Netanyahu: Peace through negotiations, not ‘declarations at the UN’
(JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition “will not change a thing, and certainly won’t hasten the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
“Israel’s hand is perpetually extended toward peace, but no Palestinian state will exist without recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people. No Palestinian state will exist without a declaration of an end to hostilities, and no Palestinian state will exist without real security arrangements that will protect the State of Israel and its citizens. None of these things are remotely mentioned in the Palestinian petition to the UN,” Netanyahu said in a statement, according to Israel Hayom.
“There is only one way peace can be achieved,” he continued. “Through direct negotiation between the sides without preconditions, not through unilateral UN resolutions that don’t take Israel’s existence and security into account at all. Peace will be achieved through understandings between Jerusalem and Ramallah, not detached declarations at the UN.”
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Hungarian far-right lawmaker calls for Jews to be listed as national security threats
(JNS.org) A Hungarian lawmaker from the far-right Jobbik party has called for Jews to be registered on lists as threats to national security. In the wake of erupting international outrage at the Nazi-style request, as well as a protest outside the legislature in Budapest on Tuesday, lawmaker Marton Gyongyosi has refused to resign.
Gyongyosi has claimed his words were taken out of context and that he was only speaking about Hungarian citizens who also hold Israeli passports. In response to the incident, hundreds of protestors gathered outside parliament, some wearing the yellow stars similar to the ones Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust. Many yelled “Nazis go home” at Jobbik members, according to Reuters.
The conflict erupted following Israel’s recent conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Gyongyosi spoke in the Hungarian parliament, saying “I think such a conflict makes it timely to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the Hungarian parliament and the Hungarian government, who, indeed, pose a national security risk to Hungary.” The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem called the remarks “a sad commentary on the current rise of anti-Semitism in Hungary.”
“This is the shame of Europe, the shame of the world,” said Gusztav Zoltai, a Holocaust survivor and the executive director of the Hungarian Jewish Congregations’ Association.
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Attorney: Cuba releases Gross’s biopsy results without his permission
(JNS.org) The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Wednesday that a biopsy conducted on Jewish-American contractor Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned in Cuba since December 2009, shows that he does not have cancer.
According to Gross’s attorney Jared Genser, Gross did not authorize the Cuban ministry to release the results of his tests.
“Until [Nov. 27], the Cuban government’s position was that it would be unwilling under any circumstance to allow an independent medical examination of Mr. Gross… We were, therefore, delighted to hear that the Cuban government had reversed its prior position… We will shortly have an American oncologist apply for a visa to see him,” Genser said in a statement. “We urge the Cuban government to allow this to happen promptly so we can put questions about Mr. Gross’s health to rest.”
Additionally, diagnostic radiologist Alan A. Cohen had already examined the biopsy for Gross’s legal team, and Cohen’s assessment of a biopsy that yielded blood and muscle cell is “hopeful” but “not definitive since the sample size is small,” according to a letter Cohen wrote to Gross’s wife Judy in late October. Cohen believed the tests conducted on Gross were inadequate.
“The appropriate manner to work up the mass is with (an) MRI, with and without gadolinium contrast, and use the findings to perform a directed biopsy with a larger needle to get a core of tissue,” Cohen said in the letter, which was released by Gross’s legal team.
Gross was sentenced to a 15-year prison term for bringing communications devices to the country’s Jewish community. He was working for a U.S. firm called Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) to promote democracy, but Cuba convicted him of “crimes against the state.”
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Several Egyptian Christians sentenced to death for anti-Islam film
(JNS.org) An Egyptian court has sentenced to death seven Coptic Christians who were tried in absentia for participating in the making of the film Innocence of Muslims, which was linked to violent protests throughout the Muslim world, Reuters reported.
The seven accused persons were convicted of insulting the Islamic religion through participating in producing and offering a movie that insults Islam and its prophet,” Judge Saif al-Nasr Soliman said.
Included in the death sentence was the film’s director Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, who is currently serving a one-year sentence in a California prison for violating probation.
The Egyptian Coptic Christian Church had no comment on the decision. In a recent New York Times interview with Nakoula, the director stated that he wanted to convey “the actual truth” about the prophet Muhammad.
ADL: Anti-Israel campus activity rose after Gaza conflict
(JNS.org) The recent Israel-Gaza conflict has led to a rise of anti-Israel activity nationwide, especially on college campuses, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said.
More than 100 anti-Israel demonstrations across the U.S. have occurred recently, including more than one-third on college campuses. Some campus demonstrators compared Israelis to Nazis, while some students and professors openly expressed support for Hamas, a Palestinian terrorist group.
“The latest conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza has reignited anti-Israel passions on campus,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, in a statement. The recent rise of anti-Israel campus activity follows an October 2012 report by The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) that found little to no anti-Israel activity on campus over the past year.
However, “Anti-Israel student groups will likely seek to capitalize on the momentum surrounding the Gaza conflict by pushing with renewed intensity their anti-Israel tactics and campaigns,” Foxman said.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org