Acre mayor shot in apparent assassination attempt
(JNS.org) Acre Mayor Shimon Lankri was shot in the chest on Thursday night in what the police have called an apparent assassination attempt, Israel Hayom reported.
Lankri, 51, suffered moderate wounds and was rushed to the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya. He is hospitalized under police guard.
The Israeli Coastal District Police said an unknown assailant shot Lankri within close range while his car was approaching the Kafr Yasif junction on Highway 70, 11 kilometers (7 miles) northeast of Acre, in northern Israel. He was able to drive away from the scene and call for help. Police canvassed the area overnight, but have no leads yet.
Lankri was elected as Acre’s mayor in 2003 and is currently in his third term. His brother, Shmuel Lankri, said that a threat had been made against the mayor in February. The police, however, said that the threat was not deemed credible enough to assign him a permanent protection detail.
“Our routine periodic threat assessment did not indicate that Lankri was in any imminent danger,” said Coastal District Police Commander Hagai Dotan.
Dr. Massad Barhoum, director-general of the Western Galilee Hospital, said, “The bullet entered the body and exited through the shoulder, missing any vital organs or major blood vessels.”
Barhoum said Lankri is expected to make a full recovery.
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St. Louis survivors dispute new book’s absolving of FDR and U.S. Coast Guard
(JNS.org) Survivors of the Holocaust-era SS St. Louis refugee ship are disputing a new book’s claim about their ship’s fateful voyage.
In a new book titled FDR and the Jews, historians Richard Breitman and Allan Lichtman make the claim that the U.S. Coast Guard was not sent to prevent the St. Louis from reaching the United States in 1939.
“There is no truth to the notion, found in some literature, that American officials ordered the Coast Guard to prevent any passengers from reaching American shores,” the book states on page 137.
The survivors of the St. Louis, however, categorically deny that claim based on their own first-hand experience.
“We saw the Coast Guard planes that flew around the ship to follow its movements. We saw the Coast Guard cutter that trailed us and made sure the St. Louis did not come close to the Florida coast. We heard the cutter blaring its warning to the St. Louis to stay away,” St. Louis survivors Herbert Karliner, Professor Hans Fisher, Col. Phil Freund and Fred Buff said in a statement.
“It was President Franklin Roosevelt who decided our fate, who denied us and our family’s permission to land, forcing us to return to Europe, where many of the passengers were murdered by the Nazis. We categorically reject any and all attempts to distort these indisputable historical facts,” they said.
The St. Louis was a German ocean liner that was notable for its 1939 voyage in which her captain, Gustav Schroder, attempted to find homes for the 937 German Jewish refugees abroad. They were denied entry to Cuba, the U.S. and Canada. After their return to Europe, historians estimate that about a quarter of the ship’s passengers died in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Obama: Construction freeze not crucial for resumption of peace talks
(JNS.org) Speaking in Ramallah on Thursday after meeting with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, U.S. President Barack Obama called for an “independent, viable and contiguous Palestinian state” to be established alongside Israel.
“The only way to achieve this goal is through direct talks,” Obama said, according to Israel Hayom. “There is no shortcut to a sustainable solution.”
Obama also said that if the Palestinians and Israelis spoke only about conditions to get to the negotiating table, the core issues of the conflict would never be discussed. Thus, Obama said, a renewed Israeli construction freeze in areas beyond the 1967 Green Line should not be a precondition to a resumption of talks. “If the core issues are solved of sovereignty and security the settlement issue will be solved,” Obama said.
Based on his talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama said he believes that peace talks can be renewed.
“My administration is committed to doing our part,” Obama said.
“If we can get direct talks again, I think a shape of a peace deal is there. I believe the Israeli and Palestinian publics will support it,” Obama added.
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Obama tells young Israelis that peace is only path to true security
(JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama made an appeal for peace between Israel and the Palestinians in a speech to a packed audience of young Israelis at the Jerusalem Convention Center on Thursday.
“There is no question that Israel has faced Palestinian factions who turned to terror, and leaders who missed historic opportunities. That is why security must be at the center of any agreement. And there is no question that the only path to peace is through negotiation,” Obama said.
Obama also spoke at length about the Jewish connection to the land and his support for Zionism.
“And while Jews achieved extraordinary success in many parts of the world, the dream of true freedom finally found its full expression in the Zionist idea—to be a free people in your homeland,” he said.
The president praised Israel’s progress and technological breakthroughs.
“Israel has built a prosperous nation—through kibbutzim that made the desert bloom, business that broadened the middle class, and innovators who reached new frontiers—from the smallest microchip to the orbits of space,” Obama said.
But Obama also noted that despite this progress, Israelis must realize that the two-state solution is the only thing that can make Israel truly “thrive.”
“Given the demographics west of the Jordan River, the only way for Israel to endure and thrive as a Jewish and democratic state is through the realization of an independent and viable Palestine,” Obama stressed.
Obama encouraged Israelis to put themselves in the shoes of the Palestinians.
“Just as Israelis built a state in their homeland, Palestinians have a right to be a free people in their own land,” Obama said.
“The Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and their justice must also be recognized. Put yourself in their shoes; look at the world through their eyes,” he said.
Obama told Israelis he believes that true security can only be achieved through peace.
“The only way to truly protect the Israeli people is through the absence of war—because no wall is high enough, and no Iron Dome is strong enough, to stop every enemy from inflicting harm,” he said.
Jeffrey Goldberg wrote for The Atlantic that he considered Obama’s speech to be “very strong.”
“Some people won’t be satisfied, but the president conveyed, over and over again, that he stands with Israel, he believes in Israel, and so long as there is a United States, there will be an Israel,” Goldberg wrote.
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Coptic Christians describe torture at hands of Libyan extremists
(JNS.org) Dozens of Coptic Christians claimed they were tortured while being held in Libya by Islamic militiamen on charges of proselytizing.
“They shaved our heads. They threatened to sever our heads in implementation of Islamic Shariah (law) while showing us swords,” said 26-year-old Amgad Zaki, who spoke to the Associated Press in a telephone interview from his home after returning to Egypt earlier this month.
“I was taken to clean a bathroom, and the man pushed my head inside the toilet and sat on me,” he said. “I was dying every day, and at one point I thought death is better than this.”
Islamic militiamen arrested the Coptic Christians—who were working in Libya—in late February during a raid on a Benghazi market. They were held on charges of proselytizing because the militiamen had found Christian materials among their belongings.
One Egyptian, Ragaa Abdallah, died while in custody; his body was returned to Egypt and buried earlier this week. His family claims he was tortured to death, but the Egyptian Foreign Ministry claims he likely died of natural causes related to his diabetes and heart ailments.
The incident has strained relations between Libya and Egypt. Egypt’s Coptic leader, Pope Tawadros II, met with Libya’s ambassador to Egypt last weekend to discuss the situation and the fate of the Egyptian Christians still being held in Libya, Ahram Online reported. Egypt has reportedly offered to swap prisoners in order to secure the Christians’ release.
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