German president: no one can negate Israel’s right to defend itself
(JNS.org) Visiting Israel to mark the ongoing 50th anniversary of the establishment of German-Israeli diplomatic relations, German President Joachim Gauck met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday in Jerusalem.
During the meeting, Netanyahu emphasized “the uniqueness of the [Israel-Germany] bilateral relationship, which is characterized by a tragic [Holocaust] past alongside a constant view toward the future and the continued deepening of cooperation based on the two countries’ shared values,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Gauck highlighted Israel’s right to defend itself.
“The German government will time and again state that it is important that the relationship between us will go on and that no one, neither today nor in the future, could negate Israel’s right to defend itself and its very existence,” he said at a press conference.
*
Israel’s national deficit drops 46% so far in 2015
(JNS.org) Israel’s national deficit between January and November 2015 was $2 billion—46 percent lower than the level for the same period last year, the Israeli Finance Ministry said Sunday.
According to the ministry’s figures, the deficit for the past 12 months has been about 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), a particularly low figure. The deficit target for 2015-16 had been set at 2.9 percent of the GDP.
Barring any unexpected economic turbulence in December, Israel’s final deficit for 2015 is likely to be significantly lower than the $8.2 billion forecast for this year.
*
Netanyahu rejects Kerry’s assertion that Israel headed for ‘one-state reality’
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rebuffed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s assertion that Israel is headed for “a one-state reality” in the absence of a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Kerry had said at the Saban Forum in Washington, DC, “Current trends are leading [toward] a one-state reality…The one-state solution is no solution at all for a secure, Jewish, democratic Israel living in peace. It is simply not a viable option.”
Netanyahu said a day later, “I want to make it clear—Israel will not become a binational state.”
“For there to be peace, the other side will have to decide it wants peace. Unfortunately, that is not what we are seeing,” he said, noting how chief Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat recently paid a condolence visit to the family of a terrorist who tried to kill Jews, “thereby giving encouragement and support for terrorist actions.”
*
Israeli defense minister: U.S. ‘can’t sit on the fence’ in Islamic State fight
(JNS.org) America “can’t sit on the fence with regard to the Middle East” and the Islamic State terror group, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Friday at the Saban Forum in Washington, DC.
“Unfortunately in the current situation, Russia is playing the most significant role, then the United States,” Ya’alon said. “We don’t like the fact that King Abdullah of Jordan is going to Moscow. Egyptians are going to Moscow. The Saudis are going to Moscow. This should have been very different. This is a global challenge [and] I believe the United States should be the leader of the Western world in order to meet this challenge. If you sit on the fence the vacuum is filled and Syria is an example, whether by Iran or the Shi’a axes supported now by Russia, or by ISIS.”
While it is desirable “to avoid Western boots on the ground on one hand,” it isn’t possible to defeat Islamic State “without boots on the ground,” added Ya’alon.
*
Swedish FM accuses Israel of ‘extrajudicial executions’ of Palestinians
(JNS.org) Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom sparked outrage in Israel on Friday when she accused the Jewish state of carrying out extrajudicial executions of Palestinian terrorists.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling Wallstrom’s comment “scandalous, delusional, rude, and detached from reality.”
“The [Swedish] foreign minister suggests that Israeli citizens simply give their necks to the murderers trying to stab them with knives,” the Israeli Foreign Ministry said. “The citizens of Israel and its security forces have the right to defend themselves. In Israel, every person who commits a crime is brought in front of a judge, including terrorists.”
Wallstrom made her comments while addressing the Swedish parliament to respond to claims made by three fellow lawmakers that Swedish foreign policy was pro-Palestinian and discriminatory against Israel. According to the Swedish newspaper Expressen, Wallstrom was asked in the Swedish parliament by Liberal MP Mathias Sundin why she has not condemned the recent wave of Palestinian terrorism in Israel in similarly strong terms.
Wallstrom responded that Israel has “the right to defend itself,” but that the response could not be “extrajudicial executions” or a “disproportionate” reaction.
Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Isaac Bachman told Expressen, “To focus on the actions terrorism victims take in self-defense only serves to draw attention away from the horrors of terrorism. Instead, we should condemn and act to stop the perpetrators, the financiers and the inciters of terrorism.”
*
Islamic State Sinai leader reportedly meeting with Hamas in Gaza
(JNS.org) The commander of Islamic State terrorist forces in the Sinai Peninsula, Shadi al-Menei, is reportedly secretly meeting with Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip in order to grow their cooperation to launch more attacks against Egypt and Israel.
According to the report by Israel’s Channel 2, al-Menei and leaders of Hamas’s “military wing” are discussing the ongoing supply of weapons sought by Hamas, which governs Gaza. Hamas has also supplied Islamic State with weapons, including Cornet anti-tank missiles, that have been used against the Egyptian military.
Al-Menei is the founder of the Sinai terror group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which later pledged allegiance to Islamic State and is now referred to as the jihadist group’s Sinai affiliate. The group has waged a bloody insurrection against the Egyptian government led by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
In addition to battling Egyptian forces, al-Menei has been behind a number of terror attacks against Israel, including rocket fire on the southern Israeli city of Eilat and a 2011 terrorist attack that targeted an Israeli bus as well as military vehicles that killed six Israeli civilians, two soldiers, and several Egyptian soldiers.
*
Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.