Doctor says imprisoned Jewish contractor Gross could have cancer
(JNS.org) A doctor who reviewed medical records for Alan Gross—a Jewish-American contractor imprisoned in Cuba for nearly three years for trying to bring that country’s Jewish community Internet access—said Gross has a tumor in his right shoulder that may be cancerous.
Gross’s tumor is a “potentially life-threatening medical problem that has not been adequately evaluated to modern medical standards,” a press release from Gross’s legal team quoted Cohen as saying.
Cohen, a radiologist who reviewed CT and ultrasound scans released to the Cuban government, said a “soft tissue mass in an adult who has lost considerable weight must be assumed to represent a malignant tumor unless proven to be benign.” Gross has lost 105 pounds since he was jailed. He is serving a 15-year prison sentence.
Jared Genser, Gross’s lawyer, said in a statement that Cohen’s medical analysis “definitively rejects Cuban government claims that Alan Gross’s health is ‘normal.’”
“Cuban government doctors are either guilty of gross professional negligence or they are intentionally hiding what could be a lethal condition,” Genser said.
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As civil war rages on, Syria wants Israel’s Golan
(JNS.org) As internal turmoil continues to rage in Syria, it appears the foreign ministry in Damascus instead has the Golan Heights on its mind, Israel Hayom reported.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said: “The central issue of importance to us is the restoration of occupied Arab territories in Palestine and the Golan Heights.”
According to Muallem, “Syria has not changed its position because it has the right to reclaim the Syrian Golan which was occupied in 1967.”
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Ahmadinejad, continuing diatribes, equates Israel with ‘terrorists and criminals’
(JNS.org) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continued his steady stream of anti-Israel remarks in the aftermath of his appearance at the United Nations General Assembly, saying Iran sees “the Zionist regime at the same level of the bombers and criminals and the terrorists” in an interview with CNN.
“Let’s assume a few terrorists come and assassinate some of our officials,” Ahmadinejad said, posing a hypothetical. “Will [Iran] be damaged? No. A couple of bombs will be set to explode. Will the country be destroyed? No.” If Israel—just like the “bombers and criminals and the terrorists”—takes military action against Iran, it will “not affect us fundamentally,” he said.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hasan Qashqavi echoed Ahamdinejad’s comments, saying the international community “is laughing at the phony Zionist regime” for trying to set red lines for the Islamic republic’s nuclear threat.
“Cheap acts like that by the leaders of the occupying Zionist regime are not new,” he said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qashqavi said, has acted “stupidly” in response to Iranian strength.
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IDF toughens criteria for elite unit candidates
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has decided to raised the standard for new recruits who are looking to join elite combat units.
More stringent tests are planned for the “Bar-Or” exam, used by the IDF to gauge physical fitness and the ability of candidates to withstand the pressures of combat situations. Candidates will now be tested on the number of sit-ups and push-ups they can perform at one session and the time it takes them to run 2,000 meters. Those who do not meet undisclosed time limitations will not be eligible for entry to the desired unit.
Each elite unit will decide on its own time limitation for the 2,000-meter run. The time limit will also be subject to change from time to time within each unit.
The running test will be carried out on the first day of a candidate’s application to an elite unit, even before the unit’s basic training program begins. Candidates who are assigned to basic training programs, such as the one for the Engineering Corps’ elite Yahalom unit, will participate in the 2,000-meter run several days before the program begins.
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PA repeating accusations of Israeli attempts to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque
(JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority (PA) over the last month has frequently accused Israel of trying to destroy Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.
Palestinian Media Watch reported five instances in September when leaders or organizations of the PA told Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, the PA’s official daily publication, that Israel plans to replace Al-Aqsa with an “alleged Temple.”
On Sept. 20, the publication quoted Sheikh Dr. Tayseer Rajab Al-Tamimi, secretary of the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem, as saying Al-Aqsa “is subject to daily invasions by settlers and extremist Jewish groups, and [subject] to attempts to desecrate [it], [all of which] are steps in implementing a Zionist plan to seize control and Judaize [the mosque], as preparation for its destruction, and for building their alleged Temple on its ruins.”
Additionally, the Islamic-Christian Council for Jerusalem and the Holy Places said in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida Sept. 14 that “the most recent excavations beneath the Al-Aqsa Mosque foundations are a final warning [before] the mosque’s destruction.” Dr. Hanna Issa, the council’s secretary general, said the digging under the mosque is a “clear statement of the [Israeli] occupation’s intentions on the mosque, and its decision to cause its collapse and build the alleged Temple on its ruins.”
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Preceding provided by JNS.org and reprinted with permission
Alan Gross was an operative in a US operation to violate Cuban government regulations. He was a spy and not a Jew just helping fellow Jews in Cuba as this brief implies.
Syria wants Israel’s Golan? Golan was annexed by Israel after military conquest and occupation in 1967. The UN Charter explicitly renders illegal any such aggrandizement of territory by war and therefore annexation was illegal. Accordingly, it is not “Syria wants Israel’s Golan” but “Syria Wants Back Its Golan.”