Netanyahu joins Paris demonstrations
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday visited Hyper Cacher, the kosher supermarket in Paris where Muslim terrorist Amedy Coulibaly took nearly 20 shoppers hostage and killed four of the hostages.
Netanyahu met with Celine Shreki, one of the surviving hostages.
“A direct line leads between the attacks of extremist Islam around the world to the attack that took place here at a kosher supermarket in the heart of Paris,” Netanyahu said. “I expect all of the leaders, with whom we marched in the streets of Paris yesterday, to fight terrorism wherever it is, also when it is directed against Israel and Jews. Insofar as it depends on me, I will always see to it that Israel marches in the first row of nations vis-à-vis its security and its future.”
In fact, Netanyahu was literally pictured marching in the front row of Sunday’s mass rally against terrorism in Paris, which was attended by more than 40 world leaders. Also on Sunday, the prime minister addressed a memorial ceremony for the victims of the Hyper Cacher and Charlie Hebdo terror attacks at Paris’s Grand Synagogue.
“Justice and truth are with us,” Netanyahu said. “And here is the truth: Radical Islam is an enemy to us all. Not Islam, not regular extremists, but radical Islam. The enemy has many names—Islamic State, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Nusra, Hezbollah—but all are branches of the same poisonous tree.”
“Those [Palestinian terrorists] who massacred Jews at a synagogue in Jerusalem [last November] and those who massacred Jews and journalists in Paris belong to the same murderous terrorist movement—they must be condemned and fought against equally,” added Netanyahu.
*
Number of Israelis traveling abroad hits all-time high in 2014
(JNS.org) A record 5.2 million Israelis traveled abroad in 2014, an 8-percent increase from the 4.8 million figure in 2013, the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics said.
The first half of 2014 saw a jump of 12 percent in the number of Israeli trips abroad, while the second half of the year saw a more modest increase of 6.5 percent compared to 2013, a drop that can likely be attributed to the large-scale call-up of reserve soldiers during the Israel-Hamas war.
The 2014 date with the largest number of departures from Israel was Sept. 23, the day before the Jewish New Year. A total of 31,000 Israelis converged on Ben Gurion International Airport’s departure hall that day, compared to a daily average of 13,000 for the year.
*
Hamas publication praises Paris terrorists
(JNS.org) The Facebook page of Al-Rasalah, a publication of the Palestinian terror group Hamas, on Friday evening ran a picture of the three Muslim terrorists behind two deadly terror attacks last week in Paris—accompanied by the caption, “The shahidim [martyrs] who were dispatched by God, the heroes of the raid in Paris.”
Hamas later removed praise for the attacks from all official Hamas websites, Israel Hayom reported. On Saturday, the Gaza-based terror group issued a statement condemning the Paris attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket, saying that there is no “justification for killing innocents.”
At the same time, Hamas blasted what it called Israeli government officials’ “helpless attempts” in public statements to draw comparisons between Hamas terrorism in Israel and the violence in France.
*
After terror attacks, hundreds attend Jewish Agency aliyah fair in Paris
(JNS.org) Days after Islamist terror attacks killed a combined 16 people at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket, both in Paris, hundreds of French Jews attended a Jewish Agency for Israel aliyah (immigration to Israel) information fair on Sunday in the same city. The fair was scheduled before the attacks took place.
“The Jewish Agency embraces the French Jewish community at this difficult time and is extending its full support by helping provide for the physical security of Jewish communities across France, increasing our assistance to any individual who wishes to immigrate to Israel, and working to ease immigrants’ integration into the Israeli workforce and Israeli society,” said Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency.
According to the Jewish Agency’s statistics, France was the leading country for aliyah to Israel in 2014 with new 7,000 arrivals, up from 3,400 in 2013.
*
Victims of Paris kosher supermarket terror attack to be buried in Israel
(JNS.org) The four hostages killed in Friday’s Islamist terror attack on a Paris kosher supermarket—Yoav Hattab, 22; Yohan Cohen, 22; Philippe Braham, 45; and François-Michel Saada, 55—will be buried in Israel. The funerals are tentatively scheduled for Tuesday.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today (Sunday) acceded to the request of the families of the victims of the murderous terrorist attack at the Jewish supermarket in Paris and instructed all relevant government officials to assist in bringing them for burial in Israel,” the prime minister’s media adviser said.
In a separate statement, Netanyahu said, “These attacks in Paris [on the kosher supermarket and the Charlie Hebdo magazine] are the continuation of extremist Islam’s war against our free civilization… If the world does not take action quickly, we will find this terrorism gaining momentum and increasingly striking at other centers of the free world and in other places.”
*
Kerry to meet with Iranian foreign minister over nuclear program
(JNS.org) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Iranian counterpart on Jan. 14 in Geneva to discuss Iran’s nuclear program ahead of a new round of talks between Iran and world powers, U.S. officials said Friday.
According to State Department officials, Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif are meeting “to provide guidance to their negotiating teams before their next round of discussions,” Reuters reported.
Iran and the P5+1 nations (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany) are set to start low-level talks on Jan. 15 in Geneva.
The original interim deal between Iran and the P5+1 was signed in November 2013 and led to an easing of some sanctions on Iran. The interim deal was meant to allow for further negotiations to produce a final framework, but the deadline for a final deal has been repeatedly pushed back.
*
Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman