Indian president: ‘Palestine belongs to Arabs like England to English’
(JNS.org) Indian President Pranab Mukherjee, who will arrive in Israel on Tuesday for the first-ever visit to the Jewish state by an Indian head of state, said at the University of Jordan in Amman that “Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English and France to the French.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also expected to visit Israel in the coming months, and India has abstained from three United Nations votes on pro-Palestinian resolutions in recent months. But Mukherjee, who was at the Jordanian university to receive an honorary doctorate, said that “India’s traditional support to the Palestinian cause remains steadfast and unwavering while we pursue strong relations with Israel. Our bilateral relations [with Israel] are independent of our relations with Palestine,” according to the Press Trust of India.
“India supports a negotiated solution resulting in a sovereign, independent, viable and united State of Palestine, with east Jerusalem as its capital, living within secure and recognized borders,” Mukherjee said.
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Israeli Jews assaulted with Molotov cocktail in New York City
(JNS.org) An unidentified attacker threw a Molotov cocktail at two Israeli rabbinical students in midtown Manhattan in New York City last Friday.
Nineteen-year-olds Yosef Rachimi and Yisrael Gadas, who are studying for a year in a Brooklyn yeshiva, were attacked near the corner of West 37th Street and Ninth Avenue around 1:30 p.m. Friday. They were not injured and spoke about their ordeal with the New York Post on Sunday.
“I’m in complete shock,” Rachimi said, that “in 2015, an explosive bottle was thrown at a Jew in the streets of New York.”
“It is conceivable that the attacker sees these boys every Friday and prepared this bomb to ambush them. A firebomb is not the kind of thing you have sitting in your car or in your bag unless you have someone to throw it at,” said Barry Sugar, director of the Jewish Leadership Council.
Shopkeeper Shalom Hegazy, who witnessed the assault, said the attacker “lit something in the bottle—I think alcohol.” Hegazy doused the flames with water.
While the motive for the attack remains unknown, officers from the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force are investigating the attack.
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Stabbing thwarted in Jerusalem, 4 Israelis injured in Hadera in latest violence
(JNS.org) Monday began in Jerusalem with a knife-wielding Palestinian terrorist attempting to stab a border policeman in the Old City. The police officer was uninjured, thanks to the protective vest he was wearing, and the terrorist was shot and killed by police.
The initial investigation revealed that the terrorist had emerged from the direction of the northern Muslim cemetery, near the city’s Lions’ Gate, with his hand in his pocket. The Border Police officers securing the area became suspicious and asked him to show his hands. The terrorist then approached one of the officers and stabbed him.
On Sunday evening, four Israelis were injured in a combined car-ramming and stabbing attack in northern Israel. A 20-year-old Israeli Arab from Umm al-Fahm attacked a group of people at a crowded shopping center on Route 65 near Hadera. The terrorist drove toward a bus stop and attempted to run over a group of shoppers. He then stopped the vehicle, exited it, and began stabbing passersby. A 19-year-old female Israeli Air Force soldier was seriously injured and is under a medically induced coma. She was apparently hit by the car before being stabbed.
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Palestinian terror wave hits Jerusalem businesses hard
(JNS.org) The recent surge in Palestinian terrorism has hit business owners hard in Jerusalem. Deterred by the ongoing attacks, the number of tourists visiting the city has dropped significantly, leading to a drastic decline in revenues.
“The ongoing situation has dealt a fatal blow to business owners,” the head of the Jerusalem City Center Merchants Association, Eli Levi, told Israel Hayom on Sunday. Levi is the owner of the Eldad Vezehoo restaurant, a longstanding Jerusalem institution.
“People are not going out and our workload has dropped by 60 percent to 70 percent,” he said. “If this continues we will have to send people [employees] back home. Coffee shops and restaurants are empty. No one wants to go and have fun, because people are scared of terrorists.”
Dror Babay, who operates the Black Bar ‘n’ Burger joint in Jerusalem, said, “People are staying home because they are scared, and our revenues have dropped significantly, by more than 50 percent. People are not in the mood to go out, there are less teenagers who go out either, because their parents are afraid, and there are no tourists.”
The Jerusalem Municipality said it was premature to take action on the situation.
“At this point, it is not possible to determine whether the ongoing situation has any longterm economic consequences on the city, since only a short period has elapsed,” the city said.
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‘Jesus was a Palestinian,’ says Obama’s former pastor Jeremiah Wright
(JNS.org) Jeremiah Wright, the controversial pastor who preached at a church that was formerly attended by President Barack Obama, said on Saturday that “Jesus was a Palestinian.”
Speaking at a Nation of Islam event in Washington, Wright also called Israel an “apartheid state” and drew a parallel between “the youth in Ferguson and the youth in Palestine.”
“The same issue is being fought today and has been fought since 1948, and historians are carried back to the 19th century…when the original people, the Palestinians—and please remember, Jesus was a Palestinian—the Palestinian people had the Europeans come and take their country,” Wright said, The Hill reported.
Wright, who led Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago from 1972-2008, also linked the “Black Lives Matter” movement to the Palestinian cause.
“Palestinians are saying ‘Palestinian lives matter.’ We stand with you, we support you, we say God bless you,” he said.
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Maaleh Adumim dedicates cultural center hours after Palestinian car bomb set off
(JNS.org) Just hours after an attempted terrorist attack rocked the Jerusalem suburb of Maaleh Adumim on Sunday, a new culture center was inaugurated in the city’s center. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev attended the dedication ceremony.
In the attempted attack, a Palestinian woman detonated a car bomb after being pulled over by Israeli police near Maaleh Adumim on Sunday morning. An Israeli police officer was lightly injured in the blast, and the terrorist was seriously wounded.
Speaking at the dedication ceremony hours later, Rivlin said, “I had prepared remarks for this festive occasion today, but I would be remiss if I ignored the attempted attack today. Right now, the homefront is a front of its own. We cannot let the terrorists dictate our lives. We will not rest until we restore calm to the streets of Jerusalem, to the streets of Israel and to every one of its citizens.”
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Jewish umbrella body: cut U.S. funding if Palestinians fail to curb terror
(JNS.org) The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella body representing 53 national Jewish groups, on Thursday urged the Obama administration “to demand that Palestinian officials act decisively” to curb the current wave of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis, arguing further that a failure by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to stem the violence “should bring a cut in funding” from the United States.
“The leadership of the Palestinian Authority, and in particular, President [Mahmoud] Abbas, must be held to account for their direct and indirect roles in inciting the populace, especially the frequent references to Al-Aqsa being ‘under siege,’ when they know that not to be the case,” said Stephen Greenberg, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman/CEO, of the Conference of Presidents.
The U.S. funds the PA to the tune of about $500 million annually. Greenberg and Hoenlein said, “We call on the United States government…to demand that Palestinian officials act decisively to curb the violence. We know that President Abbas can impact the ‘Palestinian street’ when he wants to. His failure to do so should bring a cut in funding and the isolation of Abbas until he takes concrete steps.”
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As Palestinian terror attacks cause panic, Israelis prepare for self-defense
(JNS.org) The recent Palestinian terrorism wave against has resulted in a surge in calls made by Israelis to police emergency hotlines. While police normally receive about 600 calls a day reporting suspicious activity, that number has soared to 25,000.
While panic rises, Israelis are also preparing for self-defense. The outdoor equipment retailer Rikushet reported a 400-percent increase in the purchase of self-defense products, mainly pepper spray. Other similar chains have also reported increases in the sales of pepper sprays, stun guns, clubs, and plastic restraints.
Rikushet CEO Dudi Mantin estimated that last week alone, Israelis spent about $78,000 on self-defense products, Israel Hayom reported.
“We sold three weeks’ worth of inventory in a single day, about 100 items in total,” said Eyal Daniel, co-owner of Tel Aviv’s Haboleshet Spy Shop, the Times of Israel reported.
Josh Carr, a former commander at the IDF’s Krav Maga martial arts instructor’s school, posted a Facebook invitation for Israelis to join a free self-defense course.
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NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio visiting Israel to speak on fighting anti-Semitism
(JNS.org) Starting Oct. 15, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio will make his first visit to Israel since taking office.
In an Oct. 18 keynote address at the Annual Conference of Mayors, De Blasio’s remarks will cover the combating of anti-Semitism. The conference is being hosted by the American Jewish Congress, the American Council for World Jewry, and the World Forum of Russian-Speaking Jewry.
De Blasio’s Israel trip is reportedly being partially funded by the mayor and his staff, and otherwise supported by a “private gift to the city” by Israeli entrepreneur Baruch Eliezer Gross.
“I’m honored to join Mayor de Blasio in his fight against anti-Semitism and in support of tolerance. New York City can provide other cities with a model for protecting all communities against hate,” Gross told Politico New York.
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Jewish leader: pulling Samantha Power from Netanyahu’s U.N. speech bad for ‘optics’
(JNS.org) Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said Friday that it was bad for “optics” that President Barack Obama prevented U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power from attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent U.N. address.
Hoenlein told the Nachum Segal Network radio station, “I’ve looked into it, I’ve spoken to Power about it, and the fact is that the U.S. ambassador did not attend any [U.N. General Assembly] speeches and did plan to attend the prime minister’s speech. But there was an emergency national security council meeting, it was because of a particular development, and Power was called away for it. There was no walkout.”
He added, “The problem was with the optics. It was the question of how did the other countries read it. When they saw the absence, did they look for Samantha Power? The optics that it created, the impression that resulted of it is of concern.”
A State Department official had told Breitbart News, “Ambassador Power and Secretary [John] Kerry were unable to attend Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech before the [U.N.] General Assembly because they were called into a meeting with President Obama, which they participated in via video teleconference.”
Elliott Abrams—a former George W. Bush administration official—wrote on his “Pressure Points” blog that a report about Power being deliberately instructed to stay away from Netanyahu’s speech marks “a low point for seven years of Obama diplomacy.”
“To sit in the seat and listen to Netanyahu isn’t endorsing his remarks, it is the politeness we owe an ally,” Abrams wrote. “Deliberate absence recalls the years in which dozens of delegations, Arab and ‘Third World,’ would leave the chamber when any Israeli rose to speak.”
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