Lebanese shooter who killed IDF soldier detained
(JNS.org) The Lebanese soldier who shot and killed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Master Sgt. Shlomi Cohen on Sunday was detained, according to Lebanese and Israeli authorities.
“[Lebanese authorities] jailed him, interrogated him, and according to their claims, they will punish him,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the soldier was not given orders to shoot and acted independently, and would be held accountable for his actions.
Shlomi Cohen’s widow, 26-year-old Maayan Cohen, questioned the circumstances of her husband’s death.
“Why isn’t there a regulation preventing an unaccompanied vehicle from driving next to the border fence?” she told Israel Hayom. “I saw an online video that showed how easy it would be to shoot at anything passing there. This makes me angry. I want to go there, see the vehicle, talk to the doctor and find out everything that happened to Shlomi, and receive answers from the IDF to many questions.”
Council of Europe to reconsider anti-circumcision stance
(JNS.org) The Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly decided to revisit its anti-circumcision position following a meeting with an Israeli parliamentary delegation headed by former Knesset Speaker MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud-Beiteinu), Israel Hayom reported.
The council’s parliamentary assembly ruled Oct. 1 that ritual circumcision violated the rights and harmed the physical integrity of young children. Concerned the resolution would encourage individual European countries to institute a circumcision ban, Israeli President Shimon Peres wrote a formal letter to Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjorn Jagland explaining the importance of the ritual and asking the council to reconsider its stance. Jagland later clarified that the ruling was only a resolution, and that a ban was not in the council’s plans.
The debate will be renewed in a committee meeting, with its decision to be presented for approval by the Council of Europe as a whole.
Rivlin and delegation members MKs Yitzhak Vaknin (Shas) and Ronen Hoffman (Yesh Atid) presented the Council of Europe with a petition signed by more than 100 of its own members requesting that the discussion on circumcision be reopened.
“We expect Europe to change its approach to the ritual circumcision ban and other issues related to freedom of religion and conscience,” said Rivlin.
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Ostreicher’s return fostered by mix of pressure and diplomacy, says former governor
(JNS.org) Bill Richardson, who served as the governor of New Mexico and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said a mixture of public pressure and private diplomacy fostered Monday’s return of Jewish contractor Jacob Ostreicher to American soil after he was held captive for more than two years in Bolivia.
“What needs to happen in successful releases is a combination of public pressure and private diplomacy,” Richardson said on a conference call with reporters Tuesday. “Those combinations in many cases are the roots for success.”
“With Ostreicher there was intensive public pressure by many Jewish organizations, it was very effective,” he said.
Richardson—who said he doesn’t “have all the circumstances of [Ostreicher’s] escape” from Bolivia—cited a meeting he had with Bolivian President Evo Morales a year ago as an example of the “quiet diplomacy” he and other key officials engaged in on behalf of Ostreicher.
“At one point Jacob said he had a plan and he wanted us to lay off a bit, and I guess that plan of his has resulted in his escape,” Richardson said.
Ostreicher, a 54-year-old Brooklyn native, traveled to Bolivia in December 2010 to oversee rice production and was arrested in June 2011 on suspicion of money laundering and criminal organization. No formal charges were ever been brought against him, but he spent 18 months in prison before being released on bail in December 2012, after which point he had remained in Bolivia on house arrest.
“He’s safe, healthy, very tired but can’t be seen,” Aron Ostreicher, Jacob’s brother, told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Aron said he hasn’t been given the details of his brother’s escape, and that Jacob hasn’t yet spoken to anyone in his family.
Former Senate intelligence staffer urges Jonathan Pollard’s release, offers expert testimony
(JNS.org) Boston University international relations professor Angelo Codevilla, who was a senior staffer on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee at the time of the arrest of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in 1985, wrote a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama calling for Pollard’s release and offering to give expert testimony on Pollard’s behalf.
In his letter, Codevilla noted that Pollard is the only person in U.S. history “sentenced to life imprisonment for passing information to an ally, without intent to harm America,” a crime that normally only “carries a sentence of 2-4 years.”
“Having been intimately acquainted with the materials that Pollard passed and with the ‘sources and methods’ by which they were gathered, I would be willing to give expert testimony that Pollard is guilty of neither more nor less than what the indictment alleges,” he wrote.
On Dec. 10, Bill Richardson—formerly New Mexico’s governor and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations—also wrote a letter to Obama calling for Pollard’s release. In a conference call with reports on Tuesday, Richardson said he expects “sometime soon that I’ll get a chance to talk to [Obama] about several things,” including Pollard. Asked by JNS.org what his main argument for Pollard’s release would be in a conversation with Obama, Richardson said, “You want to make the most effective argument, and the most effective argument is on humanitarian grounds.”
Pollard’s has “been punished enough, he’s been in prison 29 years, the man has suffered enough, he’s not well,” said Richardson.
Richardson said he believes the Pollard case is “reaching a point where I sense some momentum,” through increased calls for his release by both former government officials and the general public.
“I see increased social media, Facebook, [and] Twitter [activity] on this subject, and that is read, that is something that I think is increasing momentum and has increased the potential for [Pollard’s] release,” he said.
Judea and Samaria land targeted in coordinated Palestinian effort, Israeli officials say
(JNS.org) Senior Israeli Civil Authority officials warned Tuesday that Palestinian Arabs are engaging in a coordinated effort to take over Israeli-owned land in Judea and Samaria, and that senior Palestinian Authority (PA) officials may be involved in the effort.
“Over the past two to three years, there’s been a battle for Area C,” said Director of Inspection Unit Marco Ben-Shabbat, according to Israel National News. “It’s not like what we saw before, with a single Palestinian building a private home illegally. It is much more organized.”
Although the PA has signed agreements giving Israel control of Area C, it considers the Israeli presence in the area to be “occupation.” In a new book, Col. (res.) Daniel Reisner, the former head of the international law department in the IDF Military Advocate General’s Corps, writes that “since the territories of Judea and Samaria were never a legitimate part of any Arab state, including the Kingdom of Jordan, it is impossible to determine that Israel is an occupier in Judea and Samaria in the accepted legal definition.”
“It is inconceivable that the entire world will repeat the mantra about Judea and Samaria being occupied territory when from a factual standpoint there is no legal basis for this,” said Alan Baker, an attorney and former Israeli ambassador to Canada.
One year after Newtown, Magen David Adom lauds new White House initiative
(JNS.org) Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national paramedic and blood-donation organization, is applauding a new White House initiative to change how emergency organizations in the U.S. respond to terrorist attacks and mass casualty accidents.
Currently, U.S. first responders are not allowed into incident sites until it can be verified that any perpetrators don’t pose more danger. MDA, on the other hand, sends medical personnel wearing protective gear to treat victims before the area has been secured. The Obama administration announced on the one-year anniversary of the massacre in Newtown’s Sandy Hook Elementary School that it is now advocating a similar approach.
“In bombings, shootings, and other mass-casualty incidents, you have injured civilians who are at risk of bleeding to death if they don’t get immediate medical treatment,” Eli Bin, MDA’s director-general, said in a statement. “Time is crucial and makes a dramatic difference in survival rates.”
“Sure, there are risks to your paramedics,” said Guy Caspi, head of MDA’s mass-casualty training. “But the risk to civilians when you wait a half-hour or more before you’re given clearance to treat the wounded is much greater.”
Saudi Arabia prince shakes hands with former Israeli diplomat, slams U.S. Mideast policy
(JNS.org) Prince Turki al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia reportedly met with Israeli officials at the World Policy Conference in Monaco on Sunday.
According to Maariv, al-Faisal publicly shook hands with former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Itamar Rabinovich and also held a discussion with MK Meir Sheetrit. The report added that Sheetrit invited al-Faisal to speak to the Israeli Knesset.
During his remarks at the conference, al-Faisal was critical of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Mideast policy.
“We’ve seen several red lines put forward by the president, which went along and became pinkish as time grew, and eventually ended up completely white,” said al-Faisal, the former intelligence chief of Saudi Arabia, the New York Times reported.
Despite being sworn enemies, Saudi Arabia and Israel have both expressed concern about Iran and deep skepticism of the interim Iran nuclear deal that was reached in Geneva. According to a November report in the Sunday Times, Saudi Arabia may cooperate with Israel on a strike of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Air Serbia begins direct flights to Israel
(JNS.org) The national airline of Serbia, Air Serbia, has begun direct flights to Israel in a sign of increasing relations between the countries.
The first direct flight, which will operate four days a week, began on Sunday from Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport to Tel Aviv’s David Ben-Gurion airport on a new Airbus A319. Attending the promotional flight was Serbian Parliament Speaker Nebojsa Stefanovic, Minister of Regional Development and Local Self-Government Igor Mirovic, Israeli Ambassador to Serbia Yossef Levy, and Air Serbia CEO Danny Kondic.
After landing in Tel Aviv, Stefanovic said that he hopes “that this direct route will boost the tourism of the two countries,” theTanjug News Agency reported.
Relations between Serbia and Israel have grown steadily recently. Earlier this year, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic made his first state visit to Israel.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org