BDS supporter refuses to have his Hillary Clinton book translated into Hebrew
(JNS.org) An Israeli publisher seeking to purchase the rights to a book about Hillary Clinton’s presidential race was denied due to the author’s support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Israel Hayom reported.
The New York-based publishing house Or Books had recently approach Eitan Singer, head of the Israeli Probook-Dyonon Publishing House, and suggested he bid for the translation rights to Doug Henwood’s book “My Turn: Hillary Clinton Targets the Presidency.”
Singer jumped at the chance, but a day later he received an apologetic email from Or Books Publisher John Oakes, informing him that Henwood refused to sell the rights to an Israeli publication because of his support for the BDS movement.
Singer told Israel Hayom, “Boycotts, silencing people, or refusing to acknowledge different opinions go against the very nature of the publishing world. Freedom of expression trumps everything.”
Henwood, 63, is a journalist, economic analyst, author, and radio personality, as well as a contributing editor with the progressive weekly The Nation. His book, whose controversial cover features an illustration of Clinton holding a gun, tries to debunk the Democratic hopeful’s campaign promises.
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New Israeli medical guidelines may see terrorists treated before victims
(JNS.org) New guidelines announced Tuesday by the Israel Medical Association (IMA) may dramatically change the way paramedics treat wounded individuals following terrorist attacks, potentially prioritizing terrorists over victims.
The directive, issued by the IMA’s Ethics Committee, effectively changes existing triage guidelines. Under the current directive, patients are not to be prioritized solely on the basis of injury severity but also on the principle of “charity begins at home,” meaning treating the victims of a terrorist attack before the terrorist himself, even if it appears the attacker’s wounds are more serious.
Under the revised directive, patients are to be prioritized on the basis of medical considerations only. This means first responders may face situations where they must treat a terrorist before tending to the victims.
Rav Yuval Cherlow, head of the Ethics Committee of Israel’s Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, criticized the new guidelines.
“In all cases of terrorist attacks, the medical teams should treat the victims and only thereafter the attacker,” Cherlow told JNS.org. “Only in those instances where there is confusion to the extent that it cannot be easily determined who is the terrorist and who is the victim should the medics choose to first treat the most heavily injured.”
The IMA’s Ethics Committee is the only body in Israel authorized to set the ethical standards for medical care, and medical and other emergency personnel on all levels are bound by its guidelines.
“Doctors are not judges….It’s very easy to make mistakes when dealing with a mass-casualty event, and a doctor at the scene cannot be expected to pinpoint victims’ identity—he has to focus on saving as many lives as possible,” IMA Ethics Director Tammy Karni told Israel Hayom on Tuesday. “It’s unfair to burden doctors with additional triage criteria that have nothing to do with patients’ welfare.”
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Responding to Kerry, Netanyahu says Palestinians to blame for stalemate
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry criticized Israeli policies in an interview with The New Yorker, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that it is the Palestinians, not Israel, who are at fault for the current diplomatic stalemate.
“It is time that the international community understands that the reason there are no negotiations and no progress toward peace is not because of Israel, it is because of the Palestinians,” Netanyahu said in Beersheba.
“Repeated, multiple polls in the Palestinian Authority have demonstrated that 75 percent of the [Palestinian] public rejects the two-state solution and about 80 percent condone stabbing attacks [targeting Israelis],” he said, adding that those numbers are “not surprising since [Palestinian Authority President] Mahmoud Abbas continuously persists in inciting and spreading untrue propaganda about Al-Aqsa [Mosque] and untrue propaganda about [Israeli] executions [of Palestinians] and rejecting any genuine attempt to negotiate.”
In a profile of Kerry in The New Yorker, the secretary of state wondered about the future character of Israel.
“Will it be a democracy? Will it be a Jewish state? Or will it be a unitary state with two systems, or some draconian treatment of Palestinians, because to let them vote would be to dilute the Jewish state? I don’t know,” Kerry said. “But the problem is, neither do they (the Israelis). Neither do the people who are supposed to be providing answers to this. It is not an answer to simply continue to build in the West Bank and to destroy the homes of the other folks you’re trying to make peace with and pretend that that’s a solution.”
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Israel ranked 18th globally in U.N. Human Development Index
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel has secured the No. 18 ranking in this year’s Human Development Index, a United Nations tool measuring world economies based on a number of parameters related to quality of life. This year, Israel came out ahead of Japan (20), Belgium (21), France (22), Austria (23), Finland (24), Slovenia (25), Spain (26), and Italy (27).
The country that earned the top ranking for its quality of life was Norway, followed by Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Ireland, the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore.
Many of the countries ranked below Israel have a per capita gross domestic product that is higher than Israel’s. According to the index, for example, the per capita GDP in Israel stands at $30,600, compared to Belgium, with $41,200. The index also examines the number of years of education, the number of infant mortalities during birth, and the number of years of education predicted for children of the next generation.
The countries ranked last on the index were Nigeria, followed by other African countries like Eritrea (186), Chad (185), and Burundi (184). Most Middle East nations were not given high rankings, with Egypt at 108 on the index, Jordan at 80, and Lebanon at 67. Iran was ranked 69th. The Palestinian Authority, considered a country by the U.N., was ranked 113th, between Paraguay and Uzbekistan.
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Hamas funding Islamic State fighters in the Sinai
(JNS.org) The Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas has reportedly been funding the Islamic State terror group’s branch in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in exchange for help with smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is reportedly paying the Islamic State fighters for shipments of explosive propellant material that Hamas needs in order to make rockets, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
The most recent report on Hamas’s cooperation with Islamic State in the Sinai comes after a report that the commander of Islamic State terrorist forces in the Sinai Peninsula, Shadi al-Menei, was secretly meeting with Gaza-based Hamas leaders in early December in order to grow their cooperation to launch more attacks against Egypt and Israel.
Al-Menei and leaders of Hamas’s “military wing” were reportedly 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.
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Egyptian jets using Israeli airspace to target Islamic State fighters
(JNS.org) Egyptian Air Force planes have purportedly been using Israeli airspace to carry out attacks against Islamic State terrorist fighters in the Sinai Peninsula.
According to a report by Yedioth Ahronoth, the Egyptian warplanes, likely with Israeli permission, have carried out several bombing missions in recent months mostly in the triangular border area between Israeli territory, Egypt, and the southern Gaza Strip.
Under the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, Israel must agree to allow Egyptian military forces to operate in the Sinai Peninsula. While over the last few years Israel has permitted Egyptian forces in the Sinai to combat the Islamic State fighters, use of Israeli airspace by Egyptian warplanes is unprecedented.
The Islamic State recently released a video directly threatening attacks against Israel, including singling out Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF soldiers.
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U.S. judge orders review of Jonathan Pollard’s parole restrictions
(JNS.org) A U.S. judge has ordered a federal commission to review and explain why it has imposed strict parole restrictions for Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who was released in November after serving 30 years in prison for spying.
Judge Katherine Forrest of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan ordered the U.S. Parole Commission to further review Pollard’s case.
“There is a fundamental issue which the court believes informs its review,” Forrest said. “And that is the question as to whether there is anything that Mr. Pollard can disclose that will endanger the public.”
Under the terms of Pollard’s release, he must wear an ankle monitor, have a 7 p.m. curfew, and have his computer usage monitored. Pollard’s attorneys have argued that these restrictions interfere with his ability to find a job and to observe Shabbat.
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Fatah cartoon claims U.S. supports Israel ‘executing’ Palestinian children
(JNS.org) The Information and Culture Commission of the Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestinian Fatah faction this week posted a cartoon portraying Israel and the United States as terrorist entities who carry out and support executions of innocent Palestinian children, according to Palestinian Media Watch.
The cartoon on the Fatah-affiliated website—titled “Summary executions!”—shows an Israeli soldier pointing a gun to the head of a Palestinian child who is blindfolded and on his knees, next to another blindfolded child who is lying on the ground after being shot in the head. To the left, an American soldier hovers over another two blindfolded Palestinian children and reads a piece of paper aloud—similar to how terrorists read statements to justify executions. The American and Israeli flags are hanging behind the soldiers, illustrating the cartoon’s claim that those countries support the murder of innocent Palestinians.
According to Palestinian Media Watch, the cartoon is the latest example of how Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (which is also headed by Abbas) promote the conspiracy theories that Israel performs field executions of Palestinian children and that all terrorists killed by Israel during the current terror wave are “innocent victims.”
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U.N. nuclear watchdog to end 12-year investigation of Iran
(JNS.org) The International Atomy Energy Agency (IAEA) on Tuesday was set to end its 12-year investigation into Iran’s nuclear weapons program, leading the way for sanctions to be lifted and normalized international relations with Iran to resume.
“While it was not possible for the agency to reconstruct all the details of activities conducted by Iran in the past, we were able to clarify enough elements to provide an assessment of the whole picture,” said Yukiya Amano, director of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.
The investigation’s closure comes despite the fact that earlier this month, the IAEA published a report revealing that Tehran did indeed have a nuclear weapons program at least through 2003. Iran has publicly denied the existence of a weapons program, claiming that its nuclear program has peaceful purposes. Amano said Iran’s weaponization activities were focused on scientific studies and obtaining “certain relevant technical competencies and capabilities.”
In July, the P5+1 powers (including the United States) agreed on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—a deal to restrict Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of at least $100 billion in economic sanctions.
“Significant progress has been made on the Iran nuclear issue, but now is not the time to relax,” Amano said. “This issue has a long and complex history, and the legacy of mistrust between Iran and the international community must be overcome.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said in a statement that it “deplores” the IAEA’s decision to close the probe into an Iranian nuclear weapons program.
“The IAEA is closing this file even after discovering further suspicious evidence and experiencing additional Iranian obstinacy,” AIPAC said. “The IAEA could have recommended delaying Implementation Day until Iran demonstrated substantial compliance with its obligation to explain its past illicit nuclear activities. This decision to whitewash the past represents an inauspicious beginning to the implementation process of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”
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U.N. criticizes Israel for ‘excessive use of force’ against terrorists
(JNS.org) The United Nations on Tuesday called the wave of Palestinian terror attacks in recent months “unacceptable,” but criticized Israel for the “excessive use of force” in its self-defense against terrorism.
“The unacceptable wave of stabbings, shootings, and car-rammings continues to kill and injure Israelis,” said Cecile Pouilly, a spokeswoman for the U.N. Human Rights Office. “[But] the response from Israeli security forces has resulted in alleged attackers, protesters, and even bystanders being killed and injured.”
Pouilly’s comments mirror Sweden’s recent criticism of Israel. Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said this month that Israel has “the right to defend itself,” but that the response could not be “extrajudicial executions” or a reaction that was “disproportionate,” with the “number of dead on the other side greater than the original death toll by several factors.”
On Tuesday, Pouilly said that “all instances of the use of force resulting in death or injury by law enforcement officers should be the subject of prompt, independent, and impartial investigations.”
The U.N. has been known for its disproportionate amount of resolutions criticizing Israel over time.
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Netanyahu launches plan to barricade Jerusalem bus stops over terrorism
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced that concrete barriers will be placed in front of 300 bus stops in Jerusalem as protection against terrorism.
Following a consultation with Israeli Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Netanyahu instructed the officials to fortify the capital’s public transportation stations, which have increasingly been the scene of Palestinian car-ramming terror attacks.
Last year, similar barriers were placed in front of bus stops and light rail stations in Jerusalem as well as Judea and Samaria during a spate of vehicular attacks.
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Palestinian attacks 2 Israeli colleagues at construction site in Modi’in
(JNS.org) A 39-year-old Palestinian man on Tuesday used a hammer to attack two Israeli colleagues—a construction site manager and a co-worker—in Modi’in, an Israeli city situated between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
One victim was seriously wounded and the second was moderately wounded. Construction workers managed to subdue the Palestinian attacker until police arrested him. The attacker is being questioned on suspicion of terror motives.
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman