Palestinians freed in Shalit deal planning terror attacks against Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Dozens of former Palestinian security prisoners released as part of the Gilad Shalit deal are trying to form new terrorist cells in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, with the purpose of carrying out suicide attacks against Israelis, senior Palestinian sources warned Thursday.
The 2011 prisoner exchange that secured the return of Shalit, a captive of the Hamas terror group, saw 1,027 Palestinian prisoners released. The majority of them were expelled to Turkey and Gaza, but it seems that they are now trying to regain a foothold in Judea and Samaria.
According to a Palestinian source, the driving force behind these attempts is senior Hamas operative Salah al-Aruri, who was released in the deal and is based in Istanbul. Al-Aruri’s efforts are rumored to have the backing of the heads of Hamas’s “military wing,” the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
The exiled terrorist has reportedly recruited several former prisoners to serve as cell leaders, and they are recruiting Palestinians for their terrorist squads. The operation is said to be compartmentalized—each cell leader has a different handler, either in Turkey or in Gaza, leaving them oblivious to each other’s efforts on the ground.
Hamas sources said that since al-Aruri’s operations are funded by Qatar-based Muslim Brotherhood supporters, he is actually creating a new terror group with its own agenda, independent of Hamas.
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Israelis barred from entering Jordan with Jewish ritual objects
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A Jewish family from Jerusalem that wanted to tour Jordan informed the Israeli Foreign Ministry that when they were about to enter the country via the Yitzhak Rabin Border Terminal near Eilat, they were asked to remove their yarmulkes and leave them with the Jordanian guards.
Another Israeli who crossed the border the same day was asked not to bring his tefillin (prayer phylacteries) with him. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said in response to the claims that the ministry would discuss the incidents in which “ritual objects were confiscated from Israelis by Jordanian police.”
Nahshon said that “one option that will be examined is to hold a friendly conversation with the Jordanian ambassador.” The events are the latest in a string of similar incidents in which Jordan prevented Israelis from carrying Jewish ritual objects such as tefillin, prayer shawls, and yarmulkes into the country.
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Former IDF soldier jailed for giving enemy classified intelligence
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A military court convicted a former Israel Defense Forces soldier of divulging classified information and aiding and abetting the enemy, in a case pertaining to military activity on the Israel-Syria border.
The defendant, Cpl. Halal Halabi, a former Armored Corps soldier from the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel in northern Israel, was charged with leaking classified information about IDF activity on the northern border—sensitive intelligence that could potentially harm Israel’s national security. He was sentenced to 34 months in prison and demoted to the rank of private.
The court ruled that Halabi’s actions constitute a breach of trust, noting that even if he did not intend to undermine state security, he should have known the inherent danger of his actions.
“The security and law enforcement mechanisms in the IDF will continue to take severe action against anyone who abuses their position to and jeopardizes state security,” the military said in a statement.
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Arab-Israeli political leader refuses to address meeting of U.S. Jewish groups
(JNS.org) Ayman Odeh—leader of the Joint Arab List, the Israeli Knesset’s alliance of Arab political parties—on Thursday refused to address a meeting of an umbrella body representing 50 American Jewish organizations because the meeting was held at premises shared by the Jewish Agency for Israel and other “Zionist entities.”
“We received several suggestions that MK Ayman Odeh be invited and, in keeping with the Conference’s decades-long tradition of providing a forum for a wide variety of points of view on issues affecting the American Jewish community’s agenda, we extended the invitation,” said Stephen Greenberg, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice president, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “We have had leaders of virtually every faction and party in the United States, Israel, from friendly and unfriendly countries, and none ever refused to appear. For a member of the Knesset to assert that he will not enter a premises because it has an association with Zionist entities, like the Jewish Agency, is disturbing and dismaying.
Representatives of a broad spectrum of organizations came to hear him and were rightly upset by his decision not to appear, although he was in the building lobby.”
The Conference of Presidents added, “We hope MK Odeh will reconsider his stance if he, indeed, wants to advance coexistence in Israel and promote understanding abroad.”
Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency, called it “unfortunate that members of Knesset from the Joint List are more interested in scoring cheap and expedient political points than they are in advancing the wellbeing of their communities.”
“Thousands of Arab-Israeli families enjoy a range of Jewish Agency programs, including our Youth Futures mentorship program, which has placed a particular emphasis on schoolchildren in Israel’s Arab community; Masa Israel Journey and Project TEN, which run programs focused on Arab-Jewish coexistence and on serving underprivileged Arab citizens of Israel; and an innovative Jewish Agency high school opened just this year for Bedouin youth in the Negev,” Sharansky said.
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New network of academics to provide resources for opposing BDS on campus
(JNS.org) A newly formed network of academics will work to support Israel and oppose the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state on American college campuses.
Launched this week, the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) says its group of faculty members and administrators will “anticipate and address anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activities as they arise, counteract the BDS movement, and maintain constructive ties with those on other campuses who are confronting similar challenges.” Additionally, AEN members intend to facilitate “reasoned discourse about Israel on campuses, while protecting and nurturing the exercise of academic freedom and freedom of expression.”
The network’s first project will be the publication of a resource guide titled “Academic Freedom and BDS: A Guide for University Presidents and Administrators,” slated to be released next month.
“In the face of activities aimed at vilifying Israel, AEN members aim to stir robust discussions relating to Israel on campus, promote and protect academic freedom and freedom of expression, stand for human rights for Arabs and Jews, and engage colleagues and students to better understand complex issues,” Mark G. Yudof, president emeritus of the 10-campus University of California system and chairs the AEN board of advisors, said in a statement.
“College students as well as faculty and administrators are often uncertain how best to respond to BDS efforts,” added Ken Waltzer, AEN’s executive director. “Network members will have access to advice, materials, resources, and best practices elsewhere to assist them to respond constructively to BDS and related initiatives on campus.”
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Polish security experts help Israel fight Palestinian terror
(JNS.org) Twenty leading security experts from Poland are helping Israel fight Palestinian terrorist attacks.
City Security, one of Poland’s largest security companies, paid $25,000 to cover the costs of some of its top experts who are volunteering in the Israeli Border Police patrol in Jerusalem, according to Jonny Daniels, founder of “From the Depths,” an organization that promotes Israeli-Polish relations.
Benjamin Krasicki, president of City Security, in October offered to send 100 of the company’s security guards to Israel at his own expense. October alone saw 620 terrorist attacks against Israelis, according to the Shin Bet security agency. Overall, the ongoing “stabbing intifada” has seen nearly 3,000 attacks committed by Palestinians, according to Israeli-compiled statistics.
“As Polish citizens, we have unfortunately seen too many attacks against Jews in our history and know that it starts with you and ends with us, as we have seen in the Holocaust,” Krasicki wrote in his offer letter to Israeli Interior Minister Gilad Erdan.
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Vatican declaration on Christian-Jewish ties ‘repudiates’ replacement theology
(JNS.org) The Vatican issued an unprecedented declaration that the Jewish people are part of God’s salvation without explicitly confessing Christ as their savior, in a document that includes other changes in Catholic Church teachings related to Christian-Jewish relations.
On Thursday, the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews presented the “A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations” document during a press conference at the Vatican to mark the 50th anniversary of the “Nostra Aetate” declaration, which was another watershed moment in Jewish-Christian ties.
Even though Catholics believe that there is only one path to salvation, the new document states that “it does not in any way follow that the Jews are excluded from God’s salvation because they do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of Israel and the Son of God.”
“That the Jews are participants in God’s salvation is theologically unquestionable, but how that can be possible without confessing Christ explicitly is, and remains, an unfathomable divine mystery,” the document says.
According to the document, Jews are Catholics’ “elder brothers” and “fathers in faith.” Catholics, it states, should reject institutional activities that try to convert Jews, but can “in a humble and sensitive manner” bear witness “to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews.”
Rabbi David Rosen—the American Jewish Committee’s international director of interreligious affairs—said that while Nostra Aetate “revolutionized Catholic teachings about Jews and Judaism,” the new “Reflection on Theological Questions” document “clearly repudiates replacement or supersessionist theology, and expresses an increasing appreciation and respect for Jewish self-understanding, reflected in recognizing the place of Torah in the life of the Jewish people.”
Rosen, however, expressed disappointment that the new document fails to address “the centrality that the Land of Israel plays in the historic and contemporary religious life of the Jewish people.”
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National Jewish community relations umbrella names new CEO
(JNS.org) The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), an umbrella organization representing 125 Jewish community relations councils (JCRCs) across the United States, this week named David Bernstein as its next president and CEO.
Bernstein is the former executive director of The David Project, which works to improve Israel’s image on American college campuses. He also spent three-plus years on the staff of the JCRC of Greater Washington, working on community and government relations for a community of 60,000 Jews living in northern Virginia.
“David is an experienced change leader and manager,” Susan W. Turnbull, chair of the JCPA’s board, said in a statement. “He will help us navigate the vast changes taking place in the Jewish world and American society.”
“I couldn’t be more honored,” Bernstein said. “This is the culmination of decades of work advancing Jewish interests and values, and a more inclusive American society.”
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