Obama considers others for defense secretary after Hagel controversy
(JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama is considering several other candidates for the post of defense secretary after his administration received heavy criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for considering former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel for the role, National Journal reported.
Hagel currently chairs the Atlantic Council think tank, which this month published a column titled “Israel’s Apartheid Policy,” and has made controversial comments about Israel—such as “the Jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people,” which he was quoted as saying in 2008. He has also come under fire for his remarks about homosexuals. While in the Senate, Hagel voted several times against U.S. sanctions on Iran and signed a March 2009 letter urging Obama to directly negotiate with Hamas.
A senior Obama administration official said Obama is now considering other defense secretary candidates including Michèle Flournoy, who was undersecretary of defense for policy in the president’s first term, and current deputy defense secretary Ashton Carter, according to National Journal.
Pope prays for Israeli-Palestinian peace, safety of Mideast Christians on Christmas Eve
(JNS.org) While leading the Christmas Eve Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of his wish for the end of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well the end of violence in Syria and other parts of the Middle East.
“Let us pray that Israelis and Palestinians be able to live their lives in the peace of the one God and in freedom,” the Pope said. Additionally, he expressed concern for the dwindling number of Christians in the Middle East and his hope that “Christians in those lands where our faith was born maybe be able to continue living there,” while Christians and Muslims “build up their countries side by side in God’s peace.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also issued a Christmas greeting, wishing Christians “a year of security, prosperity and peace.”
Ariel becomes first Israeli university beyond Green Line
(JNS.org) Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak gave the order on Monday to officially accredit Ariel University Center of Samaria as a full-fledged university, making it the first Israeli university to be located beyond the 1949 Green Line, Israel Hayom reported.
Barak instructed GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon to approve the Judea and Samaria Council of Higher Education’s recommendation Monday night.
Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein ruled that nothing stood in the way of making Ariel University Center a university. The decision to upgrade its status was met with harsh resistance from the presiding heads of the other universities as well as from the budget and planning committee of the Council for Higher Education in Israel.
Likud-Yisrael Beytenu Coalition Chairman MK Zeev Elkin called Monday’s ruling a “righteous decision that sends a clear message that Ariel will forever stay part of Israel.”
Education Minister and Chairman of the Council for Higher Education in Israel Gideon Sa’ar said the decision brought one of the “biggest campaigns I have led” to completion, and that “despite countless irrelevant objections, this [decision] sends an important message to the academic community as a whole.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Ariel University Center President Yigal Cohen-Orgad to congratulate him. “After many decades the state of Israel finally has another university. This is a big day for higher education in Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Meretz party Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On, however, called the decision “disheartening.”
“The recognition of this university will cost Israel further international isolation and academic boycotts,” Gal-On said.
Female IDF soldier gets medal for stopping terrorist attack from Egypt
(JNS.org) A female Israel Defense Forces soldier who was instrumental in stopping a terrorist incursion from Egypt earlier this year received a medal from the IDF’s GOC Southern Command on Tuesday.
The soldier, identified only as Cpl. S., is from the mixed-gender Caracal Battalion. She received nationwide praise when she pressed forward against a group of terrorists who infiltrated Israel through the Egyptian border, and in the ensuing firefight took down a terrorist. The terrorist attack claimed the life of Artillery Corps Cpl. Netanel Yahalomi.
The soldier’s mother told Israel Hayom she was filled with pride. “We are very excited [for the ceremony], the whole family is. I am proud of my daughter, proud of my country. She fulfilled her duty as a fighter and prevented a disaster that could have led to the deaths of many soldiers,” she said.
Since the incident, Cpl. S. has been in close contact with the family of the fallen soldier Yahalomi.
Israeli teen joins tennis legends with victory in international tournament
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel may not be known for its sports prowess, but on Sunday night in Florida, it was a whole different ballgame. Twelve-year-old Yshai Oliel of Ramle achieved a historic win in the International Tennis Championship, also known as the Junior Orange Bowl, in the boys 12-and-under category.
Oliel joined a long line of tennis legends, including Andy Murray, Jimmy Conners, Jennifer Capriati and Monica Seles, who have won that tournament in the past. Israeli tennis powerhouse Shahar Pe’er also won the trophy in 2001 at the age of 14.
In the tournament final, Oliel beat Patrick Sydow of Aruba 6-3, 6-1. In the entire tournament he lost only a single set.
“I am so happy and so excited, it hasn’t sunk in yet how big a deal this is. From my point of view, this is just the beginning,” said a glowing Oliel following the tournament.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Oliel, phoning the young tennis player and saying, “You are a true champion. You brought honor to the State of Israel and pride to your parents.”
Human rights group confirms Gaza terrorists use civilians as ‘human shields’
(JNS.org) Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a report that detailed how Gaza terrorists, during their conflict with Israel last month, fired rockets from densely populated civilian areas such as “homes, businesses, and a hotel, unnecessarily placing civilians in the vicinity at grave risk from Israeli counter-fire.” This confirms a long-held Israeli claim that Gaza terrorists use Palestinian civilians as “human shields” to fire rockets at Israel.
HRW—a George Soros-funded group that has also been critical of Israel—this time accused Gaza terrorist groups of violating international humanitarian law and committing war crimes by launching thousands of rockets toward population centers in Israel during the eight days of Operation Pillar of Defense.
About 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel from Nov. 14-21, killing three Israel civilians and wounding at least 38.
“Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.
HRW named Hamas’s Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s Saraya al-Quds Brigades, and the Popular Resistance Committee’s Nasser Salahaddin Brigades as the terrorist groups behind the attacks.
According to information collected by HRW through interviews and second-hand reports with Gaza civilians, terrorist groups seem to have “fired rockets from underground tunnels, opening a hatch to launch the munition.”
Many of these underground tunnels and hatches were fired from civilian areas, such as one rocket launch near an office building for international media outlets on Nov. 20.
“I saw it [the rocket] go up and heard it, and then smoke was in the office,” a witness told HRW.
The report also confirmed Iran’s involvement in the conflict and accused Iran of “aiding and abetting of war crimes” by knowingly supplying materials such as the Fajr-5 rocket or expertise to terrorist groups with intent to commit war crimes. HRW’s citation of Iran’s role in funding Middle East terrorism comes after the Wall Street Journal had reported earlier this month that Kenneth Roth, the group’s executive director, said Iran’s statements about Israel “are certainly reprehensible, but they are not incitement to genocide,” adding that “no one has acted” on those statements.
Study finds that Christianity is ‘close to extinction’ in the Middle East
(JNS.org) A study conducted by the British think tank Civitas warns that Christians face great hostility across the world, especially in the Middle East, where Christianity is “close to extinction,” the Telegraph reported.
According to the study, Christians face the greatest persecution in Muslim majority countries, quoting estimates that between a half and two-thirds of Christians in the Middle East have left the region or have been killed in the past century.
“There is now a serious risk that Christianity will disappear from its biblical heartlands,” the report said.
The greatest threat to Christians in the Middle East is from radical Islam, Civitas said, but Western countries are afraid to confront oppression in Muslim countries out of fears that the criticism would be seen as “racism.”
“Exposing and combating the problem ought in my view to be political priorities across large areas of the world. That this is not the case tells us much about a questionable hierarchy of victimhood,” says the report’s author, Rupert Shortt, a journalist and visiting fellow of Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org