JNS news briefs: July 16, 2014

Palestinians continue to receive medical care in Israel
(JNS.org) Even as Gaza-based terrorists continue to fire rockets at Israel, Palestinian children are receiving medical care at the Edith Wolfson Medical Center in the central Israeli city of Holon.

On Tuesday, as on every Tuesday for the past 18 years, children from Gaza and the West Bank arrived at the hospital for routine medical checks as part of the Israeli-based international humanitarian project Save a Child’s Heart, which provides life-saving medical care for children born with heart defects.

“In our experience, there has never been a situation where the children did not come here,” Dr. Alona Raucher, a senior cardiologist at the hospital, told Israel Hayom. “We know how to separate outside circumstances from medicine and saving lives.”

On Tuesday, newborn Abdul Rahman Wahdan and his grandmother, Maliha Khateb, left Wolfson to return to their home in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

Abdul came to the hospital less than a month ago, when he was only 11 days old. He was suffering from a severe heart defect and was operated on in Israel.

“I appreciate and respect the treatment we received here,” Khateb said. “We did not face any discrimination. I don’t care what they will say in Gaza, I saw the reality here.”
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Israel deploys 9th Iron Dome battery
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israeli Defense Ministry completed the deployment of the Iron Dome missile defense system’s ninth battery on Tuesday.

The seventh Iron Dome battery was assembled and deployed at the start of Israel’s ongoing Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Last Friday, the eighth battery was transferred to the Israeli Air Force several months ahead of schedule. The eighth and ninth batteries have been deployed to deal with rocket fire from Gaza, which has reached further into Israel than ever before.

During Operation Protective Edge so far, the Iron Dome has had a 90-percent interception rate, compared with an 84-percent success rate during Israel’s November 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza.
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Netanyahu dismisses Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon on Tuesday evening after Danon labeled the Israeli Diplomatic-Security Cabinet’s decision to pursue a cease-fire deal with Hamas a “strategic mistake.”

“It is inconceivable that the deputy defense minister would attack the country’s leadership in such a blunt manner as it conducts a military campaign. … Such grave statements by the deputy defense minister show gross irresponsibility, especially given his role in the government, and can be used by Hamas to undermine the Israeli government, as clearly indicated by [Hamas] media broadcasts,” Netanyahu said.

Danon, who remains a Knesset member for the Likud party, said Netanyahu “cannot accept the fact that others in the Likud don’t share his opinions.”

“I will not sell out my ideological beliefs for the sake of holding office,” he said.
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Iranian minister hints that nuclear talks may be extended
(JNS.org) Iran’s foreign minister suggested that talks over his country’s nuclear program may be extended beyond the July 20 deadline imposed as part of last year’s interim deal.

“We have made enough headway to be able to tell our bosses back home, all of them, that this is a process worth continuing,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, AFPreported. “This is my recommendation and I’m sure [U.S.] Secretary [of State John] Kerry will make the same recommendation.”

“I am returning today to Washington to discuss with President Obama and leaders in Congress over the coming days about the prospects for a comprehensive agreement as well as the path forward if we do not achieve one by July 20,” Kerry said.

The U.S. says Iran must significantly reduce the amount of centrifuges it operates in order to eliminate the possibility of “breakout” ability to enrich enough uranium for a nuclear weapon.

It is still unclear what type of enrichment capacity Iran seeks to retain. Last week, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Islamic Republic needs to significantly increase its uranium enrichment capacity to up to 190,000 centrifuges—10 times the amount the country is estimated to currently have.

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South African ANC party worker praises Hitler in post on Israel-Hamas conflict
(JNS.org) The social media manager of the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa’s Western Cape province is under fire for posting an anti-Semitic comment praising the Holocaust and lamenting that more Jews were not killed. The ANC is South Africa’s ruling party.

“Yes man, you were right!” Rene Smit posted next to an image of Adolf Hitler on Facebook. “I could have killed all the Jews, but I left some of them to tell you why I was killing them,” the post added.

Smit told the South Africa Times that she was protesting “the Israeli killing of innocent babies and women in the Gaza Strip.” She said she later “remorsefully removed [the post] immediately once I became aware that it is inappropriate and offensive.”

Marius Redelinghuys, the spokesperson of the Democratic Alliance, another political party in the country, called the post “not only anti-Semitic and hate speech, but can also be construed as an incitement to violence and is an insensitive insult to victims and survivors of the Holocaust.” Wendy Kahn, director of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, called on the ANC to “distance itself from such comments and say it would not work with that volunteer again,” reported The Guardian.

Cobus Grobler, a spokesman for the ANC in Western Cape, said that Smit is not an actual employee of the ANC but had assisted the party’s recent election campaign as a volunteer. “The ANC condemned the conflict on both sides. But the oppression of the people of Palestine is unacceptable,” he said.

Just last week, ANC’s deputy secretary-general, Jessie Duarte, also compared Israel’s attacks in Gaza to the atrocities committed by the Nazis.

“Israel is guilty; guilty of defending her citizens from the onslaught of hundreds of missiles, terrorist kidnappings, and murder. Israel is guilty of actually calling and texting Gaza civilians, used as human shields by Hamas terrorist thugs, urging innocents to evacuate buildings, before they are bombed. All freedom-loving people and opponents of terrorism should back Israel’s struggle and commitment to a two-state solution,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in response to Duarte’s comments.

“With this despicable attack, ANC is also guilty; guilty of desecrating the legacy of Nelson Mandela, the ultimate icon of a freedom fighter, whose integrity and heroism still inspires millions of people around the globe. Which ‘death camp’ or ‘open air prison’ boasts five star hotels? Gaza does. Who continued to supply Gaza with electricity and fuel despite thousands of terrorist launchings from Hamas-controlled territory? Whose hospitals treat the most critically ill Gazans in their hospitals? The very nation that the ANC denounces as ‘barbarians,’” Cooper added.

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Israeli man dies after being hit by Gaza mortar fire
(JNS.org) A 37-year-old Israeli man was killed Tuesday after being hit by mortar fire from Gaza near the Erez border crossing, marking the first fatality for the Jewish state since Operation Protective Edge began.

Dror Hanin, 37, was a civilian who had come to bring food and drinks to soldiers serving on the Gaza border. Hanin suffered severe injuries to his chest, and despite efforts to save his life, he was pronounced dead after arriving at Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. A friend who was standing beside him when the mortar struck was lightly injured.

Meanwhile, two Bedouin girls, ages 11 and 13, were seriously wounded from a rocket strike near the city of Beersheba. The girls are being treated at Beersheba’s Soroka Medical Center. An 81-year-old man in Beersheba and a 7-year-old boy in Ashdod were also injured in rocket attacks. In the Eshkol region, an Israeli soldier was lightly wounded by mortar fire, Israel Hayom reported.

Israel is continuing to endure rocket barrages launched from Gaza after the collapse of the cease-fire deal brokered by Egypt. Although Israel had halted all airstrikes for six hours after the 9 a.m. onset of the cease-fire on Tuesday, Hamas did not stop launching rockets. The Israel Defense Forces then resumed its air campaign against Hamas by hitting more than 30 targets in Gaza.

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