Israelis prefer Yisrael Beiteinu over Labor in governing coalition, polls show
(JNS.org) Israelis prefer Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to invite the Yisrael Beiteinu party to join his governing coalition over inviting the Labor party, according to polls.
An Israel Hayom survey found Thursday that when asked to choose between the two parties, 48 percent of respondents preferred Yisrael Beiteinu joining the coalition, while 31 percent thought Labor was the better choice and 21 had no opinion the matter. But regarding Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman’s apparent appointment as defense minister, replacing Moshe Ya’alon, 46 percent of respondents opposed the move and 40 percent supported it.
A poll by Israel’s Channel 2 showed that 37 percent of respondents preferred seeing Yisrael Beiteinu join the Likud party-led government compared with the 24 percent who chose Labor, while 32 percent said neither party should join the coalition.
Moshe Ya’alon announces ‘timeout’ from Israeli politics, promises return
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon stunned the political arena Friday by announcing his resignation on social media. In a statement he made later, Ya’alon stressed he was not exiting politics entirely and that he plans to vie for leadership roles in the future.
“I have informed the prime minister that following his conduct during recent developments I have lost faith in him. I will resign from the Knesset and take a timeout from politics,” Ya’alon posted on Twitter and Facebook.
According to the Knesset’s bylaws, Ya’alon’s resignation takes effect within 48 hours. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will act as defense minister pending the nomination of Ya’alon’s replacement, who most likely will be Yisrael Beiteinu party leader Avigdor Lieberman. Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, no. 33 on the Likud party’s Knesset list, is slated to replace Ya’alon in the Israeli legislature.
Netanyahu reportedly spoke with Ya’alon on Thursday and told him no final decision had been made about replacing him as defense minister. A senior Likud official said Netanyahu intended to appoint Ya’alon as foreign minister, but would not announce that publicly until his negotiations to bring Lieberman’s party into his governing coalition were concluded. Ya’alon’s associates, however, said he was not offered the foreign minister portfolio.
In a press conference held Friday, Ya’alon further explained his decision to leave, saying, “I have no intention of quitting political or public life. I will return and I plan to vie for a position of leadership in the future….I have seen every one of my roles as a calling and I have never been willing to sacrifice Israel’s security for political gain. I have worked harmoniously with the prime minister for a long time, especially during Operation Protective Edge, but unfortunately I found myself having serious disagreements with the prime minister and several ministers and MKs, on fundamental issues.”
“I fought with all my might against the phenomena of extremism, violence, and racism that threaten Israeli society’s resilience, and have permeated even the military, to the point of undermining it,” he continued. “Overall, Israeli society is a healthy one, and the sane majority strives to maintain a Jewish, democratic, liberal state, accepting of everyone regardless of religion, race, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. But unfortunately, both Israel and Likud have been taken over by dangerous extremists, undercutting our home and threatening those in it. This is not the Likud party I joined, and the vast majority of Likud voters—the sane and responsible public—would be wise to understand the depths of the crisis and the violent spirit that has overtaken the movement.”
Belgium rejects financial aid request by daughters of slain Israeli couple
(JNS.org) Belgium’s government refused to provide financial assistance requested by the daughters of Israeli parents who were killed in the 2014 terror attack on the Brussels-based Jewish Museum of Belgium, the French-language newspaper La Dernière Heure reported.
The lawyer for the Israelis, Shira and Ayelet Riva (ages 15 and 16 at the time of the attack that killed their parents), requested 15,000 euros ($17,000) from Belgium’s Commission for Aid to Victims of Intentional Acts of Violence, but the commission rejected the request because the Israelis were no longer considered to be in a difficult or urgent financial situation. The commission defines “urgent” as filing for assistance within the first six months after an attack.
Mira and Emmanuel Riva, the slain Israeli parents, were on vacation in Belgium when they were killed at the museum by jihadi terrorist Mehdi Nemmouche. The daughters’ lawyer said that it took 10-11 months to make the financial assistance request because Shira and Ayelet live in Tel Aviv, making it more difficult to prepare extensive documentation for the Belgian commission.
U.S. House passes religious freedom bill protecting circumcision, ritual slaughter
(JNS.org) The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill expanding the protection offered by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to include male circumcision and ritual animal slaughter.
“The world is experiencing an unprecedented crisis of international religious freedom, a crisis that continues to create millions of victims; a crisis that undermines liberty, prosperity and peace; a crisis that poses a direct challenge to the U.S. interests in the Middle East, Russia, China, sub-Saharan Africa, and elsewhere,” U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), author of the bill, said in a statement.
Smith’s statement was titled “Combating Persecution of Christians and Anti-Semitism,” conveying that the purpose of his bill is to protect Christians and Jews. The bill will also protect Muslims who perform circumcision and ritual slaughter in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Myanmar.
The fundamental Jewish rites of brit milah (circumcision) and shechita (ritual slaughter) have been increasingly challenged by political leaders and activists in Europe.
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Islamic State threatens Israel with global war
(JNS.org) The Islamic State terror group said in its newsletter this week that its “war against Israel will not be limited by geographical boundaries or by international norms.”
The Al-Naba newsletter, which was obtained by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and cited in a report by the Jerusalem Post, claims that Israel feels threatened by Islamic State for various reasons—which explains why the Jewish state is aiding the fight against Islamic State in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and in the Syrian civil war.
“The collapse of the Sykes-Picot statelets, which were tasked with protecting the Jewish state; the approach of ISIS (Islamic State) mujahideen toward its borders; [Israel’s] fear of the spread of [Islamic State’s] methodology among the oppressed Muslims inside those borders; and the manifest failure of the Crusader states who protect the Jews to win the battle against [Islamic State]—all these are factors that caused the Jewish state to not sit idly by in face of this danger,” the Islamic State newsletter said.
Islamic State also said its war against Israel will not look like Israel’s conflicts with other Islamic movements or groups like Hamas, who “falsely attribute themselves to Islam, since those battles were fought within the framework of the international order.”
MEMRI explained that Islamic State’s ideology believes in fighting Israel only after the jihadist group conquers the Arab states in Israel’s neighborhood.
“We cannot give any information about accounts held or not by the clients of the Credit Mutuel,” Frédéric Monot, a spokesman for Credit Mutuel, told the Jerusalem Post when asked to comment on the BDS account’s closure. “We do not disclose information covered by banking secrecy, but we strictly respect the application of French law.”
Jewish cemetery headstones desecrated in U.K. city of Manchester
(JNS.org) Fourteen headstones at a Jewish cemetery in the British city of Manchester were vandalized in an apparent anti-Semitic act. The headstones were smashed on Wednesday in Charlestown, a ward in northeastern Manchester.
“This is a sickening act of antisemitism which we are taking very seriously. I believe this was a deliberate and targeted attack and there is no place for such abhorrent behavior in our communities,” said Chief Superintendent Wasim Chaudhry of the Greater Manchester Police’s north Manchester division, reported The Guardian.
“All decent members of the public recognize that a cemetery is supposed to be a resting place for people who have passed away, a place of sanctity and dignity where families can come and pay their respects. So to have those graves desecrated in such a disgusting and disrespectful way will no doubt cause immeasurable anguish to the families and loved ones affected,” Chaudhry added.
Stephen Wilson, the administrator of the North Manchester Jewish Cemeteries Trust, reported the vandalism to authorities and said he is “dismayed” at the incident. At the same time, he is not sure the act was motivated by anti-Semitism, especially because vandals have targeted the same cemetery before.
“I met with the police this morning with the Community Security Trust (a non-profit dedicated to protecting U.K. Jewish communities). I know the police have put a statement out treating it as a hate crime—our view is it’s just pure vandalism. It’s my guess. Locals come over the wall, you always find drink cans over here, they’ve been in that frame of mind and they’ve done it for the sheer hell and fun of it,” Wilson said.
EgyptAir plane crash likely terrorism, experts and officials say
(JNS.org) An EgyptAir flight with 66 passengers and crew members heading from Paris to Cairo crashed into the Mediterranean Sea near the Greek island of Crete early on Thursday morning, after first disappearing from radar screens, according to Egyptian and Greek officials.
Both Egypt’s aviation minister and the head of Russia’s top domestic security agency said that the crash was most likely a terror attack, the Associated Press reported.
EgyptAir said it received an emergency signal from the plane at 4:26 a.m., two hours after it disappeared from radar screens. The plane’s passengers included 30 Egyptians, 14 French nations, and nationals from 10 additional countries. Among them were also one child and two infants, as well as 10 crew members.
“The theory that the plane crashed and fell is now confirmed after the preliminary search and after it did not arrive at any of the nearby airports,” said an anonymous senior aviation source, Reuters reported. “All causes for the disaster are open, whether it is a major technical fault or a terrorist action or any other circumstance. This will be ascertained when we inspect the plane’s wreckage and transcribe its black boxes.”
The EgyptAir crash brought back memories of the crash of a Russian passenger plane crash in the Sinai desert in October 2015, in which 224 people were killed. Russia said that crash was caused by a bomb, and the Islamic State terror group claimed responsibility for that attack.
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