U.S. paid $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to Iran after secret talks, report says
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Obama administration spent three years engaged in secret talks with Iran that resulted in the payment of $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to Iran, with more future payouts likely, according to a U.S. State Department letter obtained this week by the Washington Free Beacon.
The payment was revealed due to an inquiry launched by U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) in January. The Washington Free Beacon reported that many viewed the payment as “ransom” for Iran’s release of several American hostages.
The Obama administration did not respond to Pompeo until this week, when State Department Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Julia Frifield wrote that more taxpayer-funded financial transfers are likely in order to settle decades-old Iranian legal claims against the U.S.
“We are confident that this was a good settlement for the American taxpayer,” Frifield wrote.
Iran’s legal disputes with the U.S. stem from the breakdown of a major weapons deal that was cancelled following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.
Many claims are still being litigated by the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal at The Hague, the Washington Free Beacon report said.
“The United States is continuing to vigorously litigate these claims at the tribunal, but is also open to discussing further settlements of claims with Iran, as we have done throughout the life of the tribunal, with the aim of resolving them in furtherance of U.S. interests,” Frifield wrote.
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New Israeli bill sets harsher penalties for flag burning
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A new bill that makes burning the Israeli flag a criminal offense punishable by a $13,000 fine or up to three years in jail passed its preliminary Knesset reading on Wednesday.
The bill, introduced as an amendment to Israel’s Flag and Emblem Law (1949), increases the penalty for desecrating the flag from the current $78 fine or up to one year in jail. The measure also gives Israeli courts judicial discretion to take other measures, such as denying an individual convicted of burning the flag certain state-funded benefits, including scholarships and health and social security benefits, for up to six years.
Member of Knesset Nava Boker (Likud), who sponsored the bill, said, “I presented this bill following the incitement and riots we have been seeing in Arab towns in Israel. The current reality is unbearable—protesters are burning Israeli flags and just go on with their lives. The current penalties, which are ridiculous, are barely enforced. It is time to impose a harsher sentence and a hefty fine to end this disgraceful phenomenon.”
Boker said she believes harsher punitive measures will be able to generate deterrence and curtail incitement.|
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U. of Calif. set to give final adoption to amended denunciation of anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism
(JNS.org) The 10-school University of California (UC) system’s Board of Regents on Wednesday unanimously adopted its educational policy committee’s report condemning anti-Semitism on campus, including forms of anti-Zionism that are anti-Semitic. Given the unanimity of Wednesday’s vote, a final Regents vote scheduled for Thursday is pro forma, multiple organizations familiar with the situation told JNS.org.
The “Principles Against Intolerance” report—originally proposed last September—was compiled in response to Jewish students’ campaign to get UC leaders to take action against various forms of anti-Jewish racism throughout UC’s campuses. The incidents have included vandalism with swastikas, discrimination in the selection of student government leaders, and disruption of pro-Israel speakers.
The Regents’ soon-to-be-adopted report declares, “Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism, and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.” That language marks an amendment from the original version of the report, which stated, “Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.”
“Jewish students now have an important protection against the anti-Semitic harassment, especially when it takes the form of anti-Zionism,” said Kenneth L. Marcus, head of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. Marcus served as one of the Regents’ two national experts on anti-Semitism for their process of compiling of the report.
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Slovak MPs wear Holocaust-resembling yellow stars to condemn ‘fascist’ party
(JNS.org) Two Slovak Members of Parliament (MPs) on Wednesday wore yellow star badges reminiscent of what Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust in a session to protest the recent parliamentary debut of a far-right political party they called “fascist.”
Ondrej Dostal, an MP from the liberal SaS party, compared Slovakia’s “People’s Party – Our Slovakia” faction—which won parliament seats for the first time earlier this month—to Germany’s Nazi party.
“It’s significant that exactly 83 years after this act, Slovak fascists have marched into the Slovak parliament. It’s dangerous and we want to highlight this,” Dostal said.
Our Slovakia won 14 seats in the country’s March 5 election. The party is known for its anti-Roma/gypsy, anti-immigration, and anti-corruption stance. Its leader, Marian Kotleba, has spoken fondly of Slovakia’s World War II-era regime that was led by Nazi sympathizer Jozef Tiso.
Leading up to the election, Kotleba and his supporters dressed in black uniforms inspired by the Nazi-sponsored Slovak State uniforms worn during WWII.
“We are not fascists or neo-Nazis, although we might appear extremist compared to other lukewarm parties,” one of the Our Slovakia party’s lawmakers, Milan Uhrik, said. “We will stay in opposition for now, but I believe that if there’s a snap election we will win by a landslide.”
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Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre set for major restoration
(JNS.org) The tomb site where Jesus is said to have been buried, in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, is set for major restoration after the Christian Orthodox Easter holiday, the Custody of the Holy Land said Wednesday.
A Greek team will work on renovating the shrine, which has been held together by a metal frame. Renovations are expected to be completed in early 2017, and the site will remain open to visitors.The project will be funded by Christian groups including the Greek Orthodox, Franciscans, and Armenians, in addition to other public and private donors.
The shrine was built over the site of the tomb in the early 19th century.
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Report: amid Apple feud, FBI using Israeli company to hack terrorist’s iPhone
(JNS.org) The FBI is reportedly enlisting the Israeli company Cellebrite to help it break into the iPhone of one of the terrorists behind last December’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., experts familiar with the case have said.
The U.S. Justice Department is currently in the midst of a well-publicized feud with Apple after obtaining a court order demanding that Apple create software that would disable the password protection on the late terrorist’s phone. Apple has refused to do so on the grounds that the order is a government overreach and would undermine public security.
This week, U.S. prosecutors said a “non-governmental third party” has presented an alternative method to open the encrypted iPhone, and that they are “cautiously optimistic” this approach would work. This led a federal judge to postpone a hearing on the ongoing case until the FBI could try the alternative method.
Sources told Yedioth Ahronoth that Cellebrite, considered one of the leading companies in the world in the field of digital forensics, is the “third party” referenced by U.S. prosecutors and has been working with the world’s largest intelligence, defense, and law enforcement authorities for many years.
The Israeli company has not acknowledged its involvement, but it is known that Cellebrite provides the FBI with decryption technology as part of a contract signed with the bureau in 2013. The technology allows for extracting valuable information from cellular devices that could be used in criminal and intelligence investigations, even if the phone and the information it contains are locked and secure.
On Monday, Apple said that if the U.S. government succeeds in getting into the phone in an alternative manner, it would need to be through previously undiscovered vulnerabilities, which the company hopes the government will share.
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Purim-celebrating Israel welcomes Poles who discovered hidden Jewish roots
(JNS.org) Fifteen Poles who have discovered their Jewish heritage arrived in Israel on Tuesday in time for the Purim holiday as part of a trip organized by Shavei Israel, an organization working to reconnect Diaspora Jews with Israel.
Many young Poles who were raised as Christians have been discovering their Jewish roots in recent years. Their heritage was likely hidden due to their families trying to survive the Holocaust, or during the country’s former era of Communist rule.
“Purim revolves around the heroism of the biblical Queen Esther, who was forced to conceal her Jewish identity for many years before proudly reasserting it,” said Shavei Israel’s founder and chairman, Michael Freund.
“What better way for the young Hidden Jews of Poland to connect with their Jewish heritage than to experience Israel during this spiritually joyous and lively time,” he added.
The Polish group is visiting Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and other parts of the country.
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Responding to Brussels attacks, Israeli politicians criticize EU complacency
(JNS.org) Israeli politicians on both ends of the political spectrum are criticizing Belgium’s security and immigration protocols in the wake of Tuesday’s terror attacks at the Brussels airport and a city train station.
Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) told Israel’s Army Radio on Wednesday that if “in Belgium they continue eating chocolate and enjoying life, and continue to appear as great democrats and liberals, and [have] not decided that some Muslims in their country are organizing terror, they won’t be able to fight them.”
Member of Knesset Nava Boker (Likud) said Belgium’s “policy of appeasement” was to blame for the attacks.
“Rather than point to radical Islam as the number one cause of global terror today, Belgian Interior Minister [Jan] Jambon chooses to claim that more must be done to make young Muslims ‘feel at home,'” she said. “Belgium must close its borders immediately, eject from itself the inciters, and stop Muslim immigration into the country.”
Likud lawmaker MK Ofir Akunis wrote on Facebook that “many in Europe have preferred to occupy themselves with the folly of condemning Israel, labeling products, and boycotts. In this time, underneath the nose of the continent’s citizens, thousands of extremist Islamic terror cells have grown. There were those who repressed and mocked whoever tried to give warning. There were those who underestimated.To our sorrow, the reality has struck the lives of dozens of innocent people, powerfully and fatally.”
Israeli opposition leader MK Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) called Akunis’s Facebook post “condescending,” but said that “we must unite to defeat terrorism.” Meanwhile, Zionist Union MK Kesenia Svetlova echoed Akunis’s sentiment that “European multi-culturalism has failed as a result of continued neglecting and ignoring of the challenges it poses.”
“Europe must come up with a continent-wide plan for a war on extreme and destructive ideology and a holistic approach to deal with all of the negatives entering the continent in the name of extremist Islamic ideology, such as female circumcision, preventing education, racism, forced marriage, polygamy, and other issues,” she said.
These comments came a day after Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Maliki told European parliamentarians in Brussels that they should differentiate between Islamic State terrorism and the Palestinian attacks against Israelis in recent months. He blamed Palestinian terror on Israeli “occupation” and “youngsters driven by despair,” the Jerusalem Post reported. (Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the Brussels attacks.)
But on Tuesday at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged global unity in the face of terror, saying that “in all these cases, the terrorists have no resolvable grievances. It’s not as if we can offer them Brussels, or Istanbul, or even the West Bank…because what they seek is our utter destruction and their total domination.”
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