PA minister denies Jewish history of Western Wall and all of Jerusalem
(JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority (PA) recently said that all of Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, has never been used as a place of worship throughout history by anyone besides Muslims “until the ominous Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917.” This directly contradicts a myriad of Jewish and non-Jewish historical sources that indicate otherwise.
PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash said Jerusalem and the Western Wall are “the sole right of Palestinians,” according to Palestinian Media Watch, in response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent statement regarding Jerusalem’s 3,000-year Jewish history during Hanukkah last month. Al-Habbash called Netanyahu’s words “worthless from a religious, historical, or legal point of view.”
The Western Wall is the last remnant of the Second Jewish Temple, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. The famous Jewish historian from that era, Josephus Flavius, who lived in Jerusalem, documented the destruction of the city and wrote extensively about the history of Jews in the region during the Antiquities.
“So the Romans being now become masters of the walls, they both placed their ensigns upon the towers, and made joyful acclamations for the victory they had gained… they slew those whom they overtook without and set fire to the houses whither the Jews were fled, and burnt every soul in them,” Josephus wrote in The Wars of the Jews, according to Project Gutenberg.
The PA, however, teaches that no temple ever existed in Jerusalem as a way to claim that Jews and Israel have no right to Jerusalem or the Western Wall.
In 1871, Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State William H. Seward wrote that in Jerusalem, “the Jews are eight thousand, and have the southeast quarter.” But the PA minister’s statement is the latest of many from the PA denying such history.
“The superfluous [nation] in this region, and the one harming its security and stability, is the occupation (i.e., Israel) in all its shapes and stages, whether in the past or in the present, and whether in the form of military occupation, settlement, or fabricating Judaization that have no historical or legal basis,” stated an op-ed in the official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, in December 2012.
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Youngest Jew saved by Schindler dies at 83
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Leon Leyson, the youngest among the 1,100 Jews saved by German industrialist Oskar Schindler during World War II, died over the weekend at his southern California home. He was 83 years old. His daughter told the Los Angeles Times that her father passed away after a four-year battle with lymphoma.
Schindler saved Jews by telling SS officers that they were his employees and necessary for his factories. He called Leyson “the Little Leyson” because the boy, who went to work in Schindler’s factory at age 13, needed to stand on boxes to work the machinery.
Leyson’s mother and brothers were also saved by Schindler, who died in 1974 and was buried in Jerusalem. He was named as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1993.
IDF uncovers terror tunnel along Gaza border
(JNS.org) Israeli soldiers on the border near the southern Gaza Strip on Monday discovered a tunnel that apparently had been dug for the purpose of carrying out a terrorist attack inside Israel.
Military sources told Israel Hayom that investigations would continue over coming days. It is not clear when the tunnel was dug and if it was used. It is believed that the tunnel collapsed due to recent rainy weather.
The tunnel, located near Kibbutz Nir Oz, was one of the longest discovered in recent years. An Israel Defense Forces source said the tunnel was similar to the one used in the June 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
“We view this incident gravely,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said. “This represents an attempt to conduct terrorist activity against civilians and security forces in Israeli territory.”
Journalist: Obama says ‘Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are’
(JNS.org) The same reports of tension between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that persisted leading up to November’s U.S. election have reemerged before Israelis prepare to vote on Jan. 22.
In an article for Bloomberg published Tuesday, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg—who its thought to have good access to the White House—wrote that in the weeks following the United Nations vote to give the Palestinians non-member state status, Obama said privately and repeatedly, “Israel doesn’t know what its own best interests are.”
Goldberg wrote that Obama believes Netanyahu, by building construction beyond Israel’s pre-1967 borders, is “moving his country down a path toward near-total isolation.”
Obama-Netanyahu tension before the U.S. election centered on the Iranian threat, with Obama refusing to set the specific “red line” requested by Netanyahu which, if crossed, would prompt American military action against Iran. Regarding a red line, 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. Additionally, on the CBS “60 Minutes” program, Obama went on to describe Netanyahu’s calls for a red line as “noise.”
Now, amid Obama’s nomination of former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel—who has come under fire for his record and statements on Israel (perhaps most infamously, his reference to the “Jewish lobby”)—for defense secretary, the “dysfunctional relationship between Netanyahu and Obama is poised to enter a new phase,” according to Goldberg.
“On matters related to the Palestinians, the president seems to view the prime minister as a political coward, an essentially unchallenged leader who nevertheless is unwilling to lead or spend political capital to advance the cause of compromise,” Goldberg wrote.
Reacting to Goldberg’s column, Israeli Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday said Netanyahu, if re-elected, “will know how to work with [U.S. President Barack] Obama very well while at the same time safeguarding Israel’s interests,” Israel Hayom reported.
Report: Iran could produce one or two nuclear bombs by mid-2014
(JNS.org) A new report issued by an American think tank warns that Iran could build one or two nuclear bombs by next year and calls for stricter sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Reuters reported.
“Based on the current trajectory of Iran’s nuclear program, we estimate that Iran could reach critical capability in mid-2014,” the report said.
The report defines “critical capability” as the point when Iran can build a weapons grade bomb without detection.
The 154-page report titled “U.S. Nonproliferation Strategy for the Changing Middle East” produced by five non-proliferation experts for the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) was released on Jan. 14.
The report recommends that the U.S. and its allies should intensify international sanctions against Iran, including imposing an international embargo on all investments and trade, before Iran reaches the critical capability point.
The report also advocated for President Obama to make the threat of military action more explicit to Iran.
“The president should explicitly declare that he will use military force to destroy Iran’s nuclear program if Iran takes additional decisive steps toward producing a bomb,” the report said.
Florida reinstates kosher food program for prisoners
(JNS.org) The Florida Department of Corrections has agreed to reinstate its kosher food program following a five-year struggle by Jewish groups that included a federal lawsuit.
The complaint to the Justice Department claimed that Florida was violating the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, which forbids the government from restricting religious rights of institutionalized individuals, after it suspended its kosher food program in 2007. The government then filed a suit against the Florida Department of Corrections.
The Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s Aleph Institute, which serves the interests of Jewish inmates and soldiers around the nation, praised Florida Governor Rick Scott for his decision to reinstate the kosher food program.
“The Aleph Institute and the Jewish community would like to thank Governor Rick Scott profusely for arranging that kosher food will be available to Jewish inmates in Florida,” said Rabbi Menachem Katz of the Aleph Institute in a press release.
Recently, a U.S. federal appeals court ruled that Texas must provide kosher meals to a Jewish prisoner there under the same act.
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