Hezbollah could invade Israel in next conflict, IDF official says
(JNS.org) A senior Israel Defense Forces official warned that Hezbollah could invade and attempt to capture northern Israeli towns during the next conflict.
According to the IDF’s assessment, Hezbollah could capture a few northern Israeli towns such as Rosh Hanikra for several hours until they are dislodged.
“I can say that if it does capture part of our land, we have the capabilities to take it back,” the Northern Commander official said, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.
“When Hezbollah talks about capturing the Galilee, it’s not an occupation as you would imagine it — it could capture the [Rosh Hanikra area] for 3-4 hours. If we managed to capture the Golan Heights, this is not a problem,” the official added.
Hezbollah poses a much greater threat than Hamas, IDF officials warned. It is estimated that the Lebanese terror group has 100,000 rockets – 10 times as many as Hamas – including thousands of long-range missiles that carry up to a ton of warheads and are hidden in deep underground bunkers within Lebanon.
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Historic first: Israel names female ambassador to Arab state
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Foreign Ministry announced 12 new diplomatic corps appointments on Sunday, including seven female ambassadors. For the first time, a woman is Israel’s new ambassador to Jordan.
Einat Shlain, head of the international division at the Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Research Center, has been with the Foreign Ministry for 22 years, and has been a Middle Eastern affairs adviser with the Israeli Embassy in Washington. She is expected to assume office in mid-2015, replacing current Ambassador to Jordan Daniel Nevo.
The Foreign Ministry also named five other female ambassadors, and the appointments are pending approval.
“The fact that women make up the majority of appointments in the current nominations round — seven out of 12 nominations — is a source of pride to Israeli women,” said Vered Swid, head of the Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women at the Prime Minister’s Office.
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Israeli-American director wins prize at Toronto film festival
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli-American director Oren Moverman won the coveted International Federation of Film Critics Award for Special Presentations for his film Time Out of Mind at the Toronto International Film Festival, which ended on Sunday.
The film stars Richard Gere as an eccentric homeless man in New York who tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Jena Malone). Gere has received widespread praise for his role.
Gere first brought the screenplay to Moverman a year and a half ago and asked him to direct it, after the two worked together on the Bob Dylan biographical musical film I’m Not There in 2007.
“Richard had this obsession with the main character in the screenplay, a man who had nothing,” Moverman said.
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Israel fears Islamic State threat to Jordan as group posts third execution
(JNS.org) Israeli Intelligence, International Relations and Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz warned Sunday that Jordan is at risk of invasion from the Islamic State.
“If Jordan is in real danger from extremist jihadis, and asks for Israel’s help, Israel has a very clear interest in Jordan’s continued existence and stability,” Steinitz told Israel Radio.
An Israeli government official also said Saturday that Israel could launch an attack if the Islamic State invades Jordan.
“ISIS (also known as the Islamic State) entering Jordan is something that could change the situation as that may have direct security related consequences to Israel,” the official said, Reuters reported.
On Saturday the Islamic State released a video showing the beheading of British aid worker David Haines. This is the third such execution since the similarly videotaped executions of U.S. journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.
A United Kingdom Foreign Office spokesperson said Sunday that “all signs are that the video is genuine,” reported the Wall Street Journal.
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US Senate majority leader: Hamas is just as bad as Islamic State
(Israeli Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) condemned Hamas and affirmed U.S. support for Israel on Thursday, calling the failure to condemn Hamas as one condemns the Islamic State group “stunning hypocrisy.”
“Hamas and ISIS (also known as Islamic State) are both vicious, corrupt, hateful, evil groups. And both are extreme. Yet, for some reason, Hamas’s brutality doesn’t elicit the same horror from the international community as ISIS. How can that be?” Reid wondered as he addressed the Senate.
Reid said that one of the few differences between Islamic State and Hamas is the latter’s narrow focus on one single objective: the destruction of Israel. Hamas used its “own limited supplies for housing and general infrastructure…to build tunnels to hide and infiltrate Israel — infiltrating to kill, maim, kidnap and murder the innocent. These depraved agitators launched thousands of rockets into Israel, hoping to inflict death and destruction. Their rockets had no aiming capabilities — they fired indiscriminately, not caring whether they hit a child, a family or anyone,” he said.
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Lady Gaga performs with Tony Bennett in Tel Aviv
(JNS.org) Singer Lady Gaga performed in front of 20,000 fans in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park Saturday. The concert was another tour stop as part of her show “artRave: The ARTPOP Ball.”
Later the singer was joined on stage by singer Tony Bennett. Bennett and Lady Gaga have recorded an upcoming duet album “Cheek to Cheek.”
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists have been calling for entertainers to cancel performances in the country, but Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett did not cancel their scheduled performances, reported the Jerusalem Post.
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Brussels Jewish Museum reopens after shooting attack
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Three months after the shooting attack at the Brussels Jewish Museum that left four people dead, including Israelis Mira and Emanuel Riva, the museum reopened its gates on Sunday morning.
The museum shut down after the attack, and some considered leaving it closed.
“We don’t want to serve the interests of extremists who want to muffle our culture,” said museum director Philip Blondin. “We wanted to reopen our doors as soon as possible, but it wasn’t [immediately] possible because the Belgian authorities had to do their work,” he said.
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CUNY pro-BDS vote shelved after heated Friday evening debate
(JNS.org) A last minute resolution to divest from Israel at the City University of New York (CUNY) was shelved Friday, Sep. 12, following a strong presence by pro-Israel supporters despite the start of Shabbat.
The Doctoral Students’ Council (DSC) of CUNY, which represents more than 4,700 members of the graduate school from across the CUNY system, announced the last minute divestment vote earlier in the week.
The proposed resolution, titled “The Endorsement of Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions,” calls on the CUNY system to endorse a “boycott of Israeli academic institutions and the divestment from Israeli companies,” as well to end academic partnerships with Israeli institutions.
After a lengthy heated debate on Friday, a motion was eventually passed to table the resolution for a future date. Despite the vote’s difficult timing for observant Jews, a number of pro-Israel groups did turn out to support CUNY students, as well as faculty members who opposed the resolution.
“It is a routine tactic of the BDS movement to hold votes on or around Jewish holidays in order to shut out pro-Israel voices,” Jacob Baime, Executive Director of the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) – who attended the Friday evening vote – told JNS.org.
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Palestinians stall Gaza war crimes probe against Israel
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority has been stalling an International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into alleged war crimes committed by Israel during Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, Qatar’s Al Jazeera news network reported Thursday.
Soon after the beginning of the military campaign, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, which controls Gaza, announced they would pursue ICC action against Israel.
International law expert Rodney Dixon was quoted in an ICC report as saying that Israel’s own planned independent inquiries may delay the ICC probe, as The Hague’s “prosecutor’s attention is shifted from possibly launching an investigation to whether an investigation by Israel is genuine, and covers the same persons and conduct of any potential ICC investigation.”
According to the report, senior ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has yet to receive “a positive confirmation” from PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki regarding the Palestinians’ request to launch an official investigation against Israel.
International law experts said that pursuing ICC action may backfire on the Palestinians, as Israel could, as a countermeasure, demand that a war crimes probe be launched against Hamas.
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Fijian UN peacekeepers released in Syria
(JNS.org) The United Nations has confirmed that the 45 Fijian peacekeepers held hostage for two weeks by the al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadist group the al-Nusra Front near the Syria-Israel border have been released.
“Today at 14:30 hours local time, the 45 Fijian peacekeepers who had been detained were handed to UNDOF [the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force] at Position 80,” the U.N. press office said in a statement, according to Reuters.
“All the 45 peacekeepers are in good condition and will proceed back to Camp Foar for medical assessment.”
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Ohio University pro-Israel students arrested after protesting at student senate
(JNS.org) The President and CEO of Hillel International Eric Fingerhut has written a letter to Ohio University President Roderick J. McDavis Friday criticizing the arrest of four pro-Israel students at a student senate meeting Sep. 10.
Maxwell Peltz, 20, Rebecca Sebo, 22, Jonah Yulish, 19, and Gabriel Sirkin, 20, had been protesting against Ohio University Student Senate President Megan Marzec’s video, posted earlier this month, in which she poured fake blood on herself as an ALS Ice Bucket Challenge-inspired anti-Israel protest.
At the student senate meeting Sebo stood to protest against Marzec’s video, criticized her leadership and called for her resignation. After warning that the students are disturbing the meeting, Marzec reportedly called for their detainment. Sebo and her three fellow activists were then escorted out by Ohio University police officers.
The four students were arrested and charged with a fourth degree misdemeanor for disturbing a lawful meeting. If convicted, the charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 days in jail and a $250 fine, reported the Athens News. The students pled not guilty in the Athens City Municipal Court Sep. 11.
“I cannot understand how the university administration could have possibly allowed the university police to arrest these students,” Fingerhut wrote in his letter.
“Any university policy that placed the power to order those arrests in the hands of a single student, who was herself directly involved in the controversy, is wrong and must be changed. These students are owed an apology from the university,” he wrote.
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