Jewish news briefs: July 22, 2015

jns logo short version

Netanyahu reiterates opposition to Iran deal upon visit of Italian PM

(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his staunch opposition to the recently signed Iran nuclear deal during a Knesset session held in honor of visiting Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Wednesday.

“Iran, which strives to export the Khomeiniist revolution throughout the world, continues—on a daily basis—to call for Israel’s destruction,” Netanyahu said. “It is spreading murderous terrorism and undermining stability across the Middle East. I say as clearly as possible: The nuclear agreement signed with Iran last week threatens not only us, but you in Europe, the United States, and the entire international community.”

He continued, “The agreement leaves Iran with the ability to achieve an arsenal of nuclear bombs in approximately a decade, in 15 years maximum, because then all the restrictions on Iran’s production of advanced and non-advanced centrifuges will be lifted, as well as on its enrichment of uranium to any level it likes. Then Iran will be able to break through to many nuclear bombs in zero time, with international legitimacy. The deal also will enrich Iran’s coffers, even now, with hundreds of billions of dollars, at least $100 billion in the first year, money that will serve to increase its aggression in the region and to spread terrorism to many countries.”

Renzi, who a day earlier visited Tel Aviv University with a delegation of Italian scientists, told the Knesset that whoever boycotts Israel “doesn’t understand that he is boycotting himself and doesn’t understanding that he is betraying his own future.” He added that when he delivers a speech in the disputed Palestinian territories during his visit, he plans to emphasize that “to recognize Israel is to recognize reality,” Haaretz reported.
*
Proposed IDF budget cuts ‘detached’ from reality, Israeli defense minister says

(JNS.org) Newly proposed military budget cuts are “detached” from the reality on the ground in Israel, said the country’s defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon.

The Locker report, compiled by an Israeli government-appointed commission headed by Maj. Gen. (res.) Yohanan Locker, was released Tuesday. It recommends a reduction in the length of mandatory Israel Defense Forces (IDF) service, a fixed five-year budget for the IDF, and a dramatic cut in some of the pensions awarded to retired career soldiers, among dozens of other measures.

“The Locker report is superficial, radically imbalanced, and completely detached from the reality in the State of Israel and all around it,” Ya’alon said Tuesday. “If implemented, this report will force us to gamble with the safety of Israel’s citizens. Anyone who wants to successfully confront Islamic State, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and dozens of unstoppable terrorist organizations, as we have been doing so far, cannot afford to have a mediocre army manned by mediocre people. Sadly, the Locker report is pulling precisely in that direction.”

The report includes 53 recommendations on ways to streamline the Israeli defense budget. One of the suggestions that has particularly irked the defense establishment is cutting mandatory military service for men from three years to two years, the same length as women’s mandatory service, by the end of 2020. According to the Locker commission, combat soldiers asked to serve a third year will be compensated “appropriately.”

Another controversial recommendation is the revocation of the bridge benefit currently paid to career soldiers who retire from the military before the official state retirement age, when they become eligible for a retirement pension. A senior IDF officer told Israel Hayom that “it is inconceivable that service in the Shin Bet, Mossad, Israel Prison Service, and police will be more attractive than service with us. None of the people who serve in those organizations have the same job insecurity that we do in the IDF.”
*
‘Fiddler on the Roof’ Broadway actor Theodore Bikel dies at 91

(JNS.org) Theodore Bikel, an American Jewish actor of Austrian heritage who played Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, died Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 91, his publicist announced.

Bikel is also known for creating the role of Captain von Trapp in the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music and for appearing on screen in numerous films, including The African Queen,  The Defiant Ones, and the movie version of My Fair Lady.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Bikel was sent by his parents to pre-state Israel after the Anschluss. He studied at an agricultural school and later at an acting program of the Habimah national theater. In 1945, he moved to London to study in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and a few years later received the opportunity to act in A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Laurence Olivier.

In 1954, Bikel moved to New York, where he began to act on Broadway. He became a U.S. citizen in 1961.
*
Archaeologists decipher oldest parchment writing since Dead Sea Scrolls

(JNS.org) Israeli archaeologists have deciphered writing on a charred parchment that they are describing as the oldest text found since the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The script written on the 1,500-year-old parchment, which was first discovered 45 years ago at the Ein Gedi oasis, was revealed using digital imaging technology.

“This is a really big discovery,” Israel Antiquities Authority curator Pnina Shor said in a news conference announcing the display of the 5-centimeter (2-inch) cylindrical object, Israel Hayom reported.

“After the Dead Sea Scrolls, this has been the most significant find of an ancient Bible,” said Shor, who added that the Israeli company Merkel Technologies, which specializes in high-tech medical equipment, helped decipher the script on the scroll via micro-CT scanning. Afterward, the results were sent to Brent Seales, a computer expert at the University of Kentucky, who used digital imaging to visualize the text and reveal that the script represents the first eight verses of the Book of Leviticus.

“The discovery absolutely astonished us. We were certain this was a shot in the dark,” Shor said.
*
American Jewish pilot Lou Lenart, savior of Tel Aviv in 1948 war, dies at 94

(JNS.org) Lou Lenart, a U.S. Marine Corps pilot during World War II who later helped thwart an Egyptian advance on Tel Aviv in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, died Monday at age 94.

Lenart was born Layos Lenovitz to Jewish farmers in Hungary. His family moved to America when he was 10 years old and settled in Pennsylvania. He later enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17 and became a pilot, seeing action during the Battle of Okinawa and elsewhere in the Pacific.

Following World War II, Lenart joined Israel’s nascent air force, which consisted of just four Czech-built German Messerschmitt fighter planes. During the 1948 war, when Egyptian forces were closing in Tel Aviv, Israeli commanders decided to risk their entire fleet of planes and attack the Egyptian advance. Lenart, who was the most experienced pilot in the group, led the charge. Surprised by the Israeli aerial attack, Egyptian forces eventually retreated.

“It was the most important event in my life,” Lenart told an Israeli Air Force magazine, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. “I survived World War II so I could lead this mission.”

Following the war, Lenart participated in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah to bring Iraqi Jews to Israel, and also worked as a pilot for the El Al airline.

Lenart is survived by his wife, daughter, and grandson. He was buried Ra’anana on Wednesday.
*
Chickens were first commercialized in ancient Israel, researchers say

(JNS.org) Chickens were first commercialized in southern Israel during the Hellenistic period around 2,300 years ago, according a study published by researchers from the University of Haifa.

“Chicken remains found from the Hellenistic period (4th century BCE) in the Judean lowlands shed light on the beginnings of this economic revolution, and show the earliest evidence of the western world’s large-scale industrial poultry,” the university said, the Jerusalem Postreported.

The domesticated chicken is descended primarily from the red junglefowl from Asia at least 7,400 years ago and were brought to the Middle East around 5,000 years ago, although they were considered exotic and primarily used for worship and cockfights.

According to the university, “Globalization that characterized the Hellenistic regime in our region, compounded with developments in international science and commerce, created the right conditions for change in the status of the rooster to generate income, and serve as food.”

Researchers Profs. Ayelet Gilboa and Guy Bar-Oz of the University of Haifa unearthed large quantities of chicken bones near the Judean town of Lakhish. Along with signs of fire and slaughter, the bones indicate that the chickens were also eaten at the site.

“The large quantity of bones reinforces the assumption that some of the major industries used the chickens for export,” the researchers said.

Researchers also found evidence that female chickens were raised to produce mass quantities of eggs. Similar chicken facilities did not reach Europe for another two centuries.
*
Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman