Palestinians begin exhuming Arafat’s body
(JNS.org) Palestinians have begun work to exhume the body of their former leader Yasser Arafat as part of a probe into his death that some experts say is fueled by politically charged rumors, AFP reported.
Arafat’s mausoleum in Ramallah has been cordoned off, according to local sources. International experts will be called in to conduct tests on Arafat’s body.
“It starts with the removal of stone and concrete and cutting the iron (framework) until they reach the soil that covers the body, which will not be removed until the arrival of the French prosecutors, Swiss experts and Russian investigators,” a source told AFP.
An investigative report by Al-Jazeera and a Swiss institute found high levels of the radioactive element polonium-210, a rare and highly lethal radioactive substance, on Arafat’s clothing. Last month, French courts reopened an investigation into Arafat’s death following pressure from Arafat’s wife Suha based on the new claims.
Arafat died in Paris in 2004 at age 75 from a massive stroke, according to French doctors. While no autopsy was conducted following his death, many in the Arab world claim Israelis poisoned him. According to Palestinian Media Watch, this rumor is repeatedly broadcast on Palestinian Authority (PA) TV.
“The Jews poisoned [Arafat] and I hate them very much. Allah will repay them what they deserve,” a Palestinian girl said in a recent PA TV broadcast translated by PMW.
Middle East experts say the PA is continuing to propagate this story under pressure to score political points amid the upheaval of the “Arab Spring.”
“This is the only weapon at [the PA’s] disposal,” Palestinian politics expert Hillel Frisch told the Times of Israel in July. “But they’re not going to get anywhere with it. The dead don’t mobilize the living.”
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More Israelis seek psychological help due to rocket fire
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Rounds of fighting in southern Israel and the constant rocket fire on towns and cities bordering the Gaza Strip have not only physically endangered the safety of residents, but have also had a telling effect on their psychological health.
The ERAN Association for Emotional First Aid has reported an increase of 22 percent in the number of Israelis in the south who have contacted it in recent days for assistance. More than 150 rockets have been fired at southern Israel since Saturday night, Israeli officials said.
Tamar Auerbach, director of social services in the Eshkol Regional Council, said Sunday that social services departments in the south in general, and in the Eshkol Regional Council in particular, had been very busy in recent days providing immediate solutions to victims of anxiety and trauma. A special care unit had been established to provide immediate treatment to people suffering from anxiety. “We find ourselves providing service to citizens whose situation only seems to be worsening. We arrive in the town or city immediately after a rocket has exploded there and we begin providing treatment right away,” she said.
Amira Haim, director of the Education Ministry’s southern district, explained that children in the south were living in a reality that could only be called a “routine emergency”—a constant state of emergency. She said that educationally it was important to maintain as consistent a learning schedule as possible. Even in kindergartens, activities are conducted to help children deal with anxiety, including workshops with dolls and the singing of songs to help children overcome fears of the Color Red rocket warning siren system.
“Just today, a 4-year-old boy said he was happy it was finally raining because the rain would extinguish Qassam fire. This is the reality that he knows,” Haim said. Some children have called the ERAN Association’s hotline asking, “Who will protect me if the IDF responds [to the rocket fire] and the situation worsens?” The ERAN hotline provides emotional support in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian.
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Israeli, U.S. officials hold high-level discussion at the White House
(JNS.org) Israeli officials met with U.S. President Barack Obama’s national security advisor Monday to discuss Syria and Iran at the White House in the first high-level discussion between Israel and the U.S. since Obama’s reelection Nov. 6.
“National Security Advisor Tom Donilon hosted a delegation of senior Israeli officials on Nov. 12 for consultations on Iran, Syria, and a range of other regional security issues,” Donilon’s spokesman Tommy Vietor said, according to AFP.
The meetings “were the latest in a series of regular, high-level consultations between the United States and Israel, consistent with our strong bilateral partnership, and part of our unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security,” Donilon said in a statement.
The discussion comes in the wake of more than 150 rockets being fired at Israel from Gaza, and stray mortar shells from the Syrian conflict falling into Israeli territory in the Golan Heights. Obama told Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Sunday that he still opposes a Palestinian bid for non-state membership at the United Nations. Obama also spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone two days after his re-election.
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Concerns arise over J Street’s influence on election
(JNS.org) A U.S. election that many political pundits hailed as “a return to the status quo” was a different story for many in the pro-Israel community, with concerns arising over the future of bipartisan support for Israel relating to the influence of the self-labeled “pro-Israel, pro-peace” group J Street. But others say J Street has overstated its influence.
J Street’s stated goal is “redefining what it means to be pro-Israel in America” by “changing the U.S. political dynamics around Israel.” However, critics contend that J Street’s efforts are ultimately anti-Israel, and several prominent Jewish leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have refused to meet with the group.
In the recent election, J Street’s political action committee—JStreetPAC—spent more than $1.8 million to endorse 71 candidates in the recent election. According to J Street, 70 of its endorsed candidates won.
J Street believes the election outcomes present an opportunity for American leadership to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“JStreetPAC’s resounding success speaks to the deep hunger among American Jews and friends of Israel for a political voice that represents their belief that American leadership is vital to achieving a two-state solution and to securing Israel’s Jewish, democratic future,” said J Street Executive Director Jeremy Ben-Ami in a press release.
However, some feel that J Street is overstating its influence in many races that Democrats would have won regardless of the group’s support.
For instance, in the heavily contested Ohio Senate race between Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and Republican Josh Mandel, most analysts attribute Mandel’s loss to a backlash against Mitt Romney’s position on the auto bailout—not the money poured in by groups like J Street against Mandel.
“It is clear that J Street’s role in this year’s election was basically irrelevant, and certainly far humbler than its own superlative: ‘astounding,’” wrote columnist Lori Lowenthal Marcus in The Jewish Press.
There are also concerns that J Street’s efforts to support more liberal candidates may eventually lead to an erosion of bipartisan support for Israel—an issue that groups like AIPAC have worked hard to cultivate and maintain.
J Street supporters like Peter Beinart often “depict Israel as the obstacle to peace and favor U.S. pressure to force Israeli concessions,” wrote Middle East expert Stephen J. Rosen in Foreign Policy.
“As a result, these ideas are moving gradually from the far left to the center-left of the Democratic base. And as the older generation of Democratic stalwarts gradually passes from the scene and new Democrats to the left of their predecessors enter the House and Senate and slowly climb the ranks, there will be an evolution within the Democratic Party,” Rosen wrote.
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Report: Israel considering Gaza offensive as terrorists fire more than 150 rockets
(JNS.org) Responding to a barrage of more than 150 rockets fired at the Jewish state by Gaza terrorists, a senior Israeli minister told Israel Radio on Tuesday that “Sooner or later there will be a wide-ranging military offensive in Gaza.”
“There is no doubt it will come when the time is right,” the minister said. “It won’t be a limited, pin-point operation, but rather a deep military action against the terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.”
Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told Army Radio that Israel “has no choice but to perform targeted assassinations against Hamas leaders, and then maybe even send ground forces into Gaza.”
“There are no election considerations here—only an interest in protecting the residents of the south,” Shalom said.
Palestinian terrorist organizations, including Hamas, are “suffering as a result of intense strikes [by the Israel Defense Forces] in Gaza,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. Israel “will decide how and when to act if necessary,” according to Barak.
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Israel dragged into Syrian civil war for first time
(JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks on Monday struck a Syrian artillery launcher following the landing of a stray mortar shell in Israeli territory for the second straight day, the Associated Press reproted.
For the first time since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the IDF on Sunday had fired an artillery missile toward Syria in response to a Syrian mortar shell that exploded near an IDF post at Tel Hazeka in the eastern Golan Heights.
The missile, of the Tammuz type, was fired at the artillery battery of the Syrian army, which has been fighting rebel forces near the village of Bir al-Ajami in the northern Golan Heights. The missile exploded near the Syrian battery, and the IDF refused to say whether it was an intentional miss meant as a warning to the Syrians, according to Israel Hayom.
The IDF believes the Syrian mortar shell was launched in an exchange of fire between the Syrian army and rebels near the Israeli border. The shelling is the most recent in a series of incidents in recent weeks in which Syrian fire reached Israeli territory.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav (Poly) Mordechai commented on the incident on Sunday, saying, “Amid the fighting between the Syrian army and rebels, a mortar shell was fired toward an IDF outpost. There were no casualties in the incident. In response, IDF forces fired warning shots into Syrian territory and a message was sent to the United Nations to warn Syrian forces to prevent additional fire from entering Israeli territory. The shooting at us is not coming from the rebels, rather from the Syrian army, so our message is directed at the Syrian army. We do not know what effect this message will have but we will follow it and see. This was a warning to the Syrian—more fire will be met with a real and determined response.”
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