Designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group, Netanyahu tells hesitant EU countries
(JNS.org) While the hesitation of countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy has prevented a consensus among the 27-member European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that it is “hard to see how you cannot have a consensus” on that issue.
“I hope that those in Europe who refuse to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization will change their mind, and I hope there will be a European consensus on this,” Netanyahu told reporters before meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Jerusalem. “I mean, it’s hard to see how you cannot have a consensus on Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. If Hezbollah isn’t a terrorist organization, I don’t know what is a terrorist organization. I mean, they’re butchering people left and right across the world and now in the cities of Syria. They’re murdering civilians without letup, including on European soil, as was discovered in Bulgaria, as they try to do in Cyprus.”
Samaria residents: Watchdog exposing IDF security lapses ‘to the enemy’
(JNS.org) The Samaria Residents’ Council said that the left-leaning Israeli group Machsom Watch, which monitors checkpoints in Judea and Samaria because it opposes Israel’s control over the area, has been exposing security weaknesses in IDF operations “to the enemy.”
The residents allege that members of Machsom Watch harass IDF soldiers at checkpoints in Samaria. Machsom Watch then reveals details such as the number of soldiers manning checkpoints and IDF security lapses, publishing the information online, the Samaria residents said.
“This morning residents of Yitzhar went to jail for reporting IDF activity against outposts. I call on the police and state prosecutors to apply the law equally and to arrest the Machsom Watch women for spying. It would be outrageous if a far-left organization were to report IDF troop movements aimed at fighting terrorism to the enemy and the state were to ignore it,” said the head of the Samaria Residents’ Council, Benny Katzover, according to a report on Wednesday by Israel National News.
Israeli food exports to U.S. grow 50 percent since 2008
(JNS.org) The Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute revealed that the U.S. received a record of $224 million worth of Israeli food and beverage exports in 2002, representing a 3-percent increase since 2011 and a 50-percent increase since 2008.
This rise in Israeli food exports to the U.S. resulted from a “more aggressive marketing strategy at all levels by the Israeli manufacturers and their US representatives,” sources told Kosher Today.
Eleven Israeli manufactures will participate in the Israeli pavilion of the Fancy Food Show June 30 to July 2 in New York City. One major retailer told Kosher Today that Israeli food is becoming more popular because of its “vastly improved quality and packaging.”
PA media glorifies pre-Oslo terrorists, whose release is precondition for negotiations with Israel
(JNS.org) While the Palestinian Authority (PA) demands the release of all Palestinian terrorists imprisoned before the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords as a precondition for the restarting of peace negotiations with Israel, the PA media has been glorifying the murders committed by those pre-Oslo terrorists, Palestinian Media Watch reported in its June 19 bulletin.
On a PA TV broadcast that aired June 6 and June 8, the narrator called terrorist Ibrahim Faiz Abu Ali, who murdered 24 year-old taxi driver Roni Levy in December 1990, a “hero whose struggle brought honor to us and all of humanity.” Similarly, on a PA TVbroadcast that aired May 11 and May 12, the narrator called terrorist Faraj Saleh Abdallah Al-Rimahi, who beat 84 year-old Avraham Kinstler to death with a hoe in 1992, a “giant hero” who is “still writing the finest epics of endurance, heroism and self-sacrifice.” Both of these pre-Oslo terrorists are serving life sentences in Israeli prison.
Naftali Bennett condemns ‘price tag’ attacks on Muslim and Christian sites as ‘un-Jewish’
(JNS.org) Israel’s economy minister and leader of the nationalist Jewish Home Party, Naftali Bennett, has condemned the recent “price tag” attacks on Arab Christian and Muslim sites as “un-Jewish.”
“Every ‘price tag’ act is immoral and un-Jewish. A small group, which we have yet to catch, is trying to light the Middle East on fire and harm the efforts we’re making to create stability and good, neighborly relations with Arabs,” Bennett said, theJerusalem Post reported.
Bennett’s statement comes after it was reported that 28 cars in the Arab-Israeli town of Abu Ghosh had their tires slashed, in addition to the appearance of graffiti saying in Hebrew, “Arabs go home.”
In other recent incidents, graffiti appeared last week on Arab-Christian graves in an Orthodox Christian cemetery in Jaffa, and anti-Christian graffiti appeared on the Church of the Dormition in Jerusalem in late May.
Israel’s cabinet on Sunday voted to expand legal and investigative tools for the country’s police force to end “price tag” attacks.
Lockheed Martin VP confirms Israel on track to receive advanced fighter jets by 2016
(JNS.org) Israel remains on track to become one of the first countries to receive the new highly advanced stealth F-35 fighter jets manufactured by Lockheed Martin, a vice president from the American defense company has confirmed.
At the recent Paris Air Show, Steve O’Bryan of Lockheed Martin said the state-of-the-art fighter jets would be delivered to Israel by the end of 2016, Israel Hayom reported. The news that Israel will receive the fighter jets was first reported last December.
O’Bryan also said that Lockheed Martin was looking into the feasibility of adding detachable fuselages manufactured by the Israeli company Cyclone, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems.
Touted as one of the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world, the F-35’s production has been slowed by cost overruns and manufacturing delays. Israel ordered 20 F-35s in 2010 at the cost of $2.75 billion. The jet will eventually replace Israel’s F-16I and F-15 fighter jets.
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