IDF destroys remnants of Hamas terror tunnel near southern border
(JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces has destroyed the remnants of a large terror tunnel stretching between the Gaza Strip and Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the Israel-Gaza border, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said Monday.
The tunnel was first discovered during Operation Protective Edge last summer, and a large portion of it was destroyed during the conflict. It is believed that the tunnel had stretched 1.8 miles, from the eastern Gaza Strip neighborhood of Shujaiyya to Nahal Oz and the Karni border crossing.
Shaar Hanegev Regional Council head Alon Schuster said the tunnel’s destruction “coincides with the IDF’s continued [anti-tunnel] operations along the border [with Gaza].”
“We have to remain vigilant, but we also have to be careful and not reignite the situation on the ground,” Schuster said, Israel Hayom reported.
Shaar Hanegev is the partnership region with the Jewish Federation of San Diego County.
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Woman barred from Kuwaiti flight over Israeli citizenship
(JNS.org) An Israeli citizen who has lived in the United States for 15 years was barred from boarding a Kuwait Airways flight to London, according to a new report by the New York Daily News.
Iris Eliazarov, 26, moved to the U.S. when she was 11. She holds an American green card, but her passport is Israeli. On Nov. 1, 2014, Eliazarov arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport to catch a Kuwait Airways flight to London, but she was not allowed to board. Her husband, David Nektalov, an American citizen traveling on a U.S. passport, was allowed on the flight.
A Kuwaiti law prohibits Israeli citizens from traveling on the country’s national air carrier. Eliazarov has filed a discrimination lawsuit against the airline, claiming that its policy violated her civil rights.
“This experience has awakened the nightmare of the experience of the Jewish people in Europe in the last century,” Eliazarov wrote in her affidavit.
John Maggio, an attorney for Kuwait Airways, told the New York Daily News that the lawsuit has no merit because the airline’s policy is based on passengers’ citizenship, not their religion.
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Adelsons donate another $40 million to Taglit-Birthright program
(JNS.org) Jewish philanthropists Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson announced they will donate $40 million to this year’s Taglit-Birthright Israel program, bringing their total contribution to the program to more than $250 million. Birthright provides free 10-day educational trips to Israel for Jews ages 18-26.
Of the latest donation, $30 million has already been transferred to the program, while the other $10 million will be given during the course of the year. The Adelsons matched the donations of other contributors abroad, and thanks to those combined efforts, an additional 25,000 young Jews this year will be able to make their first visits to Israel.
Some 400,000 Jews have visited Israel through the Birthright program.
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Steinitz: Labor’s Herzog ‘crossed all the lines’ by criticizing Israeli government in Munich
(JNS.org) Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said Labor party leader Isaac Herzog “crossed all the lines” by using the platform of the Munich Security Security Conference to criticize Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech before Congress.
Herzog said at the conference on Saturday that Netanyahu should cancel the March 3 speech “for the sake of Israel’s security.”
“My talks with leaders from Europe and the U.S. indicated they were furious that Netanyahu had diverted the debate on a nuclear Iran for political purposes and made it into a confrontation with [U.S. President Barack] Obama,” Herzog said.
Steinitz, who was also at the Munich conference, said, “What opposition leader Herzog did crossed all the lines and damaged the accepted rule of not attacking the government abroad.”
Herzog also met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Vice President Joe Biden, in the wake of Biden’s announcement that the would skip Netanyahu’s Congress address. While Kerry and Biden met with Herzog, the White House has said Obama will not meet with Netanyahu next month due to his visit’s close proximity to Israel’s March 17 elections, in which Herzog is seeking to unseat Netanyahu.
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Biden not only Democrat who will miss Netanyahu’s speech
(JNS.org) In addition to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, at least five Congressonal Democrats have said they plan to skip the speech March 3 by Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to a Joint Session of Congress.
They are: U.S. Reps. John Lewis (D-GA) G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Jim McDermott (D-WA), and Jim McGovern (D-MA).
Biden’s office has said that the vice president will be traveling to an unspecified location abroad that day.
“We are not ready to announce details of his trip yet, and normally our office wouldn’t announce this early, but the planning process has been underway for a while,” said an official in the vice president’s office.
American vice presidents—who also serve as president of the U.S. Senate—are normally in attendance when foreign leaders address Congress, usually sitting behind the podium along with the speaker of the House of Representatives.
Netanyahu was invited by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to address a joint session of Congress about the Iranian nuclear threat and radical Islam. The Obama administration said it was not consulted about the invitation and has argued that the speech would hurt the West’s chances to forge a deal with Iran over its nuclear program, while Netanyahu has said it is his “duty” to address Congress because a bad nuclear deal would threaten Israel’s security.
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Israeli minister says Netanyahu was misled by Boehner invite
(JNS.org) Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzachi Hanegbi (Likud) suggested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “misled” by Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) over bipartisan support for him to address a joint session of Congress on Iran.
“It appears that the speaker of Congress made a move, in which we trusted, but which it ultimately became clear was a one-sided move and not a move by both sides,” Hanegbi told 102 FM Tel Aviv Radio on Friday.
Asked if this meant that Boehner “misled” Netanyahu, Hanegbi—who is a close confidant of the prime minister—did not contest that assertion. Hanegbi then rejected the notion that Netanyahu should postpone or cancel the speech.
“What would the outcome be then? The outcome would be that we forsake an arena (Congress) in which there is a going to be a very dramatic decision [on Iran],” he said.
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