IDF outlines defense of southern airport, braces for Islamic State-linked attack
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces—which is said to be preparing for the possibility of an Islamic State-linked terror attack along the Israel-Egypt border—is outlining its defense of the Timna Airport, the new international airport that is currently under construction in southern Israel.
The airport is expected to become operational in 2017. As part of the planned defense, a roughly 18.5-mile fence is being designed to encompass the airport and its adjacent area.
Wilayat Sinai (formerly Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), the largest Islamic State-affiliated jihadi group in the Sinai Peninsula, on Thursday released a video in which its operatives claim to have fired three rockets at southern Israel’s Eilat port last week. The group claimed it plans to fire up to 150 rockets daily at Egyptian security forces in Sinai and the Eilat port.
It is believed that Wilayat Sinai will attempt to target Egyptian security forces along Israel’s southern border using what has become its signature modus operandi—surprise attacks by dozens of terrorists on several targets simultaneously. The IDF believes these terrorists will attempt to disguise themselves as smugglers, or perhaps even as Egyptian security forces, so they would be able to approach Israeli troops in the sector.
Earlier this week, IDF Southern Border Brigade Deputy Commander Col. Arik Hen said the threat emanating from the Sinai was a priority for the Israeli military, and that it “affects military readiness for various scenarios that may develop” near or on the border.
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Former Israeli president Peres endorses Isaac Herzog for prime minister
(JNS.org) Former Israeli president Shimon Peres endorsed Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union alliance for prime minister. The endorsement comes as the latest polls forecast that the Zionist Union will win up to 24 Knesset seats in the upcoming March 17 election, more than the 21 projected seats for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.
“It’s natural for people to have different opinions and to vote according to their conscience. As for me, I support Herzog for prime minister. I have known Herzog and his family for many years, I’ve seen him up close filling senior positions with excellence and taking part in debates and decisions that have great importance to Israel’s future,” Peres said in a statement.
“He is a level-headed leader who maintains integrity, and is full of responsibility and dedication to the Israeli public. Herzog is fit for the role of prime minister and as a leader will know how to bridge gaps, and to join Israeli society in bonds of solidarity and hope,” added Peres, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
In its own statement, the Likud party responded that “of course Peres, a pronounced leftist, supports Herzog and [Zionist Union member Tzipi] Livni—Peres is the architect of the Oslo Accords, enthusiastically supported the disengagement, and is devoted to the retreat from Judea and Samaria. … Only a vote for a large Likud and closing the gap between Likud and the Zionist Camp will prevent the establishment of a government of concessions and retreat that will allow a second terror state to be formed in the heart of Israel.”
Herzog, the leader of the Labor party, and Livni, head of the Hatnuah party, merged their parties ahead of the election. The two party leaders have said they will rotate the role of prime minister if the Zionist Union wins the most Knesset seats in the election and is subsequently able to form a governing coalition.
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Palestinian terrorist jailed in U.S. for lying about bombing conviction in Israel
(JNS.org) A Palestinian terrorist who served time in an Israeli jail for a 1969 supermarket bombing has now been sentenced to 18 months in prison by a Detroit-based U.S. federal court on immigration fraud charges.
Following her release from prison, 67-year-old Rasmieh Yousef Odeh will face mandatory deportation. Last November, Odeh was convicted of immigration fraud for failing to disclose to U.S. authorities a past conviction in Israel for the supermarket bombing, which killed two people.
“A light sentence in this case would be a signal to anyone who has fought overseas for ISIS (Islamic State) or a similar organization that there is not much risk in coming to the United States, hiding one’s past, and seeking citizenship,” prosecutors said, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Odeh immigrated to the U.S. in 1995. While in America, she had worked as the associate director of the Arab American Action Network, a community center in Chicago. Besides the supermarket bombing, she was convicted—along with terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—for placing a bomb at the British Consulate in Jerusalem.
Federal prosecutors accused Odeh of failing to disclose her past criminal history when she arrived in the U.S. from Jordan and became an American citizen in 2004.
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Gazans export produce to Israel for first time in nearly a decade
(JNS.org) Israeli authorities have allowed a limited number of produce to be exported by Gaza into Israel for the first time in nearly a decade.
Palestinian officials said that approximately 27 tons of tomatoes and five tons of eggplant were cleared to enter Israel, the Associated Press reported.
“Exporting to Israel is better, but insufficient,” one Gaza merchant said.
Before the Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007, Gazans used to export hundreds of tons of vegetables to Israel on a daily basis.
Efforts to rebuild the Gaza Strip have been slow following last summer’s war there, with some blaming the ongoing standoff between the Palestinian rival factions Hamas and the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority for hampering reconstruction. Many Arab countries, preoccupied with other domestic and regional concerns, have been slow to help Gaza. But Qatar said on Tuesday that it has started a project to rebuild 1,000 homes in Gaza as part of a $1 billion aid package.
On Wednesday, it was reported that Hamas, the terrorist group ruling Gaza, had rejected a proposal for a five-year truce with Israel that would have included the lifting of the blockade on Gaza.
The Israeli office of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories said that additional vegetables will be exported to Israel at a later date, with about 1,500 tons of Gazan produce expected to be imported by the Jewish state monthly at a value of $770 per ton.
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New Gaza war report praises Israel’s efforts to minimize civilian casualties
(JNS.org) A new report on last summer’s Gaza war praises Israel’s efforts to minimize civilian casualties.
The report, titled “2014 Gaza War Assessment: The New Face of Conflict,” was commissioned by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) and featured a task force of several retired American military officials—headed by General Charles Wald, former deputy commander of the United States European Command—as well as several legal and international affairs experts.
According to the report, Israel “systemically applied established rules of conduct that adhered to or exceeded the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) in a virtually unprecedented effort to avoid inflicting civilian casualties, even when doing so would have been lawfully permitted, and to satisfy the concerns of critics.”
Describing Hamas as having the “hybrid” capabilities of a non-state force equipped with advanced weapons, the report slammed the Gaza-based Palestinian terror group for endangering civilians and manipulating the international community to apply pressure on Israel “to terminate legitimate defensive military action.”
The report praised the IDF for taking “extraordinary and innovative methods” to minimize civilian casualties, including: “maximizing the use of precision-guided munitions; selecting the lowest acceptable yield explosives; warning civilians with leaflets, text messages, telephone calls and radio transmissions to leave a defined area of operations or to seek shelter; assisting with the evacuation of civilians; firing smoke and illumination rounds prior to the use of explosive munitions in order to encourage civilian evacuation; and most notably, dropping a small, non-lethal explosive at an unoccupied corner of a structure to provide a ‘knock on the roof’ warning of an impending strike.”
Israel’s military restraint “unintentionally empowered Hamas to distort both law and facts” to the “ultimate detriment of civilians’ safety,” the report stated.
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Attorney warns New Israel Fund against funding BDS, says legal action may follow
(JNS.org) Robert J. Tolchin, a New York-based civil rights lawyer who in 2012 helped a Florida family win a landmark $323 million judgment from Iran and Syria over those countries’ involvement in a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, said he may file legal action against the New Israel Fund (NIF) if the organization fails to confirm that it does not fund boycotts against Israel.
In a letter dated March 12 that was obtained by JNS.org, Tolchin wrote on behalf of The Berkman Law Office, LLC to NIF President Rabbi Brian Lurie, “This letter is a warning that the New Israel Fund should under no circumstances support, publicly or privately, any boycott or similar effort against the Israeli government or the nation’s organizations, academic institutions, corporations or other entities. The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement’s efforts are unlawful racial discrimination on the basis of national origin and/or race, creed and religion under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (‘Anti-Racism Convention’) and numerous U.S. state and federal statutes.”
While the NIF publicly states that it opposes the BDS movement, the organization has come under fire over its funding of anti-Israel and BDS-linked groups such as B’Tselem, Adalah, Shovrim Shtika (Breaking the Silence), Yesh Din, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Rabbis for Human Rights, Machsom Watch, and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel.
“Participants in the BDS movement act with the clear purpose and actual effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise on an equal footing of the human rights and/or fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural fields of those persons and organizations whom they seek to boycott, divest from and sanction,” Tolchin wrote. “A boycott is not protected by the freedom-of-speech language of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because a boycott is not speech, it is action.”
Tolchin urged the NIF “to take no steps to engage in, support or implement any boycott against Israeli agencies, organizations, institutions, academics or any other entities,” and asked the organization to provide The Berkman Law Office with written confirmation of its intention not to fund BDS activities.
“Please also take careful note that in the event of your failure to comply with the above, we reserve the right to take all steps permitted by law to ensure that New Israel Fund is not engaged in funding, promoting or inciting boycotts of the State of Israel or Israeli-based entities, including without limitation filing legal action without further notice,” he wrote.
Some pro-Israel activists have been campaigning for the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York to ban the NIF from the May 31 “Celebrate Israel Parade” in Manhattan, citing NIF’s funding of anti-Israel groups.
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Israeli ambassador aims to bring 100,000 Chinese tourists to Israel
(JNS.org) Israeli Ambassador to China Matan Vilnai said he aims to bring a one-year total of 100,000 Chinese tourists to Israel two years from now.
“My personal goal is 100,000 tourists in Israel in the year 2017,” Vilani said Wednesday.
“That is why we are promoting a process of abolition of visas,” he said, explaining that the process for canceling visa requirements for Chinese citizens traveling to Israel is already underway and is a crucial step in the growth of diplomatic and economic relations between China and Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The announcement comes after Hainan Airlines, which is China’s fourth-largest airline as well as the country’s largest private carrier, said in January that it plans to offer three direct flights per week from Beijing to Tel Aviv beginning in September. The new flights will operate on days during which Israel’s El Al Airlines does not fly along that route.
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman
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