Arab Knesset member compares Israelis to Nazis at Kristallnacht memorial
(JNS.org) Arab Member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi (Joint Arab List), who has a well-documented history of anti-Israel rhetoric, on Sunday compared Israeli government policies to those exercised by the Nazis in the 1930s.
Zoabi was speaking in Amsterdam as part of an alternative ceremony organized by pro-Palestinian and Jewish left-wing activists marking Kristallnacht, the 1938 “Night of Broken Glass,” during which a series of deadly riots killed at least 91 Jews throughout Nazi Germany and Austria, and left thousands of Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues in ruins.
“In Kristallnacht, thousands of businesses and hundreds of synagogues were burned. It seems that most Germans kept quiet. Today, when churches and Palestinian homes are burned, when people are burned alive, the majority of Israelis remain quiet,” Zoabi told a small crowd gathered next to Amsterdam’s Kristallnacht memorial.
Zoabi said last month that Israel “has an army that hunts down Palestinian youths and kills them.” In June 2014, when three Israeli teens were missing and believed to be held hostage by Palestinian terrorists, she said the perpetrators should not be called “terrorists.” She also accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge.
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Israel Aerospace Industries unveils advanced long-range tracking system
(JNS.org) Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) unveiled its TERRA dual-band radar system Sunday, which uses cutting-edge technology to improve early detection and accurate tracking of long-range targets.
Developed by IAI subsidiary Elta Systems Ltd., the TERRA system has the capacity to identify low-signature targets, ballistic missiles, and even satellites. It combines the ULTRA UHF band system, unveiled earlier this year, which provides early warning for oncoming threats, and the SPECTRA S-band very long-range search and tracking radar system.
TERRA’s unique capabilities allow for automatic handover and redundancy between the two systems, helping to classify targets and making it easier to determine and track their exact location, even in adverse weather conditions.
Measuring 1,615 square feet, TERRA is not only one of the most advanced radar systems in the world, it is also one of the biggest. The system, which costs hundreds of millions of dollars, has been tested by an undisclosed foreign military, but has not yet been used in Israel.
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Lebanon claims it exposes ‘Israeli spy ring’
(JNS.org) Lebanese media outlets reported Sunday that the country’s intelligence and security services have arrested three people who allegedly headed an Israeli spy ring in Lebanon.
Beirut’s National News Agency reported that the suspects are a Syrian national, his Lebanese wife, and a Lebanese man. They allegedly formed and operated an espionage network based in Sidon, in the country’s south.
Quoting a statement issued by Lebanon’s General Security Agency, the report said the spy ring was tasked by Israeli intelligence with gathering information that could be used to “assassinate senior Lebanese officials.” The report said further arrests were underway.
The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar television station said the three had “admitted to gathering information on security officials in Lebanon…and to taking pictures and videos of sensitive areas, which were sent to their handlers” in the Israeli military.
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Israeli Air Force strikes Hamas terror site in response to rocket fire
(JNS.org) A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in an open area in the Shaar Hanegev region in southern Israel on Sunday night. No injuries or damage were reported in the incident.
In response, the Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas terror site in the southern part of Gaza. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks originating in the Gaza Strip. There have been around 20 rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza this year.
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Israel’s deputy health minister mulls expanding cancer treatment offerings
(JNS.org) Israeli Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman is reportedly considering expanding Israel’s state-sponsored treatments offered to cancer patients to include psychological counseling and a variety of complementary medicine treatments.
Health Ministry data indicates that there are 280,000 cancer patients living in Israel, and that some 28,000 patients are diagnosed every year. The idea reportedly came to Litzman following a recent visit to London, during which he visited a Jewish-run treatment center.
The center, which relies on donations for its operations, provides patients and their families with a variety of services ranging from group and couples therapy to Pilates, yoga, complementary medicine treatments, genetic counseling services, and legal advice to help patients ensure that their rights vis-à-vis the healthcare system are granted.
“The visit showed us a place that truly puts patient welfare first,” a source who participated in Litzman’s visit told Israel Hayom.
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Israeli zoo donates to Thai elephant hospital with check in elephant’s trunk
(JNS.org) Thai Ambassador to Israel Angsana Sihapitak received a $1,500 donation from the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo for an elephant hospital in Lampang, Thailand. The check was delivered Thursday by an Asian elephant named Tamar, who presented it to the ambassador in her trunk.
Asian elephants are an endangered species. The Jerusalem Biblical Zoo collected the donation from zoo visitors over a period of three years as part of a lottery contest whose winner would be allowed to spend a day near the elephants at the zoo.
“The Thai elephants arrived in Israel only because of the special request made by the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin to his colleague to bring elephants to the Jerusalem zoo, but [there is] full commitment from the Israeli side to do whatever we can do to promote wildlife conservation in zoos,” said the Jerusalem zoo’s CEO, Shay Doron, Israel Hayom reported.
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Israel approves allowing Eilat hotels to hire Jordanian workers
(JNS.org) Israeli Interior Minister Silvan Shalom has approved a plan to bring Jordanian workers to Eilat hotels in order to fill a labor shortage in the resort city as well as to improve relations between Jordan and Israel.
“The workers agreement with Jordan is a suitable solution that all sides will benefit from: the hotels in Eilat and the workers themselves. Beyond the tourism aspect, this is a step that can benefit and contribute to ties between the two countries,” Shalom told the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv.
As part of a three-stage plan, three sets of 500 Jordanian workers will be approved for employment by Eilat hotels and will be given daily work permits to commute across the border each day. The workers will be employed primarily in housekeeping.
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