-Compiled by JNS.org–
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says Iran must ‘immunize’ itself against nuclear sanctions
(JNS.org) Ahead of the resumption of nuclear negotiations between Iran and Western powers, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for efforts to “immunize” Iran against sanctions.
“What would you do if [negotiators] set a condition for lifting the sanctions that would compromise your [national] pride?… No official would accept it. Efforts must be made to immunize Iran against the sanctions,” Khamenei said, Iran’s state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The European Union said Wednesday that Iran and the P5+1 powers—the U.S., France, Germany, Russia, China, and Britain—will resume talks over the Iran nuclear program on Jan. 18. After the Nov. 24, 2014 deadline for negotiating a nuclear deal expired, the negotiations were extended to June 30, 2015. The original interim nuclear deal, reached in November 2013 and extended to after a missed deadline in July 2014, led to an easing of some sanctions on Iran.
While world powers want to severely curtail Iran’s enrichment capability or have enriched fuel sent abroad for processing, Iran is seeking to retain its full ability to enrich uranium. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has called for the complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program. Many leading U.S. Republican legislators are taking Netanyahu’s side on the issue and have promised to block any “bad deal” that allows Iran to retain enrichment capability.
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BDS movement fails to derail Israeli economy, Knesset committee report says
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has not harmed the Israeli economy, and in some cases Israel’s exports have grown in the regions in which the movement has the most traction, according to a recent report commissioned by the Knesset Finance Committee.
“So far, the attempts to boycott Israel have not hurt the Israeli economy on the macro scale. … The boycotts are able to hurt largely the end products of certain Israeli brands. However, since the majority of Israeli exports are intermediate goods, there has not been significant harm done to them,” the report said.
The study analyzed the economic effects of the BDS movement from 2000-2013. The study showed that during that time, Israel’s gross domestic product rose by 54 percent and its exports rose by 80 percent. In Europe, home to the majority of the BDS efforts, exports surged by 99 percent since 2000. Israel’s success in Europe indicates the ineffectiveness of the European Union boycott and tariff placement on products made beyond the 1949 armistice line.
Direct investment in Israel has also risen over the past decade, and that investment’s percentage of Israel’s GDP is higher compared to most developed nations. Perhaps most surprisingly, despite BDS efforts, the share of exported goods originating in Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights has grown from 0.5 percent to 3.1 percent—and an overwhelming majority of that growth is from exports to the European Union.
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Palestinian detainee released due to name mix-up
(JNS.org) A Palestinian detainee was accidentally released from Israeli custody this week due to a mix-up surrounding his name,Israel Hayom reported.
The man had been arrested in connection with a rock-throwing incident and was awaiting trial at a military facility in Judea and Samaria. An Israeli soldier who was in charge of the administrative issues at the site mistakenly thought he was someone else and released him from custody. The soldier has since been court-martialed and was to be incarcerated for 14 days.
Israeli authorities have since issued an arrest warrant for the Palestinian man. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said the “mishap was noticed after 30 minutes, and the Israel Police was immediately notified.”
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Christians United for Israel surpasses 2 million members
(JNS.org) Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which calls itself the largest pro-Israel organization in America, announced that its membership has surpassed the 2-million mark.
“We’ve come a long way since we began CUFI with 400 Christian leaders back in 2006,” said Pastor John Hagee, CUFI’s founder and national chairman. “And I can say without hesitation that while reaching two million members is no small accomplishment, we’ve only just begun. We will continue to grow and to speak out with an ever-louder voice for Zion’s sake.”
CUFI said that since its founding in 2006, it has held more the 2,100 pro-Israel events, sent hundreds of thousands of advocacy emails to government officials, guided more than a dozen tours to Israel, and trained thousands of college students across the U.S.
David Brog, CUFI’s executive director, attributed the organization’s success to Israel becoming an increasing priority issue within the Christian community in light of the growing threats of militant Islam.
“Recent events, from the rise of ISIS (Islamic State) to today’s (Jan. 7) tragic shooting in Paris, have clarified for all what we’ve been saying for years—militant Islam is a threat not only to Israel, but to all of the West,” Brog told JNS.org.
“In this battle, Israel is a critical front-line ally,” he added. “As more American Christians recognize this reality, they will continue to rally to Israel’s side through CUFI.”
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Israeli-developed ALS treatment shows promise in clinical trial
(JNS.org) The Israeli company BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, revealing results from a clinical trial for its stem cell treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) in adults, said most patients in the trial displayed improvement in the form of slower progression of the disease.
ALS is a neurodegenerative disease that affects 5,600 people in the U.S. alone, according to the ALS Association. Famed physicist Stephen Hawking has a slow-progressing form of the disease.
BrainStorm’s stem cell treatment, called NurOwn, was administered to 14 patients as part of the trial at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. Eleven of the 12 patients with three or more months of follow-up showed improvement in slowing the disease’s progression.
The study provides “a consistent and highly promising picture of NurOwn’s efficacy,” said BrainStorm CEO Tony Fiorino.
“In particular, I would highlight that we observed not only a highly meaningful reduction in ALS progression… but we saw subjects with prolonged stabilization and even improvements in function, and all this was achieved with just a single dose of NurOwn,” he said. “We are excited to proceed to a multi-dose study to see if these positive results can be amplified and extended by administering repeated doses.”
More details of French massacre at Charlie Hebdo
(JNS.org) At least 12 people, including a Jewish cartoonist, were killed after Muslim terrorists stormed the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday morning.
According to the French daily Le Monde, two masked men dressed in black and armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifles broke into the Charlie Hebdo offices and began shooting at police and journalists as they gathered for their weekly editorial meeting.
Videos show the Muslim terrorists shouting “Allah Akbar” at the time of the shooting. Witnesses told police that the terrorists also shouted, “We have avenged the prophet.” The terrorists then fled in a black car and have yet to be caught, Paris police said.
Among those killed were four of the Charlie Hebdo’s best-known cartoonists: editor in chief Stephane Charbonnier, Jean Cabut, Georges Wolinski, and Bernard Verlhac. Wolinski was Jewish. Reports indicate that two police officers were also killed.
Charlie Hebdo, which regularly lampoons various faiths, has long been a target of Muslims for its cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed. In November 2011, its offices were firebombed after publishing a spoof issue inviting Mohammed to be its guest editor and putting his caricature on the cover.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman conveyed Israel’s condolences to France, saying the free world cannot allow itself to be intimidated by terrorists and that Israel “identified” with France’s pain. Jewish organizations, meanwhile, condemned the terrorist attack and offered solidarity with the French people.
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Netanyahu: Charlie Hebdo shooting by Muslim terrorists in France ‘savagery’
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Wednesday’s shooting at the Paris offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, in which at least 12 people were killed by Muslim terrorists, “brutal acts of savagery.”
“The attacks of radical Islam know no boundaries— these are international attacks and the response has to be international. The terrorists want to destroy our freedoms and our civilization. … If we stand together and if we are not divided, then we can defeat this tyranny that seeks to extinguish all our freedoms,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu also expressed the sympathy “that all the citizens of Israel feel for the people of France and for the grieving families,” reminding the world that Israel has experienced similar attacks “time and again; we know the pain but we also know the resolution with which free societies can defeat terror—however dreadful, however threatening.”
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U.S. President Barack Obama called the shooting “cowardly evil attacks.”
“The fact that this was an attack on journalists, [an] attack on our free press, also underscores the degree to which these terrorists fear freedom of speech and freedom of the press,” Obama said in a statement from the White House during a meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden.
As other world leaders have continued issuing messages of support for the French people and condemning the attack, French authorities have increased security around Paris while in pursuit of the shooters, who are still at large. Crowds have been gathering in central Paris, with many expressing solidarity with banners stating “#JeSuisCharlie” (I am Charlie).
“There is possibility of other attacks and other sites are being secured,” said French police union official Rocco Contento.
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