Obama in Israel says he is in ‘historic homeland of the Jewish people’
(JNS.org) Presenting a contrast to his Cairo speech four years ago—during which he said that Israel was born from the Holocaust—U.S. President Barack Obama in Israel on Wednesday emphasized the historic link of the Jewish people to the Holy Land.
Obama in Israel opened his third visit there, but his first as president, by stressing the “rebirth” of Israel as the historic Jewish homeland.
“We stand together because peace must come to the Holy Land,” Obama said on the tarmac of Ben-Gurion International Airport, Israel Hayom reported.
“I know that in stepping foot on this land, I walk with you on the historic homeland of the Jewish people,” he said.
Obama said, “More than 3,000 years ago, the Jewish people lived here, tended the land here, prayed to God here. And after centuries of exile and persecution, unparalleled in the history of man, the founding of the Jewish state of Israel, was a rebirth, a redemption, unlike any in history. Today, the sons of Abraham and the daughters of Sarah are fulfilling the dream of the ages: to be masters of their own fate in their own sovereign state. Just as we have for these past 65 years, the United States is proud to stand with you as your strongest ally and your greatest friend.”
The U.S. “stands with Israel because it is in our fundamental security interest,” Obama said, citing that as the reason why America “was the very first nation” to recognize Israel 65 years ago.
Naftali Bennet, Israel’s new economy and trade minister, said Obama’s speech was “important because it recognizes the deep historical connection between the people of Israel and the land of Israel.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the occasion of Obama in Israel a “historic moment.”
“I come here today with a simple message. Thank you,” Netanyahu told Obama, adding, “The people of Israel are honored to have you visit.”
Netanyahu said he hoped that Obama in Israel would “get to see a different side of this tiny land.”
“I look forward to working with you over the next four years,” said Netanyahu, whose relationship with Obama has reportedly been tense at times due to disagreements over issues such as the setting of a “red line” for the Iranian nuclear threat and Israeli construction beyond the 1967 Green Line.
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Obama welcomed by PA media with claim that America was behind 9/11 attacks
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama was welcomed to Israel and the Palestinian Authority with anti-American and pro-Hitler comments in an opinion piece printed by the PA-run newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida.
“Our history is replete with lies… [including] the lie about al-Qaida and the September 11 [2001] events, which asserted that Muslim terrorists committed it, and that it was not an internal American action by the Freemasons,” Hassan Ouda Abu Zaher wrote in an op-ed published Monday that was translated by Palestinian Media Watch.
The op-ed also suggests that Hitler was greater than both Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
“Churchill and Roosevelt were alcoholics, and in their youth were questioned more than once about brawls they started in bars, while Hitler hated alcohol and was not addicted to it. He used to go to sleep early and wake up early, and was very organized. These facts have been turned upside down as well, and Satan has been dressed with angels’ wings,” the op-ed stated.
The article said negative attitudes toward Nazism were not objective, but the result of the West’s victory in World War II.
“Had Hitler won, Nazism would be an honor that people would be competing to belong to, and not a disgrace punishable by law,” the op-ed said.
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Obama, in plea by 30 Jewish groups, asked to free Pollard before 10,000th day in prison
(JNS.org) While President Barack Obama recently said he has no immediate plans to grant clemency to convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, national Jewish organizations are maintaining their request for his timely release.
Thirty Jewish groups who are part of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Tuesday asked Obama to free Pollard, who is the only person in U.S. history to receive a life sentence for spying for an American ally (Israel), before the “milestone” of his 10,000th day in prison arrives April 8.
“Among those who have called for [Pollard’s] release are former Director of the CIA, James Woolsey, former Undersecretary of Defense, Lawrence Korb, former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, and former Secretary of State, George Schultz,” Conference of Presidents Chairman Richard Stone and Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein told Obama in a statement. “We add our voice to theirs, as we have in the past, to ask that you take the steps necessary to expedite the review process you have mentioned and to facilitate the release of Mr. Pollard in an act of both justice and humanity.”
Obama had told Israeli Channel 2 News last week, “I have no plans for releasing Jonathan Pollard immediately, but what I am going to be doing is to make sure that he is accorded the same kinds of review as others. I recognize the emotions involved in this. One of the strengths of the Israeli people is that you think about your people wherever they are.”
“As president my first obligation is to observe the law here in the U.S,” Obama said. “I need to make sure that every individual is treated fairly and equally.”
More than 200,000 people—including Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, former Hamas captive Gilad Shalit, and Jewish Agency for Israel head Natan Sharansky—have signed a petition asking Obama to commute Pollard’s sentence, and on Tuesday about 5,000 people demonstrated for Pollard’s release outside of Israeli President Shimon Peres’s residence in Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Post reported.
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Daniel Pearl murder suspect arrested, Pakistani authorities say
(JNS.org) Pakistani authorities say that they have captured one of the terrorists behind the murder of Daniel Pearl, the Jewish Wall Street Journal bureau chief who was captured and executed by terrorists in Pakistan in 2002, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A Pakistani paramilitary unit says it has captured Qari Abdul Hayyee near Karachi late last week.
Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan in early 2002 while investigating the failed “shoe bomber” Richard Reid’s links to al-Qaeda in Pakistan.
While, al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, alleged mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, told U.S. investigators that he was the one behind the gruesome beheading, the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was also involved in his capture and execution.
A 2011 report by Georgetown University and the Center for Public Integrity that investigated Pearl’s death confirmed Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s claim and also said that Qari Abdul Hayye, leader of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, had guarded Pearl during his capture.
Another British-born Pakistani terrorist, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, was arrested and executed by Pakistan in 2002 for Pearl’s death.
Pearl’s parents, Ruth and Judea, expressed gratitude for the capture of one of their son’s murderers.
“We are gratified with this latest arrest and hope that justice will be served on all of those who were involved in this crime against humanity,” they said in a statement.
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Iraqi Christians fear same fate as Jews
(JNS.org) Amid Mideast strife, Iraqi Christian leaders are increasingly concerned about their community’s future in the region.
“Maybe we will follow in the steps of our Jewish brothers,” said Monsignor Pios Cacha, an Iraqi Christian leader, AFP reported.
Monsignor Cacha’s reference is to Iraq’s once vibrant Jewish community that has been all but erased.
During the first half of the 20th century, Iraq was home to a Jewish community estimated around 130,000, which had resided there since antiquity.
But increasing persecution and Iraq’s involvement against Israel in the 1948 War of Independence led to this community’s demise. More than 120,000 Jews fled between 1949 and 1951.
Similarly, Iraq’s Christian community was estimated at around 1-1.5 million before the 2003 U.S. invasion that removed brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein but also unleashed Islamic militant attacks. Today the community is estimated to be 500,000.
One of the worst attacks occurred in 2010 when Islamist militants killed 44 worshippers and two priests in Baghdad’s Our Lady of Salvation church, according to AFP.
The attack “was a catastrophe for the Christians, and it broke the back of our presence in this country,” says Cacha. “It is the catastrophe that led to emptying the country of Christians.”
Similar to the sectarian battles in Iraq, Syrian Christians have also been forced to flee their ancient homes as fighting has raged as part of that country’s civil war.
One of newly elected Pope Francis’s biggest challenges as the leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics is to confront the persecution and exodus of Christians from their Middle Eastern homeland.
Given that Latin America, especially Argentina, is home to one of the largest Arab Christian communities outside of the Middle East, Christian leaders from the region hope that will make Pope Francis more receptive to their plight.
“Choosing his papal name to be Pope Francis, and coming from the southern hemisphere and not from a rich country like Germany, he has set the tone for his papal term as one of understanding,” said Lebanese Father John Maroun from the Mariamite Maronite order, the Jordanian news site Al-Bawaba reported.
“He’ll work to consolidate the presence of Christians in the Middle East,” Father Maroun added.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org