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Iran may retaliate against Israeli, Jewish sites
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli embassies and major Jewish institutions around the world raised their levels of alert on Sunday over fears of terror attacks by Iran and Hezbollah in retaliation for reported Israeli airstrikes on Iranian missiles in Syria.
“Everywhere there is an Iranian embassy, there is usually one person, and probably more, directly involved in planning terrorist activity against Jewish and Israeli targets,” Brig. Gen. (Res.) Nitzan Nuriel, the former head of the Israeli National Security Council’s counter-terrorism bureau, told Army Radio. “Sometimes it’s under the cover of a cultural attache or even just a normal staffer, but these people are tasked with perpetrating terror against Israel and Jews.”
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday closed off the airspace over northern Israel to civilian flights, but the airspace was reopened on Monday. Flights on the Haifa-Eilat route of the Arkia and Israir airlines were canceled.
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Google recognizes ‘Palestine’
(JNS.org) The decision by Google to change the name “Palestinian territories” to “Palestine” across its products might harm the prospects for restarted Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, according to Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin.
“Such a decision is, in my opinion, not only mistaken but could also negatively impinge on the efforts of my government to bring about direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority,” Elkin wrote in a letter to Google CEO Larry Page.
“I would be grateful were you to reconsider the decision since it entrenches the Palestinians in their view that they can further their political aims through one-sided actions rather than through negotiations and mutual agreement,” Elkin added.
On Friday, Google spokesman Nathan Tyler explained that the search engine giant consulted with agencies including United Nations, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and the International Organization for Standardization in making the “Palestine” decision. Last November, the Palestinians’ unilateral statehood bid resulted in upgraded nonmember observer status for what they call “Palestine” at the UN.
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Israel reportedly strikes on Iranian missiles in Syria
(JNS.org) Israel was reportedly behind a massive airstrike near Damascus, Syria in the early hours of Sunday morning, targeting Iranian missiles bound for Hezbollah. This is the second reported Israeli airstrike this week inside of Syria and the third such strike this year.
Anonymous officials told the Associated Press and Reuters that Israel has carried out the recent strikes on Iranian shipments to the Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah of highly advanced missiles known as Fateh-110s or “Conqueror” missiles.
“In last night’s attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah,” a Western intelligence official told Reuters.
Israeli officials declined to confirm the Jewish state was behind the latest strike in Syria, but Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon hinted at Israeli involvement.
“The State of Israel is protecting its interests and will continue doing so. I am not confirming or denying the reports,” Danon told Israeli Army Radio.
First put into service by Iran in 2002, the Fateh-110 missiles were upgraded last year with a range of 185 miles and are accurate to within 330 feet.
In an interview with the Spanish-language television station Telemundo on Saturday, President Barack Obama said he supported Israel’s right to defend itself.
“What I have said in the past and I continue to believe is that the Israelis justifiably have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah,” Obama said.
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StandWithUs to unveil pro-Israel ads
(JNS.org) The pro-Israel education group StandWithUs (SWU) has announced that it will unveil several pro-Israel advertisements on New York’s Metro-North transit system in Westchester County over the next month.
The SWU ads come in response to anti-Israel ads by the American Muslims for Palestine, which is labeled by the Anti-Defamation League as a “leading anti-Zionist group.”
“Anti-Israel activists continuously seek ways to attempt to undermine America’s strong support for the Jewish state with campaigns that misrepresent Israel,” Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, said in a statement.
SWU’s said its ads intend to “celebrate Israel’s diversity” as well as Israel’s close alliance with the U.S. and efforts toward peace with the Palestinians.
New York’s transit system has been a frequent venue for the battle over Israel’s public image. Last year, the Metro Transit Authority banned an American Freedom Defense Initiative ad condemning radical Islam and supporting Israel, but a federal judge overturned that ruling, arguing that the ad was protected under the First Amendment.
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Israeli trauma team heads to Boston
(JNS.org) The Boston suburb of Watertown, the site of the massive shootout and manhunt by police with the Boston Marathon bombers, will be visited by a team from the Israel Trauma Coalition (ITC) that will attempt to assist residents in their recovery process, the Times of Israel reported.
The visit is being arranged and paid for by Boston’s Jewish community.
“Our partners in Israel, who are all too familiar with the fear and anxiety of the aftermath of terrorist attacks, reached out to us with support, making the collaboration with the ITC possible,” said Barry Shrage, president of Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies.
The ITC, which specializes in post-trauma resilience, will run sessions with local officials in Watertown on how to deal with the various issues that may arise, such as questions from children or how to create safe environments in schools and other community institutions.
After the events in Watertown, Shrage said, “It made me think of what the kids in Sderot go through all the time, and other places where ITC had been effective.”
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Church of Scotland changes stance on Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive JNS.org) The Church of Scotland, once a staunch supporter of the biblical Jewish claim to Israel, abandoned that approach in a new report titled “The Inheritance of Abraham? A Report on the ‘Promised Land.’”
“Promises about the land of Israel were never intended to be taken literally, or as applying to a defined geographical territory,” the report says. “The ‘promised land’ in the Bible is not a place, so much as a metaphor of how things ought to be among the people of God. This ‘promised land’ can be found, or built, anywhere.”
On God’s promise to Abraham to make the land of Israel a home for the Jewish people (“To your offspring I will give this land,” Genesis 12:7), the Church of Scotland says the exact geography of the land is unclear. The land was given to Jews “conditionally” with the understanding that it would “be cared for and lived in according to God’s instruction,” the report says before quoting a slew of anti-Zionist writers who argue that Israel is acting “unjustly” toward the Palestinians.
Scottish Council of Jewish Communities Director Ephraim Borowski said the church should withdraw the report.
“On behalf of the Jewish community of Scotland, we call upon the church to withdraw [the report] from the forthcoming general assembly. If the Church cannot build bridges, can it at least refrain from burning them?” Borowski told the London Jewish Chronicle.
Board of Deputies of British Jews Vice President Jonathan Arkush said the document “appears to have been produced with no consultation with the Scottish or national Jewish community” and is “littered with misrepresentations of Jewish history.”
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Netanyahu arrives in China
(JNS.org) Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in China on Sunday to begin the first visit by an Israeli prime minister to the country in six years.
One current challenge the Jewish state faces is the possibility that China will see Israel’s close relationship with the U.S. as an obstacle to Israel-China ties, a determination that might cause China, which is becoming increasingly involved with the Middle East, to increase its reliance on Arab oil and ignore ties with Israel.
China, however, believes that Israel holds one of the main keys to stability in the Middle East, as “an important source of knowledge about events in a region in which China often feels at a loss.” China also views Israel as “a source of advanced technologies, and China has an interest in promoting its science and technology ties with Israel and perhaps even energy ties as Israel’s natural gas industry develops,” Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies said in a study.
For now, China is showing a balanced diplomatic approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, welcoming both Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for visits.
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Canada’s Israel support draws ire from Arab nations
(JNS.org) Some Arab nations are making an effort to isolate Canada at the United Nations in retaliation for the Canadian government’s pro-Israel stance.
Qatar is working to gather votes from 115 countries to relocate the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which determines global rules for airplane transportation, from Montreal to the Middle East by 2016. In addition, Arab UN ambassadors met in New York on April 23 to discuss Palestinian issues, where they also discussed ways to rally support against the Canadian government among international organizations.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is known for his staunch support of Israel and maintains a close relationship with the Israeli government. In April, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird stoked Arab anger by meeting Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in eastern Jerusalem, an area where the Palestinians dispute Israeli jurisdiction.
Joseph Lavoie, a spokesman for Baird, said Canada will “fight tooth and nail” to keep the ICAO in Montreal. “Canada will not apologize for promoting a principled foreign policy,” Lavoie said, according to the Daily Globe and Mail.
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Women fired for hate speech denied unemployment benefits
(JNS.org) An Iowa judge has denied unemployment benefits for two women fired from a manufacturing plant after workers said they saw them last December with a toy Easy Bake oven filled with gingerbread men, as they wished their colleagues a happy Hanukkah and said, “We’re burning the Jews.”
Sisters Christina and Susan Ott were fired from the TriMark Corp. plant in New Hampton, Iowa. Carrying an oven around “with little people in it while saying, ‘Happy Hanukkah,’ is offensive, let alone if she said the hate speech along with it,” said Susan Ackerman, the administrative law judge who heard Christina Ott’s case, according to the Associated Press.
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