Iran poised to receive S-300 missile system, aircraft from Russia
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Iran was expected to receive its first S-300 air defense system from Russia on Thursday, Russian media reported Wednesday. This will be the first the major weapons deal to be implemented in the wake of last summer’s nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, which brought an end to most of the international sanctions on Iran.
A Russian official denied the report later on Wednesday, telling the state-run Russian news agency TASS that there were still outstanding payment issues. Another Russian state news agency,RIA, reported that Moscow and Tehran were expected to sign a procurement deal for the delivery of Sukhoi Su-30 aircraft.
The recent lifting of sanctions also means Iran will now be able to engage in international commerce through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a network for global financial transactions. According to a SWIFT official, several Iranians banks have recently been reconnected to the system, which is an integral part of the global financial system. Some 30 Iranian banks were disconnected from the system in 2012 as part of the effort to pressure Iran to curtail its nuclear program.
Indian media reported Wednesday that Iran would be able to use SWIFT to lay its hands on some $6 billion generated from oil deals with India. Those funds were frozen while the sanctions regime was in place.
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Netanyahu to visit Washington, address AIPAC conference in March
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Washington, DC next month to address the annual gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The 2016 AIPAC Policy Conference is scheduled for March 20-22. As of now, no meeting has been scheduled between Netanyahu and President Barack Obama during the former’s visit.
A week and a half before Netanyahu travels to Washington, Vice President Joe Biden will visit Israel, where he will meet with the prime minister. Last month, Biden met with Netanyahu at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Netanyahu last met with Obama during a trip to Washington in November 2015. Among other issues, the leaders discussed a new 10-year memorandum of understanding on U.S. security assistance to Israel. The current memorandum of understanding is set to expire in 2017.
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U.K. issues new guidelines against boycotts of Israel
(JNS.org) The British government on Wednesday announced new guidelines against boycotts of Israel by local governments within the United Kingdom.
The guidelines set forth by the British government make clear “that procurement boycotts by public authorities are inappropriate, outside where formal legal sanctions, embargoes and restrictions have been put in place by the government.”
“Town hall boycotts undermine good community relations, poisoning and polarizing debate, weakening integration and fueling anti-Semitism,” the British government said.
The guidelines also cite the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement, which requires all of the accord’s signing countries to be treated fairly. Israel is included among those nations.
“Any public body found to be in breach of the regulations could be subject to severe penalties,” stated the British directive.
In December 2014, the local government in Leicester voted to boycott goods produced by Jewish communities located beyond the 1967 lines, in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza.
U.K. Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock, who was in Israel on Wednesday, said that “we need to challenge and prevent these divisive town hall boycotts.”
“The new guidance on procurement combined with changes we are making to how pension pots can be invested will help prevent damaging and counter-productive local foreign policies undermining our national security,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the U.K.’s move during a meeting with Hancock and a delegation of British officials in Jerusalem.
“I want to commend the British government for refusing to discriminate against Israel and Israelis, and I commend you for standing up for the one and only true democracy in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said.
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CUFI teams with Christian network TBN to launch news show on Israel, U.S.
(JNS.org) Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which calls itself the largest American pro-Israel organization with 2.7 million members, is teaming up with the Christian satellite network Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) to launch a weekly news show highlighting the rising threats facing Israel and the United States.
Hosted by journalist and Mideast expert Erick Stakelbeck, The Watchman will be news-magazine style show that will highlight the “rising security threats facing America, Israel, and the rest of the world,” CUFI said.
The show will include interviews and analysis with a wide range of American and Israeli experts and leaders, as well as segments focusing on work done by pro-Israel organizations and Christian supporters of Israel.
“Now more than ever, it is imperative that Christians stand up and ensure our nation stands with Israel. CUFI was created precisely for such a time as this, and we’re excited that The Watchman will ensure we’re bringing our pro-Israel message to households across the country,” Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of CUFI, said in a statement.
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Israeli-American Council forms new legislative-focused partner group
(JNS.org) The Israeli-American Council (IAC), a non-profit organization providing various means of support for the estimated Israeli-American population of 500,000-800,000, has announced the formation of a new partner organization—the Israeli-American Nexus (IANexus)—that will focus on advocating to legislative policymakers on behalf of Israeli Americans.
“We have formed the IANexus to make the voices of Israeli-Americans heard on a range of issues at the federal, state, and local level—from fighting Israel’s delegitimization to strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance to advancing our community’s domestic policy priorities,” said Shawn Evenhaim, chairman of the 501(c)(4) IANexus. The IAC, in contrast to its new partner, has 501(c)(3) status.
“The IANexus will have new tools at its disposal to mobilize Israeli-Americans in advocacy like never before,” Evenhaim added.
For its first major effort, the IANexus said it plans to muster communal support for the Combating BDS Act of 2016, which was recently introduced in Congress and supports U.S. states’ rights to cut ties with companies that boycott Israel.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, the IAC was founded in 2007 with the stated mission “to build an active and giving Israeli-American community throughout the United States in order to strengthen the State of Israel, our next generation, and to provide a bridge to the Jewish-American community.” The organization has expanded rapidly in recent years, building a multimillion dollar community center in Los Angeles and establishing regional offices around the country.
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Under El-Sisi, chapter on Camp David Accords added to Egyptian schoolbook
(JNS.org) A history textbook to be used in Egyptian schools will discuss the country’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel for the first time, Israel’s Army Radio reported.
The 1978 Camp David Accords and the ensuing peace treaty will take up a chapter in the book. The chapter, according to the report, is written in a simple and factual manner with phrases such as a description that Egypt and Israel are “ending the state of war,” with “each side respecting the sovereignty and independence of the other side.”
This addition is part of a larger educational change in Egypt with regard to school textbooks under current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. About 1,300 textbooks for different grades have been revised, in some cases clearly to make a political point. For instance, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s role in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, during which he served as commander of the Egyptian air force, has been downplayed compared to how it was treated in textbooks while Mubarak was president. Some content added to books while the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi was Egypt’s president has also been removed.
The change with regard to the Israel-Egypt peace treaty could stem from the fact that El-Sisi has been known to have a more tolerant attitude towards Israel, despite continued popular hostility to Israel within his country’s population. Under El-Sisi’s watch, Egypt has quietly worked closely with Israel on combating Sinai Province, the Islamic State-affiliated terror group in the Sinai Peninsula, while Egypt has been helping Israel destroy Hamas terror tunnels.
“From the Israeli point of view, [El-Sisi’s] military and intelligence services have cooperated with Israel at unprecedented levels.…I think, his private beliefs aside, he is a committed opponent of the Muslim Brotherhood and by extension of Hamas and other Islamic extremists,” Oren Kessler, deputy director of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank, told JNS.org last year.
In September 2015, El-Sisi called for expanding the peace treaty with Israel to include other Arab nations, although he later slightly backtracked on that statement.
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24 evangelical pastors visit Israel, ‘stand unconditionally’ with Jewish state
(JNS.org) The Eagles Wings Evangelical Christian Organization, an international group training evangelical Christian leaders, brought a 24-member delegation of pastors to Israel this week. The delegates visited Christian and Jewish holy sites, and met with several Israeli dignitaries, including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, and members of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus.
“We understand our heritage. We believe that we have become part of a covenant that was made with Abraham,” said a member of the delegation, Pastor Rusty Nelson of Huntsville, Ala., according to the Jerusalem Post. “We come prayerfully, in a unified embrace that says we support you in the land that God has given you; we support you in the covenant that God has made with you.”
Another participant, Louisiana-based Pastor Todd Schumacher, said “we stand unconditionally with Israel, recognizing it as the root of our faith and what we believe, and that without it, where would we be?”
“It’s difficult to disconnect from the womb that gave birth to you. We are the result of Judaism; we’re grafted in, and no matter what, we’re all connected,” added a third participant, Pastor Dwayne Hardin of Atlanta.
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Breakthrough cancer study has Israeli roots
(JNS.org) A cancer study hailed this week as potentially showing revolutionary results for the treatment of leukemia is based on research undertaken by Prof. Zelig Eshhar of Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science.
An article in the Science Translational Medicine journal outlines how researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center and the Perelman School of Medicine found that 27 out of 29 advanced leukemia patients either went into remission or saw their illness go away completely after their T-cells were modified genetically, a success rate of nearly 94 percent. In the study, carried out at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, the cells were equipped with synthetic molecules the were able to destroy the tumor cells, particularly in cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
These results are not surprising for Prof. Eshhar, who pioneered the idea with a 1989 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, in which he replaced the T-cell’s natural receptor with one of his choice, showing that T-cells can be engineered to attach to any entity. Eshhar won the Jewish state’s prestigious Israel Prize for his research in 2015.
“I’m not surprised to hear about the results,” Eshhar said, the Times of Israel reported. “In our lab, we cured many rats and mice of cancer. I have been saying for years that we could do this in people, as well.”
“I felt a great sense of satisfaction upon hearing the news,” he added. “The next task of my lab and others working on this is to expand it and try to attack other forms of cancer.”
Eshhar cautioned, however, that more work is needed before the treatment could actually be seen as a cancer cure.
“Obviously much more work is needed,” he said. “One issue with this kind of therapy is that you have to develop specific T-cells for each kind of cancer. But studies like those are a great impetus to move forward with research. I believe the day will come when we will see many more cancers treated in this manner.”
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.