Netanyahu to Obama: Pressure on Iran should not be lessened
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday, raising concerns about Iran’s nuclear program just days after Obama spoke to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on the phone, the first such interaction between U.S. and Iranian heads of state in 30 years.
Netanyahu said Iran’s “conciliatory words” have not been matched by “real action.”
“It is Israel’s firm belief that if Iran continues to advance its nuclear program during negotiations, the sanctions [against Iran] should be strengthened,” he said.
Obama stressed that the U.S. is taking “no options off the table, including military,” but needs “to test diplomacy.” Netanyahu said that if diplomacy is to work, “pressures” such as sanctions and the threat of military action “must be kept in place” and “should not be lessened until there is verifiable success.”
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Golden Dawn neo-Nazi party to be dismantled, Greek PM says
(JNS.org) Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras vowed to eliminate the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party just two days after his government began a widespread crackdown against the party. The Greek government also announced plans to present a bill targeting hate speech to parliament.
The Greek government had already arrested the Golden Dawn party head and other parliament members in the wake of the recent murder of popular singer Pavlos Fyssas by a member of the party. “They are a criminal group of people, who will be tried in a democratic manner,” Samaras said at an American Jewish Committee reception in his honor on Monday.
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No evidence for Obama claim of Iranian fatwa against nuclear weapons, MEMRI says
(JNS.org) There is no evidence documenting the claim by U.S. President Barack Obama that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a fatwa, or religious edict, against the development of nuclear weapons, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
“I do believe that there is a basis for resolution. Iran’s supreme leader has issued a fatwa against the development of nuclear weapons,” Obama said during a White House press conference on Sept. 27, following a call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
But MEMRI, in a report issued Sept. 30, said that it has never found evidence confirming the fatwa. MEMRI claims that the fatwa is an eight-year-old hoax perpetrated by Iranian diplomats and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In July, MEMRI issued a detailed list documenting 493 fatwas by Ayatollah Khamenei dating back to 2004.
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American Jewish population is 6.8 million, report says
(JNS.org) The Jewish population of the United States is 6.8 million, representing 2.2 percent of the country’s total population, a new report revealed.
According to the 2012 estimates of the Steinhardt Social Research Institute (SSRI) at Brandeis University, 24 percent of American Jews are 65 or older. More than 20 percent reside in the state of New York, followed by 14 percent in California, 12 percent in Florida, 8 percent in New Jersey, and 5 percent each in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. More than 80 percent of U.S. Jews identify as Jewish by religion, and the rest by other criteria such as background, the report said.
Prof. Leonard Saxe, SSRI’s director and the new report’s co-author, had estimated in December 2011 that the U.S. Jewish population was 6.4 million.
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Syria strike by France put on hold by Obama, report says
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) French President François Hollande canceled an airstrike against Syrian targets scheduled for Aug. 31 at the last minute following a phone call from U.S. President Barack Obama, the French weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur reported on Sunday.
According to the report, Hollande was “shocked” when Obama informed him that he intended to seek Congressional approval for the strike and requested that Hollande cancel the military campaign only a few hours before French jets were set to take off. The mission was reportedly planned by the French and U.S. presidents immediately following the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria.
“Everything led us to believe that the big day had arrived,” a French official told Le Nouvel Observateur.
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Israel warned Kenya of possible terror attack ahead of Nairobi mall shooting
(JNS.org) Israel was among several countries that warned Kenya that it was at risk for a major terror attack before the Nairobi mall shooting took place Sept. 21, according to intelligence reports that were leaked to Kenyan newspapers.
“Israel had warned of attacks on their business interests but apart from just being tossed from one office to another, nothing was taken out of the intelligence reports,” said one anonymous Kenyan official, AFP reported.
In particular, the Westgate mall—site of the recent terror attack by Somalia’s al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabab group that killed at least 67 people—was cited as a prime target due to the number of Israeli-owned businesses located there.
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Oslo Accords debate continues at Los Angeles conference
(JNS.org) LOS ANGELES—The debate on the merits of the Oslo Accords, whose 20th anniversary passed in mid-September, continued at a Sept. 29 conference in Los Angeles.
Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes said at the “Oslo @ Twenty” conference, organized by the American Freedom Alliance, that Israel’s key mistake was the mindset indicated by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s statement, “One does not make peace with one’s friends. One makes peace with one’s enemy.”
“One cannot ‘make peace with one’s enemy,’” Pipes said. “Rather, one makes peace with one’s former enemy.” The Palestinians “were never defeated,” and if both sides in a conflict have aspirations to win, the conflict continues, he explained.
Israel “owns peace” as the party in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that can both control its army and deliver peace, yet acted as the buyer in the Oslo Accords even though the Palestinians had no peace to sell, said David Suissa, president of the Tribe Media Corporation. Suissa’s take differed from the one offered by Bret Stephens, deputy editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal, who said peace “is in the hands of the Arab world to give.”
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Anti-Christian violence spurs CUFI support of bill to create U.S. envoy for religious minorities
(JNS.org) In response to the rising tide of global anti-Christian violence, Christians United for Israel (CUFI) is supporting H.R.301, legislation that would direct the U.S. president to appoint a “Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia” within the State Department.
“CUFI is deeply concerned about Christian communities that have been targeted for attack,” David Brog, executive director of CUFI, told JNS.org. “They are collapsing. This is a human rights crisis, a humanitarian disaster of the first order—yet the world is largely not paying attention.”
H.R.301, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), passed in the House of Representatives in a 402-22 vote on Sept. 18, and is currently under review in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
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‘Amazing Race’ gets an Israeli spin in the Boston area
(JNS.org) A large number of young professionals, college students, and children in the Boston area will convene on Oct. 6 for the sixth annual Amazing Israel Race, an Israel-themed scavenger hunt for local Jewish landmarks put together by Combined Jewish Philanthropies and the Consulate General of Israel to New England.
An all-day event which this year takes place in Brookline, Mass., the Amazing Israel Race, whose name derives from the popular reality television show, starts with a power lunch and a chance for participants to meet like-minded area Jews.
“The Amazing Israel Race is a great way for college students, families, and everyone who loves Israel to publicly celebrate that connection in a fun and engaging way,” said Matt Hoffman, whose group, Israel Campus Roundtable, is also helping to organize the event.
First-place winners receive an $800 stipend towards a flight to Israel, and second-place winners get a year’s worth of free hummus.
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U.N. inspectors: Nov. 1 deadline for ending Syria chemical weapons manufacturing capacity
(JNS.org) United Nations inspectors who will oversee the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons say that their first priority will be ending Syria’s capacity to manufacture weapons by Nov. 1.
On Sept. 27, the U.N. Security Council ordered the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to destroy Syria’s arsenal by mid-2014 by any means possible. But some experts are skeptical that the weapons can be destroyed in accordance with that timetable. Adding to the complications, the Syrian government is responsible for giving U.N. inspectors access to the chemical sites, some of which may be near rebel-held areas.
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Palestinian borders drawn by ‘blood of martyrs,’ Fatah says on Facebook
(JNS.org) During renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations, the Fatah party posted on one of its official Facebook pages that Palestinian borders are drawn by “the blood of martyrs,” referring to suicide bombers whose attacks have killed Israelis, Palestinian Media Watch reported Sept. 29.
“My homeland taught me that it is the blood of martyrs that draws the borders of the homeland,” read the Aug. 26 Facebook post, which included a picture of a man holding a rifle.
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Anne Frank diary is as relevant as ever, Peres says
(JNS.org) Israeli President Shimon Peres said he believes Anne Frank’s diary is as relevant as ever.
On a recent visit to the Anne Frank Museum in the Netherlands, Peres saw parallels between ongoing modern-day horrors, such as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s gassing of civilians, and how Jews and others were murdered during the Holocaust.
“Anne Frank’s warning sign is in front of our eyes today too,” Peres said in a statement about his visit, the Times of Israel reported. “I doubt if Assad read Anne Frank’s diary since he didn’t hesitate to use chemical weapons and murder innocent women and children.”
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Iranian network: CNN mistranslated Rouhani Holocaust remarks
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An Iranian news agency questioned the translation of a CNN interview with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in which he was asked to speak about the Holocaust.
“I have said before that I am not a historian. And that when it comes to speaking of the dimensions of the Holocaust it is the historians that should reflect on it. But in general I can tell you that any crime that happens in history against humanity including the crime the Nazis created towards the Jews is reprehensible and condemnable,” Rouhani said, according to the CNN translation.
But the semi-official Iranian news agency Fars says CNN mistranslated the interview, stating that Rouhani actually spoke in a different tone and did not even use the word “Holocaust.”
“I have said before that I am not a historian and historians should specify, state and explain the aspects of historical events,” the Iranian outlet claimed Rouhani said. “But generally we fully condemn any kind of crime committed against humanity throughout the history, including the crime committed by the Nazis both against the Jews and non-Jews.”
An independent translation by the Wall Street Journal said “Fars, not CNN, got the Farsi right.”
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Revoke prisoner release, 28 MKs tell Netanyahu
(JNS.org) Twenty-eight members of Israeli Knesset, among them seven deputy ministers, last week called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the planned release of terrorists to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as part of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations process.
Habayit Hayehudi faction chairwoman Ayelet Shaked spearheaded the request, writing a letter that was signed by MKs from Habayit Hayehudi, deputy ministers and MKs from Likud, and MKs from United Torah Judaism and Shas.
“It doesn’t make sense that a country that sanctifies life would release murderers who, amid negotiations, continue to commit acts of terror,” said the letter, Israel Hayom reported.
The letter refers to the deal Jerusalem signed with the PA in July, which secured the release of 104 Palestinians who were charged with acts of terrorism and sentenced to jail in Israel.. Israel has so far released 26 terrorists.
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State Department photo lists ‘Palestine’ as official country
(JNS.org) A photo posted on the U.S. State Department’s new Instagram account last week lists “Palestine” as an official country.
In the photo, which featured hundreds of flags the State Department said related to meetings surrounding the U.N. General Assembly in New York, one flag case had “Palestine” written on the outside, with the Palestinian flag clearly visible inside.
A commenter on the Instagram page asks, “State Department, have you noticed that one of the cases says Palestine? Is that official U.S. policy?” The State Department did not return a request for comment from JNS.org.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org