Fourth stage of Palestinian terrorist prisoner release may be nixed
(JNS.org) Israel may cancel the fourth and final stage of its release of 104 Palestinian terrorist prisoners if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to commit to a yearlong extension of the current peace talks, Israel Hayomreported.
The fourth stage of the prisoner release is scheduled for the end of the month. The Palestinians have already published a list of the prisoners to be released. Among those on the list are Muhammad Jabarin, Yahya Agbaria, and Ibrahim Agbaria, arrested in 1992 for taking part in the “Night of the Pitchforks,” during which they murdered three Israeli soldiers. Also listed is Karim Younis, who murdered Israeli soldier Avraham Bromberg in 1981. No official list has been published by Israel.
Opposition to the fourth stage of the prisoner release is growing within the Israeli government. Habayit Hayehudi party ministers have expressed a strong stance against the release, and several ministers from the Likud party are echoing that sentiment.
Representatives of bereaved families and the Almagor Terror Victims Association met on Tuesday with Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni. Almagor head Meir Indor responded to the prisoner list published by the Palestinians by saying, “If what they published is true, it is a scandal, because we were promised by the [Israeli] High Court attorney that before the fourth stage happens, there would be an additional government meeting. By our count, there is no majority in favor of releasing murderers.”
Jordanian PM: No action against Israel until probe on judge’s death is complete
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said Tuesday that Jordan would not take action against Israel until the investigation into the death of Palestinian-Jordanian judge Raed Zueter, who was fatally shot last week after attacking an Israeli soldier at the Allenby Bridge border crossing, is completed.
Jordanian parliament members gave the government an ultimatum following the incident, calling for the severing of all diplomatic ties with Israel and urging the release of Ahmed Daqamseh, the Jordanian soldier who in 1997 murdered seven Israeli schoolgirls at the Island of Peace on the border between the two countries.
The Jordanian legislators initiated a no-confidence vote in the government after the ultimatum went largely ignored. Following the vote, Ensour said that until conclusions are drawn from the joint Israeli-Jordanian investigation team, Jordan will not expel the Israeli ambassador and will not recall its ambassador from Tel Aviv. Ensour also criticized Israel, saying that if Jordan cuts off ties to Israel, the latter may take the opportunity to “Judaize” Jerusalem and take control of the holy places there.
Ya’alon says Israel can only rely on itself to act against Iran nuclear program
(JNS.org) Israel can only rely on itself, and not the United States, to lead action against Iran’s nuclear program, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said in comments published Tuesday by Haaretz.
“We had thought the ones who should lead the campaign against Iran is the United States,” Ya’alon said in a speech at Tel Aviv University. “But at some stage the United States entered into negotiations with them, and unhappily, when it comes to negotiating at a Persian bazaar, the Iranians were better.”
Israel, therefore, needs to “behave as though we have nobody to look out for us but ourselves” when it comes to the Iranian threat, said Ya’alon.
A senior Obama administration official said in response, “We were shocked by Moshe Ya’alon’s comments, which seriously call into question his commitment to Israel’s relationship with the United States,” according to Haaretz.
Crimea unrest witnessed up close by Chabad rabbi (JNS.org)
While the crisis in Ukraine continues to unfold, Jews in the disputed region of Crimea have been caught in a battle over nationalism. Like many minority groups in the area, Ukrainian Jews fear for their safety and their future amid the heightened tension.
“The main action in Crimea was taking place right across the street from our synagogue,” said Rabbi Yitzchok Meyer Lipszyc, who has been a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, for more than two decades.
“There were demonstrations with over 30,000 people. The protestors were pro-Ukrainian. But eventually the ones who took over were in the unidentified uniforms—they were obviously Russian military. There was Cossacks there too; for Jews that was a bit scary because of their history in the pogroms,” he told JNS.org.
Lipszyc was forced to leave Crimea with his wife Leah.
“For the last 22 years under the Ukrainian government, everything has been going very well. When this situation began, it turned things upside down. We were told by Chabad headquarters to get out and we barely made it out. My wife in fact got the last two tickets on a train out of Simferopol on the night before everything got sealed off by the Russians (Feb. 27),” he said.
In Sunday’s Crimea referendum, 95.7 percent of the voters in the Ukrainian peninsula voted in support of annexation of the area by Russia.
Sam Kliger, the American Jewish Committee’s director of Russian Jewish community affairs, told JNS.org that according to international law and most Western observers, the referendum was illegitimate.
“Russia, however, considers it legitimate, referring to the Kosovo case, to the will of Crimean people, and to Russia’s ‘obligations’ to protect Russian people in Crimea. The fate of Crimea had to be decided through negotiations between Ukraine and Russia and not by force,” he said.
“Then, in 1991, Crimea went to independent Ukraine because, since 1954, it was part of Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic which in turn was an integral part of the Soviet Union,” added Kliger. “That is why nobody really cared. As long as it was a part of the USSR, it did not really matter whether it is formally a part of Russia or Ukraine. Now Russia, using as pretext the instability created by Ukrainian revolution and imaginary ‘discrimination’ against ethnic Russians, just grabbed the opportunity to return Crimea to where, according to Russia, it historically belongs.”
Pro-Israel liberal academics launch new initiative to combat boycotts of Israel
(JNS.org) More than 50 leading pro-Israel liberal academics announced a new initiative by Ameinu, a liberal Zionist organization, to combat academic boycotts of Israel and to protect freedom of expression on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“We are progressive scholars and academics who reject the notion that one has to be either pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian. We believe that empathy for the suffering and aspirations of both peoples, and respect for their national narratives, is essential if there is to be a peaceful solution,” said the founding statement of the Academic Advisory Council of Ameinu’s “The Third Narrative” initiative.
Kenneth Bob, president of Ameniu, told JNS.org that the initiative hopes to address the “false dichotomy” over Israel that is promoted by the left.
“This initiative of progressive academics around the issue of academic freedom puts a focus on the false dichotomy expounding by some on the left between supporting Israel’s right to exist and criticism of particular policies towards the Palestinians,” Bob said.
He added, “We hope to bring to light a new, third way of both embracing a peaceful solution to the Middle East conflict and rejecting academic boycotts aimed at Israelis and Israel.”
The new initiative will also organize a space in which progressive academics can address boycott activity, create materials on the Arab-Israeli conflict and academic freedom, and take other actions on critical issues.
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Four IDF soldiers wounded in Israel-Syria border explosion
(JNS.org) Four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were injured Tuesday when an explosive device detonated under their patrol jeep near the Israeli-Syrian border.
According to the IDF, soldiers patrolling the border had identified suspicious movement.
One solider was seriously hurt while the other three sustained light-to-moderate injuries. All of the soldiers were brought to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
In response to the attack, the IDF returned artillery fire into Syria and hit several sites, including a Syrian army base.
“The IDF retaliated toward Syrian military positions,” the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack came amid an influx of jihadists and Hezbollah members near the border area. He added, “In the past few years, we’ve succeeded in keeping the peace in the face of the civil war in Syria, and here too we will act forcefully to maintain Israel’s security.”
The Israeli government has also notified the United Nations’ peacekeeping force that patrols the Israeli-Syrian border of the incident.
“We see the Syrian army as responsible, and that is indicated by our response to the attack,” said IDF spokesman Lt.-Col. Peter Lerner, Reuters reported.
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