Gaza rocket shatters two-week quiet period in southern Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in an open area near the Yad Mordechai kibbutz in southern Israel on Tuesday night, ending two weeks of quiet in the area.
While no injuries or damage were reported, the rocket launch prompted warning sirens to sound in the southern Israeli communities of Zikim, Karmia, Netiv Haasara, and Yad Mordechai.
Arab media outlets reported that an Islamic State-affiliated Salafi group in Gaza took responsibility for the rocket fire. Later on Tuesday night, the Israeli Air Force struck the launcher in northern Gaza from which the rocket was fired.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, of the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit, said Tuesday’s rocket attack, coming just a day after the publication of the U.N. Human Rights Council report on last year’s Gaza war, was a “reminder of the cynical enemy that Israel faces.”
“#Israelis & #Palestinians alike deserve normal lives, not constant threats. #Hamas are responsible for aggression originating from #Gaza,” Lerner tweeted, referring to the Israeli government’s policy of holding the Gaza-ruling Palestinian terrorist organization accountable for other terror groups’ rocket fire from the coastal enclave.
Over the past month, Salafi terrorists in Gaza have fired several rockets into southern Israel. These rocket attacks appear to be connected to internal disputes in Gaza between the Salafis and Hamas.
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Israel steps up efforts to prevent new Gaza flotilla
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel is increasing efforts to prevent the “Freedom Flotilla III” from leaving Greece for the Gaza Strip, senior government officials said Tuesday. The flotilla evokes memories of the May 2010 incident in which Israeli soldiers were attacked by Turkish militants when they boarded a vessel that sought to break the blockade of Gaza, resulting in clashes that killed nine Turks and led to the deterioration of Israeli-Turkish relations.
The flotilla is headed by the Marianne of Gothenburg, a Scandinavian boat, which has so far traveled from Sweden through the waters of Norway, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, before arriving in Greece on Sunday. It plans to set sail to Gaza on Wednesday and is supposed to be joined by at least two other boats along the way, making up a flotilla. Organizers claim the ship seeks to deliver medical equipment and solar panels to Gaza.
Israel’s Channel 2 reported Monday that the Israeli Navy said it would intercept the flotilla should it attempt the breach the maritime blockade of Gaza. Israel is pursuing various ways to prevent the flotilla and has appealed to the countries whose flags the boats are sailing under, in order to clarify that their nationals are intentionally heading to a conflict zone.
While Israel will not allow any vessel to reach Gaza’s shores, it has no issue with the delivery of humanitarian aid, as long as the shipments are first inspected to ensure that they do not contain equipment that can be used by the terrorist groups operating out of the coastal enclave.
Israeli Foreign Ministry Director General Dr. Dore Gold sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in protest of the flotilla, writing that it “may have dangerous ramifications, with the sole purpose of creating a provocation that would be in violation of international law.”
“The maritime blockade was imposed as a legitimate defense measure to prevent weapons from [arriving] in the Strip by sea, and its implementation meets international law requirements,” Gold wrote. “Unfortunately, the blockade proved necessary given terrorist organizations’ attempts to smuggle weapons [into Gaza] and harm Israeli civilians. Israel has a basic obligation to protect its citizens and prevent weapons from reaching Gaza terrorists.”
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NGOs cited in U.N. Gaza report barred from Israeli national volunteer program
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Uri Ariel has instructed Israel’s National Civic Service Authority, which he oversees, to bar two left-wing nongovernmental organizations that were cited in the recently published U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) report on last year’s Gaza war from the Jewish state’s national service program.
The program offers alternative, voluntary service options for those who are unable to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. The NGOs barred from the program include B’Tselem, which was cited in the report 72 times, and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, quoted four times in the report, with each organization contributing significantly to the report’s accusation that Israel possibly committed war crimes in Gaza. Each group currently has four slots in the service program.
“The very essence of the national service program is to serve the State of Israel,” Ariel said on Tuesday. “I will not abide, under any circumstances, to a delusional reality in which Israel funds the positions of youth that undermine [Israel’s] soldiers.”
Member of Knesset Zehava Gal-On, the leader of Israel’s far-left Meretz party, called the decision “an underhanded trick meant to silence those who don’t toe the [Israeli] government’s line.”
Earlier this week, Anne Herzberg—legal advisor for the NGO Monitor watchdog organization—said that the UNHRC report on Gaza “would be entirely different without the baseless and unverifiable allegations of non-governmental organizations.”
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Zionist Union MK meets with Palestinian Authority’s Mahmoud Abbas
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Member of Knesset Zoher Behalul (Zionist Union) met Tuesday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Abbas told Behalul that he was still committed to the two-state solution, but claimed that the Israeli government was at fault for the lack of peace talks.
“Israel has neglected the diplomatic process and instead prefers frozen negotiations,” Abbas said.
Behalul said the Zionist Union political party—a merger of the Labor and Hatnuah parties ahead of March’s Israeli Knesset election—was also dedicated to the two-state solution, and that it would work hard to bring about a resumption of the peace process.
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Netanyahu visits grave of fallen brother
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) “Yoni, my beloved brother, hero of Israel, I miss you every day,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday at a memorial ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem that marked the 39th anniversary of the death of Lt. Col. Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, the Sayeret Matkal (IDF General Staff Reconnaissance Unit) commander who was killed during the famous Entebbe counterterrorist hostage-rescue operation in 1976.
Tuesday’s ceremony was attended by the prime minister, his wife Sara, and his brother Iddo, as well as other members of the Netanyahu family. Also present were Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, and many other political and defense officials.
Benjamin and Iddo Netanyahu recited the mourner’s prayer over the grave of their late older brother. Mossad intelligence agency chief Tamir Pardo, who was Yoni Netanyahu’s radio operator during the Entebbe operation, spoke at the ceremony, as did Sara Guter Davidson, one of the hostages freed at Entebbe.
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Israeli Embassy teams with Filipino foundation to launch tech start-up contest
(JNS.org) The Israeli Embassy in the Philippines has teamed up with the Filipino foundation IdeaSpace to organize a contest that will select one local start-up company to attend the DLD Tel Aviv Digital Conference in Israel later this year.
In its second year, the DLD Tel Aviv Digital Conference has already achieved international recognition as one of the largest hi-tech gatherings in the world. The conference brings together venture capital funds, investors, inventors, and other leaders of the tech industry to showcase start-ups. This year’s conference is scheduled for Sept. 6-12.
Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Effie Ben Matityau told the Manila Times that Israel has long had a “special relationship” with the Asian country, which took in Jewish refugees in the 1930s and voted for the Jewish state’s establishment in the United Nations in 1948, and that the sponsorship of a Filipino start-up is one way to say “thank you” to the Filipino people.
Matityau added that he “hopes that the company which will be given the opportunity to attend the conference will bring home lessons from Israel and truly become a valuable asset in the Philippines in the future.”
IdeaSpace is a Philippines-based non-profit foundation that seeks to help technology entrepreneurs developing their ideas and innovations into successful businesses.
“This is a great opportunity for Philippine startups to once again shine in the global stage,” said Earl Valencia, president and co-founder of IdeaSpace. “Tel Aviv is a city that’s brimming with innovation, and the Philippine startups representative to this conference stands to gain a lot of insights, possibly investments, as the world of startups converges during this week-long event.”
In order to apply for the competition, participants must be from the Philippines and need to have a revenue less than $30,000, a raise investment of less than $100,000, and at least one working prototype, according to the application. Applicants must also produce a two-minute-long video pitch about their start-up and what they hope to gain from the conference.
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Saudis believe Iran shipped nuclear equipment to Sudan in 2012
(JNS.org) Diplomats from Saudi Arabia believe that Iran shipped nuclear equipment to Sudan in 2012 just months before a mysterious explosion in the African country that many believe was linked to Israel, new WikiLeaks documents revealed.
“The embassy’s sources advised that Iranian containers arrived this week at Khartoum airport containing sensitive technical equipment in the form of fast centrifuges for enriching uranium, and a second shipment is expected to arrive this week,” said the document, dated February 2012 and marked “very secret,” Reuters reported.
The leaked Saudi cable is part of 70,000 classified Saudi government files that were released last week by WikiLeaks, which says it plans to release about half a million documents in total.
In October 2012, just eight months after the Saudi cable, a Sudanese munitions factory was destroyed in a mysterious explosion that Sudanese officials blamed on Israel. But Israel has never claimed responsibility for the attack, and it is unclear if that site contained any nuclear material.
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Poll: 91% of Americans would vote for Jewish presidential candidate
(JNS.org) A new Gallup poll shows that 91 percent of Americans would vote for a Jewish presidential candidate, more than the 73 percent who indicated they would vote for an Evangelical Christian or the 60 percent who said they would vote for a Muslim. Fifty-eight percent said they would vote for an atheist.
The poll findings were determined from telephone interviews conducted with 1,527 individuals ages 18 and up from June 2-7. The large number of respondents who said they would vote for a Jewish candidate, though equivalent to the figure determined in the same poll conducted in 2012, is notable because in 1937 fewer than half of Americans surveyed indicated as much.
The willingness to vote for a Jewish candidate was also broken down among Democratic and Republican voters in the survey. Ninety-two percent of Democrats and 95 percent of Republicans said they would vote for a Jewish candidate. A larger discrepancy was seen between the parties when it came to other faiths. Sixty-six percent of Democrats and 84 percent of Republicans said they would vote for an Evangelical candidate. Seventy-three percent of Democrats and 45 percent of Republicans said they would vote for a Muslim candidate.
In addition to a high number reporting they would vote for a Jewish candidate, 92 percent said they would vote for a black candidate and/or a woman. Seventy-four percent would vote for an LGBT candidate, and 47 percent would vote for a socialist candidate.
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As U.N. vote looms, Israel to launch diplomatic push against human rights body
(JNS.org) Ahead of a vote in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on whether or not to officially recognize Monday’s U.N. report that alleges possible war crimes by both Israel and Hamas during last summer’s Gaza conflict, Israel is launching a diplomatic effort to eliminate the automatic Arab majority in the UNHRC, a situation Israeli officials say makes the UNHRC systematically biased against the Jewish state.
The UNHRC is expected to vote in favor of adopting the report due to a voting bloc within the organization that consistently sides with Arab nations. Israel will be launching a public relations campaign, largely through social media, to oppose the report and promote the message that the behavior of the Israel Defense Forces during the Gaza war was “according to the highest international standards.” In addition, pro-Israel groups are organizing a protest outside U.N. headquarters in New York City next Monday, when the report will be discussed by the UNHRC in Geneva prior to the vote.
“They (the UNHRC) are aware that they don’t have enough information for an indictment [against Israel]. What’s disturbing is that it (the report) puts Israel and Hamas on the same weighing scale. There’s no doubt that this harms Israel’s image,” Israeli Foreign Ministry officials said, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
Israel did not cooperate with the U.N.’s probe into the Gaza war, but if it had done so, the result would have been the same “and maybe even worse,” said a senior Israeli source.
“Their investigation does not cross the threshold into criminal investigation and therefore they did not discuss individuals. The entire report stands on chicken legs because they didn’t have access to the field,” the source added.
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Netanyahu condemns Druze mob killing of wounded Syrian in Golan Heights
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the mob killing of a wounded Syrian fighter in Israel’s Golan Heights on Monday and appealed to the Druze community for calm.
The attack occurred in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on Monday, when an Israel Defense Forces ambulance was carrying two wounded Syrian fighters to a hospital for treatment. A mob of about 150 people threw rocks at the escort, which killed one of the injured men and lightly injured two Israeli soldiers.
“I view this with utmost gravity. We will not allow anyone to take the law into their hands,” Netanyahu said during a speech at a cybersecurity conference in Tel Aviv. “We will not allow anyone to hinder IDF soldiers in their mission. We will locate those who perpetrated this lynching and we will deal with them to the fullest extent of the law.”
The mob killing was Monday’s second attack on an IDF ambulance carrying wounded Syrian fighters. Earlier, an IDF ambulance in the northern Druze Israeli town of Hurfeish was attacked by a mob, with no injuries reported.
Israel’s Druze community has recently been upset regarding the Jewish state’s policy of treating wounded Syrian fighters, some of whom may be part of jihadist rebel groups who are threatening Druze villages in Syria. This is especially true in the Golan Heights, where many Druze have elected not to take Israeli citizenship and remain loyal to the Syrian government.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli Druze officials believe Hezbollah terrorist Samir Kuntar, who is Lebanese Druze, has been responsible for inciting violence among the Druze community in the Golan Heights.
Druze leaders have also appealed for calm and have condemned any attack on an IDF ambulance as a terrorist act.
“Whoever attacks an IDF vehicle is a terrorist, and the attack was a terrorist act,” Israeli Druze leader Salman Amar said.
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.