At pre-election rally, Netanyahu blasts Livni/Herzog stances on Jerusalem
(JNS.org) At a rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square that was attended by tens of thousands of Israelis supporting the country’s right-wing political parties, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—whose Likud party is trailing the Zionist Union alliance in polls ahead of Tuesday’s Knesset election—slammed his rivals’ positions on Jerusalem.
“Tzipi Livni, the Left’s hidden candidate for prime minister, condemned our decision to build in the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said Sunday evening, addressing a crowd that according to one estimate totaled 30,000 people, Israel Hayom reported. “Buji (Isaac) Herzog said, ‘I see Jerusalem serving as two political capitals. In east Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state will be established.’ They are now trying to obscure and hide this. But this is their true position.”
Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) party leader Naftali Bennett also spoke at the rally, which was titled “United for the Land of Israel.” Bennett said, “After the polls close, I will call the prime minister and tell him we together will present one nationalist camp to the president. Don’t worry—a large [rightist] bloc will defeat the Left.”
The new Israeli government will be established based on how many seats each party wins, and the president—Reuven Rivlin—will appoint the prime minister, who is usually the leader of the party that won the most Knesset seats. That party leader must then form a governing coalition with other parties, and the parties that are not included in the coalition become the “opposition.” As such, even after the votes are tallied on Israel’s election day, it is never immediately clear which parties will form the governing coalition. Netanyahu said at Sunday’s rally that Habayit Hayehudi “will be a senior partner in our government, no matter how many seats it receives.”
Herzog and Livni—the leaders of the Labor and Hatnuah parties, respectively—merged their parties in order to challenge Netanyahu and have said they will rotate the role of prime minister if they form the next government.
“There is a real danger that a leftist government will rise to power,” Netanyahu said. “The gap between the parties vying for the premiership could be what determines who forms the government. This is a tight battle, and we must close that gap.”
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Report: Senate probes possible Obama administration link to anti-Netanyahu efforts
(JNS.org) The U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has launched a bipartisan probe into the Washington, DC-based OneVoice Movement’s funding of efforts to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from power, Fox News reported Saturday.
According to the report, OneVoice received $350,000 in recent taxpayer funded grants from the U.S. State Department. Ahead of the March 17 Israeli election, a subsidiary of OneVoice, the V15 group, has been campaigning in Israel against Netanyahu with a message of “simply replace the government.”
A source familiar with the matter told Fox News, “It’s confirmed that there is a bipartisan Permanent Subcommittee inquiry into OneVoice’s funding of V15.”
The probe will look into whether OneVoice, a registered non-profit in the U.S., violated its tax-exempt status by financing V15’s electioneering activities in Israel. Jeremy Bird, who was Obama’s national field director in the 2012 presidential election, has assisted V15 through his consulting firm, 270 Strategies.
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Muslims harass mourners at Jewish cemetery in Sweden
(JNS.org) Police in Malmo, Sweden, have issued an order to post officers near a Jewish cemetery during funerals following a series of incidents in which Muslim youths gathered in a nearby building and harassed mourners.
On Friday, the brother of deceased Jewish man stayed at the cemetery to guard the body. A group of youths tried to break into the building.
“This is a difficult situation for us,” the man said, Israel Hayom reported. “Instead of mourning, we have to deal with harassment from outside.”
A spokesperson for the Skane County Police, which has jurisdiction over Malmo, said, “We are in constant dialogue with the Jewish community and trying to improve the situation so that members of the community feel safer.”
There have been 137 anti-Semitic incidents reported to Skane County Police in the past two years, more than all other complaints in Sweden combined.
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Ethiopian runner wins Jerusalem Marathon
(JNS.org) Tadesse Yae Dabi, 26, of Ethiopia, won the fifth annual Jerusalem Marathon on Friday.
Dabi completed the 26.1-mile course in 2 hours, eighteen minutes, and 20 seconds, the Jerusalem Post reported. As many as 25,000 people participated in the marathon, with nearly 2,200 people from 60 countries other than Israel.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who participated in the race, wrote on his Facebook page, “Even if you’re not taking part, come down to cheer on the runners in the streets of Jerusalem and to enjoy performances and bands along the route… and one big celebration throughout the city.”
Last year, Kenyan Ronald Kimeli Kurgat, 28, won the Jerusalem Marathon with a record-setting time of 2 hours, 16 minutes. and 9 seconds.
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Paris kosher supermarket re-opens two months after terror attack
(JNS.org) Hyper Cacher, the Paris kosher supermarket that was the scene of an Islamist terrorist attack in January, re-opened on Sunday.
The store was badly damaged in the attack and has been fully renovated, and re-opened with new staff, AFP reported.
Muslim terrorist Amedy Coulibaly took nearly 20 Jewish shoppers hostage at Hyper Cacher and killed four of them. The attack came just days after the office of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was also attacked by a Muslim terrorist in a shooting that killed 12 people.
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CUFI denounces journalist for article attacking Pastor John Hagee
(JNS.org) Christians United For Israel (CUFI), America’s largest pro-Israel organization with more than 2 million members, issued a strongly worded rebuttal to journalist Bruce Wilson for what CUFI called his “exceptionally dishonest” attack article about CUFI founder and chairman Pastor John Hagee.
In an article for the Huffington Post, Wilson claimed Hagee believes it is “half-breed Jews” who are responsible for the Holocaust, and he goes on to cite several passages from Hagee’s books and sermons to back up claims that Hagee believes Jews are “responsible” for anti-Semitism.
“The sum total of the arguments Wilson makes in his 1,600-word screed against Hagee involved his quoting random phrases—and even random words—taken blatantly out of the context in which Hagee wrote or spoke them,” CUFI said in a statement.
“To cite just a few of the numerous examples of Wilson’s distortions, Hagee never directly states that Hitler was a ‘half-breed Jew’ in the provocative way Wilson claims,” said CUFI. “Rather Hagee engages in an extended discussion of the lineage of Esau, whom God ‘hated.’ (Romans 9:13). Hagee goes on to discuss Esau’s descendent, Haman, who sought to kill the Jews of Persia and those other of Esau’s descendants who have plagued the Jewish people for centuries. Hitler is mentioned as a possible descendant of this anti-Semitic line. Countless rabbis have engaged in similar speculation. Agree with this speculation or not, such thinking has nothing whatsoever to do with anti-Semitism.”
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