Netanyahu reportedly taps Dermer as next ambassador to U.S.
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to appoint his close aide Ron Dermer as Israel’s next ambassador to the United States, Army Radio reported Friday.
According to the report, Dermer’s candidacy as ambassador has been in question for some time, as he was considered a “red sheet” in Obama administration circles for his perceived support of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in last summer’s race. Army Radio reported that Dermer has managed to improve his ties with the Obama administration, and with Secretary of State John Kerry in particular.
In a recent speech to American Jewish leaders, Dermer said President Barack Obama’s support for Israel during Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza “was superb.”
Army Radio reported that the Obama administration has now removed its objection to Dermer’s appointment. The U.S.-born Dermer will replace another American-born Israeli ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, in August.
IDF chief on Hezbollah weakness: ‘Flames have begun to lick Nasrallah’s robe’
(JNS.org) In Lebanon, the “flames have begun to lick [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah’s robe,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said Thursday at the Israel Air Force 166th cadets’ graduation ceremony at the Hazerim Airbase in southern Israel, according to Israel Hayom.
Gantz’s somewhat unusual, direct statement on Nasrallah was made following Israeli defense establishment assessments that strategically, Hezbollah is currently experiencing one of its lowest points in years, as the Shiite terror group is engaged in three fronts: against Israel, inside Syria and vis-à-vis the internal Lebanese arena.
The IDF believes that so far, Hezbollah has lost more than 200 operatives in Syrian battles against rebel force operating in Lebanon, and that its casualties in the Syrian civil war number in the thousands.
B’nai B’rith distances self from article criticizing Gilad Shalit
(JNS.org) B’nai B’rith International said its views are not represented in an article that appeared in The Jewish Tribune of Toronto, a newspaper associated with B’nai B’rith Canada, that heavily criticized former Hamas captive Gilad Shalit.
“The Jewish Tribune story in no way represents the views of B’nai B’rith International or its members and supporters around the world,” the organization said in a statement released Thursday.
“B’nai B’rith International has the deepest respect for Shalit and the horrors he endured as a Hamas captive. We are proud to have hosted him as a special guest at the B’nai B’rith Europe Young Jewish Adult Forum in London in November 2012, where he was warmly received. Some 200 delegates from more than 20 European countries, Israel and the United States were on hand when Shalit was made an honorary B’nai B’rith International member,” the statement said.
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Archbishop of Canterbury affirms Israel’s ‘right to exist in security and peace’
(JNS.org) The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, affirmed Israel’s “right to exist in security and peace” during his visit to the Jewish state on Thursday.
Welby, on a five-day tour of Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories this week, met with members of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, and prayed at the Western Wall.
“The clear policy of the Church of England, [and] my own very clear and very fluent feeling, is that the State of Israel is a legitimate state like every other state in the world and has a right to exist in security and peace within internationally agreed boundaries,” he told a press conference at the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.
Soon after becoming archbishop in November 2012, Welby discovered that his father was Jewish. He also recently learned that he had lost relatives in the Holocaust.
In light of his family’s history, he called his visit to Yad Vashem “an extraordinarily personal and emotional moment,” but declined to go into greater detail.
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Christian human rights group alerts Congress on plight of Syrian refugees
(JNS.org) Dr. John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International—a Christian human rights NGO based in Switzerland—told the U.S. Congress in a testimony on Tuesday that the Syrian civil war “could lead to the eradication of religious minorities,” including Christians, Alawites and other non-Sunni Muslim groups in Syria.
Eibner, who testified as part of a subcommittee hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee held by U.S. Reps. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), recently returned from a fact-finding and humanitarian aid mission in Syria.
According to Eibner’s testimony, while in Syria he met with “many resilient and courageous Syrians, mainly displaced Christians and church workers.” Eibner told the subcommittee that victims “recounted to me the religious cleansing of Christian neighborhoods in Homs and Qusair by armed jihadis who threatened them with death if they did not leave their homes.”
“A Christian woman told me that before she fled Homs, she had seen the beheading in broad daylight of an Alawite girl who was pulled off a public minibus by armed jihadis,” Eibner said in transcript provided to JNS.org.
The Syrian civil war has become a deadly mix of sectarian violence between the Alawaite/Shi’a aligned government forces supported by Iran, Hezbollah and Russia and the mainly Sunni-led opposition supported by Turkey and Arab Gulf States. According to a report in the New York Times citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 100,000 people have died in the conflict.
Christians, who comprise around 10 percent of the Syrian population and have previously supported the relatively secular government of President Bashar al-Assad, have been caught up in the crossfire as sectarian battles increase.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org