Temple Mount violence continues as Arab stone throwers attack Israeli police
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli police were attacked Wednesday morning during a patrol of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The latest attack at the holy site follows the arrest of about 30 Arabs over Rosh Hashanah weekend for riots that broke out in and around the Temple Mount compound on Sept. 4 and Sept. 6.
The police arrived for the patrol after receiving intelligence indicating the possibility of a stone-throwing attack from one of the mosques at the holy site, Israel National News reported. The patrolling police force was attacked precisely in the way predicted by the intelligence report.
The police dispersed several dozen Arab youths who were throwing stones and rioting, while others ran into a nearby mosque. Three police officers were injured in the clash. Two were treated on the spot and a third was evacuated for further treatment.
Police arrested two of the rioters on suspicion of public disorder, and a third person on suspicion of inciting public disorder.
*
Hezbollah, at conference supporting Syria, calls for attack on Israel
(JNS.org) Hezbollah pledged its support for the government of Syria on Monday at a conference in Beirut centered on opposition to U.S military action on Syrian soil, and called for support of a military attack against Israel on behalf of the Palestinians. Hezbollah added that it would never “surrender” in its battle with the Jewish state.
“Syria, as a people and leadership, will survive and we are with regardless of the circumstances so that it can withstand and come out of this crisis,” said Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, according to Al Bawaba News.
Qassem said Hezbollah—which has been criticized by the Palestinian terror group Hamas for its military engagement in Syria, since that engagement distracts from fighting Israel—is “proud to be in the axis that includes Iran, Syria, and the resistance groups in Lebanon and Palestine.”
Calling the “systematic destruction” of Syria a sin, Qassem said it was up to the Syrian people to resolve their domestic crisis. Syria is no place for intrusion by “the axis of the great Satan (the United States) and its pet Israel,” he said.
A U.S. strike on Syria is on indefinite hold after a Russian-American deal was reached to transfer Syrian chemical weapons to international control.
*
Anti-Semitism a keystone of Belgian primary school curriculums, report says
(JNS.org) The Belgian Ministry of Education has been supplying primary school teachers with anti-Semitic material through the state-funded Special Committee for Remembrance Education, which provides teachers with ready-made templates for their history lessons, the Gatestone Institute reported Sept. 16.
The teaching material includes cartoons like “Never Again, Over Again” from political cartoonist Carlos Latuff, who is known for anti-Semitic, pro-Palestinian motifs in his artwork. The cartoon, taught at to schoolchildren ages 6 -12, equates Palestinians to the Jews under Nazi tyranny.
The educational material also includes a “role play” in which children are given a role as either a Palestinian or an Israeli. The Israelis are almost always depicted negatively, with the exception of an Israeli character with many Palestinian friends.
“You have sympathy for the radical group Hamas. You live in Gaza and go to work every day in Israel… the death of a Palestinian girl shot by Israeli soldiers in the school playground has shocked you deeply. Israel denies having shot the children, but according to representatives of the United Nations in Gaza everything indicates that she was killed by the Israelis,” describes the Palestinian cue in the role-play exercise.
Belgium’s Special Committee for Remembrance Education curriculum also does not include information on Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East, according to the Gatestone Institute.
*
Israeli life expectacy growing, new data shows
(JNS.org) Israeli life expectancy rose by more than two years per person over the past decade, to 83.6 years for women and 79.9 years for men, according to data released Monday by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
In the past four decades, female life expectancy in Israel rose by 8.9 years, and male life expectancy rose by 8.7 years. As of 2011, Israel has been fourth in the world for life expectancy, tied with Sweden, among states belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
According to the data, more than 28 percent of Israelis are under the age of 14. In 2012, the median age for Israelis was 29.6 years, Haaretz reported.
*
Tottenham Hotspur soccer fans can use ‘Yid,’ U.K. PM Cameron says
(JNS.org) British Prime Minister David Cameron said that fans of London’s Tottenham Hotspur soccer club should not be prosecuted for chanting the word “Yid” because their use of the word was not motivated by hate. His view contradicts that of the English Football Association and Jewish groups, who claim the term is offensive.
Fans of the soccer club, which is commonly known as the Spurs, often use the word “Yid” to describe themselves and sometimes call themselves the Yid Army. Just days ago, during Yom Kippur, Spurs fans chanted “We’re Tottenham Hotspur, we’ll sing what we want” during a Premier League match and applauded players with the chant “Yiddo.”
“There’s a difference between Spurs fans self-describing themselves as Yids and someone calling someone a Yid as an insult. You have to be motivated by hate. Hate speech should be prosecuted—but only when it’s motivated by hate,” Cameron told the London Jewish Chronicle.
*
Netanyahu and Obama to meet in Washington in late September
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 30 during Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S., as part of the opening of this year’s United Nations General Assembly.
Among the likely topics the two leaders will discuss will be the Syrian civil war, instability in Egypt, the Iran nuclear program, and U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian conflict talks.
Addressing his cabinet on Tuesday, Netanyahu said that he would continue to increase pressure on Iran.
“I intend to focus on the question of stopping Iran’s nuclear program—an actual halt to the nuclear program. And until this is achieved, the pressure on Iran should be intensified and not eased,” Netanyahu said, Reuters reported.
The two leaders did not meet last year at the U.N., with some pundits accusing Obama of snubbing Netanyahu amid the run-up to the U.S. presidential election. But the two leaders met during Obama’s trip to Israel in March 2013, shortly after Netanyahu was re-elected as prime minister.
*
Syrian civil war rebels are nearly half jihadist or Islamist, report says
(JNS.org) Nearly half of the Syrian civil war’s rebel fighters are aligned with jihadist or hardline Islamist groups, a new report says.
According to an advance copy of defense consulting service IHS Jane’s report, a copy of which was obtained by The Telegraph, opposition forces in Syria now number around 100,000 fighters, including an estimated 10,000 jihadists comprised of foreign fighters for groups linked to Al-Qaeda. Another 30,000 to 50,000 Syrian rebels are hardline Islamists who share the radical ideology of the jihadists, but are more focused on the Syrian civil war than on wider global jihad.
“The insurgency is now dominated by groups which have at least an Islamist viewpoint on the conflict. The idea that it is mostly secular groups leading the opposition is just not borne out,” Charles Lister, one of the report’s analysts, told The Telegraph.
The report lists two jihadist groups connected to Al-Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, who wish to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and replace it with an Islamic caliphate. These jihadist groups have also begun attacking moderate and secular rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army.
The report’s findings are at odds with U.S. and British intelligence, which put the number of jihadist and Islamist rebels at one-third or less of the total opposition forces. The report is also likely to fuel more concerns about Western support for Syrian civil war rebel groups in their fight against the Syrian government.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org