Iran shows ‘no real flexibility’ in nuclear talks, Israel says
(JNS.org) Israel is “deeply concerned” because Iran is showing “no real flexibility” in negotiations over its nuclear program, Israeli Intelligence and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said Wednesday ahead of the resumption of negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 powers in New York.
“The reason that we are deeply concerned is that we feel that the negotiation is going wrong, going in the wrong direction,” Steinitz told reporters in Jerusalem. “So far the Iranians have shown no real flexibility on the two main issues: the issue of the centrifuge facilities, centrifuges for the enrichment of uranium, and the heavy-water reactor in Arak.”
After failing to reach a final agreement by a July deadline, Iran and the P5+1 powers extended the nuclear talks to Nov. 24.
“We are deeply concerned that a deal might be a bad deal,” Steinitz said. “And therefore we want to re-emphasize President Obama’s very important principle… that, in this case, no deal is better than a bad deal.”
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Kibbutz near Gaza celebrates delayed bar, bat mitzvahs
(JNS.org) After three postponements due to rocket fire during Operation Protective Edge, 16 youngsters from Kibbutz Be’eri near the Gaza border were set to celebrate their bar and bat mitzvahs at a joint ceremony on Thursday evening, with an expected 1,500 guests in attendance.
Kibbutz Be’eri suffered significant damage to cars, buildings, and agricultural fields from Gaza rocket fire over the summer. The joint ceremony, an annual tradition at the kibbutz, marks the end of a year-long process for the youngsters.
“The children have already been preparing for this ceremony for two weeks, and it is supposed to include singing, dancing and a special fire display,” said Mencher Dvori, the kibbutz secretary-general, according to Israel Hayom. “It will be a very meaningful experience, the biggest celebration at the kibbutz this year.”
Chen Karonik, one of the bar mitzvah boys, said, “I was really disappointed when the ceremony was postponed. It is a very old tradition. Now, there is so much excitement and we are working hard to make it turn out amazingly.”
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Rocket sirens sound in southern Israel in apparent false alarm
(JNS.org) Just two days after Gaza terrorists fired a mortar shell into southern Israel, violating the cease-fire agreement that ended the recent seven-week confrontation between the Jewish state and Hamas, rocket alert sirens sounded in a number of southern Israeli communities on Thursday morning.
Though local residents reported hearing explosions, the Israel Defense Forces said the sirens were false alarms and that no projectiles were fired. Small arms fire inside of Gaza had triggered the extremely sensitive warning siren system, according to the IDF.
Yair Farjoun, the head of the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, said following the sirens that “we appreciate the high alert level of our defense systems, even when small arms are fired near us.”
“In the meantime, we are prepared for any scenario and ask the government to continue to be on high alert and to prevent the rocket fire from resuming,” Farjoun said, Israel Hayom reported.
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Israeli scientists say artificial sweeteners increase risk of diabetes and obesity
(JNS.org) Contrary to popular belief, artificial sweeteners may actually increase the risk of diabetes and obesity, a team of Israeli scientists at the Weizmann Institute said Wednesday.
“Our research findings attest that consuming artificial sweeteners causes the development of the very health problems they’re supposed to prevent,” Dr. Eran Elinav—co-leader of the Weizmann study, which was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday—told Haaretz. “Our findings beg reconsideration of the massive, unregulated use of these substances.”
According to the study, artificial sweeteners—which are a commonly used sugar substitute in “diet” foods and drinks—can actually increase intolerance of glucose (a simple sugar) by altering the bacteria in the digestive tract, even though artificial sweeteners do not contain any glucose.
In an experiment, the Israeli scientists gave a set of mice three commonly used artificial sweeteners approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration that were diluted in water, while giving another set of mice regular sugar that was diluted in water. The scientists found that the mice given the artificial sweeteners developed greater glucose intolerance, and by consequence, the sweeteners can be seen as making someone more susceptible to diabetes and obesity.
When the scientists repeated the experiment with mice that were given antibiotics that killed their digestive bacteria, they found that the mice did not develop glucose intolerance.
“The relationships we have with our personal gut bacteria is significant to understanding how the food we eat affects us, and our tendency to develop conditions such as obesity and diabetes,” said Elinav.
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Archaeologists unearth gas chamber at Sobibor concentration camp
(JNS.org) An Israeli and Polish team of archaeologists has unearthed one of the main gas chambers at the Sobibor concentration camp, the Yad Vashem – World Center for Holocaust Research announced on Wednesday.
Located in eastern Poland, Sobibor was operated by the Nazis during the Holocaust from April 1942 to October 1943, during which time an estimated 250,000 Jews were murdered there. But after an uprising that saw several hundred Jewish prisoners try to escape, the Nazis closed the camp and bulldozed it in an attempt to erase its evidence.
“The discovery of the gas chambers at Sobibor is a very important finding in Holocaust research,” said Dr. David Silberklang, a senior historian at the International Institute for Holocaust Research.
Silberklang added, “It is important to understand that there were no survivors from among the Jews who worked in the area of the gas chambers. Therefore, these findings are all that is left of those murdered there, and they open a window onto the day-to-day suffering of these people.”
Photos released by the researchers of the site show a large rectangular building with brick walls that were subdivided into four chambers. A number of personal items were found at the site, such as gold teeth, jewelry, perfume bottles, and medical items.
“The most poignant moment was when we found a wedding band next to the gas chambers, on which was the Hebrew inscription: ‘Behold, you are consecrated unto me,'” said Israeli archaeologist Yoram Haimi.
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Gaza reconstruction agreement reached by U.N., PA, Israel
(JNS.org) The United Nations has brokered an agreement on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip between itself, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The agreement will enable the PA to take a leadership role in the reconstruction process and also allow the involvement of the private sector. The U.N. will monitor construction materials, as well as U.N. schools and facilities in Gaza, to make sure that the materials will not be put to military use against Israel, said U.N. Middle East envoy Robert Serry, the Associated Press reported.
“While the cease-fire brokered by Egypt has largely held since Aug. 26, [Gaza] remains worryingly fragile with the underlying dynamics still unaddressed,” Serry told the U.N. Security Council, calling on the council to support the agreement.
An Oct. 12 donor conference intended to raise money for Gaza’s reconstruction will be hosted by Egypt and co-sponsored by Norway.
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Biden: Use of ‘Shylock’ was ‘poor choice of words’
(JNS.org) Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday commented on his use of the term “shylock” in a speech at a conference marking the 40th anniversary of the Legal Services Corporation, calling the phrase, which many consider anti-Semitic, “a poor choice of words.”
During the speech, Biden recalled his son’s experience being stationed in Iraq and speaking with members of the military who needed legal advice. “People would come to him and talk about what was happening to them at home in terms of foreclosures, in terms of bad loans that were being—I mean these shylocks who took advantage of, um, these women and men while overseas,” Biden said.
Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman said in a statement, “When someone as friendly to the Jewish community and open and tolerant an individual as is Vice President Joe Biden, uses the term ‘Shylocked’ to describe unscrupulous moneylenders dealing with service men and women, we see once again how deeply embedded this stereotype about Jews is in society.”
The term “Shylock” comes from the name of a ruthless Jewish moneylender character in William Shakespeare’s play Merchant of Venice.
“Shylock represents the medieval stereotype about Jews and remains an offensive characterization to this day,” Foxman said, according to Yahoo News. “The vice president should have been more careful.”
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