Lawmaker compares Israeli settlers to ‘termites,’ Jewish Dems say apology falls short
(JNS.org) A Democratic member of Congress on Monday compared Jews who live in communities located beyond Israel’s 1967 lines to “termites” during a speech at an anti-Israel event in Philadelphia.
“There has been a steady [stream], almost like termites can get into a residence and eat before you know that you’ve been eaten up and you fall in on yourself, there has been settlement activity that has marched forward with impunity and at an ever-increasing rate to the point where it has become alarming,” said U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) at an event hosted by the U.S Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Following the report and a request from the Anti-Defamation League to retract his statement, Johnson tweeted, “Poor choice of words—apologies for offense. Point is settlement activity continues slowly undermine 2-state solution.” But the National Jewish Democratic Council argued that Johnson’s apology fell short, tweeting at the lawmaker, “@RepHankJohnson, To refer to Jews as ‘termites’ is deeply offensive and dehumanizing. Not just a ‘poor choice of words.’ It’s dangerous.”
Johnson told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that rather than directly describing Israeli settlers as termites, his initial comments had referred to “corrosive settlement policies” that “undermine the ability of all citizens in the region to enjoy healthy, peaceful lives in safe communities.”
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Israeli teens unearth remains of 3,700-year-old Canaanite fortress
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A group of teenagers working on an archaeological dig in the village of Ibillin in northern Israel uncovered a Canaanite-era fortress dating back 3,700 years.
The youngsters—who hail from Moshav Alon Hagalil and Kibbutz Hanaton and are spending their summer vacation working on an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) excavation—unearthed the Canaanite structure, whose existence was previously unknown, in the middle of an olive grove between Ibillin and Shfaram.
Archaeologist Nurit Feig, who is overseeing the project for the IAA, said that “it could be that the youth who are working with us have uncovered a chapter in the history of the Galilee that we didn’t know about. The wall they found is especially massive, and could have functioned as a wall that protected some ruler or another. It appears that the place was active in the Canaanite period, about 3,700 years ago. This is the first time that we’ve found a fortified structure from that era in this area.”
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Netanyahu rejects claims that Israeli government ignored Hamas tunnel threat
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) “The claim that there was never any discussion about [Hamas terror] tunnels before Operation Protective Edge is the opposite of the truth,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, following the publication of a letter in which Israeli parents who lost their sons in the 2014 Gaza war demanded an official state committee investigation into how the government prepared for the operation and handled the operation itself.
In a meeting with military reporters, Netanyahu said he directed the Israel Defense Forces to find operational solutions to locate and destroy enemy tunnels and that the Defense Ministry convened numerous meetings on the subject. Despite claims to the contrary by some members of the cabinet, the issue of how to deal with the terror tunnels was raised in eight different cabinet meetings that were held between January 2013 to June 2014. In addition, Netanyahu discussed the subject with army commanders during his visits to IDF bases, and directed the military to find a way to detect the tunnels and remove them.
The letter, signed by the bereaved families of soldiers killed in the Gaza operation, called for “an external and independent” committee to investigate all the events of the war.
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Israeli Knesset welcomes Christian support for Jewish state in fight against BDS
(JNS.org) At an event on Monday coordinated by two parliamentary groups within the Israeli Knesset, the Christian Allies Caucus and the Delegitimization Caucus, Israeli lawmakers and other supporters of Israel gathered to discuss how to defeat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The event was also held to thank the Israeli-Christian community for its support of the Jewish state.
The two caucuses have supported “Defeat BDS,” a campaign that has helped pass anti-BDS legislation in 12 U.S. states.
“We seem to take things for granted. Your friendship is not something to take for granted. We should never take it for granted,” Member of Knesset Yehudah Glick told Christian attendees of Monday’s Knesset event, the Jerusalem Post reported.
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Germans draw parallel with Israel after four terror attacks in one week
(JNS.org) After a Syrian refugee committed a suicide bombing in the southern German city of Ansbach on Sunday, the fourth terror attack in Germany in the course of one week, some German citizens are comparing their new reality with life in Israel.
Fifteen people were injured in Sunday’s attack near a music festival. The bomber, who was killed, had reportedly pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State terror group. Another Syrian refugee killed a pregnant woman and injured a man with a machete near the city of Reutlingen on Sunday. Also last week, an Afghan refugee attacked people with an ax and a knife near the German town of Würzburg. Last Friday, a German man of Iranian descent shot nine people at a Munich shopping mall in attack that, unlike the others, does not appear to have been motivated by radical Islamic ideology.
On Monday, German citizen Yana Vagler, who lives near the city of Stuttgart, told Israel’s Channel 2 that these events remind her of the situation in Israel. “This morning there were a lot of police cars, and so I felt that ‘yes, this is how it was in Jerusalem when I was there last year.’…It is new for me to feel this way,” she said.
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