Syria rebels vow to ‘liberate Golan Heights’ after Assad falls
(JNS.org) Syrian rebels operating in the region near the border with Israel threatened on Sunday to fight to regain the Golan Heights from Israel following the toppling of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Israel Hayom reported.
In a video published online, a rebel fighter, filmed against the backdrop of the Golan Heights, said “we are in the occupied Golan Heights, which the traitor Hafez al-Assad sold to Israel 40 years ago. These lands are blessed and the despicable Assad family promised to liberate them, but for 40 years the Syrian army did not fire a single bullet. We will open a military campaign against Israel. We will fire the bullets that Assad did not and we will liberate the Golan.”
The Israel-Syria border has been mostly quiet since 1974.
A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry has voiced his concerns about the potential for radical Sunni elements to take power in a post-Assad Syria.
“There is a great concern that uncontrolled elements at the service of extremist ideas will manage to take over smaller or bigger separate territories inside the Syrian borders,” Yigal Palmor told the Turkish Hürriyet Daily News in an interview in Jerusalem.
“The ‘Somalization’ of Syria is a great concern. We hope that this war ends as quickly as possible, with a central power emerging that will rule all Syria,” he said.
In the interview with the Turkish newspaper, Palmor revealed that Israel had coordinated with the Red Cross to send humanitarian aid into Syria, but Israel was told that the refugees refused to receive aid from Israel. Private aid organizations in Israel are already working with Jordan for human assistance to Syrian refugees, Palmor said, adding, “this shows that the Israeli public wants to help Syrians no matter what politics dictates.”
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Peres meets with French Jews, Muslims one year after Toulouse shooting
(JNS.org) Israeli President Shimon President met with religious and secular leaders of the French Jewish community Sunday on the eve of a memorial for the victims of the shootings by Islamist terrorist Mohamed Merah, who killed a rabbi and three Jewish children.
Peres also spoke with imams and other representatives from the French-Muslim community.
Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, said, “We are here to say to our brothers the Jews and the French: We are all threatened by terror, hurt by terror, and we all call with optimism for peace at the end of this terrible year. We teach the believers that human life is holier than the holy sites. Holier than Mecca, the Vatican or Jerusalem.” “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not an excuse to hate the State of Israel—we are not interested in that hate and do not believe in it,” he continued. “We visited Israel and saw the country; we want to know Israel as it really is and to get to know people from different perspectives.”
Peres responded, “Whoever was responsible for the murder of French citizens and Jewish children in Toulouse showed the ugly face of terror, and your words show the way of peace. You are leaders of an Islam which seeks peace, as we do. I am very grateful for your words, and I thank you for coming. I see in you brothers in this path. Dialogue between us is important and valuable and that is why this meeting between us is so important. We will work together, for all the peoples of the world, for Israelis and Palestinians, for peace in the world.”
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French city honors convicted Palestinian terrorist
(JNS.org) Palestinian terrorist Majdi Al-Rimawi, who had been convicted and sentenced to prison for life for his role in the murder of former Israeli Minister of Tourism Rechavam Ze’evi in 2001, has been offered “honorary citizenship” by the French city of Bezons.
Al-Rimawi was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization. In addition, the municipality of the city prepared a plaque referring to Al-Rimawi as a “political prisoner,” according to Palestinian Media Watch.
“Majdi is a direct victim of this [Israeli] occupation… as are the 4,500 Palestinian resistance [fighters] who were imprisoned for having dared to defend their country against an occupier whose military means are oversized and whose methods constantly violate UN resolutions and international law,” said the mayor of the city of Bezons, Dominique Lesparre, in a speech during the dedication ceremony.
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Is this seat taken? For $18,000 you can fly next to a renowned Hassidic rebbe
(JNS.org) How much would you be willing to pay to sit next to a Hassidic rebbe on a long flight? Apparently some are willing to shell out as much as $18,000 for the honor.
Last week, the Spinka Rebbe, a respected religious leader in the Hassidic Spinka dynasty, boarded a return flight to New York after U.S. courts cleared him to fly to Israel and visit his students.
The rebbe, Naftali Tzvi Weisz, was involved in a tax fraud scandal in Los Angeles, was sentenced to two years in prison, and according to the haredi website Behadrey Haredim was released early but was unable to leave the U.S. to visit Israel until now.
On the flight back to the U.S., seated next to the rabbi was a Chabad-Lubavitch Hassidic man from southern Israel. Within minutes of getting on the plane, numerous haredim walked up to the rebbe and asked to speak with him or to receive a blessing. Some even asked the Chabad man sitting next to the rebbe if he would be willing to switch seats. The Chabad man thought to auction his seat, and reportedly received offers of up to $18,000, but in the end decided to keep his seat next to the renowned Hassidic rebbe.
Journalist Eli Jan, an associate of the Chabad man, told Israel Hayom, “In the haredi public, being close to the rebbe is considered a great privilege, and some are willing to pay hundreds of thousands of shekels to be close to or get a blessing from him. For example when the Satmar Rebbe arrives in Israel, Hassidim are offered to be his driver for a donation. It is considered a great honor for the average Hassidic Jew.”
Israel Hayom previously reported that 18 affluent haredim paid $250,000 for the honor of staying with the Gerrer Rebbe in Safed over a weekend. One Gerrer Hasid explained, “One must understand that for a Gerrer Hassid this is his rabbi, and in general for any haredi Jew, it is considered a once in a lifetime or even multiple lifetimes event. It is a story that is passed on from generation to generation; it is priceless.”
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Israel condemns Dutch labeling of products from Jewish communities beyond Green Line
(JNS.org) Israel on Thursday sharply condemned a new initiative in the Netherlands directing businesses to label products originating in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights as separate from those produced in Israel.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said, according to Israel Hayom, “If the Europeans claim that labeling products made in the settlements is intended only to inform the consumer that the product comes from a disputed area, they should also be consistent and mark any product from disputed territories in Europe and around the world. But if the move denigrates Israel, and only Israel, it is clearly a manifestation of blatant discrimination and thus inherently wrong.”
Interior Minister Eli Yishai also responded to the Dutch government initiative on Thursday, saying, “Products from the settlements beyond the Green Line, just like those made within the Green Line, are proud blue and white products. The State of Israel will stand as one entity against any attempt to boycott its products.”
The Israel response was to the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs’s directive to all retail chains in the country to assist consumers in making fully knowledgeable decisions in stores by labeling products from Jewish communities beyond the 1967 Green Line differently than products from the rest of Israel.
The directive calls for the labeling of fresh products not as made in Israel, but as made in “Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, east Jerusalem, the West Bank or in Palestinian territories.” Though retailers rather than importers are responsible for the labeling, they will not be punished for not complying, nor is it illegal to import products from the Jewish communities in question.
The move follows a Feb. 27 report written by European Union mission heads in Jerusalem and Ramallah recommending that EU countries
“prevent” all financial transactions that support Israel’s activities in those communities.
Holland joins other EU countries, such as Britain and Denmark, as well as South Africa, which also recommended such labeling to retailers.
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Sequester to reduce U.S. aid to Israel, but not below 2012 level
(JNS.org) Despite the fact the U.S. government plans to reduce financial aid to Israel for fiscal year 2013 by 5 percent, or $155 million out of $3.1 billion, aid this year will still be higher than it was in 2012, according Israeli Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz, as reported by Globes.
The U.S. reduction in foreign aid to Israel is being attributed to the $85 billion sequester in the federal budget that took effect after negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill failed to address the $16 trillion federal deficit.
Although the reduction in aid to Israel is smaller than originally feared, it will still affect some Israeli companies that work with U.S.-funded programs or provide service to U.S. defense companies. U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has indicated, however, that American funding for Israeli missile defense programs such as the Iron Dome will not be reduced.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org