Prime Minister’s Office: Martin Indyk fabricated conversation with Netanyahu
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Former U.S. Middle East envoy Martin Indyk lied twice about a supposed conversation he had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the funeral of assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, a Prime Minister’s Office official said Wednesday.
The spat involving Indyk began following the airing of a PBS“Frontline” program about Netanyahu on Jan. 5. In an interview for the program, Indyk referred to a conversation he claimed he had with Netanyahu at Rabin’s funeral. Rabin was assassinated on Nov. 4, 1995, in Tel Aviv by a right-wing Jewish extremist. At the time, Indyk was the U.S. ambassador to Israel and Netanyahu was the Likud party leader as well as head of the Israeli opposition.
Indyk told PBS, “Netanyahu sat next to me when I was ambassador in Israel at the time of Rabin’s funeral. I remember Netanyahu saying to me: ‘Look, look at this. He’s a hero now, but if he had not been assassinated, I would have beaten him in the elections, and then he would have gone into history as a failed politician.’”
In response to that comment, the Prime Minister’s Office issued a blanket denial on Wednesday, saying the conversation described by Indyk “never happened.”
A video of the funeral showed that Indyk was not sitting next to Netanyahu. Indyk tweeted later on Wednesday, “The conversation w Bibi took place on Nov 5/95 when we sat together at the Knesset ceremony to receive Rabin’s coffin to lie in state.”
This prompted the Prime Minister’s Office to issue another denial.
“After the first lying version was refuted, Indyk made up a second version, which was also a lie,” a Prime Minister’s Office statement said. “The prime minister never said the things Indyk attributed to him.”
A Likud statement said, “This is another blatant lie by Indyk, who never stops slandering and defaming the prime minister.”
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Police believe Tel Aviv terrorist also murdered cab driver
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Police believe the Dizengoff Street shooting attack that killed two Israelis and injured seven in Tel Aviv on Jan. 1 is linked to the murder of Arab cab driver Ayman Shaaban, who was found dead less than an hour later, according to information revealed following the partial lift of a Shin Bet security agency gag order on the case.
On Tuesday, when Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh visited the home of Tel Aviv attack victim Alon Bakal’s family to offer his condolences, he made comments tying the two incidents together. Police believe Arab gunman Nashat Milhem shot the cab driver to death after attempting to catch a ride with him while fleeing the scene of the attack.
The search for Milhem entered its sixth day on Thursday.
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Fortress dating back more than 3,000 years unearthed in Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Remnants of a 3,400-year-old fortress that dates back to the Canaanite period have been unearthed at a residential construction site in Nahariya, on the northwest coast of Israel.
The dig was carried out as part of the standard archaeological preparations for any construction project. The contractor for the project, the Nahariya-based Kochav Company, received permits for an apartment building and an underground parking structure.
The dig was conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) with the assistance of youth groups, including students from Shchakim High School. After the fortress was discovered, the IAA requested that a solution be found that would allow some of the remains to be preserved for the benefit of the public.
Given the importance of the findings and their quality, IAA Director Yisrael Hasson and Kochav Company Director Danny Kochav have decided to alter the construction plans to integrate the ancient site.
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Netflix comes to Israel as part of major global expansion
(JNS.org) Netflix is now available in Israel, with the American television and movie streaming service announcing a major global expansion to more than 130 new countries around the world on Wednesday.
“Today you are witnessing the birth of a new global Internet TV network,” Netflix CEO and co-founder Reed Hasting said. “With this launch, consumers around the world—from Singapore to St. Petersburg, from San Francisco to Sao Paulo—will be able to enjoy TV shows and movies simultaneously. No more waiting. With the help of the Internet, we are putting power in consumers’ hands to watch whenever, wherever and on whatever device.”
“For the 5+/- days a year the weather’s not good… @Netflix, now in Israel!” the Israeli Embassy in the U.S. tweeted.
According to Haaretz, Netflix conducted several market studies in Israel leading up to its global expansion to see if Israelis would pay for the service. At the same time, Netflix largely refused to sell Netflix productions’ broadcasting rights to local Israeli companies such as HOT and Yes, in order to not undermine its future success in Israel.
Netflix also considered a presence in Israel, including a local office and content translation, but ultimately decided against the move. As a result, Netflix will only be available in English and Arabic presently.
Netflix will be offering one free month and three packages for subscribers in Israel, ranging from $7.99 a month to $11.99.
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Israeli university compensated for being barred from Spanish competition
(JNS.org) The Spanish government paid NIS 430,000 (about $109,000) in compensation to Samaria-based Ariel University for barring students from an international academic competition in 2009. Spanish authorities had been pressured by Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement activists to disqualify the Israelis because they studied in territory located beyond Israel’s 1967 lines.
A team of 15 architecture students from Ariel University had been among 21 finalist teams in a competition for designing an environmentally friendly home. The contest was sponsored by the Spanish Housing Ministry. Ariel University launched what would become a five-year legal battle, demanding the Spanish Housing Authority either compensate the Israeli school or overturn its decision to ban the students from the competition.
The Spanish Housing Authority asked Spain’s Foreign Ministry for proof that the housing authority could indeed disqualify Ariel University from participating, but in 2014, the Spanish government officially stated that disqualifying the students over their university’s location “has no legal basis and is unjustified.” Ariel University eventually accepted the housing authority’s offer for compensation.
“We went to court so as not to set a precedent,” Ariel University Chancellor Yigal Cohen-Orgad said. “It was the first, and fortunately the only, time we were disqualified from a competition anywhere in the world. There were unsuccessful attempts in the past and we thought we had to put up a fight.”
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State Dept. discusses sanctions against Iran over missile test, spokesman says
(JNS.org) The U.S. State Department on Tuesday said it is in discussions with American agencies over whether to impose sanctions against Iran for ballistic missile tests conducted Oct. 10. The Iranian tests had violated a U.N. Security Council resolution.
“We are fully prepared to use sanctions with respect to this most recent ballistic missile test (and) are still working through some technical issues there,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said, Reuters reported.
Kirby denied reports that State Department officials have halted plans to sanction Tehran. “There continues to be a robust inter-agency discussion about moving forward on sanctions,” he said, adding, “We don’t take sanctions advice or guidance from Iran or any other country.”
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Israeli humanitarian agency provides aid for U.K. flood victims
(JNS.org) A group of volunteers from the Israeli humanitarian agency IsraAID traveled earlier this week to the United Kingdom to assist flood victims, London’s Jewish Chronicle reported.
“The first team [was] greeted by locals with open hands and [is] now mapping the workloads, which would include distribution of goods and gutting houses, helping people repair their homes,” said Shachar Zahavi, founding director of IsraAid.
“We have responded to 10 floods and tornado disasters in the U.S., and when we saw what was happening to the U.K. in the news, it looked worse than ever before. We wanted to show the community we would be there for them,” Zahavi added.
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New Israeli-developed therapy seeks to heal an incurable blood cancer
(JNS.org) Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers have developed an innovative system that may treat an incurable blood cancer.
A recently published study revealed that using RNA therapy can successfully stop the reproduction of cancer-related protein in white blood cells in both animals and samples from human mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) patients.
The research was led by Prof. Dan Peer of TAU’s Department of Cell Research and Immunology, and conducted by TAU Ph.D. students Shiri Weinstein and Itai Toker, in collaboration with Prof. Pia Raanani of Rabin Medical Center and Prof. Arnon Nagler of Sheba Medical Center.
MCL is known as the most aggressive blood cancer, and affects 3,000 Americans every year. The cancer has a survival rate of five to seven years after diagnosis, with limited systemic therapeutic drug therapies available.
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