘crimes against state security,’ and sentenced to 10 years in prison,” Prosor said.
The Israeli envoy said, “There is only one place in the Middle East where minorities have the freedom to practice their faith, to change faiths, or to practice no faith at all—and that is Israel.”
“It’s time for the U.N. Security Council to break its silence on the murder and expulsion of Christians and other minorities in Arab states,” said Prosor, who noted that since Hamas seized Gaza in 2007, half of the Christian community there has fled, and that since the Palestinian Authority took control of Bethlehem in 1995, the city’s Christian population has dropped nearly 70 percent.
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