Daily Palestinian stone-throwing attacks on Jews
(JNS.org) Palestinian stone-throwing attacks on Jews in eastern Jerusalem have become a daily occurrence and have recently escalated to include Molotov cocktails, Israel Hayom reported.
Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. Kobi Dudian of the Jerusalem District Police told the Knesset’s Internal Affairs and Environment Committee on Wednesday that 207 stone-throwing perpetrators have been arrested in eastern Jerusalem in 2013, the majority of whom were minors, and that only 47 of them were detained, pending the conclusion of the legal proceedings against them.
Dudian noted that the number of cases involving stone and firebomb throwing has spiked by dozens of percentage points since Israel conducted Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza last November. But he noted that in recent weeks, the number of firebomb incidents has steadily declined, attributing that to the arrest of several terror cells that orchestrated the violent attacks.
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Hezbollah trying to open new front on Golan, Israel says
(JNS.org) Israeli defense officials believe Hezbollah has been trying to establish a strategic foothold in the Syrian Golan Heights to facilitate attacks on Israel from that area, Israel Hayom reported.
Although the organization still has a long way to go before it has a permanent presence in the area, its leader, Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, has recently indicated the existence of such a plan.
Hezbollah may have concluded that the ongoing instability and the incessant battles between the Syrian rebels and the regime loyalists in the Golan Heights presents a fleeting opportunity to establish a base of operations in the area before it falls under the control of the rebels, should that happen.
While Israeli officials believe Hezbollah’s new infrastructure would not be set up “overnight,” according to Israel Hayom, they stress that Hezbollah is determined to put this plan into action as part of its efforts to prop up the Syrian regime with the help of Iran.
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Pleas from wife of imprisoned Iranian-American pastor
The wife of imprisoned Iranian-American Pastor Saeed Abedini, Naghmeh, made an impassioned plea for the release of her husband before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday.
“While I do not know the outcome of my husband’s case or whether he will live or die in Evin prison, I do know that the international community must do more to ensure that Iran upholds its obligations to protect all human rights for every individual, regardless of religious creed, nationality, or ethnic background. I call on this body to do more,” Naghmeh Abedini said, according to a transcript from the American Center for Law and Justice, a civil liberties group that has been working for the release of Pastor Abedini.
Pastor Abedini was sentenced to eight years in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison for his Christian faith earlier this year. In March, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for his immediate release, and a recent State Department report on International Religious Freedom criticized Iran for his arrest and torture.
Abedini’s arrest and imprisonment is part of a larger crackdown on Christianity in Iran, which is largely an illegal underground movement in the country. Several Christian pastors have been arrested, including Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, Pastor Behnam Irani, and more recently, Pastor Robert Asserian, who was arrested last week and had his church, Central Assemblies of God Church (AoG), shut down by Iranian authorities, according toBosNewsLife wire service.
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101 Jewish students kicked off flight
(JNS.org) After 101 students from the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School in Brooklyn, as well as their eight chaperones, were kicked off an AirTran flight departing to Atlanta for their senior class trip on Monday, those involved claim the group was unfairly targeted.
Southwest Airlines, which managed the AirTran flight, called the group of students “non-compliant passengers.” But teacher Marian Wielgus said the flight attendants were “nasty” and overreacted to a few chatty kids, while most of the group was cooperative. “I think if it was a group of non-religious kids, the air stewardess wouldn’t have dared to kick them off,” Zehavi said.
The students had refused to stay seated and turn off their mobile devices when asked. “Both are violations of federal air regulations, as well as our policies,” Southwest spokeswoman Whitney Eichinger said, according to the New York Daily News. “The sole reason these customers were removed from the aircraft was due to their behavior. Anything otherwise is unfounded and offensive,” she added.
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