Iran nuclear program has seen hundredfold increase in centrifuges since 2006, Netanyahu says
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, commenting during his Sunday cabinet meeting on last week’s nuclear talks in Geneva, noted that the Iran nuclear program has seen more than a hundredfold increase in centrifuges since 2006.
“We must not forget that the Iranian regime has systematically misled the international community,” Netanyahu said. “In 2006, Iran had 167 centrifuges. Today, despite all the bans and all the promises, they have over 18,000 centrifuges, i.e., the number of centrifuges has increased over a hundredfold during the talks in which they have been called upon to halt the production of centrifuges related to enrichment.”
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Series of earthquakes shakes northern Israel
(JNS.org) Two 3.6-magnitude earthquakes struck the northern Israeli city of Tiberias on Sunday, just four hours apart. The Geophysical Institute of Israel said that the epicenter of the earthquakes was on the northeast side of the Sea of Galilee. The tremors were felt most strongly in Tiberias, Hazor, Safed, and the village of Majar.
While no injuries or damage were reported as a result of the earthquakes, their proximity to two previous tremors that rattled the same area last week has sparked concern among residents of northern Israel. But Dr. Uri Frieslander, director of the Geophysical Institute of Israel, said the earthquakes do not “indicate anything about the future.”
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Ambassador Michael Oren joins prestigious Israel school
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Dr. Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. between 2009 and 2013, has accepted a faculty position at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya’s Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, the college announced Monday.
The IDC Herzliya is a private Israeli institution modeled after the Ivy League universities of the U.S. Its annual Herzliya Conference is often the forum in which Israeli leaders make key policy addresses. Oren, who completed his tenure as Israel’s envoy several weeks ago, has a doctorate in Middle East history from Princeton University and was a guest lecturer at Harvard and Yale universities before becoming a diplomat.
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Family of Yad Vashem’s first Arab honoree rejects prize for saving Jews
(JNS.org) The family of Egyptian physician Dr. Mohamed Helmy, the first Arab to receive Yad Vashem’s “Righteous Among the Nations” designation recognizing non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews, has rejected the honor.
In Germany, Helmy helped 21-year-old Anna Boros (later Gutman), his family friend, avoid Nazi deportations. He also helped save Gutman’s mother, stepfather, and grandmother. Yad Vashem was to honor him posthumously.
“If any other country offered to honor Helmy, we would have been happy with it,” Mervat Hassan, the wife of Helmy’s great-nephew, told The Associated Press.
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Hamas prime minister calls for new Palestinian intifada
(JNS.org) Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, speaking Sunday to mark the second anniversary of the deal in which the Gaza-based Palestinian terror organization received more than 1,000 prisoners from Israel in exchange for captive Gilad Shalit, called for a new Palestinian intifada. Haniyeh also praised recent terror attacks on Israel in Judea and Samaria.
“We send our blessings from Gaza to our brothers in the West Bank who carried out the recent attacks against the occupier,” Haniyeh said. “Our heroic brothers in the West Bank must rise up, resume armed resistance against the occupier and embark on a popular uprising on the streets of the West Bank.”
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Saudi Arabia refuses seat on UN Security Council in unprecedented move
(JNS.org) In an unprecedented move, Saudi Arabia has refused to accept its election to a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
As its reasons for the refusal, Saudi Arabia cited the Security Council’s failure to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, to end the Syrian civil war, and to stop nuclear proliferation in the region, Reuters reported.
The move comes despite Saudi Arabia’s lobbying for a seat on the Security Council for a number of years.
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Syrian civil war causes nearly one-third of country’s Christians to flee their homes
(JNS.org) According to a Syrian Christian leader, nearly one-third of Syria’s native Christians have fled their homes during the Syrian civil war.
Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Gregorios III Laham said that more than 450,000 Christians out of an estimated 1.75 million have been displaced or left the country since the Syrian civil war began in early 2011, the BBC reported.
Gregorios said the international community needs to do more to block the flow of weapons into Syria.
“We have to have a campaign together—no more weapons, no more violence, go together to a better new vision of life,” he said.
Preceding provided by JNS.org