Tunisia suspects foreign involvement in slaying of Hamas drone expert
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Tunisian government claims it has found evidence of foreign involvement in the assassination of the head of the Hamas terror group’s drone program, Mohammed Alzoari, outside his home in eastern Tunisia last week.
Following an emergency meeting Sunday, the government issued a statement saying it “is monitoring the progress of investigations into the assassination of Mohammed Alzoari, which point to foreign involvement. The Tunisian government is committed to pursuing the criminals involved in the assassination, whether in the homeland or abroad by all legal means necessary and in accordance with international conventions.”
This is the first time Tunisian authorities have raised the possibility that foreign agents were responsible for Alzoari’s killing. Hamas blamed Israel for the assassination and threatened retaliation Saturday.
Alzoari was shot multiple times Thursday in front of his house in the town of El Ain, near Sfax on the Tunisian coast. According to the Tunisian Interior Ministry, four rental cars were used in the killing, and two handguns and silencers were seized.
*
Bronze coin dating to Maccabean revolt in Hanukkah story unearthed in Jerusalem
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A bronze coin that was in circulation in the time of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who decreed that the Jews must be annihilated and during whose reign the Maccabean revolt made famous in the Hanukkah story took place, has been discovered at the Tower of David archaeological site in Jerusalem.
The discovery, made during routine maintenance work, was a surprise to archaeologists working at the Tower of David citadel in Jerusalem. The archaeologists believed they had thoroughly excavated the site during the last few decades. Nevertheless, chief conservator Orna Cohen noticed a metal object among the stones of the Hasmonean Wall inside the citadel. A careful examination revealed that it was a bronze prutah, a coin that was used more than 2,000 years ago.
The front of the coin features Antiochus wearing a crown. The other side features the image of a goddess wrapped in a scarf.
*
Israeli security forces say they uncover largest-ever illegal West Bank weapons factory
(JNS.org) Israeli security forces uncovered what they are calling the largest illegal weapons factory ever discovered underneath a Palestinian home in Hebron overnight Sunday.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), security forces discovered more than 100 Carl Gustav m/45 barrels, Russian 7.62 sniper rifles and M16 rifle parts with assembly instructions. Forces also seized 15 lathes (a machine for shaping metal) and other production materials used for making illegal homemade weapons.
The IDF deemed the discovery “the biggest weapons factory ever discovered in the West Bank,” Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
The raid, which involved hundreds of soldiers from several IDF units and the Israeli Border Police, is part of an ongoing campaign by security forces to uncover and destroy illegal weapons production facilities in the West Bank that have been used in terror attacks against Israel.
Security forces seized the weapons from the facility and arrested two of the factory’s owners, a father and son, who were given to the Shin Bet security agency for interrogation.
*
Israeli Mossad chief reportedly briefs Trump transition team in secret meeting
(JNS.org) The head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency and other top security officials reportedly met with members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team to brief them on important security matters.
The security delegation, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, was organized by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and included Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, National Security Council leader Yaakov Nagel and Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer. No specific date for the meeting was reported.
The Israeli officials and the Trump team reportedly discussed a possible regional peace conference to be hosted by Egypt, and recent international initiatives by the Palestinians and New Zealand to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Additionally, the security officials urged Trump to reject any possible plan by outgoing President Barack Obama to support an expected Palestinian-initiated United Nations Security Council resolution that would label Israeli settlements as illegal and call on the international community to boycott Israel. The Palestinians are expected to propose the measure before Obama leaves office Jan. 20.
*
UN leader Ban Ki-moon, in departing speech, admits anti-Israel bias at world body
(JNS.org) United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is stepping down at the end of the year, acknowledged in a departing speech that there is “disproportionate” bias against Israel at the world body.
“We must never accept bias against Israel within U.N. bodies,” Ban said Friday.
Ban went on to admit that the U.N. has a “disproportionate volume of resolutions, reports and conferences criticizing Israel,” and that “in many cases, rather than helping the Palestinian cause, this reality has hampered the ability of the U.N. to fulfill its role effectively.”
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon commended Ban’s statement and noted the disproportionate number of anti-Israel resolutions passed at the U.N. in recent years.
“The secretary-general admitted the clear truth—the U.N.’s hypocrisy towards Israel has broken records over the past decade. During this time the U.N. passed 223 resolutions condemning Israel while only eight resolutions condemning the Syrian regime as it has massacred its citizens over the past six years. This is absurd,” said Danon.
*
Taglit-Birthright Israel launches innovation center in Tel Aviv
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Taglit-Birthright Israel—which has brought more than 500,000 Jewish young adults ages 18-26 on free 10-day trips to Israel—celebrated the winter season opening of the Birthright Israel Innovation Center in the presence of some 200 business leaders, entrepreneurs and philanthropists last week.
The center, run in collaboration with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, is designed to showcase Israel’s contributions to entrepreneurship, innovation and technology worldwide. During the center’s summer pilot season, more than 13,000 Birthright Israel participants and dozens of delegations from Israel and around the world visited the center, which features an exhibition highlighting Israel’s contributions to agriculture, medicine, cybersecurity, science, transportation and aerospace, along with a series of lectures from successful Israeli entrepreneurs.
The innovation center expects to welcome more than 45,000 visitors in 2017.
*
Pro-Israel groups launch global initiative to buy Israeli goods for charity and defeat BDS
(JNS.org) Major British and American pro-Israel groups launched this year’s rendition of an annual global initiative calling on supporters to buy Israeli-made food items to donate to local charities during the holiday season.
The initiative, called IsraAction Day, launched Dec. 18 with the mission not only to support Israeli companies, but also to “beat the boycotts” and “give support to the needy in local communities during the Christmas/Hanukkah season,” organizers said.
“This is a time of giving and charity,” said the initiative’s co-chair, Raphi Bloom of North West Friends of Israel. “It’s a perfect way for families to engage in a positive action. Go to a mainstream supermarket—frequently the targets of boycotts—buy Israeli goods and then donate them to Jewish and non-Jewish charities.”
IsraAction Day was started in 2013 by two British pro-Israel groups—Sussex Friends of Israel and the North West Friends of Israel. By 2014, the initiative was adopted by major Jewish communal groups in the U.K., and by 2015 it spread to South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, France and Germany. Organizers hope this year’s efforts will be even larger with the addition of StandWithUs, an American pro-Israel education organization, which is leading IsraAction Day efforts through its local chapters in communities throughout the U.S.
*
Pro-Israel legal group touts court’s nixing of Spanish city council’s Israel boycott
(JNS.org) The New York-based Lawfare Project think tank touted its successful legal action to reverse a Spanish city council’s decision to boycott Israel.
A Barcelona court in late November ruled to annul the Barcelona-area Sant Adrià de Besòs City Council’s move to boycott Israel. The Lawfare Project, which calls itself “the legal arm of the pro-Israel community,” said this week that the ruling “is particularly important in its broad applicability and capacity to deter future boycott decisions in Barcelona and other capital cities, which the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign in Spain has been actively pursuing.”
The city council had proclaimed the municipality of Sant Adrià de Besòs a “Free Space from Israel Apartheid,” while banning official city business with the state of Israel or Israeli companies. Ignacio Wenley Palacios, a Lawfare Project attorney, brought the legal action against the city council. In its ruling against Sant Adrià de Besòs, the Barcelona court cited public bodies’ duty to be politically neutral, the BDS movement’s unconstitutional restrictions on academic and cultural freedom as well as free speech, and the boycott’s violation of the right to equality under the law.
*
ZOA raises concern over Jewish partnership with ‘radical’ Muslim group
(JNS.org) The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) criticized the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) recent formation of a partnership with what ZOA described as a “radical Islamist” organization.
In November, the AJC and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) launched the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council (MJAC), which states that it “brings together recognized business, political and religious leaders in the Jewish and Muslim American communities to jointly advocate on issues of common concern.” The council’s priority list including highlighting the contributions of Muslims and Jews to American society, developing a coordinated strategy to address anti-Muslim bigotry and anti-Semitism in the U.S., and protecting and expanding the rights of religious minorities in America.
ZOA, however, raised concern about the partnership Dec. 14 over ISNA’s alleged links to the Palestinian terror group Hamas and its parent group, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
“ISNA is infamous for its links to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas: ISNA was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, involved in funneling money to Hamas. ISNA convention speakers delegitimize Israel, justified the Holocaust as punishment for the Jews’ ‘disobedience to Allah,’ and ‘featured Mavi Marmara flotilla participants, representing them as innocent peace activists who merely responded to Israeli brutality,’” ZOA said, citing a January 2011 article from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs think tank.
In last month’s announcement of the Muslim-Jewish initiative, Stanley Bergman—MJAC’s co-chair and AJC’s former president—said, “Our two communities share much in common and should find ways, where possible, to work together for the benefit of the entire country.”
*
Hanukkah party at Trump hotel draws high-profile crowd despite Jewish groups’ boycott
(JNS.org) About 200 guests attended the much-debated Dec. 14 Hanukkah party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., an event hosted by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Embassy of Azerbaijan.
Despite the fact that more than 10 groups from the Conference of Presidents umbrella’s 50 members chose to boycott the gathering over the Donald Trump-owned venue and Azerbaijan’s human rights record, the event was attended by high-profile diplomats and leaders, including: Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer; members of Congress; Azerbaijani Ambassador to the U.S. Elin Suleymanov; and ambassadors and diplomats from Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, the Palestine Liberation Organization, Romania, Russia, Tajikstan and Turkey.
The Hanukkah party followed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visits to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, which aimed to bolster Israel’s relations with those two Muslim-majority Cen-tral Asian nations.
“Last night, in a spirit of celebration, mutual respect and gratitude, we brought together a full house of guests—nearly 200 guests—from many different faiths, cultures and countries who joined together with us to reaffirm our common humanity,” said Stephen M. Greenberg, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman and CEO, of the Conference of Presidents.
*
Video shows activist telling NY third-graders to be ‘freedom fighters for Palestine’
(JNS.org) A newly released video has surfaced showing a Palestinian activist telling third-grade children in New York that they should become “freedom fighters for Palestine.”
The video shows a presentation given Sept. 18, 2015, at the Beverly J. Martin Elementary School in Ithaca, N.Y., by a number of pro-Palestinian activists, including Bassem Tamimi, Ariel Gold and Mary Anne Grady Flores, meant to address the issue of human rights with the third-graders.
“The wall that we would like to build to protect ourselves is your solidarity, you’re important [in] what you can do for us,” Tamimi is seen telling the children. “You all defend us, you can do a lot for [us], and be the freedom fighters for Palestine.”
The video was obtained by Cornell Law School Prof. William Jacobson, who has fought the Ithaca City School District over the past year to release all documents from the event.
“In and of itself it was bad, but it is a reflection that the anti-Israel activists don’t recognize boundaries, not even as to children,” Jacobson told the Jerusalem Post.
Following the video’s release, Ithaca’s superintendent of schools, Luvelle Brown, denounced the incident as “politically skewed, inflammatory and not endorsed by the Ithaca City School District.”
*
Rally marks 29th anniversary of Hamas terror group, threatens Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas marked its 29th anniversary with a mass rally in the Gaza Strip last week. Tens of thousands of Palestinians rallied in support of the Islamist terrorist group, which used the event to threaten Israel and boast of its grid of terror tunnels, with Arabic and Hebrew billboards reading “We are coming from under the ground.”
Loudspeakers blasted the group’s slogans through the streets as the throng of rally attendees walked through Gaza City. Rockets mounted on pickup trucks rolled by as hundreds of masked militants marched alongside dozens of children wielding toy rifles.
Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya delivered a fiery anti-Israel speech at the rally. He also called for Hamas to strive for reconciliation with the Fatah party, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but only under Hamas’s terms.
Al-Hayya stressed that Gazans should enjoy freedom of movement, job opportunities and access to clean water and constant electricity, but he offered no plans to realize these needs.
*
Plans unveiled for $50 million arts campus in Jerusalem
(JNS.org) Jerusalem is scheduled to have a new 2.5-acre, $50 million campus for the arts by January 2020, with the multifaceted space featuring four of Israel’s leading performing arts schools as well as performance venues and an outdoor plaza, the project’s partners announced last week.
The forthcoming Jerusalem Arts Campus is a joint initiative of the UJA-Federation of New York, the Jerusalem municipality, the Israeli government and the Jerusalem Foundation.
“For thousands of years, Jerusalem has been a center of innovation and creativity; my vision for the city includes an essential focus on growing the city’s creative class,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement. “The Jerusalem Arts Campus will have a significant impact on attract-ing young people to the city, strengthening downtown Jerusalem and bringing the vibrant crea-tive class to the city to stay.”
The academic institutions that will call the arts campus home include the Nisan Nativ Acting Studio, the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School, the School of Visual Theater and the Center for Middle Eastern Music. The campus is expected to accommodate 1,100 students, far exceed-ing the four schools’ current combined enrollment of 650.
*
Sen. Schumer announces $601 million in funding for US-Israel missile defense systems
(JNS.org) U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced $601 million in funding for U.S.-Israel missile defense programs as part of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that recently passed both houses of Congress.
“As our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel must have every resource it needs to sufficiently defend itself from deadly rocket attacks aimed at Israeli civilians—and it’s incumbent upon the United States to ensure they get these critical defense measures,” Schumer said.
The announcement of the funding came after a bipartisan letter spearheaded by Schumer—who is set to become Senate minority leader in January—to the Senate Armed Services Committee, urging the committee to fully fund the U.S.-Israel cooperative missile programs, which include the Iron Dome, Arrow and David’s Sling weapons systems.
The U.S. Senate recently overwhelmingly passed the $618.7 billion NDAA after a similar measure was passed by the House of Representatives, meaning the bill now goes to President Barack Obama for his approval.
*
Mixed pro-Israel reactions to Trump’s secretary of state pick, ExxonMobil’s Tillerson
(JNS.org) Pro-Israel organizations had mixed reactions to president-elect Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of state, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who has spent years forging deep ties with Sunni Arab Gulf states but has an unknown record when it comes to Israel.
“Mr. Tillerson has distinguished himself in the management of one of the world’s premier corporations. At the same time, we are unfamiliar with his larger geopolitical view of the world and America’s place in it,” the American Jewish Committee said in a statement.
As CEO of one of the world’s largest oil firms, Tillerson naturally spent many years cultivating relationships with some of the world’s top oil producers, including Sunni Arab Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Qatar. Tillerson was also involved in oil deals with the Kurds in northern Iraq, which inflamed hostilities with Iraq’s central government.
On Israel, which until recent years had not been a major player in the world energy market, Tillerson’s stances are relatively unknown. His lack of a clear history of working closely with the Jewish state contrasts sharply with Trump’s other rumored candidates for secretary of state, including former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton and former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani.
Morton A. Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, is giving the incoming Trump administration the benefit of the doubt on its secretary of state pick.
“Since Donald Trump and most of his top aides are strongly pro-Israel, I don’t believe they would have allowed this appointment if [Tillerson] were hostile [to Jewish or Israeli interests],” Klein told JNS.org. “It also bodes well that his company, ExxonMobil, has funded research at [Israel’s] Ben Gurion University and has done significant business with Israel.”
*
2,100-year-old wine press unearthed at Israeli school construction site
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An archaeological survey by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in preparation for the construction of a new elementary school in the city of Ashkelon re-vealed a 2,100-year-old wine press dating back to the Hellenistic Period.
Alongside the wine press, which is the oldest one ever found in the area, excavations uncovered the remains of a large building. The findings appear to indicate that a large farm existed and op-erated there during the late Hellenistic Period.
The square wine press consists of a flat surface where people trampled wine grapes with their bare feet to extract the juice, a pit used to separate the grape skins from the grape juice, and a col-lecting vat into which the filtered grape juice was piped. All sections of the press were covered with a thick layer of white plaster mixed with seashells to prevent the liquid from leaking out.
.
Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.