Israel defends construction plans amid EU, UN pressure
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday defended his government’s approval of 2,600 new housing units in the Givat Hamatos neighborhood in southern Jerusalem, while the European Union and United Nations continued to pressure the Jewish state over that issue.
“We are going to build in Jerusalem for all its residents, this is something that has been done by all previous governments and this is something that my government will continue to do,” Netanyahu said.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton in a statement called the Givat Hamatos plans, in addition to Monday’s approval of 1,500 new units in Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in the northern part of Jerusalem beyond the Green Line, “extremely troubling.”
“This plan for Givat Hamatos would cut the geographic continuity between Jerusalem and Bethlehem,” Ashton said. “I strongly oppose this unprecedented expansion of settlements around Jerusalem.”
The EU had already condemned Israel’s construction plans in the E1 area between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim on Dec. 10.
Fourteen of the 15 UN Security Council members—all except the U.S.—slammed Israel’s construction plans as well. Britain, France, Germany and Portugal—the four Security Council members from the EU—said in a statement, “The viability of the two-state solution is at stake and must be preserved. A bold demonstration of political will and leadership is needed from both sides to break the current impasse and resume negotiations. We call on the Israeli government to rescind these plans and recall that we will not recognize any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon, meanwhile, at a year-end news conference described the Middle East peace process as “in a deep freeze.” Regarding Israeli construction, he asked the Jewish state “to refrain from continuing on this dangerous path, which will undermine the prospects a resumption of dialogue and a peaceful future for Palestinians and Israelis alike—let us get the peace process back on track before it is too late.” Ban did not make any demands of the Palestinians.
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Abbas asks UN to help Palestinians in Syria move to ‘Palestinian Territory’
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas asked the United Nations to help Palestinians “who are suffering from the bloody conflict” in Syria “return to live in the Palestinian Territory,” Israel National News reported.
Abbas has long demanded that 5 million foreign Arabs be allowed into all of Israel—not just Gaza and the West Bank—as part of the what Palestinians call their “right of return.”
These Arabs are descendants of about 750,000 Arabs who had fled Israel after the War of Independence in 1948. A number of them left—on their own accord—because Jordan and other Arab neighbors promised them that they would be able to return to Israel immediately after the anticipated defeat of the Jewish state.
The UN’s typical policy is that only those who flee their countries themselves are considered “refugees,” not their descendants. However, the UN makes an exception for descendants of Arabs who fled Israel. In many cases, the countries where these descendants currently reside have refused to grant them citizenship.
Saudi columnist: Forged ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ is true
(JNS.org) A Saudi columnist wrote in a government daily newspaper that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion—an anti-Semitic forgery—is true, adding that Zionists have been planning to take over the world since 1897 (the year of the First Zionist Congress), the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported.
“The Protocols of the Elders of Zion [spell out] a very evil conspiracy against humanity… Protocol 24 [describes how] they decided to use dirty and furtive means to occupy not only the land of Palestine, but the entire world. The world knew, and did nothing,” Anisa Al-Sharif Makki wrote in the Al-Yawm newspaper. “[They believe that] they alone are God’s chosen, while all others are inanimate objects they own and may use as they please. When the Jews win a battle, they are obligated to destroy their enemies to the very last one,” the columnist wrote.
In January 2012, a report by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University revealed that charges of an international Jewish conspiracy “have been a central motif in the anti-Semitic propaganda that has accompanied the Arab Spring uprisings.”
“This motif has been emphasized in each of the countries especially by way of pointing a blaming finger towards Israel, Zionism and Jews conspiring against Arabs and Muslims,” the Kantor Center report said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Senators plan to press potential defense secretary on ‘Jewish lobby’ comment
(JNS.org) Senate Republicans are vowing to press former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel on his past comments about the “Jewish lobby” should the front-runner for Secretary of Defense be nominated for the position by President Barack Obama, the Weekly Standard reported.
In 2008, Hagel took a direct shot at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), telling former Middle East negotiator Aaron David Miller in a quote that appeared in Miller’s book, The Much Too Promised Land, that “the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people” in Washington. Hagel has also said he is “a United States senator, not an Israeli senator.”
U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said Tuesday that he knows of no “Jewish lobby” and hopes Hagel “would identify who that is,” according to the Weekly Standard. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Hagel will “have to answer” for his Jewish lobby comment if nominated for defense secretary.
“I don’t agree with that statement [by Hagel],” U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said. “If he is nominated, there’ll be a hearing. His entire public record and all his public pronouncements will be reviewed as a part of that process. And we’ll move on from there.”
Meanwhile, some Jewish Democrats in the Senate either defended Hagel’s candidacy or said it was too soon to rush to judgment on him. U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Hagel would be “very well-qualified” for defense secretary, despite his disagreement with Hagel’s “Jewish lobby” comment.
U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said they have questions about Hagel, but that it is too soon to say whether or not they would support his nomination, The Hill reported.
Hagel’s criticisms of the U.S.-Israel relationship did earn a stamp of approval from at least one source—Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby, a 2007 book that has been panned by critics as prime fodder for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In an online post for Foreign Policy, Walt counted the following among his top five reasons that Hagel should be chosen as defense secretary: “Unlike almost all of his former colleagues on Capitol Hill, he hasn’t been a complete doormat for the Israel lobby.”
Ancient Dead Sea Scrolls go digital, now available online
(JNS.org) Buried in caves for nearly 2,000 years, then bitterly fought over by scholars since their discovery by a Bedouin child in the 1940s, the Dead Sea Scrolls are now available online thanks to a partnership between the Israel Antiquities Authority and Google.
“Only five conservators worldwide are authorized to handle the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Shuka Dorfman, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, told the Associated Press. “Now, everyone can touch the scroll on screen around the globe.”
Utilizing technology developed by NASA, the digitization process took Google more than two years to complete. The digital library, which contains over 5,000 high-resolution scanned images, contains the Book of Deuteronomy, which includes the second listing of the Ten Commandments, and a portion of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis.
“We’re working to bring important cultural and historical materials online and help preserve them for future generations,” said Yossi Matias, head of Google’s Research and Development Center in Israel.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org