Methodist Church rejects Israel divestment, withdraws from anti-Israel coalition
(JNS.org) The United Methodist Church (UMC) voted down four resolutions that called on the Church to divest from companies doing business with Israel.
At its May 10-20 General Conference in Portland, Ore., the UMC also voted—478 in favor and 318 against—to withdraw its membership, financial support, and staff participation from the “U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation,” a coalition encouraging boycotts of Israel.
“This one-sided political coalition’s website (www.endtheoccupation.org) reveals that its agenda includes seeking ‘to isolate Israel economically, socially, and culturally,’ and promoting ‘comprehensive divestment’ against Israel, while overlooking anti-Israel aggression,” stated the UMC petitionthat called for withdrawal from the anti-Israel coalition. “Blaming only one side while ignoring the wrongdoing of Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran will not advance the cause of peace.”
Roz Rothstein, CEO of the pro-Israel education and advocacy group StandWithUs, said, “By severing its ties with anti-Israel groups, the UMC has reaffirmed its role as an agent of reconciliation and peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians.”
Surgery is broadcast live for the first time in Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva on Tuesday became the first Israeli hospital to broadcast surgical operations in real time.
The broadcast, available to viewers in Israel and oversees on Clalit Health Care Services’ Facebook page, includes a Cesarean section; heart, corneal, and kidney transplants; a complex cardiac catheterization; and a robot-led prostate surgery.
In one procedure seen in the broadcast, operating surgeon Prof. Irit Bachar says, “We are in the midst of a complex corneal transplant surgery. We’re operating on a patient who has one eye. His other eye is a ‘lazy eye,’ and we’re replacing his cornea with a donor cornea.” The patient, a 60-year-old art teacher, had a successful result.
Live streaming of this nature is typically barred by Facebook, whose content policy prohibits posting bloody images. Complying with the social media giant’s directives, the Israeli hospital made sure not to show the more graphic parts of the procedures, focusing on the surgical staff and the technical aspects of the operations.
“We gave around 100,000 viewers a glimpse into what happens in the hospital,” Rabin Medical Center Director Prof. Eran Halpern said. “We believe in our professional standards and we have nothing to hide.”
Lebanon’s central bank will comply with U.S. finance law targeting Hezbollah
(JNS.org) The head of Lebanon’s powerful central bank said that it will comply with a United States finance law that targets the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Last December, the U.S. government passed the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act, which aims to sanction international financial institutions that knowingly facilitate Hezbollah’s activities.
“The U.S. law has to be implemented worldwide and in Lebanon,” said Riad Salameh, governor of Lebanon’s central bank, Reuters reported. “It is not possible to guarantee credit stability if [the central bank] does not implement the U.S. law.”
“If we do not do that…our banking sector could become isolated from the world,” he said.
Lebanon’s banking sector, which accounts for 6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), is one of the few institutions within Lebanon that isn’t dysfunctional or corrupt. Salameh said that banks intending to close the accounts of individuals or organizations violating the U.S. law will need to wait for a response from the central bank’s Special Investigation Committee.
Hezbollah enjoys deep ties and support within Lebanon’s Shi’a Muslim community. Its members include high-profile government ministers, politicians, and other local officials.
Human rights groups criticize Jordan for restricting Gazans’ movement
(JNS.org) Human rights groups are criticizing the Jordanian government for not issuing special visas to enable Gazan Palestinians to travel abroad from Jordan.
In recent months, Israel has eased travel restrictions for Gazans, allowing them to travel through Israel—and then into the West Bank and Jordan—for travel abroad. But Gaza Strip residents can only travel through Israel if they receive a special permit from Jordan known as the “no objection” letter. Human rights groups are saying that Jordan has started to implement a “wide-scale refusal” of Gazan travelers.
“Those seeking transit from Gaza are seeking just that—transit,” Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote in a letter to Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, the Associated Press reported.
Jordanian government spokesman Mohammed Momani said there has been no change to the government’s visa policy.
In addition to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip, Egypt also maintains a blockade of the coastal territory and has largely kept its only border crossing with Gaza, Rafah, closed to Gazans for security reasons.
Hezbollah reportedly appoints Mustafa Mughniyeh as new terror commander
(JNS.org) The Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah has appointed Mustafa Mughniyeh as its new military commander following the assassination of his uncle, Mustafa Badreddine, last week in Syria, the London-based Arabic daily newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported.
Mustafa Mughniyeh has deep family ties with Hezbollah. In addition to his recently assassinated uncle, his father Imad Mughniyeh served as Hezbollah’s terror commander until his assassination, likely in a joint CIA-Mossad operation, in Syria in 2008. Mustafa’s brother, Jihad, was killed by Israel in a raid in the Syrian Golan Heights last year.
But outside of his family’s terror ties, little is known about Mustafa Mughniyeh, who has never made any public appearances, even after the assassination of his brother. Israeli intelligence analyst Ronen Solomon told Asharq Al-Awsat that Mustafa Mughniyeh likely finished basic military training when he was 18 in 2005 and that he joined his father on operational missions after that point.
Following his father’s death in 2008, Mustafa Mughniyeh reportedly became close with his uncle, who succeeded his father as terror commander.
“He participated in several missions with the security agencies that fall under Badreddine’s command and held several posts to keep the security of top figures in the party,” said Solomon, adding, “It can be presumed that Mustafa’s identity has been kept mysterious, as opposed to his brother, to ensure that in the future he will be included in secret missions, such as those carried out by the 910 unit (Hezbollah’s unit in charge of overseas attacks), led by his uncle Mustafa Badreddine.”
El-Sisi: Egypt would broker intra-Palestinian peace en route to talks with Israel
(JNS.org) Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Tuesday said he is willing to mediate peace talks between rival Palestinian factions in order to subsequently bring about the resumption of negotiations to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“If we are able to solve the issue of our Palestinian brothers, it will achieve warmer peace…I ask that the Israeli leadership allow this speech to be broadcast in Israel one or two times as this is a genuine opportunity,” Sisi said during a speech at an infrastructure conference in the southern Egyptian city of Assiut.
“I say to our Palestinian brothers, you must unite the different factions in order to achieve reconciliation, and quickly,” said Sisi, referring to the Gaza-ruling Palestinian terror group Hamas and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. “We as Egypt are prepared to take on this role. It is a real opportunity to find a long-awaited solution.”
Sisi believes his offer of mediation could achieve the same results it did when Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
“After signing the peace accords, no one thought that true and lasting peace, as it exists today between Israel and Egypt, could be achieved. However, it became a permanent peace due to the changing times and reality,” he said, adding, “If we can all join forces in order to solve the Palestinian issue by creating hope for Palestinians and assuring security for Israelis, we will be able to write a new chapter that may prove to be more important than the peace accords between Israel and Egypt.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday responded to Sisi’s offer by saying, “I welcome Egyptian President El-Sisi’s remarks and his willingness to make every effort to advance a future of peace and security between us and the Palestinians and the peoples of the region.”
“Israel is ready to participate with Egypt and other Arab states in advancing both the diplomatic process and stability in the region,” Netanyahu said. “I appreciate President El-Sisi’s work and also draw encouragement from his leadership on this important issue.”
Israeli economy experiences relatively slow growth in first quarter of 2016
The Israeli gross domestic product (GDP) grew 0.8 percent in this year’s first quarter, falling well short of the Bank of Israel’s projected a growth rate of 2.8 percent for that period.
Israeli exports declined by 12.9 percent in the first quarter, though some notable areas of growth included private consumption (4 percent) and investment in fixed assets (7.5 percent).
“The GDP data should be a wake-up call to the [Israeli] government,” said Idan Azoulay, the head of mutual funds at the Epsilon investment firm, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The CBS figures, however, are preliminary and could be revised later.
France postpones plan for indirect Israeli-Palestinian conflict talks
(JNS.org) The French government’s plan for indirect talks to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be postponed so that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry can participate, French President Francois Hollande told Europe Radio 1 on Tuesday.
France’s meeting of foreign ministers from 20 countries—excluding Israeli and Palestinian leaders—was initially scheduled for May 30 in Paris, but Kerry could not attend on that date due to America’s Memorial Day. Hollande said the meeting would instead occur in the summer.
“This initiative is necessary because if nothing happens, if there is no strong French initiative, then colonization, attacks, terrorist attacks, and several conflicts are going to continue,” Hollande said, adding, “We are going to create, with all actors and neighboring countries, the parameters which will allow Israelis and Palestinians to return to the negotiating table.”
The Palestinian Authority supports the French initiative, while the Israeli government opposes it. After meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “I told him that the only way to advance true peace between us and the Palestinians is via direct negotiations between us and them, without preconditions. Historical experience shows that is how we achieved peace with Egypt and that is how we achieved peace with Jordan. Any other method only pushes peace further away and gives the Palestinians an escape hatch to avoid dealing with the root of the conflict—which is their non-recognition of the State of Israel.”
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The U.S. State Department issued this statement on Wednesday, May 18 (Note sixth item about Egypt’s President El-Sisi above):
The following is attributable to Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner:
Secretary Kerry met today in Cairo with Egyptian president al-Sisi, where they discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues, including recent developments in Libya and Syria. The Secretary expressed his appreciation for the president’s recent statement of strong support for advancing Arab-Israeli peace. Secretary Kerry also stressed the importance of Egypt’s role as a regional partner and reiterated U.S. commitment to help Egypt fight terrorism, increase economic growth, strengthen democratic institutions and bolster regional security.
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations (COP) issued the following statement on Wednesday, May 18, concerning Eygptian President El-Sisi’s comment on Middle East peace.
Leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations today welcomed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s call for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and his offer to assist in fostering those talks.
Stephen M. Greenberg, Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO of the Presidents Conference said, “We appreciate the serious and meaningful comments of President el-Sisi and his offer to help advance the prospects of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Unlike many other leaders who pay lip service to the desire for a peaceful solution, President el-Sisi offered concrete steps and added that Egypt is ready to ‘make every effort’ to contribute to a resolution and cited the 1979 Egyptian – Israeli peace treaty as a model. President el-Sisi also noted that bringing the sides together would lead to warmer ties between Israel and Egypt and with other Arab nations.”
Greenberg and Hoenlein met with President el-Sisi in Cairo in February of this year, along with a delegation of Presidents Conference leaders. They said, “In our lengthy meeting with the President, he spoke of the need for, and benefits of, a peaceful solution to the Palestinian – Israeli conflict.
Under his leadership, Egypt has enhanced cooperation with Israel, especially in the vital military and security areas. President el-Sisi’s actions, particularly in combatting terrorism and the cooperation he has pursued with Israel have gained him credibility with the parties. Prime Minister Netanyahu welcomed the President’s comments and indicated his readiness to work with him to achieve a long sought resolution through direct negotiations with the Palestinians.
President el-Sisi’s call can contribute to advancing the prospects of direct negotiations putting the parties on a path leading to a resolution of the conflict.”