Syria, Iran, Russia condemn Israel over Damascus airstrikes
(JNS.org) The Syrian government accused Israel of a “flagrant attack” in which the Jewish state allegedly bombed military targets in Damascus in airstrikes on Sunday.
Reports indicate that the two targeted sites were weapons warehouses, one near the city’s international airport and another close to the Lebanese border. It is not yet confirmed whether the weapons were intended to be used by the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But Israel has carried out such strikes in the past, intended to destroy shipments of Iranian missiles bound for Hezbollah. Additionally, Al Arabiya reported Monday that two Hezbollah members were killed by Sunday’s airstrikes.
While Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the airstrikes, its intelligence minister, Yuval Steinitz, told Army Radio on Monday that Israel has “a very potent defense policy that is oriented toward safeguarding the country and wherever possible preventing the upgrading of weaponry that gives terrorist organizations game-changers or unusually sophisticated means of attack.”
During a joint news conference in Tehran, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif denounced the airstrikes. Moallem said the strikes “lifted the morale of terrorists,” and Zarif said Syria must urgently “dry up the sources of terrorism.” The missiles destroyed in the strikes were reportedly made by Russia, which spurred the Russian government to send a letter to the United Nations protesting Israel’s “aggressive action.”
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Netanyahu’s new economic plan for Israel: no VAT on ‘staple foods’
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pitched a new economic plan to Israelis on Monday, distancing himself from recently jettisoned finance minster Yair Lapid’s plan to waive the value-added tax (VAT) on some apartments.
“I have an alternative plan: zero VAT on staple foods that are subject to price control,” Netanyahu said at the Israel Business Conference hosted by the business publication Globes. “This will help millions of people by accommodating their most basic needs through a more affordable consumption of bread, milk, and eggs. It will help them save hundreds or even thousands of shekels each year. It would effectively slash the price of those items by 15 percent. Those who are the least well-off would save the most—this is what social justice is all about.”
Netanyahu said his plan would cost less than Lapid’s, adding that he would also like to double benefits for newly discharged Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The prime minister lamented that Israel’s political dynamics have compromised the executive branch’s ability to govern, stressing that the upcoming early elections need to result in “a clear mandate to deal with matters that pertain to peace, security, and economics” for the government to function properly.
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NBA’s Pelicans add Israeli point guard Gal Mekel
(JNS.org) The New Orleans Pelicans signed point guard Gal Mekel, who last season became the second Israeli-born player in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Mekel had initially agreed to sign with the Indiana Pacers last month, but the deal fell apart due to a visa issue. Last season, Mekel appeared in 31 games for the Dallas Mavericks, averaging 2.4 points and 2.0 assists per contest. In his first two games with the Pelicans on Saturday and Sunday, the 6-foot-3 guard averaged 5.0 assists in 11.5 minutes per game.
The NBA’s other Israeli player, 6-foot-9 forward Omri Casspi, is averaging 8.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game this season with the Sacramento Kings.
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Netanyahu urges Jonathan Pollard’s release in call with Kerry
(JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the release of jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who was recently hospitalized, during a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday.
“Jonathan Pollard’s life is at risk and after 30 years in prison, the time has come to release him and allow him to live out the rest of his life as a free man,” Netanyahu said.
Pollard was hospitalized on Friday after falling unconscious. American officials recently rejected a request for Pollard’s parole, saying that freeing him would “constitute contempt for the severity of the offense and promote a lack of respect for the law.” Yet Pollard is the only person convicted of spying for an American ally (Israel) who received a life sentence in prison, and numerous former U.S. government officials called his punishment disproportionate for the crime.
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Abbas: ‘We cannot recognize a Jewish state’
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper Akhbar el-Yom over the weekend that he would not recognize Israel as a Jewish state because he believes it would undermine the national interests of Israeli Arabs and prevent Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes.
“We cannot recognize a Jewish state. … We cannot close the door to those who wish to return,” he said, the Middle East Media Research Institute reported.
Abbas said that if the U.N. Security Council rejects the Palestinian proposal for a two-year deadline for an Israeli withdrawal to 1949 armistice lines, he may end Palestinian security cooperation with Israel or even step down and transfer responsibility for PA-controlled territory to Israel.
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Obama taps Ashton Carter, who helped Israel procure F-35 jet, as next defense chief
(JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday nominated former deputy defense secretary Ashton Carter to replace Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. Carter was instrumental in helping Israel procure the advanced F-35 fighter jet from the U.S.
Obama said that as defense secretary, Carter will need “to make smart choices, precisely because there are so many challenges out there,” including America’s military campaign in Iraq and Syria against Islamic State.
Carter has degrees in medieval history and theoretical physics and has spent most of his career in and out of academia before joining the Pentagon, where he eventually rose to become deputy defense secretary until he left the position in 2013. He is widely viewed to be more hawkish than Hagel on issues like Iran’s nuclear program, having penned reports advocating the use of force to prevent Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.
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U.S. may be considering economic sanctions on Israel over construction
(JNS.org) Senior U.S. officials have indicated that the White House is considering imposing economic sanctions on Israel over construction in eastern Jerusalem as well as Judea and Samaria
White House representatives met on the construction issue just after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama met in Washington, DC in October, Haaretz reported. The U.S., however, has declined to comment on the possible sanctions.
“I’m obviously not going to comment one way or another on reported internal deliberation. We’ve made clear our position on settlement activity publicly and that hasn’t changed,” U.S. state department spokesperson Marie Harf said, adding that she would not “address hypotheticals.”
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British Christian Zionist hailed as ‘godfather’ of IDF reburied in Israel
(JNS.org) The ashes of John Henry Patterson, a British Christian Zionist hailed as the “godfather” of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were reburied in a ceremony near Netanya.
Born in 1867, Patterson came to Turkish Palestine during World War I after serving in east Africa as a colonial officer, where he became famous for killing two giant man-eating lions. Patterson eventually commanded the Jewish Legion, the first Jewish force on the field of battle in the area in nearly 2,000 years, in campaigns in Gallipoli and Palestine.
Netanyahu’s father Benzion and Patterson were close friends when the two worked together to advocate for Israeli statehood. Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan, who was killed in Operation Entebbe in Uganda in 1976, was named after Patterson.
“[Patterson] had absolute confidence that the Jews would make remarkable soldiers—not adequate soldiers, but remarkable soldiers. … He began the reconstitution of the ability of the Jews to defend ourselves,” Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Patterson’s ashes had been in California, where he lived when he died in 1947.
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Renowned Jewish food writer Gil Marks dies
(JNS.org) Renowned Jewish food writer Gil Marks died Friday in Jerusalem at the age of 62 after a three-year battle with lung cancer.
Marks, an ordained rabbi, known for books including the “Encyclopedia of Jewish Food,” was the founding editor of Kosher Gourmet magazine and was nominated for the James Beard Award, a major honor in the culinary world. He had lived since 2012 in Israel, where he chronicled his battle with cancer on social media and continued to write about cooking.
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