Jewish news briefs: August 17, 2015

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Palestinian terrorist stabs Israeli policeman in latest attack

(JNS.org) A Palestinian terrorist was shot dead Monday after stabbing an Israeli border policeman at Tapuach Junction in Samaria. The policeman was lightly wounded in the incident.

The attack was the latest incident in a surge of Palestinian terrorism in recent weeks. On Saturday, two Israeli security personnel were lightly wounded in separate stabbing attacks in Samaria within hours of each other. One of the attackers was moderately wounded and the other was killed.

Last week, an Israeli man was moderately wounded when he was stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist at a gas station on Route 443, which is one of the main highways linking the Jerusalem and Tel Aviv areas. The terrorist in that attack was shot and killed by Israeli troops as he tried to flee the scene.

On Aug. 6, three Israeli soldiers were wounded when a Palestinian motorist intentionally rammed them with his vehicle at a junction on Route 60 near Shiloh in Samaria. Three days earlier, three Israelis were wounded when a firebomb was thrown at an Israeli vehicle near the Arab neighborhood of Beit Hanina in northern Jerusalem.

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Protest seeks to put pressure on Hamas to release Ethiopian-Israeli man

(JNS.org) Friends and relatives of Ethiopian-Israeli man Avera Mengistu, who is believed to be held captive by the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza, staged a protest outside Hadarim prison in central Israel on Monday.

Mengistu, 28, disappeared after entering Gaza on his own accord on Sept. 7, 2014, two weeks after the end of Israel’s war with Hamas last summer. He is believed to be mentally unstable.

The protest at Hadarim prison was timed to coincide with visitors’ day for Palestinian inmates there. The protesters demonstrated against Hamas’s inhumane holding of Mengistu, noting that in Israel human rights are respected and Palestinian prisoners receive visits from their families.

Protesters asked Palestinians visiting their loved ones in prison to pass their message on to Hamas, handing out fliers in Arabic. The Mengistu family says this will be the first in a series of humanitarian protests against Hamas.

“This is just the beginning of a long struggle, and we don’t know when or how it will end,” activist Matan Ayala said at the demonstration.

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Iran behind all recent attacks in Golan Heights region, IDF officer says

(JNS.org) All attacks in the Golan Heights region since December 2013 “have been carried out with Iranian direction,” a senior Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Northern Command officer told reporters on Sunday.

According to the officer, who remained anonymous, several hundred Hezbollah terrorist operatives are currently active on the Syrian side of the Israeli border in the Golan Heights. The officer also said Iran was responsible for the planting of an explosive device on the Israel-Syria border in April.

Terrorist operatives in the border area have received “clear guidance” from Iran to carry out attacks, the officer said. One terrorist cell operating in the area is led by Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese Druze terrorist who was released from Israeli prison in 2008 as part of a swap deal with Hezbollah. Kuntar has recruited local Syrians to join the ranks of his cell.

“Iran sends advisers [to the area] and provides money, weapons, and training [to terrorists operating there],” the officer said, Israel Hayom reported.

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Israeli government approves major offshore gas deal

(JNS.org) The Israeli government on Sunday approved a deal with a consortium of major gas companies on natural gas production in the Mediterranean Sea.

The deal, reached last Thursday with the Israeli gas firm Delek Group and American-based Noble Energy, sets a price cap for natural gas sales to Israeli companies and requires the gas companies to finish developing the Leviathan gas field by 2020. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted 17-1 in favor of the agreement, with Environmental Protection Minister Avi Gabai (Kulanu) the lone opposing vote.

The deal resolves a pricing dispute in which an Israeli antitrust commissioner last year threatened to designate the Delek-Noble partnership as a monopoly. In June 2015, meanwhile, the Israeli cabinet declared that Israel’s offshore gas fields are a matter of national security because the Jewish state plans to export some of the gas to Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority.

Netanyahu said the gas deal will “bring Israel’s citizens hundreds of billions of shekels in the coming years… This money will serve us in health, education, and social welfare.”

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Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal leads terror groups delegation to Turkey

(JNS.org) Hamas’s political chief, Khaled Mashaal, led a visiting delegation from the Palestinian terror group to Turkey.

According to Yedioth Ahronoth, Mashaal met with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Aug. 13, and they discussed “political developments, the future of the Palestinian question, the situation in Gaza and in Jerusalem, and the Hamas-PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) reconciliation process.” A Hamas statement said the meeting was “positive and useful.”

The Turkey visit follows Mashaal’s recent meetings in Qatar with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and in Saudi Arabia with that country’s leader, King Salman.

In recent years, Turkey has been an outspoken critic of Israeli policy towards Gaza and has provided refuge to some of Hamas’s top leaders, including Salah Al-Arouri—one of the founders of Hamas’s armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades.

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U.K. Jewish newspaper expresses alarm over anti-Israel opposition candidate

(JNS.org) The U.K.’s Jewish Chronicle newspaper sounded the alarm over the impending election of Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn as the next head of the Labour Party and British opposition leader.

“In this rare instance we are certain that we speak for the vast majority of British Jews in expressing deep foreboding at the prospect of Mr. Corbyn’s election as Labour leader,” a Jewish Chronicle editorial stated.

“In a nation where, thank heavens, racism and extremism are now regarded as beyond the pale, it is little short of astonishing that a man who chooses to associate with racists and extremists is about to become leader of one of our two main parties and could conceivably become prime minister,” the newspaper added.

The editorial was triggered by Corbyn’s reported letter of support to Rev. Stephen Sizer, who has blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks and was banned by the Anglican Church for six months. Corbyn said Sizer was “under attack” by a pro-Israel smear campaign.

In 2009, Corbyn referred to Hezbollah and Hamas as “our friends,” saying that inviting members of those terrorist groups to speak is “absolutely the right function of using parliamentary facilities.”

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Hebrew University, Hadassah Hospital launch Middle Easts first autism center

(JNS.org) Israel’s Hebrew University and Hadassah Hospital announced the establishment of the Middle East’s first center dedicated to autism.

The new Autism Center will bring together “cutting-edge research, clinical services, state of the art training, and education for professionals and parents in the community,” Hebrew University said. The organizers hope the research will lead to better clinical practice, public programming, and policies to support autism patients.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder occurring in about 1 in 68 children, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. ASD is five times more likely among boys (1 in 42) than girls (1 in 189).

Prof. David Lichtstein, dean of the medicine faculty at Hebrew University, said he hopes the combined expertise at both institutions behind the initiative will “be positioned to achieve important breakthroughs in the research, diagnosis, and treatment of autism.”

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