Jewish news briefs: August 19, 2015

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On tour of northern borders, Netanyahu says Israel ‘ready for any scenario’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) “Israel is strong, the IDF is strong, and we are ready for any scenario,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday during a visit to the Israeli military’s Northern Command.

Accompanying the prime minister on the visit were Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, and IDF GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, who briefed Netanyahu and Ya’alon on the security situation on the Israel-Syria and Israel-Lebanon borders.

“I was positively impressed both by the IDF’s preparedness and by the determination of its commanders and soldiers. The IDF is strong. The State of Israel is strong. We are ready for any eventuality. Those who try to attack us—we will hurt them,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister also addressed the Iranian threat, saying, “The ruler of Iran, [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei, said yesterday, and I quote, ‘We will take all measures to support all those who fight against Israel.’ Iranian Foreign Minister [Mohammad Javad] Zarif said in Beirut a few days ago, at a meeting with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and I quote, ‘The nuclear agreement has created a historic opportunity to stand against the Zionist entity.’ What we have said all along is being seen as correct and accurate. The money that will flow to Iran in the wake of the nuclear agreement will serve it to strengthen the terrorist organizations operating against us, in its name and under its auspices, in the avowed goal to destroy Israel.”
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Arab Knesset member may face probe for alleged assault of Israeli officers
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel’s Police Intelligence Division on Tuesday asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to authorize a criminal investigation against Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi (Joint Arab List) for allegedly assaulting two Israel Prison Service (IPS) officers guarding the hospital room of Palestinian hunger striker Mohammad Allan at the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

The two officers reportedly filed assault charges against Tibi over the weekend, alleging he attacked them after he arrived at Allan’s hospital room and was told he could not enter the room with his mobile phone.

Tibi allegedly forcibly shoved one of the guards, called both “fascists,” cursed at them, and said, “I’m an MK, I can do whatever I want.” According to the Walla news website, police filed a motion with the attorney general seeking to question Tibi for assaulting a public servant, insulting a public servant, and several other offenses.

“The guards made it clear [to Tibi] that under no circumstances could he take his cell phone into the room. They did not, at any time, ask him to leave his phone with them. The guards decided to press charge and they have the [Prison] Service’s full backing,” a senior IPS officer said.

In a short statement, Tibi said the guards’ demand violated his parliamentary immunity, and that they entered Allan’s room with him and oversaw the visit.
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5 teens injured in bus stoning in eastern Jerusalem
(JNS.org) Five teenagers, four of them Israeli and one Palestinian, were lightly wounded Tuesday when a bus and several private vehicles traveling through the A-Tur neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem were stoned by unknown perpetrators. Police immediately launched a search for the attackers.

The attack smashed the windshield of the bus, injuring the teenagers. Magen David Adom paramedics took four of the wounded—three girls and a boy ages 16 to 17—to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment, while the fifth teenager was treated at the scene.

Dr. Oded Poznanski, head of the hospital’s Emergency Pediatric Unit, said the teens told nurses they are attending a Jewish-Arab summer school program and were returning from class when their bus was attacked.

According to Poznanski, two of the girls sustained eye injuries, the boy received an injury to his leg, and another girl suffered a light head injury. All are doing well.

“My son is part of a group of Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian teens who are attending a cardiology class as part of a summer school course. It’s incredible that it was their bus that was attacked,” the father of one of the teens told Israel Hayom.

Tuesday’s incident joins a series of terrorist attacks that have taken place in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria over the past few weeks, include stonings, stabbings, and firebomb attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
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Mariah Carey mesmerizes Israeli fans
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Five-time Grammy Award winner singer Mariah Carey took the stage at the Live Park Amphitheater on Tuesday in Rishon Lezion, Israel, giving audiences a performance to remember for years to come.

Carey offered up a polished, Las Vegas-style show, complete with her amazing, five-octave vocal range, a golden microphone, and an array of stunning outfits.

Even before hitting the first note, Carey bonded with the 12,000-strong audience, something she made sure to do throughout the show, saying, “Hello Israel,” “I love you,” and “thank you,” in Hebrew, and repeating again and again how happy she was to be in Israel.

Together with her sidekick, R&B singer Trey Lorenz, Carey performed several duets, including “I’ll Be There,” which she dedicated to the late Michael Jackson.

Carey’s show featured a string of pop, soul, and R&B hits, which Israeli fans happily sang along with her, including “Emotion,” “Shake it Off,” and “My Home.” Her performance in Israel was not originally part of her tour schedule.
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Egypt reportedly plans to create moat along border with Gaza
(JNS.org) The Egyptian military is planning to build a moat along its border with Hamas-ruled Gaza that will be used for the dual purpose of encouraging fish farming and preventing Palestinian smuggling tunnels.

According to an Egyptian security source, the military has already dug 1 kilometer (six-tenths of a mile) of the 20-meter (66-foot) deep trench, and work on lengthening it is ongoing, the Ma’an News Agency reported. The trench will be filled with water from the Mediterranean Sea, using pumps and pipelines, and engineers are already preparing the pumps, the source added.

Over the past year, the Egyptian military has demolished more than 1,110 homes on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border to create a 1-kilometer buffer zone, while also destroying hundreds of smuggling tunnels.

Israeli and Egyptian officials have previously touted the idea of creating a moat along the Gaza border. In 2004, Israel floated the idea of a moat, but eventually dropped the plans. Egypt hopes that using commercialized fish farming will encourage investment to help subsidize the project.

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Israeli doctors perform rare procedure to save new mother
(JNS.org) Dcotors at Israel’s Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva performed a groundbreaking procedure to save a new mother’s life.

The 43-year-old woman suffered an amniotic fluid embolism, organ failure, and cardiac arrest during a Caesarean section surgery. Doctors immediately connected her to an ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) life support machine and then performed surgery to remove a clot from her lung.

According to the Mayo Clinic, an amniotic fluid embolism is a rare-but-serious condition that occurs when amniotic fluid—the fluid that surrounds a baby in the uterus during pregnancy—or fetal material, such as hair, enters the maternal bloodstream.

Last week, the woman was disconnected from the ECMO machine when her condition improved, marking one of the few cases in which a woman has ever survived an amniotic fluid embolism.

The head of the women’s unit at Beilinson Hospital, Arnon Vizhnitzer, said that two women in Israel die every year from amniotic fluid embolisms.

“The rare complication of amniotic fluid embolism endangered the life of the woman giving birth. We are proud that we succeeded in saving her life,” said Vizhnitzer, the Times of Israel reported.

“I hope that because of this breakthrough, lives of additional pregnant women in Israel will be saved,” added Dan Arvut, head of cardiothoracic surgery at Beilinson.

An ECMO machine provides both cardiac and respiratory support to people whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of gas exchange to sustain life. It works by removing blood from a person’s body, removing carbon dioxide, and then oxygenating red blood cells.
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Mike Huckabee in Israel: Iranians invoked the Holocaust before I did
(JNS.org) In Israel on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee stood by his recent controversial statement that President Barack Obama “will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven” through the Iran nuclear deal.

During a visit to the Jewish community of Shiloh in Samaria, Huckabee blamed the Iranians for invoking Holocaust terminology in the first place.

“It was the Iranians who invoked the imagery and very word Holocaust. They have said that they have developed missiles that will deliver Israel to the Holocaust. Those are their words. Israeli officials regularly remind the people of Israel and the people of the world that the Iranians’ intent is to wipe Israel off the map,” Huckabee said when asked if he regretted his “oven” statement.

“I am concerned that as an American, the second thing that they threaten and chant is that they will bring death to America,” he added.

Huckabee, an Evangelical Christian minister who has visited Israel dozens of times since 1973, was in Shiloh as part of a fundraiser for his presidential campaign.

“I am delighted tonight to be here at Shiloh… It is an exciting place and an important place. It is the place where the Tabernacle once was. It’s a place of biblical history… I am personally happy that we’ve had our event here tonight and hope that it will bring some attention to this wonderful piece of history for people of faith,” Huckabee said.

According to the latest CNN/ORC poll, Huckabee has the support of 4 percent of Republican voters, well behind leader Donald Trump’s 24-percent support.
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Temple Mount activist Glick blasts police’s treatment of Jews at holy site
(BreakingIsraelNews.com/JNS.org) Rabbi Yehudah Glick, a well-known promoter of Jewish access to the Temple Mount and founder of the Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, blasted the Israeli police’s treatment of Jews in light of recent events at the holy site. He urged the police to “remember who is the real enemy here.”

On Sunday, three Jews were arrested for alleged incitement on the Temple Mount, for offenses which ranged from verbal insults to simply wearing a Jewish garment. According to The Jewish Press, however, nobody was arrested for an assault on an Israeli police officer that took place there the same day.

The Jerusalem Post reported that a man was arrested for responding “Muhammad is a pig!” to an Arab mob shouting anti-Semitic slurs. He is the fourth Israeli to be arrested for making similar remarks, in a trend started by 20-year-old mother Aviya Morris last month.

A second individual, a 14-year-old boy, was detained for wearing the religious garment known as tzitzit over his clothing. Members of the Islamic Waqf (the Jordanian-run religious entity that administers the Temple Mount) complained to Israeli police about the teen, saying his attire violated regulations against wearing obvious religious symbols at the holy site. The Waqf officer warned police that the tzitzit would cause a “disruption” if noticed by other Muslim visitors. The boy, a resident of Beit El, was released unconditionally upon arrival at the nearby police station.

The third detainee visited the Temple Mount with his friend who is about to be married. He allegedly whispered the words of a Jewish song into the bridegroom’s ear, leading to his arrest. The song, traditionally associated with weddings for its reference to bridegrooms and brides celebrating together in Jerusalem, is taken from the book of Isaiah. According to The Jewish Press, the civil rights NGO Honenu had gone to the police to try to secure the 35-year-old’s release before his friend’s wedding.

“I strongly recommend that the Israeli policemen go for an ear examination,” Rabbi Glick told Breaking Israel News. “It seems that many of them suffer very severely from an ear illness called ‘selective hearing.’ They seem not to hear harassment, incitement, cursing of innocent Jews on the Temple Mount, but at the same time they will never miss a Jew mumbling to himself a word of prayer. We must remember who is the real enemy here, who wants to kill and who supports life.”

Following the arrests of the three Jews, an Israeli police officer was attacked with a wooden beam by Arabs at the Temple Mount. No arrests were reported in connection to the incident, which resulted in the officer sustaining minor injuries to his leg.
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Palestinian Media Watch: Fatah military wing asks Iran for funds to fight Israel
(JNS.org) The Gaza-based military wing of the West Bank-based Fatah faction, which is headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, has reportedly asked Iran for money to help it fight Israel.

In addition, Fatah unveiled a cross-border tunnel that leads into Israeli territory during an appeal on Iran’s state-owned Al-Alam television channel, Palestinian Media Watch reported. Al-Alam interviewed a masked fighter from the Gaza branch of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades who showcased the new two-mile-long tunnel.

”We spend all our time trying to get money to fulfill our duty concerning our occupied lands and liberate them from the Zionist entity,” the fighter said.

“This is why we are asking [for money]… especially [from] Iran, which is a known long-time supporter of the resistance and the Palestinian cause,” he added.

The tunnel, according to the fighter, “is approximately 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) long and crosses the border between the Gaza Strip and the Zionist enemy. There are tunnels inside [Gaza] through which jihad fighters pass during war.”

While Iran’s funding of the Gaza-ruling Palestinian terror group Hamas is well-documented, the Islamic Republic’s relationship with the PA has been more under the radar over the years. Yet this month, Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member Ahmed Majdalani announced that Abbas will visit Iran in November. Majdalani himself recently took a trip to Iran, where he met with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

“The visit now by a PA emissary, Ahmad Majdalani, is an advance visit and will likely not generate headlines. But Abbas’s visit could be historic. Depending on how it goes, it may be a sign that he has fully gravitated away from diplomacy with Israel if he invests in his ties to the Islamic Republic,” Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, recently told JNS.org.
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Israel’s Hebrew U, Technion among top 100 universities in Shanghai Ranking
(JNS.org) Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Haifa-based Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have been selected at number 67 and 77, respectively, on the 2015 Academic Ranking of World Universities, which is also known as the “Shanghai Ranking.”

When it comes to specific fields, Technion ranked 18th for computer science and 44th spot in engineering.

The Shanghai Ranking has been published since 2003 with the purpose of improving the quality of Chinese universities by comparing them to other universities worldwide. The rankings take various factors into account, such as schools’ number of Nobel Prize and other award winners and their number of published scientific articles.

“Our excellent faculty, researchers, and staff will continue to train and cultivate the students at the Technion—Israel’s generation of the future,” Technion President Professor Peretz Lavie said regarding the institution’s ranking, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

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