Palestinians fire mortar to defy truce with Israel
The shell was directed at the western Negev following an Egyptian-brokered truce that had supposedly ended a two-day Palestinian onslaught that saw a total of 86 projectiles fired at the Jewish state from Gaza.
“The Egyptians have a very impressive ability to articulate to [Hamas] that its primary interest is not to attack and use terror against Israel or other targets,” Israeli defense official Amos Gilad told Army Radio.
Before the truce, the last rocket from Gaza had been fired at 8 p.m. Wednesday, according to an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman cited by Reuters. Gilad, however, stressed that “there is no agreement with Hamas, there has never been and there will never be.”
“The only thing that has been set and said is that there will be calm,” Gilad said. “We are not interested in an escalation.”
60 California student leaders slam anti-Israel resolution for ‘lack of transparency’
(JNS.org) A group of 60 elected student officials signed a letter slamming what they called the “lack of transparency” as well as the “marginalization” and “misrepresentation” of students associated with the recent passage of a resolution condemning a measure to combat anti-Semitism on California state campuses.
The 12-member University of California Student Association (UCSA) in September had voted to condemn HR35—a unanimously passed State Assembly resolution urging University of California (UC) schools to squelch nascent anti-Semitism and crack down on anti-Israel demonstrations. UCSA accused of Israel of “illegal occupation” and “racism and Apartheid,” and encouraged “all institutions of higher learning” to divest from companies doing business with Israel.
In a letter dated Oct. 19, the 60 student leaders wrote to UCSA’s board of directors that the anti-HR35 resolution “violated the rights to representation of a significant portion of its campus.”
“Within the Jewish community and across the UC system, there is a wide diversity of opinion with regards to HR 35,” the leaders wrote. “Many members of the Jewish community, and many supporters of this letter, believe HR 35 infringes on our First Amendment rights, and still others believe HR 35 is an encouraging step towards the protection of Jewish students.”
Regarding a “lack of transparency,” the letter noted that UCSA “created a scenario in which there were no public agendas and in which an item could be added to the agenda last minute, leaving no possibility of keeping the students UCSA is charged with representing informed prior to debate [on its resolution].”
Ariel Fridman, vice president of UC Berkeley’s Tikvah Students for Israel and an Emerson Fellow for pro-Israel advocacy and education group StandWithUs, previously told JNS.org that Jewish students learned of the UCSA resolution a mere half-hour before Rosh Hashanah.
“Most students don’t even know that the UCSA exists,” Fridman said. “It was completely not on our radar. So for them to have a meeting and a resolution pass without any of our knowledge took us by complete surprise.”
Syrian government and rebels agree to short ceasefire over Muslim holiday
(JNS.org) A temporary ceasefire has been reached between the Syrian government and some rebel leaders during an upcoming four-day Muslim holiday, according to UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, the Associated Press reported.
There has been no clear end to the ongoing fighting in Syria, which began in March 2011. According to activists, the fighting in Syria has killed nearly 34,000 people.
While the short-term ceasefire gives hope, it is unclear if the current truce will hold following the Eid al-Adha holiday. The truce was announced as government forces intensified airstrikes on rebel-held area near the besieged city of Aleppo.
“This regime, we don’t trust it, because it is saying something and doing something else on the ground,” said Abdelbaset Sieda, the head of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile.
Last spring, former UN envoy Kofi Annan attempted to several times to broker a ceasefire that would lead to a peaceful transition of power. But the ceasefire never took hold as both sides continued to fight. However, Annan blamed the Syrian government as the main aggressor because it refused to withdraw troops and heavy weapons from Syrian cities.
Americans living in Israel cast ballots, prefer Romney
(JNS.org) As the Nov. 6 election approaches, American citizens living Israel have begun to cast absentee ballots in record numbers, with many reportedly voicing support for Republican Mitt Romney.
Daniel Laufer, 26, from North Miami Beach, Fla., told the New York Times he voted for Romney because of his “economic record” and because he had become “disenchanted with Obama’s Middle East policies.”
According to poll released by the Begin-Sadat Center last summer, nearly a quarter of Israelis (23 percent) expressed a negative attitude towards Obama, up from 14 percent from a 2009 survey. Whereas in the 2009 survey 60 percent of Israelis described their attitude towards Obama as positive, in the current poll only 38 percent felt that way.
While support for Obama in Israel, and thereby Americans living in Israel, is trending more negative, American-Jewish support for Obama has remained relatively steady. A recent American Jewish Committee survey found that 61 percent approve of Obama’s handling of U.S.-Israeli relations, while 39 percent disapprove.
There are an estimated 160,000 eligible American voters in Israel. In 2008, nearly 30,000 Americans in Israel voted, but this year the number has increased substantially with as many as 75,000 Americans registered.
An organization called iVoteIsrael helps Americans living there register and cast their ballots. However, some have accused iVoteIsrael, which is officially non-partisan, as being funded by Republican donors and having a pro-Republican bias in some of its campaign ads and speakers. But iVoteIsrael has steered clear of making any official endorsements and has sponsored several events and debates featuring both Democrats and Republicans.
German politicians slammed for meeting with Iran human rights council
(JNS.org) Two U.S. senators and the head of the Germany’s Jewish community called on German officials representing the country’s German-Iranian parliamentary group to cancel a scheduled visit to Iran on Oct. 27.
According to Bijan Djir-Sarai of the pro-business Free Democratic party, the officials plan to meet with the German-Iranian chamber of commerce and Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the Iranian human rights council. This has been scheduled despite the fact that Iran is known to “brutally represses and murders opposition,” said Dieter Graumann, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.
“At this particularly sensitive juncture in diplomatic relations, the international community needs to continue to send a clear, unified message to Tehran as we pressure the regime to come to the negotiating table. A formal visit at this time—no matter how well-intentioned—is counterproductive and undermines our joint efforts to put an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” wrote U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) in an email to the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
The trip to Iran “is a brazen piece of being on the wrong political and moral way, that of all things to visit a regime that continues to build its nuclear program and threatens the destruction of Israel and continues to deny the Holocaust,” Graumann said. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) also wrote that “sending a delegation to Iran sends the wrong message.”
Sudan blames Israel for blowing up arms plant
(JNS.org) Sudan on Tuesday accused Israel of blowing up an arms factory in Khartoum. The site was attacked by four military planes, causing some minor hospitalizations but not fatalities, as was originally reported. However, Sudanese Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman has since said two people have been killed.
“Four military planes attacked the Yarmouk plant… We believe that Israel is behind it…Sudan reserves the right to strike back at Israel,” said Osman, according to Yedioth Ahronoth. He added that the planes approached the site from the east.
This is not the first time that Sudan has accused Israel of such strikes, and experts say Sudan is being used as an arms smuggling route to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. As was the case for previous accusations by Sudan, Israel has refused to either admit or deny involvement.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org. It is reprinted with permission