U.S., Palestinians condemn approval of new Israeli construction in Jerusalem
(JNS.org) The U.S. and the Palestinians on Wednesday both condemned the Jerusalem municipality local planning committee’s approval of construction permits for 768 new residential units, including some units in neighborhoods located beyond the 1967 lines.
“Our position on Jerusalem is clear,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “We oppose any unilateral actions by either party that attempt to prejudge final status issues, including the status of Jerusalem. We’ve called on both sides to take steps to create a positive atmosphere for the [current Israeli-Palestinian conflict] negotiations.”
Saeb Erekat—the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator in the U.S.-brokered talks—said, “The international community must hold Israel accountable for this policy.”
The Jerusalem neighborhoods included in the new Israeli construction plans include Har Homa, Sur Baher, Neve Yaakov, Beit Safafa, Pisgat Ze’ev, and Jabel Mukaber. In a statement, the Jerusalem municipality said it “opposes all attempts to halt the legitimate right of every resident to get a construction permit and will continue building in all of the city’s neighborhoods for Jews and Arabs alike.”
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John Kerry, Susan Rice blast Israeli criticism of boycott remarks
(JNS.org) Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that his comments at a security conference in Munich last weekend, which warned that Israel would face more boycotts and isolation if the U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations fail, have been “distorted” by critics.
“My comments need to be properly remitted, not distorted,” Kerry told CNN. “I did not do anything except cite what other people are talking about as a problem. But I also have always opposed boycotts. I have a 100 percent voting record in support of Israel for 29 years in the United States Senate. Unfortunately, there are some people in Israel and in Palestine and in the Arab world and around the world who don’t support the peace process.”
U.S. National Security Advisor and former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice took to Twitter earlier this week to blast Israeli critics and defend Kerry.
“Personal attacks in Israel directed at Sec Kerry totally unfounded and unacceptable,” Rice said on her Twitter account Monday evening.
Rice added that Kerry’s “record of support for Israel’s security and prosperity rock solid,” and that the U.S. government “has been clear and consistent that we reject efforts to boycott or delegitimize Israel.”
Kerry had said in Munich, “You see, for Israel, there’s an increasing delegitimization campaign that has been building up. People are very sensitive to it. There is talk of boycotts and other kinds of things. Are we all going to be better with all of that?”
“Today’s status quo absolutely, to a certainty, I promise you 100 percent, cannot be maintained… But the fact is the status quo will change if there is failure [in the peace talks]. So everybody has a stake in trying to find the pathway to success,” he said.
Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said of the remarks, “We expect our friends around the world to stand beside us, against anti-Semitic boycott efforts targeting Israel, and not for them to be their amplifier,” the Associated Press reported. Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz called Kerry’s words “intolerable” and said Israel “would not negotiate with a gun to our heads.” Housing Minister Uri Ariel said, “The only illusions are the peace slogans Kerry is trying to pawn off on Israel. The Palestinians cannot believe their good fortune, ending up with such an ‘impartial’ mediator.”
While Israel “needs to understand we will always stand by its security needs,” no one “should distort what we’re doing or saying because they’re opposed to the peace process or don’t like two states or whatever,” Kerry told CNN.
“And words—I have to tell you, my friend—I’ve been, quote, attacked before by people using real bullets, not words, and I am not going to be intimidated,” he said. “I am not going to stand down with respect to President Obama’s commitment to try to find peace in the Middle East.”
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Ancient well discovered in Tel Aviv
(JNS.org) Archaeologists recently discovered an ancient well, used during the Byzantine and Islamic eras, during an antique preservation dig in Tel Aviv, Israel Hayom reported.
The well, located in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Hahayal neighborhood, is believed to be between 1,110 and 1,400 years old. Eli Hadad, the dig coordinator for the Israel Antiquities Authority, said the discovery’s importance “sheds light on the day-to-day life of inhabitants of the Yarkon River area 1,200 to 1,400 years ago. These types of water systems were used in Israel 2,000 years ago during the Roman era and onward, though very few have been thoroughly looked into.”
The discovered well is considered an advanced system: Unlike simple wells in which a person lowers a bucket in and pulls it up to bring water out, it operated like a pump and brought the water up. Artifacts of Byzantine-era buildings were found nearby and are thought to be part of the well and water reservoir.
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Israel to export flexible endoscope for treatment of acid reflux
(JNS.org) Israeli medical device-maker Medigus will begin selling its flexible endoscope for the treatment of acid reflux this year. The medical product is expected to garner several million dollars in revenue in 2014 alone.
The Medigus device allows for outpatient treatment without surgical intervention. The endoscope is inserted through the mouth and staples the stomach to the wall of the esophagus to close a gap the allows acid to rise up. Physicians can see the procedure as they perform it through a small video camera on the tip of the device as well as an ultrasound machine.
Currently, patients suffering from Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are usually treated with medication. Those who don’t show improvement undergo laparoscopic surgery. In the United States alone there are currently 16-17 million people who could benefit from the device—patients who are not improving despite drug treatment, but have not yet decided to have the surgery.
Twenty-one million Americans have chronic or severe GERD, and the U.S. comprises about 25 percent of the global market for the device. By the end of the year, Medicus plans to open 10 centers performing the new procedure in the U.S. and 10 more in Europe. The Medigus device is expected to cost between $10,000 and $12,000, significantly lower than the $18,000-$25,000 cost of surgery.
“We are at the early stage of commercialization. In the medical device world you need to get… innovators to try the product,” Chris Rowland, an American who took over as CEO of Medigus in October, told Reuters on Tuesday.
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Hungarian Jewish group mulls physically preventing Jobbik protest at former synagogue
(JNS.org) The Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (Mazsihisz) is considering sending people to physically prevent Hungary’s ultra-nationalist Jobbik party from holding a rally at a former synagogue on Feb. 14.
Jobbik, which holds 43 of 386 seats in the country’s parliament, is planning the rally in a building in the city of Esztergom which had once been a synagogue. The Jewish community in the city was killed during the Holocaust. The Jobbik party leader, Marton Gyongyosi, had demanded that the Hungarian government make a list of citizens with Jewish ancestry who might post a security risk to the country.
“In case this [gathering] will not be prohibited the Mazsihisz and Jewish civil organizations will protest and physically hinder the Jobbik rally on the spot,” Mazsihisz President Andras Heisler told the Jerusalem Post. Holding the rally at the former synagogue would be an “unworthy, ugly, and cynical desecration of the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and the sentiments of the survivors,” Esztergom’s Socialist Party chairman Tamás Gál wrote in a letter to the town’s mayor.
Meanwhile, the Rabbinical Council of Europe (RCE) has announced its plans to hold a conference in March that will cooperate with the Hungarian government. “In the past few years, the voices of anti-Semitic ideology have become louder in the country. The conference is aimed at showing support to the Jewish community, and to the majority of Hungarians who experience with fear the negative developments,” RCE Director-General Rabbi Menachem Margolin said in a statement.
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Israeli Christian leader threatened by Arab MKs at debate
(JNS.org) An Israeli Christian leader was threatened by Arab Israeli Knesset members in a heated exchange during a Knesset committee meeting Wednesday.
The hearing was part of an effort to legally differentiate Christians as a separate minority group from Arabs, similar to the Druze and Bedouins. That effort has been led by Likud MK Yariv Levin and Israeli Christian leaders.
But the initiative has been controversial within the Israeli Arab community.
“Levin wants to wickedly divide the Arab public, which is oppressed anyway,” Arab MK Jamal Zahalke said during the meeting, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Israeli Christian leader Shadi Halul of the Christian IDF Officers Forum, a group that promotes Christian recruitment and integration into the Israeli military, said he is proud to be Christian and deserves to be recognized as such. Halul accused the Arab MKs of racism.
“Don’t listen to these racists,” he added, pointing at the Arab MKs.
Committee chairman MK Haim Katz eventually had Arab MK Haneen Zoabi ejected from the meeting for suggesting that Halul deserves to be attacked.
“You are a coward! Go to the streets of Nazareth and Kfar Kana, say what you just said, and they’ll give you the response you deserve,” Zoabi said, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Zoabi, who is one of 12 Arabs in the Israeli Knesset, has had a controversial political career. She has been an outspoken opponent of Israel and participated in the 2010 Gaza flotilla. She also ran for mayor of Nazareth in late 2013, losing to the long-time Christian incumbent Ramiz Jaraisi.
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Four Arabs indicted for planning terror attack on Jerusalem wedding
(JNS.org) Four Arabs were recently indicted by a Jerusalem District Court for allegedly planning to carry out a large-scale terror attack on a wedding hall in Jerusalem.
According to the indictment, which was made public on Wednesday, the four Arabs from the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber planned to dress as haredi Jews and enter Jerusalem’s Nof wedding hall in the Bayit Vagan neighborhood with their weapons concealed, and then to open fire.
The suspects had met with a Palestinian arms dealer in the West Bank, who promised to sell them Uzi submachine guns, and another man to help them raise money for the guns, the Times of Israel reported.
The indictment also said that three of the suspects performed surveillance on the wedding hall to plan the attack. One of the suspects, Anas Ouisat, had previously worked there and targeted the hall because of the large number of casualties the venue could provide.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org