Israeli government seeks to intensify anti-terror enforcement
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a special session on Wednesday to discuss the growing threat to Israel posed by radical Mideast terror organizations such as the Islamic State, Israel Hayom reported.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Shin Bet security agency Director Yoram Cohen, Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, and Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein participated in the meeting, which focused on the need to intensify the counterterrorism measures taken by Israel’s law enforcement agencies.
Livni is pushing a new bill to bar Israeli citizens and residents from participating in any activity related to organizations that have been designated by Israel as terrorist groups.
As part of the bill, the defense minister will release an administrative order listing designated terrorist organizations, as well as the areas and countries in which they are known to operate. Israelis would be barred from having any contact with these groups—in or outside Israel.
Israeli citizens or residents found to be affiliated with such groups may face up to three years in jail. The government’s legislation efforts are the result of Israeli intelligence information indicating that several Israeli Arabs have recently joined rebel forces in Syria.
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Schabas: Israel would object if ‘Spiderman’ led U.N. probe
(JNS.org) Canadian professor William Schabas, whose ability to judge Israel fairly as the lead United Nations Human Rights Council investigator of Operation Protective Edge has been heavily questioned, said that Israel’s opposition to the U.N. appointment would have been the same no matter who was chosen for the role.
Israel would object “even if Spiderman was heading the commission,” Schabas told the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.
“I will not resign. I do not hate Israel. I will put my prior positions aside,” he said.
In the past, Schabas has called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former president Shimon Peres to be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court for human rights violations. Given Schabas’s history, the Israeli government has called the current U.N. probe a “kangaroo court.”
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All Ashkenazi Jews descend from 350 people, study shows
(JNS.org) A new study conducted at Columbia University, based on the genetic sequencing of 128 Ashkenazi Jews, shows that modern Ashkenazi Jews descend from a small group of about 350 individuals who lived between 600 and 800 years ago.
Those ancestors of current Ashkenazi Jews were both European and Middle Eastern, said the study, which was published Tuesday in the Nature Communications journal.
Today’s approximate population of 10 million Ashkenazi Jews descends from such a small group of ancestors due to the “bottleneck” effect, a drastic reduction in population size that occurred for unknown reasons about 25-30 generations ago, according to the study.
“[Among Ashkenazi Jews] everyone is a 30th cousin… They have a stretch of the genome that is identical,” Itsik Pe’er, an associate professor of computer science and systems biology at Columbia University, told Live Science.
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Israeli spy beheaded in the Sinai, note on corpse says
(JNS.org) Residents in Egypt’s war-torn Sinai Peninsula said they found a beheaded corpse with a note by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, an Islamic State-linked terror group, accusing the victim of being an Israeli spy.
“This is the fate of all who prove to be traitors to their homeland,” the note said, Reuters reported.
The decapitated body was the just the latest one found by residents of the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid. Last month, residents found four decapitated bodies, and Egyptian officials said those murders were linked to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis.
The Egyptian military, with the quiet support of Israel, has been battling Islamic terror groups in the Sinai.
A senior Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis commander told Reuters last week that Islamic State has been advising the Sinai-based terror group. Islamic State has gained significant global attention for its rapid advances throughout Iraq and Syria, its genocide against minority groups, and its beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
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Israeli neurosurgery helps world-renowned violinist regain ability to play
(JNS.org) Israeli neurosurgeons at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center helped former world-renowned violinist Naomi Elishuv overcome hand tremors to regain the ability to perform, in a remarkable surgery that had Elishuv playing Mozart while they operated on her brain.
The former violinist with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart while they operated on her brain.
“This is the first time ever that I have performed brain surgery on a person who played the violin during the operation,” said Professor Itzhak Fried, Sourasky’s director of functional neurosurgery.
According to Fried, the surgeons implanted a brain pacemaker with electrodes in the area of Elishuv’s brain that was the source of the hand tremors which prevented her from playing, and the electrodes emitted impulses to suppress the tremors.
A YouTube video of the surgery shows Elishuv, a former Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra violinist, playing the violin pre-surgery with the hand tremors. The video then skips forward to show her playing the violin during the surgery while the neurosurgeons located the spot in her brain to implant the electrode.
“When we turned on the electric current, we saw the tremor melt away,” Fried said.
“It’s a shame that I didn’t know about this operation before,” said Elishuv, who was forced to give up playing the violin nearly two decades ago. “Now I’m going to live again.”
Israeli defense minister makes surprise visit to Azerbaijan
(JNS.org) Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon made a surprise trip to Azerbaijan on Wednesday, marking the first state visit to the Muslim-majority nation by someone holding his position.
“I’m happy to visit here on the first and historical visit of an Israeli defense minister in Azerbaijan,” Ya’alon said in the country’s capital of Baku. “Cooperation between the countries is flourishing. There are strategic relations between the countries, and cooperation in a number of fields.”
Ya’alon met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, and other senior officials, the Israeli Defense Ministry said.
A former Soviet republic, Azerbaijan—like its neighbor to the south, Iran—has a Shi’a Muslim majority among its population. But Azerbaijan is also a highly secular country and has forged close ties with the Western nations and Israel in the areas of defense, energy, and technology.
As part of the visit, Ya’alon will unveil the Israeli stall at the Adex International Defense Industry exhibition. He is also scheduled to meet with representatives of Azerbaijan’s small Jewish community.
“Here in Azerbaijan, there is a Jewish community with a magnificent history, which enjoys extraordinary treatment allowing it to live honorably,” said Ya’alon. “We very much value that.”
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