Jewish news briefs: July 20, 2015

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Hamas terror cell arrested over deadly Shvut Rachel shooting attack

(JNS.org) Israel’s Shin Bet security agency revealed Sunday that its officers have uncovered a Hamas terror cell suspected of carrying out a drive-by shooting near the Judea and Samaria community of Shvut Rachel last month.
Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld, 26, was critically injured in the shooting and later died, while three others were less severely wounded. According to the Shin Bet, the Hamas terrorists arrested on suspicion of killing Rosenfeld are also suspected of carrying out a shooting attack two days earlier. In the first attack, terrorists opened fire at an Israeli ambulance and several other Israeli vehicles near Beitin, a Palestinian town close to Ramallah. No one was injured in the shooting.

The Shin Bet also said the mastermind behind the attacks was Ahmed Najar, a Palestinian terrorist released from an Israeli prison in 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange for Hamas captive Gilad Shalit.
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Hebrew University listed among world’s top 25 schools

(JNS.org) The Saudi Arabia-based Center for World University Rankings has once again ranked the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as one of the world’s top universities, placing it 23rd on its list of 1,000 schools. Hebrew University moved down one spot from its 2014 ranking.

Among the criteria factored into the rankings are quality of education, the number of alumni who become CEOs in top companies, the quality of faculty, and the number of research papers the institution published in reputable journals. The Weizmann Institute of Science was ranked 39th and Tel Aviv University placed 86th. The other Israeli universities appearing in the list are the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology (136), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (349), Bar-Ilan University (521), and the University of Haifa (700).
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Hamas demands prisoner release for info on missing Israelis
(JNS.org) Hamas is demanding Israel’s release of Palestinian prisoners as a condition for giving the Jewish state information about two Israelis who went missing in Gaza after crossing the border fence last September.
According to Arab media reports, Hamas will not budge on revealing information about Ethiopian-Israeli man Avera Mengistu or a second missing Israeli who remains unnamed, nor will it negotiate on returning the remains of killed Israeli soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul, if Israel does not free Palestinian terrorist prisoners.

The prisoners in question were released in the 2011 exchange that freed Hamas captive Gilad Shalit, but were later re-arrested by Israeli security forces. Al Arabiya reported that in a speech marking the Eid al-Fitr holiday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the group “will not speak with or give [Israel] a scrap of information before our people in Israeli prisons are released.”
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Report: Jonathan Pollard may be freed in November
(JNS.org) Jewish spy Jonathan Pollard might be released from prison Nov. 21, which will mark exactly 30 years since he was arrested for giving Israel classified information on the U.S., The Algemeiner reported Friday.
An unnamed source involved in the case said the U.S. is “seriously considering” releasing Pollard, 60, from a North Carolina federal prison in consideration of his failing health. Pollard’s freedom would not come for the purpose of calming U.S.-Israel tension over the Iran nuclear deal, said the source.

Pollard is the only person in U.S. history to receive a life sentence for spying for an American ally. Numerous former American security and intelligence officials with first-hand knowledge of Pollard’s case have called for his release.
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U.S. probes Chattanooga gunman’s travel to Middle East
(JNS.org) U.S. authorities are investigating recent travel to the Middle East by Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, who shot and killed five U.S. Marines on Thursday in Chattanooga, Tenn., before he was shot dead by police.
Authorities fear that Abdulazeez was radicalized in recent years and are probing his visit to Jordan last year. They have also not ruled out a possible trip he made to Yemen.

Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait to a Palestinian father and was a naturalized American citizen. The FBI and police have said it is “premature” to declare his motive for the shooting, but they have already called the attack “domestic terrorism.”

“Chattanooga tragically is not the first time terrorists inspired by a twisted, hateful, violent Islamist ideology have targeted and killed American military on U.S. soil,” said American Jewish Committee Executive Director David Harris, who called for “constant vigilance” to prevent such attacks.

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Netanyahu calls Abbas in first official talk in more than a year
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as part of a goodwill gesture to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

According to a statement by the Prime Ministers’ Office, Netanyahu told Abbas that the citizens of Israel want peace and that Israel would continue to act towards regional stability.

The call was the first official contact between the leaders since they spoke after the June 2014 kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas. But reports indicate that Netanyahu and Abbas have spoken several times secretly over the last few months. Those talks have led to several informal measures on both sides to ease tensions, including Israel slowing down construction in Judea and Samaria and the Palestinians halting efforts for unilateral international recognition, the Times of Israel reported. Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders have denied those reports.

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Israel’s deputy FM adds Western Wall to official state visit requirements
(JNS.org) Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely has instructed Israel’s Foreign Ministry to require that foreign dignitaries coming to the country include a visit to the Western Wall as part of their official state trip.
“This is a statement of intention which strengthens the position of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Hotovely said, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Current protocol for visiting foreign dignitaries requires them to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and the grave of Theodor Herzl. According to estimates, only half of all official visits include the Western Wall, with many foreign leaders shying away from the site due to political concerns.

“If they will refuse, we will try to convince them. The real change is that the Western Wall was never a priority for the Foreign Ministry until today,” Hotovely said.
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