Cantor: Peace requires Palestinian ‘cultural mind-shift’
(JNS.org) U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), the House Majority Leader, said while leading a trip of 28 congressmen to Israel that he doesn’t envision progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict until there is a Palestinian “cultural mind-shift.”
“Until that point comes, I don’t think that there will be much progress,” Cantor said at a press conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the Jerusalem Post reported.
In the midst of renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations, the Facebook page of the Presidential Guard of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas recently featured a photo illustration with the PA flag superimposed on the Western Wall, Palestinian Media Watch reported. Additionally, Palestinian Authority TV (PA TV) recently offered $100 prizes in man-on-the-street interviews with Palestinians who identified Israeli territory as part of “Palestine.”
Regarding Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement on Monday that the U.S. views all Israeli communities located beyond the pre-1967 lines as “illegitimate,” Cantor said the “discussion of territory, lines, towns and settlements is predicated upon the Palestinians first agreeing” to Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
Cantor also criticized celebrations held by the PA for the first 26 terrorists released this week in the first phase of Israel’s prisoner release for Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations.
“If there is a celebration of violence, reverence pointed toward terrorists, that is not something that can fit squarely with the notion of a lasting peace,” Cantor said.
Jewish Agency brings 17 Yemenite Jews to Israel in covert mission
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) As tensions run high and instability mounts in Yemen, the Jewish Agency for Israel on Wednesday orchestrated a complex covert mission, spanning two continents, to bring a group of 17 Yemenite Jews to Israel and unite several families that have been separated for the last two years.
Five of the 17 Yemenite Jews landed on Wednesday, while the remaining 12, who had been smuggled to Argentina two years ago by Satmar Hassidim, were flown from there to Israel to reunite with their families.
The Yemenite Jews were smuggled out of Argentina without notifying the Satmar group that had taken them in. The Jewish Agency, which coordinated the mission with several Israeli government agencies, reported that the complex operation had been prompted by concerns for the safety of Yemen’s tiny Jewish community, as extreme Muslim groups posed a constant threat.
The Satmar community opposes Zionism and aims to combat immigration to Israel. In recent years, its members have smuggled Jews out of Yemen and absorbed them in various communities across the globe.
The new immigrants will now be absorbed at one of the Jewish Agency absorption centers in southern Israel.
Since 2009, when anti-Semitic threats began to mount in Yemen, Israel has absorbed a record of 150 Yemenite Jews. In December 2008, Jewish teacher Moshe Ya’ish al-Nahari was murdered by a Muslim Yemenite activist who demanded that his victim convert to Islam. In May 2012, Jewish community leader Aharon Zindani was stabbed to death in Sanaa.
Syrian civil war refugees in Jordan need more Jewish support, coalition says
(JNS.org) Refugees in Jordan who were displaced by the Syrian civil war need more support from the Jewish community, a coalition of 16 Jewish organizations said.
The Jewish Coalition for Syrian Refugees in Jordan, a sub-group of the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief (JCDR), has already distributed more than $200,000 to aid programs supporting Syrian civil war refugees. The aid programs provide the refugees with food, water, shelter, medical care, clothing, and other services, according to JCDR. Dr. Georgette Bennett, president and founder of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, made a $100,000 donation towards the coalition’s Syrian refugee efforts.
“It is an imperative of Judaism to not stand by idly in the face of a humanitarian nightmare of this magnitude,” Bennett, a child of Holocaust survivors, said in a statement.
Organizations who are part of the Jewish Coalition for Syrian Refugees in Jordan include the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Anti-Defamation League, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Jewish Federations of North America, Mazon, Rabbinical Assembly, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Union for Reform Judaism, United Synagogue Conservative Judaism, Ve’ahavta, World Jewish Congress, and World Jewish Relief.
“As the Coalition continues its critical efforts to care for these refugees, broader Jewish community and other faith group support reinforces the notion that we cannot turn away from one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time, in the midst of a dangerous and complex ongoing civil war,” Alan H. Gill, CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, said in a statement.
Donations to the coalition can be made at http://www.jcdr.org/.
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Concern for Egypt Coptic Christians grows amid country’s bloodiest day since revolution
(JNS.org) Concern for Egypt’s beleaguered Coptic Christian community grew on Wednesday amid the country’s bloodiest day since the beginning of the Egyptian Revolution in early 2011.
According to the Egyptian Health Ministry, at least 211 people were killed during military raids of protest camps staged by the Muslim Brotherhood. The protesters supported the restoration of Mohamed Morsi as president.
Egyptian Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said that pro-Morsi protesters built fortifications and fired at police, BBC reported. Ibrahim also said armed gangs had infiltrated the protest sites.
“I regret the killing and bloodshed of even one single human being but I don’t see any other options for the Egyptian security forces,” said Halim Meawad, co-founder of Coptic Solidarity, a U.S.-based international Coptic Christian human rights organization.
“The Brotherhood does not mind the killing of a few hundreds or thousands so it can cry wolf and play the role of the victim,” Meawad added.
According to reports, pro-Morsi supporters torched three Coptic churches in central Egypt on Wednesday. Assailants threw firebombs at Mar Gergiss Church in Sohag, AFP reported.
The Coptic Church backed the removal of Morsi from power. Coptic Pope Tawadros II appeared alongside Egypt’s General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi during the announcement of Morsi’s removal on July 3.
Meanwhile, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) expressed concern for Egypt Coptic Christians amid the ongoing violence.
“Organized violence against Egypt’s Copts, the murder of innocents and destruction of churches, is outrageous and unforgivable,” said Jason Isaacson, AJC’s director of government and international affairs, who last visited Egypt in April.
“Lost in much of the reporting on the polarization and violence in Egypt is the apparent targeting of Copts and their institutions by followers of Mohamed Morsi, the ousted president,” Isaacson said in a statement. “In the absence of Muslim Brotherhood restraint on these elements, it is imperative that Egyptian authorities step up efforts to ensure the safety of the Christian Coptic community.”
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Families of terrorism victims, opposing U.S. role in prisoner release, write open letter to Kerry
(JNS.org) Families of terrorism victims have written an open letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to express their outrage over the U.S. government’s role in pushing Israel to release 104 Palestinian terrorist prisoners, 26 of whom were released Tuesday, as part of a goodwill gesture for Israeli-Palestinian conflict talks.
The open letter, signed by a group of 18 family members of terrorism victims who call themselves the Bereaved Families for Peace and Justice, explains to Kerry that Israelis already understand the necessary sacrifices for peace.
“We say to you… you will not find ordinary citizens anywhere, and certainly not in Israel, who are more convinced of the need for painful compromise and of bilateral concessions in the pursuit of peace than we are,” the letter says.
The letter adds, “We have paid an unbearably high price for this generations-long conflict. We know it must end. But the process of making it end cannot be built on a foundation of glorifying the bombers of restaurants and of buses and those who sent them.”
Yossi Zur—father of Asaf, an aspiring computer expert who at age 17 was one of 17 people killed in a 2003 Palestinian suicide bus bombing in Haifa—explained the group’s motivation behind the letter to Kerry.
“We wanted to ask [Kerry] why he pushed Israel to do what the U.S. would never do,” Yossi told JNS.org, referring to the prisoner release.
“We wanted him to see us face to face and hear firsthand what we think and how it feels to see your children’s murderer goes free,” Yossi added.
Meanwhile, the 26 Palestinians freed so far in the prisoner release, all of whom were convicted of either the murder of Israelis or accessory to commit murder, were greeted with celebration by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at a special ceremony at his compound in Ramallah.
“I hereby tell you that we will never rest until all prisoners are among us,” Abbas said, Ma’an News Agency reported.
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Polish Jews who recently discovered their roots arrive in Israel for first time
(JNS.org) Sixteen young Polish Jews arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a seminar by Shavei Israel, an organization that strives to connect individuals who have Jewish roots with the state of Israel. Most of the members of the group were raised Catholic, and only recently discovered that they are Jewish.
This marked the first visit to Israel for some in the group. In addition to sightseeing, they planned to learn about the laws of Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, and about the weekly Torah portion. They also planned to learn Hebrew.
“There is a growing thirst among young Poles with Jewish roots to learn more about their Jewish religious and cultural heritage. This awakening would have been unthinkable just 25 or 30 years ago, but since the downfall of Communism, an increasing number of Poles have sought to reclaim and affirm their Jewish identity,” Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund said in a statement.
About 4,000 people are officially registered as Jews in Poland, but many more people in the country may be either hiding their Jewish identity or unaware of it.
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Australian Maccabi coach convicted of sex abuse
(JNS.org) An Australian Maccabi coach of a basketball team was convicted and incarcerated Wednesday for sexually abusing four girls more than 10 years ago. The Australian Maccabi is a 9,000-member Jewish organization in Australia with 50 sports clubs.
Shannon Francis, who is not Jewish, was sentenced to eight years in prison and a minimum non-parole period of five-and-a-half years. He had pleaded guilty earlier this year on the four charges, including one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16.
“Maccabi and its member clubs have never and will never condone or seek to protect their own interests in any case of suspected criminality, especially one involving harm to children,” Maccabi Australia President Lisa Borowick said in a statement, according to Haaretz.
The case of Francis “highlights the fact that the scourge of child sexual abuse is not confined to one specific segment of the Jewish community,” said Manny Waks, the founder of Tzedek, an organization for victims and survivors of Jewish child sex abuse in Australia.
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EU pre-1967 lines boycott condemned by new Arab Christian party leader
(JNS.org) The leader of the new Israeli Arab Christian party believes that the latest efforts by the European Union (EU) to boycott Israeli businesses and institutions in communities located beyond the pre-1967 lines is a mistake and will also harm Arab businesses.
“The boycott is a big mistake—it (the Israeli territory beyond the pre-1967 lines) is the livelihood for many, mainly Arabs in the West Bank,” Bishara Shlayan told the Jerusalem Post.
In July, the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, issued the new guidelines to EU member states for giving grants, awards or loans to Israeli entities operating beyond the pre-1967 lines. The EU is also looking to separately label goods from beyond the pre-1967 lines. Shlayan believes Israel should build more universities and businesses in Judea and Samaria because that activity leads to employment for Arabs living there.
Shlayan also wants to build a statue of Jesus in Nazareth, both Shlayan’s hometown and the traditional boyhood home of Jesus, according to Christian scriptures. He wants the statue to be like the famous “Christ the Redeemer” statue in Rio de Janeiro, according to the Jerusalem Post.
“Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and the only one that protects Christians and holy places,” Shlayan said.
Shlayan made headlines last month with the announcement of the creation of his new Arab Christian political party. The party, which is still being organized, is seeking to help Israeli Arab Christians forge their own identity, apart from Arab Muslims. The announcement of the party’s formation came amid the backdrop of tension within Israel’s Arab community over enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was recently revealed that Arab Christian enlistment in the IDF has tripled over the past year.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org