IDF Christian enlistment triples in the past year
(JNS.org) Christian enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has nearly tripled in the past year, going from 35 to 100, with another 500 Christians doing national service, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth and spiritual leader of a forum for the enlistment of Christian youth in the IDF, Naji Abid, leader of the Orthodox council in Yafia and Lt. (ret.) Shadi Khaloul, head of the forum.
According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, approximately 158,000 Christians live in Israel, 80 percent of which are Israeli Arabs. Father Nadaf has come under fire from some Israeli-Arab leaders due to his support for young Christians enlisting in the IDF.
At the meeting, Netanyahu announced the creation of a joint government-community forum to encourage Christian enlistment and help their integration into the state.
“Members of the Christian community must be allowed to enlist in the IDF. You are loyal citizens who want to defend the state and I salute you and support you. We will not tolerate threats against you and we will act to enforce the law with a heavy hand against those who persecute you. I will not tolerate attempts to crumble the state from within. The State of Israel and the Prime Minister stand alongside you,” Netanyahu said in a statement during the meeting.
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Iran may be able to produce weapons-grade plutonium next summer, report says
(JNS.org) Iran may be able to begin producing weapons-grade plutonium by next summer at a separate nuclear facility, a development that surprised nuclear officials but might also provide an easier target for a potential attack on the Iranian nuclear program.
“It really crept up on us,” an official at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Vienna headquarters told the Wall Street Journal.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Iran has made significant progress on the construction of a heavy water nuclear reactor that was started in 2004 in Arak in northwestern Iran. The reactor under construction is capable of producing uranium fuel. The “spent fuel” resulting from the process of a nuclear reaction contains small amounts of plutonium, which can be used for a nuclear bomb. Other countries such as North Korea, Pakistan and India have produced bombs from plutonium.
U.S. and United Nations officials believe that the Arak facility might be able to produce two plutonium bombs per year.
But according to analysts, the Arak facility may be an easier target for Israel or the U.S. since it is not underground, like Iran’s other facilities in Qom and Natanz.
“There’s no question that the reactor and its heavy water are more vulnerable targets than the enrichment plants,” Gary Samore, who served as President Barack Obama’s top adviser on nuclear issues during his first term, told the Wall Street Journal.
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White House sees inauguration of Rouhani, who made anti-Israel remark, as chance to engage with Iran
(JNS.org) The White House said Sunday’s inauguration of new Iranian President Hassan Rohani, who last week called Israel “a wound for years on the body of the Muslim world,” presents an opportunity for engagement with Iran.
“The inauguration of President Rouhani presents an opportunity for Iran to act quickly to resolve the international community’s deep concerns over Iran’s nuclear program,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.
“Should this new government choose to engage substantively and seriously to meet its international obligations and find a peaceful solution to this issue, it will find a willing partner in the United States,” Carney added.
Iranian Press TV last week quoted Rouhani as saying about Israel, “After all, in our region there has been a wound for years on the body of the Muslim world under the shadow of the occupation of the holy land of Palestine and the beloved al-Quds,” Press TV quoted Rouhani as saying.
Also last week, a new Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) report revealed that Iran has “taken many actions that have compounded suspicions that it has not stopped its uranium laser enrichment activities,” despite claiming in 2003 that it had abandoned this process.
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Tzipi Livni, Naftali Bennett clash on benefits for Judea and Samaria communities
(JNS.org) Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Israel’s negotiator in renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict talks, abstained from a cabinet vote approving national benefits including housing subsidies and loans for more than 600 Israeli communities on the grounds that a record number of Judea and Samaria communities were included on the list.
Livni acknowledged that there is “no doubt that we need to provide the citizens living in [the Judea and Samaria communities] with security—that is our responsibility,” but said she believes it is “wrong and contrary to national interests to take funds that should be going toward diminishing social gaps and using them to encourage settlement in these secluded and dangerous settlements.”
While Livni fears the inclusion of Judea and Samaria communities will jeopardize renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations, Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett said, “It is our duty to encourage the continued settlement in Judea and Samaria.” Due to security threats Judea and Samaria communities face, those communities “deserve national benefits,” Bennett said.
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Palestinian negotiator, breaking Kerry confidentiality terms, reveals timetable for prisoner release
(JNS.org) Although U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams would keep the details of their renewed talks confidential, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Saturday said Israel would release 26 Palestinian prisoners on Aug. 13, Israel Hayom reported.
This will be the first phase of the four-stage prisoner release, entailing the freeing of 104 Palestinian terrorists imprisoned before the 1993 Oslo Accords, that Israel agreed to in order to restart Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations.
The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) is currently formulating the lists of the four groups of Palestinian prisoners to be released over the course of the next nine months, the time window that has been set for the new negotiations.
On July 28, the Israeli cabinet approved the release of 104 terrorists who have been imprisoned in Israeli jails since before the 1993 Oslo Accords.
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Palestinian Authority TV quiz awards cash for identifying Israeli territory as ‘Palestine’
(JNS.org) Coinciding with the restarting of Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations in Washington, DC, Palestinian Authority TV (PA TV) offered $100 prizes in man-on-the-street interviews with Palestinians who identified Israeli territory as part of “Palestine,” Palestinian Media Watch reported.
On the July 25 program, the PA TV reporter asked a Palestinian man, “On the beach of which Palestinian village did the whale spew out the prophet Jonah? Naturally, it’s a coastal city.” The man won a $100 prize for answering “Ashdod.”
The “correct” answer on the TV program to “What is the highest mountain in Palestine?” was Mount Meron, which is located in northern Israel.
Asked by the PA TV reporter to identify which city the Palestinian writer Mustafa Dabbagh called “the city that fell from Heaven,” a Palestinian man followed up by asking the reporter whether the city was inside or outside of Palestine, and when told the city was inside Palestine, the man earned the cash prize by answering “Jaffa.”
Palestinians interviewed on the program also said “Palestine” encompassed the Druze village of Hurfeish and Hula Lake—which are both part of Israel—as well as Israel’s entire border with Jordan from the Golan Heights to Eilat.
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Information on Israeli airstrike on Syria leaked due to Obama ‘dismay,’ report says
(JNS.org) President Barack Obama, due to his “dismay” over Israeli operations, allowed the U.S. intelligence community to leak classified information about the recent Israeli airstrike on Syria, World Tribune reported.
Last month, the Israel Air Force bombed Yakhont anti-ship missiles stored in a Hezbollah-controlled warehouse near Latakia, Syria, according to the New York Times. Some of the missiles were reportedly spared because they were moved before the Israeli airstrike.
A U.S. diplomat who declined to be identified told World Tribune that the decision to leak information about the Israeli airstrike on Syria “could come only from Obama.”
“This reflects his dismay over the Israeli operations, which the president believes could result in a regional war,” the diplomat said.
Jonathan Tobin, senior online editor of Commentary magazine, wrote that the leak by the administration “is nothing short of outrageous.”
“If the administration is serious about supporting Israeli security, this is not the time to playing games on the question of Russian missiles falling into the hands of terrorists,” Tobin wrote. “Israel has every right to keep that from happening and will be justified in continuing air strikes or any other measure that might accomplish this goal. Appeasing Russia in this matter won’t give Obama the ‘reset’ of relations with Moscow he’s always wanted. American efforts to deter or prevent it from acting aren’t merely unhelpful; they are part of a dangerous game that could, if Israel is unable to stop the transfers, result in a situation that could cost both Israeli and American lives.”
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IDF patrol comes under fire in latest Syrian civil war spillover
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) patrol vehicle came under fire from across the Syrian border Thursday night, in the latest Syrian civil war spillover into Israel. No soldiers were wounded and no damage was done to the vehicle in the attack.
Israel’s Channel 2 reported that according to the IDF, the shooting was apparently not premeditated and was a result of a firefight between Syrian rebels and regime forces that spilled over into Israeli territory.
In the past months there have been multiple incidents in which skirmishes between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s embattled regime and rebels near the Israel-Syria border errantly shot at Israeli troops.
In July, during a routine patrol in the Tel Fares area of the Golan Heights, soldiers identified suspicious figures at an unmanned IDF position near the security fence with Syria. As they approached the position, the troops came under fire from the Syrian side of the fence and fired back at the source of the gunshots. No soldiers were injured and no damage was done to the IDF patrol vehicle in that incident.
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Al-Qaeda threat prompts U.S. to shut diplomatic posts across Mideast and Asia, including Israel
(JNS.org) The United States on Sunday temporarily shut embassies and consulates across the Middle East and Asia, including in Israel, as a precautionary measure due to a terror threat related to Al-Qaeda.
Although not specified by the State Department, CBS News reported that U.S. intelligence has “picked up signs of an Al-Qaeda plot against American diplomatic posts in the Middle East and other Muslim countries.”
The diplomatic posts that were temporarily shuttered include Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mauritania, Sudan and Djibouti, according to CBS News.
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