Putin plans Iran visit
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning to visit Tehran next month in an attempt to restart talks over Iran’s nuclear program, Russian media reported.
The visit is reportedly scheduled for either August 12 or 16, according to Iranian and Russian foreign ministry officials speaking with Russian daily Kommersant. The trip would take place only a few days after Iranian President-elect Hasan Rouhani is inaugurated into office.
Putin may offer the Iranians an alternative to the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system—after the Russian-Iranian arms deal was frozen over Israeli and American pressure on the Kremlin. According to the report, Moscow would instead offer the S-300VM system, which is designed to defend against ballistic, cruise and air-to-surface missile attacks.
The British Foreign Office, meanwhile, announced that it would boycott Rouhani’s inaugural ceremony, declining to send a diplomatic representative. There has been no British diplomatic staff in Tehran since November 2011, when a mob of protesters ransacked the U.K.’s embassy and residential compound.
Like fathers, like sons: Lau and Yosef elected chief rabbis of Israel
(JNS.org) Rabbi David Lau, the chief rabbi of Modiin, was named Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi on Wednesday evening, alongside Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, who was named the chief Sephardi rabbi.
Both of Israel’s new chief rabbis are the sons for former chief rabbis: Lau’s father, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, served as the chief Ashkenazi rabbi between 1993 and 2003, and Yosef’s father, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, served as the chief Sephardi rabbi between 1973 and 1983.
The 150 electors responsible for choosing Israel’s chief rabbis gave Lau, 47, and Yosef, 61, the same number of votes—68. The new chief rabbis were elected for a 10-year term.
Lau’s main rival in the race, the national-religious camp’s candidate Rabbi David Stav, received 54 votes; while Yosef’s strongest rival, Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, received 49.
“This is a joyous occasion of course, but there is also a sense of great responsibility,” Lau told Israel Hayom shortly after he was named the new chief rabbi. “I was sitting by Father when the results came in. He hugged me and told me that I have a heavy burden to carry. I pray that I will be everyone’s rabbi and that the Chief Rabbinate will be everyone’s rabbinate.”
“I thank God that I have been blessed to sit on the same chair as my father,” Yosef said.
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PLO leader in Pakistan: Don’t interpret Oslo Accords as Palestinian recognition of Israel
(JNS.org) Speakers at the international Palestinian solidarity conference called “Palestine: Manifestation of Muslim Ummah’s Unity,” held in Karachi, Pakistan, this week said that Israel is an illegitimate state that must cease to exist.
Mohammad Zazeh, who is described as one of the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the international Palestinian group headed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the PLO has never recognized Israel as a legitimate state, and that the 1993 Oslo Accords should not be misunderstood to have constituted Palestinian recognition of Israel.
“Israel is an illegitimate state. Palestine belongs to Palestinians. An independent state of Palestine is what the Palestinians will get recognized,” Zazeh said, according to Pakistan’s largest financial daily, the Business Recorder.
Zazeh added, “Palestine and al Quds belong to all Arabs and Muslims. This is sacred land.”
The U.S.-mediated preliminary peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians are set to begin soon in Washington, DC.
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Egypt authorities need to do more to protect Christians, Human Rights Watch says
(JNS.org) Human Rights Watch (HRW) joined the growing number of international human rights groups calling on Egyptian authorities to do more to protect Egypt’s ancient Christian community.
“Egyptian security forces should be on high alert to prevent and halt sectarian violence in the current tense and polarized situation,” Nadim Houry, acting Middle East director at HRW, said in a statement. “Egypt’s religious and political leaders should denounce the dangerous escalation of sectarian attacks.”
According to HRW, at least six attacks on Christians have taken place since former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi’s ouster on July 3, including in Luxor, Marsa Matrouh, Minya, North Sinai, Port Said, and Qena. In most of these incidents, security forces failed to take the necessary action to prevent or stop the violence.
The call by HRW echoes a similar appeal by fellow human rights group Amnesty International, which reported on a July 5 attack on Christian homes near Luxor that resulted in more than 100 Christian homes ransacked as well as four deaths and one hospitalization.
One of the oldest communities in Christianity, Egypt’s Coptic Christian church was established by one of Jesus’s apostles, Saint Mark, in 42 CE. Coptic Christians constituted a majority of Egypt’s population until the Middle Ages, when Islam, introduced by the Arab invasions in the 7th century, eclipsed their religion.
Today, Coptic Christianity comprises nearly 10 percent of Egypt’s 85 million people, making it the largest single Christian community remaining in the Middle East.
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Anthony Weiner under growing pressure to quit NYC mayor’s race
(JNS.org) Former Congressman Anthony Weiner, a New York Democrat who resigned after the 2011 exposure of lewd images he posted on Twitter, is facing growing pressure to quit the race for mayor of New York City after the revelation that he continued “sexting” on social media far after the original scandal was uncovered.
The Jewish politician remains determined to continue his political comeback, even though a woman has posted inappropriate texts online showing that he was still engaging in lewd behavior as recently as August 2012.
“There is no question what I did is wrong. I have apologized to my wife, Huma… I’m pleased she has given me a second chance, and I’m asking for a second chance,” Weiner said in a news conference with his wife, Huma Abedin, according to the New York Jewish Week.
Weiner also indicated that he is counting on Jewish voters to propel him to the mayoral post, joking about the “yidlock at the top of the ticket,” but emphasized he is “not dividing up the electorate like a pie.”
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Newly crowned King Philippe of Belgium praised by Jewish leader
(JNS.org) The president of the Belgian Israelite Consistory, Baron Julien Klener, at the abdication ceremony of Belgian King Albert II and the coronation of his son Philippe praised the new king’s “intellectual curiosity that has led him to take an interest in the diversity of human thought and in the various beliefs and philosophies.”
While he was still crown prince in 1993, the new king had unveiled a plaque in which Belgian Jews expressed gratitude to non-Jewish Belgians for the rescue of many Jews during the Holocaust, Klener noted, according to the World Jewish Congress.
More recently, in 2012, King Philippe attended the 56th pilgrimage to the Dossin barracks, a former assembly camp from where thousands of Jews and Roma were transported to concentration camps, as part of the National Day of Jewish Martyrs of Belgium and the 70th anniversary of the start of the deportation of Belgian Jews.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org