Palestinians threaten to make life ‘miserable’ for US if embassy moved to Jerusalem
(JNS.org) The Palestinians promised to “make life miserable” for President-elect Donald Trump if he decides to follow through on a campaign promise to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“If people attack us by moving the embassy to Jerusalem…it is a violation of Resolution 181 of the U.N. General Assembly that was drafted by the U.S.…it means they are showing belligerency towards us…If they do that nobody should blame us for unleashing all of the weapons that we have in the U.N. to defend ourselves, and we have a lot of weapons in the U.N.,” Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations, said Nov. 11.
While Mansour acknowledged that his response could not be a Security Council resolution because the U.S. would veto that move, he suggested there could be other ways the Palestinians could undermine the Americans.
“Maybe I can’t have resolutions in the Security Council, but I can make their lives miserable everyday with precipitating a veto on my admission as a member state,” he said.
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Iran and Russia in talks over $10 billion military deal
(JNS.org) Iran and Russia are in talks over a possible $10 billion military deal that would include advanced weapons and hardware being delivered to the Islamic Republic.
“These negotiations are being carried out, the road has been paved,” Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense and security committee of Russia’s upper house of parliament, told reporters Monday, RT reported.
According to Ozerov, the $10 billion military package to Iran would include Russian T-90 tanks, artillery systems, and various aircraft.
Yet Russia and Iran may not be able to complete any military deal until 2020, when a United Nations moratorium on Iran obtaining weapons expires. Currently, deliveries can only be made to Iran with the consent of the United Nations Security Council.
“In the same [U.N.] resolution it’s been outlined that the supply of armored vehicles, artillery systems, planes, and combat helicopters can occur before 2020 with permission of the U.N. Security Council,” Ozerov said, explaining that the United States and other Security Council members may veto the deal with Iran. As such, Ozerov said Russia and Iran will simply return to the issue in October 2020 “when the legal [limitations] will be removed.”
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Palestinians slam Knesset bill barring mosques’ use of loudspeaker systems
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority (PA) warned Monday that a new Israeli Knesset bill that would bar public places of worship from using loudspeakers for calls to prayer may “drive the region to the brink of disaster.” The PA also said it would seek the international community’s assistance to make Israel repeal the bill.
The controversial proposal, dubbed the “muezzin bill,” passed its vote Sunday in Israel’s Ministerial Committee on Legislation. Arab lawmakers said that because the bill focuses mainly on how mosques use such sound systems, it inappropriately targets Muslim worshippers.
PA official Adnan al-Husseini told the Ma’an News Agency that loudspeakers used in mosques in Israel comply with noise regulations, arguing that the bill is an attempt to erase Jerusalem’s Muslim identity.
The bill—sponsored by Habayit Hayehudi party Members of Knesset Moti Yogev, Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli, and Betzalel Smotrich; Likud MKs Miki Zohar, Avraham Nagosa, and Nurit Koren; and Kulanu MK Merav Ben-Ari—states that given the proximity of Jewish and Arab neighborhoods to each other in Israel, mosques’ calls to prayer five times each day affect residents for miles around the houses of worship.
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Giuliani the latest pro-Israel contender for secretary of state, CNN reports
(JNS.org) Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is a candidate for secretary of state in President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, CNN reported Friday.
Giuliani, 72, was an early and vocal backer of Trump’s presidential campaign. He served as mayor of New York from 1993-2001.
An outspoken supporter of Israel, Giuliani is fondly remembered in the Jewish community for expelling Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chief Yasser Arafat from a United Nations concert at Lincoln Center in 1995. Giuliani said he took that step because Arafat was responsible for the murders of “dozens of American citizens abroad,” such as Leon Klinghoffer—the elderly, wheelchair-bound New Yorker who was murdered and thrown overboard by the Palestinian hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in 1985.
Giuliani becomes the latest rumored pro-Israel contender for secretary of state, with the others including former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.).
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Netanyahu to Russia’s Medvedev: Israel will prevent Iran military presence in Syria
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed his Russian counterpart, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, that he will prevent Iran from establishing a military presence in Syria.
In Thursday’s meeting with Medvedev in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said Israel has two key objectives concerning Iran: “First, prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons and second, to prevent Iran—in any situation that arises in Syria, with or without an agreement—from establishing itself militarily in Syria, on the ground, in the air or at sea.”
Netanyahu also noted that Israel will continue to prevent Hezbollah or any other Iranian-backed Shi’a Muslim militias from obtaining dangerous weapons.
“We are also determined to prevent it [Iran] from bringing about the establishment of Shiite militias, which it is organizing, and of course, the arming of Hezbollah with dangerous weapons aimed at us,” he said.
Medvedev hailed the strong bilateral ties between Israel and Russia.
“Every time I visit Israel I feel at home,” he said. “Our countries have common challenges, primarily terrorism. Terror threatens the entire world, but in this region it is felt particularly strongly.”
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Report: Azerbaijan to acquire Israeli Iron Dome defense system batteries
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Azerbaijan is planning to acquire several Israeli Iron Dome air defense system batteries, Israel Hayom reported.
The Iron Dome, manufactured by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, is designed to intercept and destroy short-range rockets and artillery shells fired from distances of 2.5 miles to 43 miles.
The impending acquisition was announced ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s scheduled December visit to Azerbaijan. The prime minister is also scheduled to visit Kazakhstan next month.
Located in the southern Caucasus Mountains, Azerbaijan borders the Caspian Sea to the east, Georgia and Russia to the north, Iran to the south, and Armenia to the west. In recent years, several top Israeli officials—including former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and current Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman—have visited Azerbaijan. On his upcoming visit, Netanyahu will seek to further bolster ties with the Shi’a Muslim-majority nation.
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Shin Bet arrests 9 terror suspects over plot to attack Israeli troops
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Eight Palestinians from Samaria and an eastern Jerusalem resident were recently arrested on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities in Samaria and of planning to carry out attacks in central Israel, the Shin Bet security agency revealed this week following the lifting of a gag order on the case.
According to the Shin Bet, investigations revealed that the suspects had been plotting numerous large attacks against Israel Defense Forces troops in Samaria using explosive devices, and had conspired with the eastern Jerusalem resident to smuggle 4.4 pounds of gunpowder into the capital to build pipe bombs.
The Shin Bet also said that during its investigation, it discovered and confiscated laboratory equipment and 120 kilograms (265 pounds) of raw material used for making explosives.
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Leading Israeli businesswomen honored at New York Stock Exchange
(JNS.org) The America-Israel Friendship League honored four Israeli businesswomen Thursday during the 10th annual Israel Day at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Inbal Orpaz, a high tech correspondent for the Israeli business publication The Marker, moderated a discussion and spoke to the women about how they have contributed to the U.S.- Israel relationship.
The honorees included Tzameret Fuerst, entrepreneur and co-founder of Circ MedTech, which developed PrePex, an FDA-approved device for HIV protection; Karen Haruvi, Teva Pharmaceuticals’ SVP of global generic business development and alliance management; Noa Raviv, fashion designer and artist; and Liat Mordechay Hertanu, co-founder of the 24me personal assistant app.
Daneilla Rilov, the America-Israel Friendship League’s executive director, said that “Israel, like the United States, celebrates its gender diversity. [NYSE Israel Day] is an example of just a few of the common traits both countries have.”
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Trump adviser says Israeli settlements will not be an obstacle for peace
(JNS.org) One of Donald Trump’s top advisers on Israel said that the president-elect does not view Israeli settlements as an obstacle for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
“The two sides are going to have to decide how to deal with that region, but it’s certainly not Mr. Trump’s view that settlement activity should be condemned and that it’s an obstacle for peace—because it is not the obstacle for peace,” Trump adviser Jason Greenblatt told Israel’s Army Radio Thursday.
President-elect Trump would also not impose any solutions on Israel, according to Greenblatt, who said that “peace has to come from the parties themselves.”
Trump’s position differs from that of President Barack Obama, who after taking office in 2009 called on Israel to impose a freeze on settlement activity as a precondition for peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eventually imposed a 10-month construction freeze. Obama’s focus on settlement construction early in his first term led to a rift in relations between the two leaders.
Hamas calls Moroccan journalists’ visit to Israel a ‘crime against our people’
(JNS.org) The Palestinian terror group Hamas condemned a visit by Moroccan journalists to Israel.
The seven journalists were on a weeklong visit to Israel sponsored by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. The journalists are meeting with senior Israeli officials, government ministers, and members of the Knesset as well as visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. The visit intended to promote more positive coverage of Israel in the Moroccan media.
“In the shadow of the escalation of the crimes of the Israeli enemy and the actions of racist purification against our people, we condemn the visit of a team of Moroccan media persons to the Israeli entity with the goal of normalizing with it and undertaking a campaign of beautifying its image in the Arab media,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said, the London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper reported.
“We consider this a crime against our people, and an offense to the feelings of the Arabs and Muslims and lovers of the Palestinian cause and an encouragement of the Israeli entity in its crimes and violations,” he added.
While Morocco does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel, the two countries have had informal ties over the years.
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Terrorist attack targeting Israeli soccer team in Albania thwarted
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Albanian authorities arrested 11 suspects believed to have planned a terrorist attack during an upcoming soccer game featuring Israel’s national team.
Israel’s 2018 World Cup qualifier against Albania Nov. 12 was relocated following arrests to ensure the safety of players and spectators. The suspects are affiliated with Islamic State, local media reported.
According to reports, 20 other suspects were questioned over the alleged plot, which was thwarted by Albanian security forces assisted by other international agencies, including Israel’s Mossad.
The Counterterrorism Bureau at the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that a threat had been made against the Israeli national soccer team.
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Netanyahu on Aliyah Day: We have immigrants here from every continent
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel celebrated its first Aliyah Day with a ceremony at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem last week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, and Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky attended the ceremony.
In June, the Aliyah Day law was passed to recognize the importance of immigration to Israel and its development as a multicultural society. The law designated Aliyah Day as the seventh day of the Hebrew month of Heshvan, coinciding with the reading of the Lech Lecha Torah portion, which describes the divine commandment directing Abraham to go to the land of Israel.
“We have immigrants here from every continent. They understand that Israel today is undergoing a major transformation, they see the stability and the prosperity, and it’s one of the reasons they aspire to intertwine their fate with ours,” Netanyahu said at the ceremony.
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