Israeli soldier stabbed in Tel Aviv
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An Israeli soldier was stabbed at a Tel Aviv train station on Monday in the latest in a string of terrorist attacks across Israel. The victim, in his 20s, was taken to hospital in critical condition. The attacker, a Palestinian man from Nablus, was apprehended.
The stabbing attack occurred at the entrance of the Hagana train station in southern Tel Aviv. The attacker tried to flee but was chased by a group of civilians and policemen. An Israeli in his 50s was lightly injured during the pursuit, but the attacker was ultimately arrested. Eyewitnesses reported that the young man was stabbed in the abdomen and lost a significant amount of blood.
Magen David Adom emergency services spokesman Zaki Heller told Channel 2, “At 12:12 we received a call that a young man had been stabbed. The paramedics who arrived at the scene found the young man unconscious on the road, not breathing and without a pulse. They administered first aid and resuscitation efforts commenced. The moment his condition made it possible, he was evacuated amid ongoing resuscitation efforts. He was in very serious condition. We don’t know of anyone else who was hurt.”
Hamas did not claim responsibility for the stabbing, but the Hamas television network praised the attack.
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Parents of soldier injured in Gush Etzion say car crash was no accident
(JNS.org) While Israeli security officials have said recent incident in Gush Etzion in which three Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured was an accident, the parents of Moshe Aharoni, one of the injured soldiers, believe the Palestinian driver who ran over the soldiers with his car did so intentionally in a terrorist act.
“Our son was run over in a clear and intentional manner by a miscreant,” Aharoni’s father, Roni, said at a press conference at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. “The blood of our son cries out. We are here in hours of uncertainty, while the scoundrel [who ran over the soldiers] hides behind an outright blatant lie.”
Roni said his son recounted the incident for his parents. “He told us, ‘I saw the eyes of this evil murderer. He didn’t try to brake. He wanted to hurt us. I heard the roar of his accelerating engine before he hit us and sent us to hell,’” said Roni, according to Israel Hayom.
An anonymous military source had described the incident to the media as a hit-and-run accident, rather than an intentional attack.
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Netanyahu vows tough stance against Arab rioters
(JNS.org) Following riots over the Israeli police’s fatal shooting of a 21-year-old Arab man who tried to stab police officers in Kafr Kanna on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would take a tough stance against Israeli Arabs calling for the Jewish state’s destruction.
“We will not tolerate disturbances and riots,” he said. “We will act against stone throwers and those who block roads and call for the establishment of a Palestinian state in place of Israel. … I will instruct the interior minister to examine the option of revoking the citizenship of those calling for the destruction of Israel.”
Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett defended the police in the Kafr Kanna incident, saying, “An Arab terrorist wildly attacked a police car with a knife, in an attempt to murder the [police officers]. … The police officers’ reaction was what is expected of our security personnel. Of course, we can and should always look into things, but this was not ‘cold-blooded murder,’ and we certainly should not repudiate our security forces personnel.”
Lindsey Graham says Senate would block a ‘bad deal’ on Iran nukes
(JNS.org) The U.S. Senate would block a “bad deal” on the Iranian nuclear program, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) of South said in an interview with Israel Hayom published Sunday.
In Graham’s view, a bad deal is any agreement that permits Iran to enrich uranium.
“With Iran, we do not want to end up getting the same result we got with North Korea, which ultimately, despite the negotiations and the agreements, became a nuclear power,” he said. “It is very important that the Senate examine the agreement [with Iran]. Today, a majority of senators from both parties oppose the idea that Iran will enrich uranium.”
Graham said he intends to submit a bill to the new Senate majority leader, expected to be U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), that would require President Barack Obama to allow the Senate to review any nuclear agreement with Iran.
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Jewish groups spar over status of ‘chickenshit’ controversy
(JNS.org) The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) on Nov. 7 criticized Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham Foxman for his assessment of “closure” in the controversy surrounding an anonymous Obama administration official’s description of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “chickenshit.”
After the “chickenshit” slur had been reported by The Atlantic magazine’s Jeffrey Goldberg, National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey said, “Certainly, that’s not the administration’s view, and we think such comments are inappropriate and counter-productive.” Reacting to Baskey’s comments, Foxman told The Algemeiner, “The White House statement should bring closure to this issue.”
“It is wrong for the ADL to seek to silence the rest of the Jewish community by unilaterally declaring that the case is now closed. … This closure statement is really a dereliction of ADL’s sworn duty to fight defamation of Jews and Israel,” ZOA said in a press release on Nov. 7.
Foxman called ZOA’s public criticism “destructive behavior.”
“Publicly chastising the opinions of others in the Jewish community does not serve the goals we all share, which is the safety and well being of the Jewish community and the security of the state of Israel,” Foxman told JNS.org.
ZOA also criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for not issuing a public statement on the “chickenshit” slur.
“Although AIPAC may have gotten Congressmen to speak out on this issue, that is not enough,” ZOA said. “The White House must know that important Jewish organizations are deeply concerned about this insult.”
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Bomb attacks target homes of Fatah leaders in Gaza
(JNS.org) Senior members of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party have blamed Hamas for launching a wave of bomb attacks targeting Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip, in a new sign of tension between the Palestinian factions.
“The Fatah central committee condemns the crimes which took place this morning against its leaders and lays the responsibility for these crimes upon Hamas,” senior Fatah official Nasser al-Qidwa told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah, AFP reported.
According to reports, at least 10 explosions hit the houses and cars belonging to senior Fatah officials. There were no reports of deaths or injuries.
As a result of bombs attacks, PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and other senior Fatah officials have canceled plans to tour Gaza and hold a public commemoration of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Hamas has been in control of Gaza since ousting the Fatah-controlled PA in 2007. Last spring, Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation agreement that was expected to end years of tensions between the groups and form a unity government.
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IAEA says probe on Iran nukes has stalled, hurting chances of deal by deadline
(JNS.org) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a United Nations-affiliated nuclear watchdog, says that its investigation into the potential weaponization of Iran’s nuclear program has stalled. Iran’s refusal to cooperate with the probe might derail the prospects of a nuclear deal with world powers being reached by the Nov. 24 deadline.
Last February, Iran agreed to provide the IAEA with information on three aspects of its nuclear program: alleged experiments with nuclear detonators, work on high-explosive charges used in nuclear blasts, and studies on the calculation of nuclear explosive yields. But the IAEA says Iran has only provided information on the detonators, which the Islamic Republic insists were only used for oil exploration and non-nuclear military purposes.
“Iran has not provided any explanations that enable the agency to clarify the outstanding practical measures,” said a confidential IAEA report obtained by The Associated Press.
The P5+1 powers—U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany—have insisted that no final agreement with Iran will be reached until the IAEA is satisfied with its investigation.
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