57 senators urge Obama to emphasize ‘readiness to take military action against Iran’
(JNS.org) More than half of the U.S. Senate has signed a letter urging President Barack Obama to re-emphasize his “readiness to take military action against Iran if it continues its efforts to acquire a nuclear weapon.” In California, neither Sen. Barbara Boxer nor Sen. Dianne Feinstein signed the letter.
While Obama has stated that “all options are on the table” for the Iranian threat, his administration has repeatedly expressed that there remains “time and space” for tactics such as diplomacy and sanctions to work before resorting to a military option. Additionally, despite the requests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama has refused to set the “red line” which, if crossed by Iran, would prompt U.S. military action.
Sens. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) initiated a letter signed by 57 senators stating that despite bipartisan work on “the most stringent sanctions ever against Iran” during the past four years, the Islamic Republic has “quintupled its stockpile of low-enriched uranium since 2009,” has more than doubled its number of centrifuges at the hardened Fordow enrichment facility since this summer, and continues “to reject the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency, including refusing to allow inspectors to visit sites where nuclear weaponization work is suspected to have occurred.”
The U.S., therefore, should “make use of all elements of our national power to pressure Iran,” the letter said, urging Obama to “work with our European and Middle Eastern allies to demonstrate to the Iranians that a credible and capable multilateral coalition exists that would support a military strike if, in the end, this is unfortunately necessary.”
Regarding a U.S. red line for the Iranian threat, Obama told rabbis from across the denominational spectrum in a conference call before Rosh Hashanah this year that “no leader wants to tie his hands” by setting such conditions. On the CBS “60 Minutes” program, he went on to describe Netanyahu’s calls for a red line as “noise.”
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U.S. simultaneously slams Israeli construction and Palestinian response
(JNS.org) Following Israel’s approval of the construction of 1,500 new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in the northern part of Jerusalem beyond the Green Line, State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said the U.S. is “deeply disappointed that Israel insists on continuing this pattern of provocative action.”
The Jewish state’s “repeated announcements and plans of new construction run counter to the cause of peace,” Nuland told reporters.
“Israel’s leaders continually say they support a path toward a two-state solution, yet these actions only put that goal further at risk,” she said.
However, despite Nuland’s remarks, the U.S. stopped short of an official condemnation of Israel’s construction plans in the United Nations Security Council, a step the Palestinians said would be taken by all of the council’s other members. The Palestinians sought a Security Council “presidential statement”—issued when the council cannot reach a consensus or when a permanent council member such as the U.S. exercises veto power for a resolution—on Israeli construction, but Nuland said the U.S. blocked such Palestinian action.
“I don’t think we think that is a helpful step at this point,” Nuland said of the Palestinians’ Security Council plans.
Nuland added that the U.S. is calling on both Israel and the Palestinians “to cease any kinds of counterproductive, unilateral action and take concrete steps to return to direct negotiations.” On Nov. 29, the Palestinians made a unilateral move by obtaining nonmember observer state status at the UN, breaking their contractual obligations under the 1993 Oslo Accords of reaching a final status agreement with Israel through negotiations.
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud), regarding the latest Israeli construction plans, on Tuesday said the decision to build in Jerusalem was “not negotiable.”
“Israel refuses to accept the fact that mere weeks after rockets were fired from Gaza into Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, there are still those who see Israel’s decision to hold on to strategic territory surrounding Jerusalem, and to build within its capital, as the biggest obstacle standing in the way of peace,” Rivlin wrote in a New Year’s message to heads of parliaments around the world.
Israeli Arab indicted on 27 counts of attempted murder for bus bombing
(JNS.org) An indictment has been filed in the Tel Aviv District Court against the Israeli Arab man suspected of planting a bomb on a Tel Aviv bus on Nov. 21, Israel Hayom reported.
Mohammed Mafarja, an 18-year-old resident of Taybeh, was charged with aiding the enemy during wartime, conspiring to commit a crime and 27 counts of attempted murder, among other charges.
The blast on Dan Bus No. 142 in Tel Aviv took place on the final day of Israel’s eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip last month. More than two dozen Israelis were wounded in the explosion, most of them lightly.
According to the indictment, Mafarja left the explosive device underneath a seat toward the front of the bus, disembarked in Ramat Gan’s Bursa district and then called Ahmad Musa, a co-conspirator in the West Bank. Several minutes later, Musa set off the device by calling a mobile phone that was attached to the bomb as a detonator. The bomb exploded as the bus was travelling on Shaul Hamelech Street in central Tel Aviv around noon.
Musa was among several Palestinians from the village of Beit Lakiya to be detained for suspected involvement in the bombing. Law enforcement officials say that Mafarja, Musa and the other arrested individuals were part of a terrorist cell with links to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Mafarja was originally from the West Bank but received Israeli citizenship under the family reunification law.
Ostreicher, held 18 months without formal charges, released on bail from Bolivian prison
(JNS.org) American-Jewish contractor Jacob Ostreicher—jailed in Bolivia without formal charges or bail since June 2011—has been released on bail, leading congressional advocates for his freedom announced Tuesday.
Ostreicher had traveled to Bolivia in December 2010 to oversee rice production and was arrested the following year on suspicion of money laundering and criminal organization. He had been denied bail this August.
U.S. Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), who visited Ostreicher this month as part of a congressional delegation, said in a press release that Ostreicher was released Tuesday after a hearing. The legislators commended the move as a “positive development in Jacob’s case,” but re-emphasized that Ostreicher was imprisoned even though there was “no evidence of any wrongdoing” presented in his case. Smith said he was angered “that the process has dragged on for so long and Jacob and his family have had to endure so much suffering to simply get bail,” adding that Ostreicher had developed symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and “lost the entirety of the rice farming business he operated.”
Ostreicher’s release, therefore, is “only the beginning of the end,” Smith said in a statement.
“I urgently call on the Bolivian judicial system to act swiftly to completely exonerate Jacob of the baseless accusations against him and grant him his freedom,” he said. “And I hope the Bolivian Government continues to follow through on the investigation of and charges against the real criminals in this case, so that other innocent persons do not have to suffer or continue to endure the same fate.”
“Going forward Jacob deserves the opportunity to clear his name,” Velazquez said in a statement. “He should receive either an immediate, fair trial or, failing that, be released to his family.”
IDF to go digital with revolutionary communication system
(JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is set to introduce a high-tech digital communications system for its ground forces that will revolutionize the way the soldiers fight wars.
The system, called Digital Ground Army (DGA), generates a digital map based on information uploaded on the ground by transmitters and computers on soldiers, tanks and cannons. The system bypasses the traditional use of physical maps and radio communications, enabling senior commanders far away or soldiers on the battlefield access to real time information to speed up the ability to coordinate fire on an enemy target and also to protect against friendly-fire incidents.
“This isn’t a project, it’s a significant revolution,” a senior IDF source told the Jerusalem Post.
“These are advanced communications that did not exist in the past,” the IDF source said. “Unit commanders will have handheld interactive screens.”
The system is expected to be rolled out to ground forces in 2013. There are future plans to link the system with the air force and navy as well.
Syrian civil war causes Palestinians to flee, concerning neighboring countries
(JNS.org) Another recent escalation in the 20-month-old Syrian civil war has caused thousands of Palestinians to flee as the government began attacking the Yarmouk Camp district of Damascus, Israel Hayom reported.
Thousands of government soldiers and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles have surrounded the camp, which is home to 150,000 Palestinians. This action has led to concern from the U.S. and the UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
Thousands of Palestinians have begun to flee Syria to neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Jordan as a result, generating growing concern in those governments.
The influx of thousands of Palestinian terrorists from Jordan into Lebanon following the 1970 “Black September” event destabilized Lebanon’s delicate sectarian balance, leading to a 15-year bloody civil war.
Jordanian officials also fear the influx of Palestinians into already overcrowded Syrian refugee camps in that country.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council is drafting a resolution to extend UN peacekeeping forces in the Golan Heights—known as the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF)—for another six months to prevent further escalation between Israel and Syria.
In early December, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Syria of “serious violations” of the 1974 UN ceasefire resolution between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights.
“I am concerned that the presence of armed members of the opposition and the ongoing military activities of the Syrian security forces have the potential to ignite a larger conflict between Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic with grave consequences,” Ban said at the time.
Amid chilly peace prospects, Pope tells Abbas he hopes for renewed international efforts
JNS.org) Pope Benedict XVI, in a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told Abbas that he hopes the recent Palestinian UN status upgrade would help spur the international community to find a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, Reuters reported.
The UN upgrade, however, was a unilateral move on the Palestinians’ part and was opposed by the U.S., which argued that the action was a step backwards and that peace can only be achieved through negotiations with Israel. Furthermore, a recent survey by Gal Hadash found that only 28.2 percent of Israelis believe their country has a partner for peace in negotiations with the Palestinians following the UN upgrade.
Abbas, who is on tour in Europe, met with the Pope to thank him for supporting the recent UN resolution.
“It is hoped that [the resolution] will encourage the commitment of the international community to finding a fair and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which may be reached only by resuming negotiations between the parties, in good faith and according due respect to the rights of both,” a Vatican statement said.
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