Jewish news briefs, May 6, 2015

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Reports attribute airstrikes in Sudan to Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Foreign warplanes struck a number of targets in the Khartoum area in central Sudan overnight Tuesday, the London-based news outlet al-Araby al-Jadeed reported. Several Arab media outlets attributed the airstrikes to Israel, which did not comment on the reports.

The Israeli military has reportedly carried out several strikes in Sudan in recent years as part of an effort to combat the flow of weapons from Iran to the Gaza Strip. The targets of Tuesday night’s reported strikes were said to include a Scud missile factory, a rocket storage site, and a convoy.

Witnesses reported hearing explosions and secondary blasts. There were also reports that the Sudanese forces fired anti-aircraft weapons at the attacking aircraft. A number of reports quoted Sudanese military as saying that no airstrikes took place, but that an Israeli drone was shot down.
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Prosecution insists on jail time for ex-Israeli PM Ehud Olmert
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert faced a Jerusalem District Court sentencing hearing on Tuesday over his conviction in the Morris Talansky case, and pleaded with the court to consider his long-standing public contribution, as well as his personal suffering over the past few years, when rendering his sentence.

Olmert was convicted in March 2015 in the case, which focused on payoffs made to him between 1993 and 2002 by Talansky, an American businessman. The court overturned his 2012 acquittal on appeal. He was found guilty of fraud, breach of trust, and receiving illicit benefits under aggravated circumstances. The State Attorney’s Office argued Tuesday that the gravity of the conviction warranted actual jail time, asking the court to impose a minimum sentence of one year on the former prime minister.

Israel’s Penal Code classifies fraud and breach of trust as respective felonies punishable by up to three years in prison. Receiving illicit benefits under aggravated circumstances is punishable by up to five years in jail. Olmert is already facing a six-year prison sentence over his conviction in the Holyland case, in which he was found guilty of having received bribes to facilitate the construction of the Holyland housing project in Jerusalem a decade ago.
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Israeli Arab dentist indicted for allegedly transferring funds to Hamas
(JNS.org) Malik Khatib, a 31-year-old dentist from the predominantly Arab village of Kafr Kanna in northern Israel, was indicted Tuesday over his alleged efforts to collect funds on behalf of the Hamas terror group. The State Attorney’s Office, which filed the indictment in the Nazareth District Court, charged Khatib with contacting a foreign agent, helping a terrorist organization and related offenses.

Khatib was arrested about three weeks ago and was subsequently interrogated by the Shin Bet security agency and Israel Police. The investigation was under a gag order until Wednesday. Chief Superintendent Moshe Sheetrit, who led the investigation by the State Attorney’s Northern District bureau, told Israel Hayom that Khatib would collect the Hamas-bound funds from Palestinian workers he had illegally transported to Israel. His actions were carried out under the direction of Hamas operatives in Judea and Samaria, said Sheetrit.

According to prosecutors, Khatib was told to collect large amounts of money and rendezvous with Hamas members in Jenin or Nablus, Palestinian cities, where he would hand over the money.

“He would collect 200 shekels ($50) from every Palestinian worker he would transport to Israel,” Sheetrit said, adding that Khatib was also charged with providing shelter to illegal aliens and tax-related offenses. According to the police, Khatib confessed to all charges during his questioning.
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Investigators: Israeli police officer who shot Arab man acted in self-defense
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israeli Justice Ministry’s Police Internal Investigations Department has decided not to press charges against a police officer who was involved in a deadly clash with a young Israeli Arab man in November 2014.

Kheir ad-Din al-Hamdan, a resident of Kafr Kanna in northern Israel, was shot to death following a violent exchange with officers who had arrived to arrest his neighbor. His death sparked violent protests in the Arab community.

The decision not to prosecute the officer, which was made together with the State Attorney’s Office, follows a lengthy investigation that scrutinized the video footage of the incident, the evidence on the scene, and re-enactments. The investigators, who relied on expert analysis and eyewitness accounts (including that of residents of the area and the deceased’s family) concluded that the officer acted appropriately.

According to Justice Ministry officials, the police arrived at the village to arrest a man who was suspected of throwing a grenade. Hamdan apparently taunted the officers when they were about to approach the suspect’s home. He did not heed their orders to clear the area and even approached them. According to the investigators, he ran toward their car while wielding a large kitchen knife whose length exceeded 10 inches, while chanting “Allahu akbar” (“God is greater” in Arabic).

Video footage show him hitting the police car’s windows with the knife and attempting to open the door. One of the officers stormed out of the car and fired a shot in the air, but Hamdan was undeterred and hit the window of the car. Another officer then exited the car and pointed the gun at Hamdan, who walked backward. Despite being told repeatedly to drop the weapon, he refused to do so. The investigators said the whole incident lasted no more than 13 seconds.
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Temple Mount activist Glick may visit holy site once a month, court rules
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Yehuda Glick, a promoter of Jewish access to the Temple Mount who is now recovered from a Palestinian terrorist’s attempt to assassinate him last year, will be permitted to visit that holy site once a month, Judge Miriam Kasklasi of the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court ruled.

According to the ruling, the Israel Police has the sole authority to decide the date and time of each visit, and Glick will be given 24 hours notice ahead of each visit to the holy site. The ruling also stipulates that while on the Temple Mount, Glick be accompanied by no more than one person, who must not have any criminal record and who can provide him with physical assistance if required.

Glick is also prohibited from carrying a smartphone or camera during his visit to avoid antagonizing the Muslim public. The court ruled that any violations of these conditions or any behavior that police officials deem a disturbance will cause the visit to be terminated immediately and constitute a reason for the state to reexamine its decision to allow the visits.

At the state’s request, the court delayed the implementation of the ruling by three days to allow the state to appeal. Judge Kasklasi stressed that “it is unnecessary to state that antagonism and attempts to stir up riots and disturb the public peace are not the sole provenance of the plaintiff or other Jews who hold the same opinions, but also of Muslim groups.”
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Terror vs. terror: Hamas cracks down on pro-Islamic State groups in Gaza
(JNS.org) Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist organization that governs the Gaza Strip, has launched a widespread crackdown on pro-Islamic State groups in Gaza. The crackdown includes the deployment of masked gunmen into Salafi extremist strongholds and the establishment of checkpoints, the Associated Press reported.

The current tensions between the two terrorist groups began on May 3, when Hamas destroyed a mosque belonging to a group known as the “Supporters of the Islamic State in Jerusalem.” The group responded to the move by issuing a statement in which it threatened to kill Hamas members unless Hamas releases several men, including a local Salafi sheikh, who were detained by Hamas.

In a statement, the Salafi group said Hamas had demolished the mosque “in a manner that even the Jewish and American occupation has not done,” the Egyptian daily newspaper Al-Masry al-Youm reported.

The Salafi group added that “in the light of Hamas’s new behavior, we renew our loyalty to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi [leader of the Islamic state] and call on him to strengthen his influence and to launch a campaign in Palestine and to unite in the fight against the Jews and their accomplices.”

The pro-Islamic State Salafi groups consider Hamas, which fought a 50-day war against Israel last summer, as being too soft on Israel and for failing to impose stricter Islamic laws in Gaza.
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Mike Huckabee announces second run for president
(JNS.org) Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee—an ordained Southern Baptist minister, popular radio and television personality, and vocal supporter of Israel—on Tuesday announced that he will run for president for a second time in 2016.

Huckabee, the runner-up to U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in the 2008 Republican presidential primary, told a crowd in his hometown of Hope, Ark., “It seems perfectly fitting that it would be here that I announce that I am a candidate for president of the United States of America.”

The former governor joins U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), as well as retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, in the field of official Republican presidential candidates. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is considered by many to be the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, but has yet to announced his candidacy.

In a December 2013 interview with JNS.org, Huckabee said that because the U.S. “has indicated that they are going to act independently of Israel as it relates to Iran,” Israel has “a license to act without having to be scolded for not having consulted the U.S. for their plans.” At the time, when the Obama administration was brokering peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, Huckabee said the “fundamental prerequisites” to any American involvement in such negotiations should be the insistence that the Palestinians acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and “cleanse their textbooks” of materials that teach children to hate Jews.
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Founder of France’s National Front suspended from party over anti-Semitism
(JNS.org) The founder of France’s far-right National Front political party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, was suspended from the party over comments he made trivializing the Holocaust’s gas chambers. The suspension is part of an effort by his daughter and the party’s current leader, Marine Le Pen, to distance National Front from its anti-Semitic history.

The elder Le Pen, 86, has repeatedly stated that the Nazi gas chambers were merely “a detail of history” and that he wants to defend the “white world.” He has also praised France’s leader during World War II, Philippe Petain, despite his capitulation to the Nazis.

Le Pen’s daughter called her father’s comments “political suicide” and ordered a disciplinary meeting, in which the elderly leader’s membership in the party was suspended. In the wake of the suspension, the senior Le Pen disavowed his relationship with his daughter and called her decision a “criminal act,” AFP reported.

“I am ashamed that the president of the National Front has my name,” Jean-Marie Le Pen told the Europe 1 radio station on Tuesday.

“These [disciplinary] decisions show how far Marine Le Pen is ready to go to improve the image of her party,” said Jonathan Walsh of the France 24broadcaster, who reported on the decision from the headquarters of the National Front.

A survey released by the French marketing firm IFOP in September 2014 showed that 13.5 percent of French Jews supported the far-right party in the 2012 presidential election.

“The increase of FN (National Front) votes among the Jewish voters is explained by the strategy of de-demonization led by the party, the absence of bad references to the Holocaust… and especially the growing concern in part of the Jewish community about the rise of Islamic anti-Semitism vis-à-vis of which the FN presents itself as a bulwark,” said Jerome Fourquet, director of public opinion for IFOP, according to the International Business Times.
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Hikers will film cross-country Israeli trail for Google Street View
(JNS.org) The 600-mile Israel National Trail, which spans the entire state of Israel, will be filmed and documented by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) for inclusion in the Google Street View database.

Hikers from SPNI will travel the entire trail over the course of three months and film the journey with Google Street View Trekker Cameras. The trail will be the first cross-country hiking path filmed for Google Street View and the longest path displayed from start to finish in the database.

“The SPNI sees great importance in presenting and exposing the country and its nature both to Israelis and to world citizens. Exposing the Israel National Trail through Street View will encourage tourists from Israel and abroad to experience with their feet and their senses the various cultures and landscapes of Israel, to fall in love with them and to take action to preserve them,” said SPNI Executive Director Moshe Pakman.

“We are very proud of this collaboration and are happy to map out the Israel National Trail for tourists from within Israel and abroad. When this project is completed, the Israel National Trail will join some of the world’s greatest heritage and nature sites on Google Maps, like the Pyramids of Giza, the Amazon River and Cambodia’s Angkor Wat temples,” added Google Israel CEO Meir Brand, Israel Hayom reported.
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Islamic State claims responsibility for Texas Muhammad cartoon event attack
(JNS.org) The Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for the shooting attack at a free speech event in Texas on Sunday night that featured cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, marking the first time the group has admitted to carrying out an attack on U.S. soil.

“Two of the soldiers of the caliphate executed an attack on an art exhibit in Garland, Texas, and this exhibit was portraying negative pictures of the Prophet Muhammad,” Islamic State said in a statement broadcast on its official radio station.

“We tell America that what is coming will be even bigger and more bitter, and that you will see the soldiers of ISIS (Islamic State) do terrible things,” the group added.

On Sunday, two gunmen opened fire at an event hosted by the American Freedom Defense Initiative called “Jihad Watch Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest,” in Garland, Texas. One security guard was wounded, and the gunmen were subsequently killed by police officers.

The FBI identified one of the gunmen as Elton Simpson from Phoenix. Simpson was previously charged in 2010 by federal prosecutors for attempting to travel to Somalia “for the purpose of engaging in violent jihad.” The other gunmen is reportedly from the same apartment complex in Phoenix, but investigators have not yet released his identity.
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Lauryn Hill bows to BDS pressure, cancels Israel concert
(JNS.org) American hip-hop and R&B singer Lauryn Hill announced the cancellation of a scheduled concert in Israel only three days before the performance, following pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

“I’ve wanted very much to bring our live performance to this part of the world, but also to be a presence supporting justice and peace,” Hill said in a statement on her website. “It is very important to me that my presence or message not be misconstrued, or a source of alienation to either my Israeli or my Palestinian fans.”

Hill added that she would “seek a different strategy to bring my music to all of my fans in the region.”

After rising to fame in the 1990s as a member of the hip-hop group The Fugees, Hill won five Grammy Awards for her solo album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” in 1998.

Pro-BDS groups have pressured numerous artists, musicians, and academics to boycott Israel over its policies towards the Palestinians. But a number of prominent musicians and bands—such as Madonna, Paul McCartney, Elton John, and the Rolling Stones—have rejected those calls and forged ahead with performances in the Jewish state.

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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.