John Baird, strongly pro-Israel Canadian foreign minister, resigns
(JNS.org) Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, a strongly pro-Israel voice in Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government, resigned on Tuesday.
“I will miss this place very much,” Baird said in a speech to the Canadian Parliament. “The time has come to start a new chapter in my life.”
During a visit to Israel last month, Baird blasted the International Criminal Court’s opening of a preliminary inquiry into possible Israeli “war crimes,” calling the move “deeply ironic, awards terror, and amounts to blasphemy against international law.” After Palestinian protesters threw eggs and shoes at Baird’s convoy in Ramallah, the Canadian diplomat said, “People may disagree with our position with respect to Israel, but so be it. … It’s always wise to speak with moral clarity.”
Baird was similarly defiant of critics of Canada’s pro-Israel foreign policy last May, telling an American Jewish Committee (AJC) audience, “We will not apologize for the positions we take because we stand for what is right.”
AJC Executive Director David Harris said in a statement, “All who are committed to upholding democratic values worldwide will miss [Baird’s] passion and determination. We at AJC have cherished his indefatigable defense of democratic values and human dignity, his steadfast support for Israel and the Jewish people, and his courage and principle in speaking the truth wherever and whenever it was needed.”
The reason for Baird’s resignation was not immediately clear. An anonymous Canadian official told The Associated Press that Baird simply decided it was the right time to step down.
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Likud activists file complaint against U.S.-funded anti-Netanyahu campaign
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) David Shayan, the head of the Likud party’s youth activists, filed an official police complaint on Wednesday against the V15 elections campaign, which aims to dissuade Israelis from voting for Likud’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Shayan provided the Jerusalem police with evidence that raises suspicion of a link between the non-profit organization OneVoice, which has received U.S. State Department funding, and V15.
In their complaint, the Likud youth activists demanded that police investigate the alleged link between the anti-Netanyahu campaign and two Israeli political parties, Labor and Meretz. The complaint pointed to Israel’s Parties Financing Law, which prohibits foreign campaign funding, even if the funding is channeled through non-profit organizations or other groups.
The complaint aims to compel the police to investigate the funding sources of the V15 initiative, allegedly orchestrated by the left-wing OneVoice organization. Among the individuals linked to the group are Labor and Meretz members, Palestinian Authority (PA) officials, and Yasser Abbas, the son of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
The V15 campaign explicitly calls on Israeli voters to replace the current government and its leader. According to the Likud complaint, “Research on the involved individuals reveals a problematic picture, including elements of alleged criminal activity by the professional, political figures running this campaign and standing behind it.”
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8 women killed in bus accident in southern Israel
(JNS.org) Eight women in their 50s were killed and 28 others were hurt in a deadly bus accident on Route 31 in southern Israel on Tuesday.
The accident occurred when a truck hauling agricultural machinery crashed into a bus carrying a group of Muslim women from a visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem back to their homes in the Bedouin town of Hura. Following an initial survey of the scene, the police decided to launch a criminal investigation. Both the truck driver, a resident of Ramla, and the bus driver, from Kuseife, were detained for questioning. The truck driver submitted to a blood alcohol test.
The eight women were all pronounced dead at the scene. The bus, part of an organized shuttle that takes Bedouin women from Hura to prayers at Al-Aqsa and back every Tuesday, was carrying 54 passengers. The initial investigation revealed that the truck was carrying a cultivator (a machine used to break up soil and uproot weeds) hitched to a tractor. The cultivator extended beyond the side of the truck and apparently into the opposite lane, far beyond what is permitted by law. When the bus neared the truck, the machine sliced through the left side of the bus.
“When we arrived at the scene, we noted that eight women who were sitting on the left side of the bus had borne the brunt of the impact and they were killed instantly,” said a paramedic who was among the first to arrive at the scene, according to Israel Hayom. “It was a shocking sight.”
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Poll: British people dislike Israel more than Iran
(JNS.org) A recent survey found that Israel is one of the most disliked countries in the world by the British people. The results come after a surge in anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom in 2014.
In a poll of 2,000 British people conducted by YouGov for the foreign policy think tank Chatham House, 35 percent answered Israel when asked, “Which of the following [countries] do you feel especially unfavorable toward?” Thirty-three percent of respondents chose Iran, and only North Korea and Russia garnering worse ratings than Israel.
The rating for Israel represents a steep deterioration from 2012, when only 17 percent of British respondents felt unfavorably about the Jewish state.
According to two surveys released last month by the U.K.-based Jewish group Campaign Against Antisemitism, nearly 60 percent of British Jews think they do not have a long-term future in Europe, while nearly half of British adults hold some type of anti-Semitic sentiment. During the Israel-Hamas war last summer, anti-Semitic incidents hit record levels in the U.K.
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JDC partnering with French Jewish community to provide support amid growing threats
(JNS.org) The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) said Tuesday that it is partnering with the French Jewish community to assist in the areas of alleviating trauma, crisis-management training, and the relocation of at-risk Jews from troubled neighborhoods around Paris.
The announcement by JDC comes after last month’s Islamist terror attacks on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and on the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris. JDC said it will partner with French Jewish organizations to help provide post-trauma care to those affected by the recent terror attacks and other anti-Semitic attacks.
Ariel Goldmann, president of Fonds Social Juif Unifié (FSJU), the central community fundraising body of the French Jewish community, said that FSJU is “proud to have JDC by our side during these difficult times.”
“A close partner and friend for many years, we know that together with JDC, our community can be stronger and better equipped to navigate all that we face,” Goldmann said.
The JDC will also provide training to French Jewish community leaders on upgraded crisis-management capacity to address emergency situations in real-time. Additionally, JDC will assist with efforts to relocate vulnerable Jews—mainly the elderly and poor families—from areas plagued by high crime, poverty, and Islamic radicalism.
“We are proud to partner once again with the French Jewish community to ensure that as they chart their future, we are there to strengthen their resiliency, implement specialized services for the most vulnerable, and present a united front in the face of violent hate,” said JDC CEO Alan H. Gill.
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Head of pro-Russian rebels calls current Ukrainian leaders ‘miserable’ Jews
(JNS.org) The head of the self-titled Donetsk People’s Republic, the pro-Russian rebel group in eastern Ukraine, called current Ukrainian leaders “miserable” Jews.
Alexander Zakharchenko said that pro-Western leaders of the country are “miserable representatives of the great Jewish people.” The country’s historical nationalists “would turn in their graves if they could see who is running Ukraine,” he told a press conference in the eastern rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
Fighting has continued between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels in the region since April 2014, with more than 5,000 people being killed in the conflict,AFP reported.
“It is clear that the Zaharchenko statement was offensive, and it also reflects old prejudices that most post-soviets carry,” said Eduard Dolinsky of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, according to the Jerusalem Post. Meanwhile, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, Efraim Zuroff, said that Zakharchenko was trying to “sow internal ethnic discord in Ukraine and weaken the regime that the Russian insurgents are fighting.”
“That appears to be the motivation, which is based on the Russians’ assumption that anti-Semitism continues to be deeply entrenched in Ukrainian society,” Zuroff said.
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