Turkey considers senior diplomat as next ambassador to Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Turkey is considering appointing a senior diplomatic official to be the country’s next ambassador to Israel as part of its efforts to restore ties between the countries, the Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, Ankara has decided to appoint the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s director general for the Middle East, Can Dizdar, to the position.
Relations between Israel and Turkey broke down after the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla incident, in which eight Turkish citizens and one Turkish American were killed in clashes after Israeli naval commandos were attacked upon boarding the vessel, which was trying to break the blockade on the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of the raid, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime became one of the strongest critics of Israeli policies.
After a request by President Barack Obama, Israel in 2013 apologized to Turkey for the flotilla deaths and agreed to compensate the victims’ families. Israel has not, however, agreed to comply with Turkey’s demand to lift the Gaza blockade.
Erdogan, whose record of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric is well-documented, has shifted to a tone of appeasement in recent weeks.
“Israel needs a country like Turkey in the region,” he said in early January, “and we also need to accept that we need Israel. This is the reality in the region.”
Erdogan emphasized that “if steps toward partnership based on honesty are taken, then there will be normalization” in Turkish-Israeli relations.
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Israeli students to train as ‘online ambassadors’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israeli Education Ministry is launching a course to train students to be young “online ambassadors” for Israel on social networks. The time students spend engaged in these public diplomacy efforts will count towards the mandatory number of volunteer hours students must complete before graduating high school.
Around 400 students will take part in the first online ambassadors course. The training will take place in a virtual classroom, in which students from across the country will be connected. The students will contact youth organizations abroad to talk about life in Israel.
Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett said, “In sports, the best are discovered when they are young. The same goes for public diplomacy. Our ‘young ambassadors’ can be the future reservists of Israeli public diplomacy.”
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Michael Douglas to advocate for Israel on U.S. college campus tour
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) American actor Michael Douglas and Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky are set to visit three college campuses in the U.S. to speak to students about Israel and modern anti-Semitism.
Douglas and Sharansky will visit Brown University on Jan. 28, Stanford University on Feb. 2, and the University of California, Santa Barbara on Feb. 3. The program, titled “Jewish Journeys: A Conversation with Michael Douglas and Natan Sharansky,” is being co-hosted by the Genesis Prize Foundation, Hillel International, and the Jewish Agency, in addition to the local Hillel chapters on each campus.
“This is the first time, in this current period of heightened anti-Israel activity on campus, that a Hollywood celebrity has offered to join with a world Jewish leader to visit U.S. college campuses and speak with students about Israel and the Jewish people,” said Stan Polovets, the Genesis Prize Foundation’s co-founder and chairman. “At a time when certain individuals and groups in the academic community as well as other forces are making sustained efforts to delegitimize Israel, these visits are particularly important and timely.”
Douglas said, “I was honored to receive the Genesis Prize last year, and it has encouraged me to deepen my commitment and belief that we must all be more inclusive in order that the Jewish faith and culture thrive. These visits provide an opportunity for Natan and me to speak directly with young people about the challenges they encounter, and share insight about how we have dealt with these situations throughout our life.”
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Turkish synagogue vandalized after holding first prayer service in 65 years
(JNS.org) A Turkish synagogue was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti days after holding its first prayer service in 65 years, the Turkish daily newspaper Today’s Zaman reported.
“Terrorist Israel, there is Allah” was painted on the external walls of the Istipol Synagogue, located in the Jewish neighborhood of Balat in Istanbul.
“Writing anti-Israel speech on the wall [outside] of a synagogue is an act of anti-Semitism,” Ivo Molinas, editor-in-chief of Turkish Jewish newspaper Şalom, told Today’s Zaman.
Molinas said that “widespread anti-Semitism” in Turkey “gets in the way of celebrating the richness of cultural diversity in this country.” He added that the Turkish-Jewish community has no connection to Israeli political policy.
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Iraq’s oldest Christian monastery destroyed by Islamic State, images confirm
(JNS.org) New satellite images confirmed that St. Elijah’s monastery, Iraq’s oldest Christian monastery, was destroyed by the Islamic State terror group.
Prior to its destruction, the monastery had 26 rooms, including a sanctuary and chapel, but comparative images prove there is nothing left, according to The Associated Press.
“Bulldozers, heavy equipment, sledgehammers, possibly explosives turned those stone walls into this field of grey-white dust. They destroyed it completely,” said imagery analyst Stephen Wood, chief executive of Allsource Analysis, which reviewed the images.
St. Elijah’s monastery was a place of worship for 1,400 years for Christians in Mosul, Iraq.
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Case against former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi is closed
(JNS.org) Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein on Wednesday closed the “Harpaz affair” case against former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, who was accused of breach of trust and divulging classified information.
The case, which was related to events that transpired in 2010, alleged a plot by Lt. Col. (res.) Boaz Harpaz to sabotage then-defense minister Ehud Barak’s choice, Yoav Galant, to succeed Ashkenazi as the IDF chief of staff. A battle ensued at the time between Barak and Ashkenazi, allegedly involving spying and slander.
Weinstein agreed with police findings which rejected charges that Askenazi was involved in forging a document, and further rejected police recommendations to indict Ashkenazi for breach of trust over revealing secret information to news reporters. Harpaz, however, will still be indicted in the case.
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Palestinian intelligence chief: PA thwarts 200 attacks on Israelis since October
(JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority (PA) and its security forces have thwarted 200 attacks against Israelis since October 2015, Maj. Gen. Majid Faraj—head of the PA’s General Intelligence Service—said in an interview with Defense News.
Faraj said he believes that security cooperation with Israel is the only way to fight extremist terror groups such as Islamic State, and to prevent a collapse of PA rule in the disputed Palestinian territories.
“We, together with our counterparts in the Israeli security establishment, with the Americans and others, are all trying to prevent that collapse. The experts all know that in case of collapse, everybody will get hurt ..They’re already in Iraq, Syria, Sinai, Lebanon and Jordan, but Ramallah, Amman and Tel Aviv must remain immune from them,” Faraj said.
“We are sure that violence, radicalization, and terrorism will hurt us. It won’t bring us closer to achieving our dream of a Palestinian state,” he added.
Faraj estimates that more than 90 percent of Palestinians reject the extremist beliefs of Islamic State, Al-Qaeda, and the Nusra Front, largely attributing that sentiment to the efforts of PA President Mahmoud Abbas.
“Now, the number of Palestinians supporting [those terror groups] is very marginal, and this is a success of Abu Mazen (Abbas). He changed the culture,” Faraj said. “But if Daesh (Islamic State) or other extremist groups decide to fight Israel, they will find sympathy in the Arab street….Daesh is on our border, they are here with their ideology, and they are looking to find a suitable platform to establish their base. Therefore, we must prevent a collapse here, because the alternative is anarchy, violence, and terrorism.”
Faraj said he hopes the PA’s quest to maintain a “bridge against radicalization and violence” will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
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British-Jewish philanthropist, savior of Iraqi and Syrian Christians dies at 96
(JNS.org) British-Jewish publisher and philanthropist George Weidenfeld, known for funding the rescue of 2,000 Syrian and Iraqi Christians who were being threatened by the Islamic State terror group, died in London on Wednesday at the age of 96.
Weidenfeld, a member of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, has been devoted to promoting positive interfaith relations. He escaped Austria for the U.K. on the cusp of Austria’s annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938. In the U.K., he co-founded the publishing firm Weidenfeld & Nicholson and later received the British aristocratic title of “life peer.” Inspired by his past as a Jewish refugee, he was heavily involved with Jewish and Israeli charities, and in recent years funded the escape to Europe of 42 Syrian-Christian families.
“We have been deeply moved by the plight of Christians in conflict-torn Middle East countries, and we are supporting the transfer of Christian families to safe havens where they can lead normal lives,” Weidenfeld told the Times of Israel last year.
“As a bridge-builder, he devoted all of his energy toward issues that are still as topical as ever: the dialogue between the faiths to Europe’s relationship with Israel to European integration. He fought for values and ideals even when he faced resistance,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said of Weidenfeld in a statement on Wednesday, reported the Associated Press.
Member of Knesset Isaac Herzog, Israel’s opposition leader, called Weidenfeld “an avid Zionist and lover of Israel” who as the right-hand man of Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president, “envisioned, initiated, and promoted programs for the State of Israel, its Jewish character, security, and defense.”
The president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder, said he is “deeply saddened that George has left us. He had great wisdom, and he was a friend who always gave me valuable advice. Until the end, his mind was as sharp as ever, and he never retired. George managed to squeeze several lifetimes into one….George never forgot what Christians had done to save him, and only a few months ago, he set up a foundation to rescue thousands of persecuted Christians in the Middle East. He said he had a debt to repay, and he meant it.”
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Donald Trump ‘a hundred percent’ for moving U.S. embassy to Jerusalem
(JNS.org) Donald Trump, the front-runner in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, said he supports moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Such a move would be “very good” to Israel, Trump said in an interview with CBN News, adding, “I am for that a hundred percent.” At a Republican Jewish Coalition event in December, Trump was booed when he stopped short of making the same assertion about the embassy and the status of Jerusalem as Israel’s undivided capital.
Trump also called the newly implemented nuclear deal between the P5+1 nations and Iran a “tremendous liability” to Israel that may lead to broad nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
“I will be very good to Israel,” Trump said. “I will back Israel. We have a president that I think is the worst thing that’s ever happened to Israel, but I’ll be backing it very strongly. They’re our best ally; they’re our best ally in the Middle East. They’ve really been loyal to us—we have not been loyal to them.”
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Israel’s Shimon Peres released from hospital after mild heart attack
(JNS.org) Former Israeli president Shimon Peres, 92, was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday. He was hospitalized last week after experiencing chest pain, which turned out to be an irregular heart rate and a mild heart attack.
The former statesman was given a cardiac catheterization and was reported to be doing well. Upon his release, he said he is ”happy to return to work and excited to serve the country,” The Associated Press reported.
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