Official from anti-IDF group Breaking the Silence: shooting Israeli soldiers ‘not terrorism’
(JNS.org) An official from Breaking the Silence (BtS), a left-wing NGO that publicizes the testimonies of former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in order to spread criticism of the Israeli military, was reportedly caught saying that he does not consider shooting IDF soldiers to be terrorism.
Israel’s Channel 20 reported that Nadav Weiman, the public relations coordinator of BtS, recently told activists, “If you shoot at soldiers, you are trying to kill soldiers. You are not a terrorist.”
“If there is another country that is conquering your country, the area where you live, you are allowed to use violent means to fight the conquering entity, only…against soldiers and police officers, but if you stab a soldier at a checkpoint, that is not a terrorist attack,” Weiman said.
Weimen reportedly made the statement to undercover activists for a right-wing Israeli organization, Ad Kan, who were posing as far-left activists in order to penetrate BtS. The undercover activists had been documenting the group’s activities for some time, taking part in preparations, lectures and tours of Judea and Samaria.
The exposure of BtS comes as the Israeli Knesset is considering a bill aiming to prohibit members of the group from speaking at educational institutions.
“I never could have imagined anything like this. As a citizen, as education minister, as a soldier and commander, I feel a special obligation to instill the desire to serve in the IDF and love the country,” Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett said.
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Palestinians claim they will cancel ‘recognition’ of Israel if US embassy moves
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has promised to “cancel” the Palestinians’ “recognition” of Israel if President-elect Donald Trump goes forward with moving America’s Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The official PA daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported that Abbas said he wrote to Trump, warning him against the embassy move and noting that the Palestinians “will discuss several options for a response, after consultations are held with Arab states,” including the possibility of “canceling our recognition of Israel.”
Yet according to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), an organization that monitors Palestinian incitement in traditional and social media, the Palestinians have “never recognized Israel’s right to exist” in the first place.
“In speeches, at events, and visually, the PA, Fatah and their leaders have continued to present ‘Palestine’ as including all of Israel, and have expressed that the final goal is that all Israel’s land will be in one state: ‘Palestine,’” PMW said.
In an interview that aired on official PA TV Dec. 26, 2016, Fatah Central Committee member Azzam Al-Ahmad said that a Palestinian state in the West Bank is a precursor to the Palestinians seizing full control of “historic Palestine.”
“As North Vietnam took South Vietnam, a Palestinian state in West Bank will surely expand and take all of Israel,” Al-Ahmad said.
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Iranian president: Trump’s vow to rip up nuclear deal is ‘empty talk’
(JNS.org) Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to dismantle the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers is “empty talk,” and that Trump cannot unilaterally end the international agreement.
“The president-elect has shown he is not happy about the nuclear deal, calling it the worst deal ever signed. This is only empty talk,” Rouhani said at a news conference on the one-year anniversary of the lifting of international sanctions against Iran, Reuters reported.
“I don’t think he can do much when he goes to the White House,” said Rouhani. The Iranian leader said he is “optimistic about the future of the nuclear deal,” adding that the accord is “good for the United States, but he (Trump) doesn’t understand.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump called the Iran agreement “the worst deal ever negotiated” and promised to “rip up” the pact, which was signed by the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, Russia, China and Iran in July 2015.
But Trump has backtracked slightly since winning the presidential election, saying more recently that he would “police that contract so tough that they (the Iranians) don’t have a chance.” Trump’s pick for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has said he would recommend a “full review” of the nuclear deal, but stopped short of saying he would dismantle it.
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Trump says son-in-law, adviser Jared Kushner will help broker Israeli-Palestinian peace
(JNS.org) Days before his Jan. 20 inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump said that his son-in-law and incoming senior adviser, Jared Kushner, will help his administration broker a deal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Jared is such a good lad, he will secure an Israel deal which no one else has managed to get,” Trump said in a joint interview with The Times of London and the German newspaper Bild. “You know, he’s a natural talent, he is the top, he is a natural talent. You know what I’m talking about—a natural talent. He has an innate ability to make deals, everyone likes him.”
The 35-year-old Kushner—an Orthodox Jewish real estate developer married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who converted to Judaism—played a key role in the 2016 presidential campaign. He advised his father-in-law on U.S. policy toward Israel and helped write the speech Trump delivered to the March 2016 policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby.
Kushner’s new position as senior adviser to the president is expected to test the limits of federal anti-nepotism rules. Kushner intends to resign from the management positions he currently holds, including as CEO of Kushner Companies, publisher of the Observer newspaper and other roles. Additionally, he will not take a salary in the White House post.
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In departing interview, Obama seeks to downplay UN move’s impact on US-Israel ties
(JNS.org) In the wake of his administration’s recent refusal to veto the United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements, departing President Barack Obama sought to downplay the impact of his administration’s decision on U.S.-Israel relations.
“Because of our investment in the region, and because we care so deeply about Israel, I think [America] has a legitimate interest in saying to a friend, ‘This is a problem.’ It would have long-term consequences for peace and security in the region, and the United States,” Obama told the CBS program “60 Minutes” Sunday, adding that he doesn’t believe his administration’s move at the U.N. “caused a major rupture in relations between the United States and Israel.”
While the Obama administration has consistently criticized Israeli settlement construction, peaking in the administration’s break from longstanding U.S. policy by allowing December’s U.N. measure targeting Israel to pass, the incoming Trump administration has expressed that it does not consider the settlements an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
In what was expected to be his final interview as president, Obama also addressed his administration’s support for the Iran nuclear deal, another point of U.S.-Israel tension during his presidency.
“If you’re saying that [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu got fired up [about the U.N. resolution], he’s been fired up repeatedly during the course of my presidency, around the Iran deal and around our consistent objection to settlements. So that part of it wasn’t new,” Obama said.
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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn calls for probe into Israeli ‘interference’ in UK politics
(JNS.org) The United Kingdom’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is calling for an investigation into Israeli “interference” in the British government.
The call by Corbyn, whose party has been dogged by allegations of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, came following a four-part documentary by Al Jazeera. In the documentary, an undercover reporter filmed an Israeli embassy employee, Shai Masot, discussing his intention to “take down” several British politicians, including Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Alan Duncan, and calling Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson an “idiot.”
Following the report, Corbyn wrote to U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May that the so-called Israeli influence “undermines the integrity of our democracy.”
“I’m sure you’ll agree that such improper interference in this country’s democratic process is unacceptable, whatever country is involved,” Corbyn wrote. “I would therefore ask that you treat the matter as such and launch an inquiry into the extent of this improper influence.”
In a statement last week, the Israeli Embassy in the U.K. called Masot’s comments “unacceptable” and said he was fired.
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