Russia’s Syria chemical weapons plan draws skepticism from Israel
(JNS.org) Israeli officials reacted with skepticism to the plan proposed by Russia on Monday to transfer Syria’s chemical weapons to international supervision.
Army Radio reported that Israeli leaders believe the proposed deal by Russia, Syria’s ally, should be approached with caution because it may be a manipulative tactic meant only to avert a U.S. strike. The deal—which Russia proposed after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested, in comments later described by the State Department as “rhetorical,” that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could avoid a military strike by surrendering his chemical weapons—does not punish Syria for using chemical weapons against civilians.
Israeli President Shimon Peres warned that the Syrians, who welcomed the Russian proposal, have “proved they are not credible and that their integrity should not be trusted.” Member of Knesset Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) stressed that the details of the Russian proposal are unclear, and that Israel should remain uninvolved in the Syrian civil war.
“Assad must understand that he and his associates will become a legitimate target, if he drags Israel into the conflict,” Lieberman said.
A senior Israeli diplomatic official told Army Radio regarding the Russian proposal that it is “not yet time to pop the champagne.”
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Holocaust video game to be released next year
(JNS.org) A developer who in 2008 created a video game based on the Holocaust that was rejected by Nintendo said he will raise funds online and release the game for smartphone users next year.
Luc Bernard, 26, designed a game called “Imagination is the Only Escape” about a Jewish boy named Samuel, who in France in 1942 hides in the forest and creates a fantasy world to escape the deportation to death camps transpiring around him. Most of the game takes place inside Samuel’s fantasy world, and “every time reality comes back, it sort of just slaps you in the face,” Bernard said.
Bernard’s mother is Jewish, and his British grandmother took care of Jewish orphans after the war, the New York Times reported. Nintendo originally rejected the game, deeming it unfit for children, but the goal of the game was to inspire children to learn about the Holocaust, Bernard said, according to the World Jewish Congress.
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U.S.-Israel missile test rebuked by Russia
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov summoned the Israeli and American military attaches in Moscow to rebuke them for last week’s U.S.-Israel missile test, voicing his displeasure with the fact that Israel and the U.S. did not notify Russia about the test, the news agency RIA Novosti reported.
“I don’t completely understand how someone could play with arms and missiles in that region today,” Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said during a press conference.
Israel’s Homa Administration in the Defense Ministry’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (MAFAT), in cooperation with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, last week successfully tested the Sparrow target missile used in anti-missile defense systems.
Regarding Russia’s rebuke of the test, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said it “refuses to comment on internal dialogue over military diplomatic channels.”
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Washington-Idaho line ad from StandWithUs counters call to end U.S. aid to Israel
(JNS.org) A billboard initiated by the pro-Israel education group StandWithUs went up Sept. 10 on the Washington-Idaho state line and will be posted for one month, countering an advertisement that calls for an end to U.S. aid to Israel.
The pro-Israel billboard on the border of the cities of Spokane (Washington) and Coeur d’Alene (Idaho), organized by StandWithUs in partnership with the Spokane Coalition for Israel, includes the text “America & Israel. Shared Values—Defending Freedom.” The anti-Israel ad, erected by Spokane Veterans for Peace (SVP), leaves out “context and pertinent facts,” StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein said.
“The U.S.-Israel military agreement is for $3 billion per year, with 75 percent earmarked for defense contracts with American manufacturers, creating hundreds of thousands of American jobs across 47 states,” Rothstein said in a statement.
SVP’s ad also “ignores the fact that many countries receive U.S. aid, not just Israel,” according to Rothstein, who noted the $87 billion in aid that has gone to Jordan and Egypt since 1946 as well as “$250 billion a year for American soldiers to protect allies around the world such as Germany, Japan and South Korea.”
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