Hadassah medical staff to operate on emergency levels only amid strike
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Medical staffers at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem are intensifying their strike and announced that they will operate at emergency levels only, with even less staff coming to work than the current weekend capacity.
“We are leaving only life-saving staff in place. Those who want the strikes to stop need to pay salaries. This is withholding our salary and is a precedent. If someone wants to pay half a salary, then we will do half the work, no one here is hesitating to strike,” Israeli National Nurses Union Chairwoman Ilana Cohen said.
Some patients have rallied behind the striking nurses and doctors. “My heart goes out to the doctors at Hadassah. They have nothing to do with the administrative failure, they are the heart of the system,” patient Reuven Carmel said.
The Jerusalem-based Hadassah Medical Organization that is now facing a financial crisis includes two hospitals—Hadassah Mount Scopus and Hadassah Ein Kerem—as well as various other medical institutions.
Hadassah is currently 1.3 billion shekels ($370 million) in debt and has been struggling to meet payments to both creditors and staff. A recovery plan introduced over the past few years has failed, and administrators at the financially strapped center have warned its collapse is imminent. Jerusalem District Court Judge David Mintz ruled Tuesday in favor of the hospital administration’s plea to freeze creditor proceedings against Hadassah for 90 days, to allow for a recovery plan.
*
Jonathan Pollard’s release advocated by former U.S. Senate intelligence chair
(JNS.org) David Durenberger, a Republican U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1978-95 and the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence when Jonathan Pollard was convicted of passing classified information to Israel, in a recent letter to President Barack Obama called Pollard’s life sentence “uncalled for.”
Pollard, now in his 29th year in prison, is the only person in U.S. history to receive a life sentence for spying for an American ally.
“Of course Pollard broke the law and his conviction was deserved,” Durenberger wrote. “But the harshness of his sentence, in light of existing relations between our countries and the nature of our observation of implicit agreements between the countries, was uncalled for.”
Other officials in the intelligence community and elsewhere who have called for Pollard’s release include former Secretary of State George Shultz; William Webster, head of the FBI at the time of Pollard’s arrest; former U.S. Rep. Lee Hamilton, who served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee at the time of Pollard’s sentencing; former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb; former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, who served under President Ronald Reagan when Pollard was investigated; and former CIA Director James Woolsey.
“The fact that no president has chosen to take the action which I, and many of my former colleagues and associates in government, request that you take, Mr. President, does not reflect well on the office,” Durenberger wrote to Obama. “I believe in my heart that you have the capacity to right this wrong. And I respectfully request that you do so at your early convenience.”
*
Israel Aerospace Industries unveils new Super Heron drone at Singapore Airshow
(JNS.org) Israel Aerospace Industries unveiled its new Super Heron drone on Tuesday at the 2014 Singapore Airshow.
The heavy version of the Super Heron can remain airborne for 24 hours while its light version can fly for up to 48 hours. It is still undetermined at what point the new drone will enter service in the Israeli Air Force.
“Israel’s presence here [at the Singapore Airshow] is proof of it being a superpower in this field,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said, Israel Hayom reported.
*
PA official: We want control of all parts of Jerusalem that Israel won in 1967
(JNS.org) A top Palestinian Authority (PA) official said that the PA wants control of all the areas in Jerusalem that were won by Israeli during the 1967 Six-Day War, including the Western Wall.
Minister of Holy Places for the PA Mahmoud al-Habbash told Israel’s Channel 10 network that “there will be no peace until the end of the Israeli occupation that began in 1967. Every piece of land that Israel conquered then belongs to the Palestinians.” That includes Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Western Wall, al-Habbash said.
Al-Habbash added that if the Western Wall was under PA control, Jews would be welcome to pray freely at the site. “There will be no limitations on freedom of religion and worship. Religious ceremonies are one thing, and politics are another,” he said.
Currently, Jews already facing obstacles when they want to visit religious sites such as the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem and the Tomb of Joshua in Kifl Hares.
Abu-Ala—the PA’s Jerusalem minister—also spoke to the Israeli news channel, saying, “Given the intensity with which the Americans are approaching [the Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations they are currently brokering], there will probably be undesirable consequences if the talks fail.”
*
Existing Iran sanctions supported by French president and Obama
(JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the United States and France agree that existing sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program must continue to be enforced. At the same time, a mounting bipartisan effort is working to block efforts in the Senate and House to place additional sanctions on Iran.
“President Hollande and I agree on the need to continue enforcing existing sanctions even as we believe that new sanctions during these negotiations would endanger the possibility of a diplomatic solution,” Obama said in a joint news conference with French President Francois Hollande.
“And we remain absolutely united in our ultimate goal, which is preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Obama said,Reuters reported. Hollande is on a state visit to the U.S.
Meanwhile, a letter drafted by U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and David Price (D-NC), which mirrors the White House stance by opposing new Iran sanctions, has recently circulated on Capitol Hill. The letter was signed by more than 90 members of the House, including several Republicans.
Signatories to the letter also include Jewish members of Congress with known pro-Israel voting records. U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) was one of the leaders in the effort. U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) also signed the letter, according to his communications director. Yarmuth had been a vocal opponent of additional Iran sanctions even before the P5+1 agreement with Iran went into effect late last year.
According to the office of Price, organizations like J Street, Ploughshares, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Win Without War, and Americans for Peace Now are among those mobilizing their supporters in favor of the letter and against harsher Iran sanctions in general.
“A large number of House Democrats are unified against actions that could undermine diplomacy. Negotiations with Iran are complex and we may not reach a final agreement in exactly six months, but we’re the closest we’ve ever been to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a Muslim legislator whose office is rumored to have helped circulate the letter to other offices, told JNS.org.
*
Christian IDF recruitment hits all-time high
(JNS.org) The number of Christians enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces hit an all-time high in 2013.
According to the IDF, in the second half of 2013, 84 Christian recruits signed up, more than three times the average to date. It is estimated that 300 Christians are serving in the Israeli military now, the highest total ever, Haaretz reported.
The rise in Christians in the IDF, who like other minority groups are not drafted like Israeli Jews, comes amid a push by Israeli Christian leaders to separate from Israel’s Arab Muslim community and forge their own identity.
Led by the Christian IDF Officers Forum, many Israeli Christians see military service as a means to integrate into Israeli society.
*
Arab MK Zoabi accused of using ‘mafia-style’ tactics against Christians in removal request
(JNS.org) Israeli Christian leader Shadi Halul of the Christian IDF Officers Forum, a group that promotes Christian recruitment and integration into the Israeli military, has filed a request with the Israeli Attorney General’s Office asking for the removal of Arab-Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi.
Last week during a Knesset meeting on efforts to legally differentiate Christians as a separate minority group from Arabs, Zoabi, who has a long history of anti-Israel actions despite serving in the Knesset, was ejected from the hearing for suggesting that Halul deserves to be attacked.
“You are a coward! Go to the streets of Nazareth and Kfar Kana, say what you just said, and they’ll give you the response you deserve,” Zoabi said during the meeting.
“With regret, I have to say that MK Zoabi did not express herself during the Knesset session with the decorum appropriate for a Knesset member, but rather that of a member of an organized crime ring,” Halul’s Attorney Uri Shenhar wrote in the request.
Zoabi, who is one of 12 Arabs in the Israeli Knesset, has had a controversial political career. She has been an outspoken opponent of Israel and participated in the 2010 Gaza flotilla. She also ran for mayor of Nazareth in late 2013, losing to the long-time Christian incumbent Ramiz Jaraisi.
*
Syrian suicide terrorism a growing threat to Israel and the West, report says
(JNS.org) A rise in suicide terrorism carried out by Islamic extremists in the Syrian civil war is a growing threat to Israel and the West, a new report by the Tel-Aviv-based Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center says.
According the report, this style of suicide terrorism in Syria was copied from similar al-Qaeda-style attacks in Iraq and elsewhere. The two groups behind the attacks in Syria are Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, who combined for 43 suicide attacks in 2013.
“This is the first study of its kind in the world that studies the use of suicide bombing in Syria as a modus operandi,” Dr. Reuven Erlich, head of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, told The Jerusalem Post.
“It’s relevant to the security of the West. This is not merely a theoretical study,” he added.
The report noted that suicide terror attacks have also spread to Lebanon in 2014, targeting Hezbollah, the Lebanese terror group supporting the Syrian government, and the Shi’a Muslim community there.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org