Poll: 62% of Americans support use of force to stop nuclear Iran
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A significant majority of Americans would support
the use of force, if necessary, to stop Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, according to
a recent national survey by the Foreign Policy Initiative.
Asked in an open-ended question to name the country that poses “the most danger” to
U.S. national security interests, the largest group of respondents (45.1 percent) said the
Islamic Republic of Iran. “Indeed, Iranian leaders, who have publicly threatened to wipe
Israel ‘off the map,’ have continued to improve their country’s ability to build a nuclear
weapon on short notice, while repeatedly rejecting a decade’s worth of international
diplomacy and economic pressure by the United States and others aimed at persuading
them to change course,” the group said in a statement.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Iran is quickly nearing a “zone of
immunity,” a technical state in which it wouold be difficult for U.S. or Israeli
conventional airstrikes to degrade, delay or destroy Iran’s controversial nuclear program.
A majority of Americans (62 percent) favor preventing Iran from getting nuclear
weapons, even if this option means the use of military force, over the alternative of
avoiding armed conflict and accepting the likelihood that Iran will acquire nuclear
weapons. A strong majority of self-identified conservatives (78.6 percent) and a majority
of self-identified moderates (57.8 percent), in addition to 44.6 percent of self-identified
liberals, support U.S. military action to stop a nuclear-armed Iran.
Report: Morsi willing to meet an Israeli leader
(JNS.org) Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is willing to meet with an Israeli leader,
preferably President Shimon Peres, a senior Egyptian official told Israel Hayom, despite
talk of a Muslim Brotherhood refusal to meet with Israeli officials until an IsraeliPalestinian peace deal is signed.
The Egyptian official said that if such a meeting were to take place, it would be in
Washington, after the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. The objective would be to
establish a new platform for more positive relations between the countries following a
downturn resulting from the ouster of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in
February 2011 and an assault on the Israeli Embassy in Cairo in September 2011.
According to the official, who recently accompanied Morsi on his visit to the UN General
Assembly in New York, the president’s declaration to the assembly that Egypt would
honor its international treaties, including its treaty with Israel, was a result of efforts by
U.S. officials to bring Israel and Egypt closer together.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported on Saturday that U.S. President Barack Obama
had informed Congress he intended to transfer $450 million to Egypt immediately as part
of the U.S. government’s pledge of $1 billion in aid after Mubarak’s regime collapsed.
The move, however, was immediately opposed by Congress, which has refused to
approve aid packages for a regime run by the Muslim Brotherhood.
White House says Obama and Bibi agree on Iran, but does not set red line
(JNS.org) President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a phone
conversation Sept. 28 and are “in full agreement on the shared goal of preventing Iran
from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” the White House said.
That statement, however, came amid Netanyahu’s latest request for the setting of “red
lines”—points that will trigger U.S. military action if Iran’s nuclear program crosses
them—and the Obama’s aministration’s continued refusal to do so.
“The two leaders took note of the close cooperation and coordination between the
governments of the United States and Israel regarding the threat posed by Iran—its
nuclear program, proliferation, and support for terrorism—and agreed to continue their
regular consultations on this issue going forward,” the White House said readout of the
Obama-Netanyahu phone call said.
Netanyahu said at the United Nations on Sept. 27 that he thinks Iran will reach the final
phase of uranium enrichment sometime in the spring or summer of 2013. Two days
earlier, Obama said at the same venue that a nuclear-armed Iran “is not a challenge that
can be contained” and that it “would threaten the elimination of Israel, the security of
Gulf nations, and the stability of the global economy.”
Reacting to Netanyahu’s speech, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Tommy
Vietor said the U.S. and Israel “share the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear
weapon” and that the two countries “will continue our close consultation and cooperation
toward achieving that goal,” but did not endorse Netanyahu’s proposal of red lines.
On the phone call, Netanyahu “welcomed President Obama’s commitment before the
United Nations General Assembly to do what we must” to prevent a nuclear Iran,
according to the White House. Like Vietor’s statement, red lines were not mentioned in
the readout of the Obama-Netanyahu conversation.
Bomb explodes in Sweden Jewish community center
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A bomb exploded at a Jewish community center in
Malmo, Sweden early Sept. 28, causing damage but no injuries. The door leading into the
community center was shattered, as were several windows. Several eyewitnesses told
police officers that they saw two vehicles speeding away from the scene immediately
after the explosion before dawn Friday. One of the cars was located, and its two
occupants taken into custody.
Swedish police are continuing to investigate the incident. The suspects, both 18 years old,
have denied any wrongdoing. The head of the Malmo Jewish community, Fred Kahn,
told the Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan that he “was shocked that this had happened
now, that it was happening at all.”
“There is always a constant threat against Jewish institutions, but we hadn’t noticed
anything out of the ordinary now,” he said.
“We have to increase our security, but we have no money for such things. We have no
hidden stash. We have to use the money we get from membership fees, which could
otherwise be used for social, cultural and other purposes," Kahn added.
According to local statistics, Malmo sees some 50 to 100 anti-Semitic incidents per year.
Many of the perpetrators are first- and second-generation Muslim immigrants, who make
up 30 to 40 percent of Malmo’s population of 300,000. Many of Malmo’s Muslims are
Palestinian. In 2010, following Israel's 2009 offensive in Gaza, the number of antiSemitic attacks in Malmo doubled from that of the previous year, with 79 recorded
incidents.
Video shows professors teaching anti-Semitism, anti-Israelism
(JNS.org) Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) has released a 30-minute video in
which Northeastern University professors promote anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views in
their classroom lectures.
According to Dr. Charles Jacobs, APT President, one a tenured professor in the Bostonbased school consistently defamed Israel, and his department of Middle East Center for
Peace, Culture and Development “has been built to inculcate students with a hostile and
demonized view of the Jewish state, with repeated comparisons to the Nazis.”
“As the video shows, one professor in the Department has also introduced the students
and the university to virulent anti-Semitic Arab officials and religious leaders,” APT said
in a press release.
In the video, a Northeastern economics professor also tells students to be proud of being
called anti-Semites, and brags that for more than a decade the student body has been
largely turned against Israel.
“The problem of anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism is not restricted to this campus but is a
national problem that first came to wide public attention in 2004 with the controversial
film ‘Columbia Unbecoming,’ which documented the intimidation of Jewish students at
Columbia University,” said Jacobs. “Northeastern professors cannot be allowed to
indoctrinate students and promote lies,” he added.
The video is available to view on YouTube at http://bit.ly/PHnt3m.
Netanyahu meets with Bloomberg, stresses ‘close consultation’ with U.S.
By Maxine Dovere/JNS.org
NEW YORK—New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg welcomed the Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Gracie Mansion following Netanyahu’s United Nations
speech Sept. 27.
Netanyahu said at the briefing that the U.S. and Israel “are in close consultation with the
United States about how to practically prevent Iran from moving ahead and how to make
them abandon their nuclear weapons ambitions.”
“I believe it is achievable and will continue to work towards that goal,” he said.
Noting the “special bond between our city and Israel,” the mayor said “both are a target
for those who seek to destroy freedom.” Bloomberg recalled that, following the 9/11
attacks, “the people of Israel stood with us in solidarity, knowing that terrorists are only
victorious if they frighten people into giving up their beliefs, their values and their way of
life.
“That,” said the mayor, “will never happen in Israel, and it will never happen in the
United States.”
“I am sure that the U. S. and Israel can work out a common policy in the interests of both
nations and in the interests of peace…When we say ‘never again,’ we must mean it,”
Bloomberg said.
Invited to the podium, Netanyahu acknowledged Bloomberg as “a champion of New
York City and of the United States.”
“You stand for the friendship between Israel and the United States…and the sympathies
that emanate from this common commitment to freedom,” he told the mayor.
The prime minister said it is “important to be clear and unambiguous about our
determination to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.
“It can be stopped, if we are clear and resolved about the red line that Iran must not pass,”
Netanyahu said.
Jerusalem bus bomb survivor highlights pro-Israel UN Week rally
By Maxine Dovere/JNS.org
NEW YORK—While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations Sept. 27, a coalition including
Israel advocacy group StandWithUs, the Coptic State of Egypt, Mothers Against
Terrorism, Americans for a Safe Israel, the AMCHA initiative and the Human Rights
Coalition Against Radical Islam held a pro-Israel rally on Second Avenue directly
opposite the office of the Consulate of Israel in New York. Music kept the mood upbeat,
sending the notes of “Am Yisrael Chai” wafted into the streets of the city.
Speakers called for America’s solidarity and support of Israel’s right to defend itself in
the face of enemies seeking the destruction and elimination of the Jewish state. Sarri
Singer—who in 2003 survived the Palestinian bombing of Jerusalem Bus 14—told the
story of the attack that claimed the lives of 16 and injured more than 100.
“It can happen anywhere, at any time… An attack on any of us is an attack on all of us…
We cannot be silent when 6 million Jews live in the constant shadow of an instantaneous
Holocaust,” she said. “We need to stand strong.”
Rally participant Mark Langfan challenged decision-makers to consider the consequences
of a Middle East without the stabilizing effect of the region’s sole democracy. “Any
threat to Israel,” Langfan told JNS.org, “is a threat to America and western democracy.”
NYPD saves ‘verbally accosted,’ not assaulted, Iranian diplomat from mob
(JNS.org) Following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israel remarks at
the United Nations on Sept. 26, the New York Police Department (NYPD) rescued
Iranian Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast from a mob in which
he was confronted with verbal threats but was not assaulted, the Wall Street Journal
reported.
The mob met Mehmanparast a few blocks from UN headquarters when the diplomat was
separated from other Iranians traveling in a protected motorcade. NYPD spokesman Paul
Browne said Mehmanparast was “verbally accosted by anti-regime protesters.”
Browne said “some pushing and shoving” took place, but that the department was “not
aware of any assault involved, despite one protester's claim to have punched the diplomat
in the stomach.”
Ahmadinejad, speaking to the UN General Assembly that day, cited the continued threat
by the “uncivilized Zionists to resort to military action against our great nation.”
AJC Poll: 65% of American Jews support Obama, Orthodox prefer Romney
(JNS.org) Sixty-five percent of respondents in an American Jewish Committee (AJC)
poll released Sept. 27 said they plan to vote for incumbent President Barack Obama,
while 24 percent prefer challenger Mitt Romney.
But the poll, which surveyed 1,040 American Jews, revealed 54 percent of Orthodox
Jewish respondents favoring Romney compared with 40 percent for Obama.
Conservative Jews backed Obama 64-23 percent, and Reform Jews supported the
Democrat 68-23 percent.
Ten percent of respondents were undecided about November’s election. Sixty-one
percent approved of Obama’s handling of the Iranian nuclear threat and 39 percent
disapproved.
AJC’s survey of Florida Jewish voters earlier in September had Obama leading Romney
69-25 percent in that critical swing state.
Netanyahu at UN: Iran will ‘back down’ if faced with ‘clear red line’
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underscored the need to send Iran
a clear message on its nuclear program during his speech to the United Nations General
Assembly on Sept. 27.
Netanyahu began his remarks with a brief reflection on Yom Kippur – both the tragedy
that the Jewish people have faced and the great success modern Israel has experienced in
science, technology, agriculture and medicine.
From there, Netanyahu transitioned to the Iranian threat. He equated the threat of a
nuclear-armed Iran to that of a nuclear-armed al-Qaeda.
“It makes no difference whether these lethal weapons are in the hands of the world’s
most dangerous terrorist regime or the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization,”
Netanyahu said. “They’re both fired by the same hatred; they’re both driven by the same
lust for violence.”
Netanyahu also highlighted the need to establish clear “red lines” on Iran. He believes
creating these limits would force Iran to back down in its efforts.
“I believe that faced with a clear red line, Iran will back down,” he said.
Netanyahu provided a cartoonish diagram of a bomb to accentuate this point. On the
diagram he drew a red line across where he thinks Iran’s nuclear program would be
beyond the point of no return – sometime in the spring or summer of 2013.
While most of Netanyahu’s speech was dedicated to highlighting Iran’s nuclear threat, it
also struck a conciliatory tone with President Barack Obama’s position on Iran by
praising his efforts on sanctions. Obama, meanwhile, has refused to set red lines for the
Islamic Republic.
“Under the leadership of President Obama, the international community has passed some
of the strongest sanctions to date,” Netanyahu said.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu believes diplomacy and sanctions can go only so far if clear red
lines do not accompany them.
“Red lines don’t lead to war; red lines prevent war,” Netanyahu said.
Abbas proposes Palestinian UN upgrade, accuses Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’
(JNS.org) Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 27, Palestinian
Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas focused his remarks on his quest for upgraded
Palestinian status at the UN while harshly attacking Israel’s policies towards the
Palestinians.
According to Abbas, Israel is rewarded for its “policies of war, occupation and
settlements.” He accused Israel of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in East Jerusalem.
“It is a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people via the demolition of
their homes,” he said.
Israel took control of eastern Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War after Jordanian attacks.
The Jewish state then expanded the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem to include the
eastern parts of the city. Eastern Jerusalem includes a number of important Jewish
religious and cultural sites such as the Western Wall, a remnant of the second Jewish
Holy Temple.
Abbas also revealed his ongoing efforts to upgrade the Palestinians’ status at the UN.
“Intensive consultations with the various regional organizations and the state members”
were underway, he said.
The Palestinians currently have non-member observer status in the UN. Abbas sought last
year to gain full statehood member status, but failed to obtain the necessary votes in the
UN Security Council for membership after the U.S. threatened a veto. Instead, Abbas is
now seeking an upgrade to non-member state status, which does not carry the same
weight as a full statehood member and only requires approval of the UN General
Assembly.
Amid anti-Semitism, remembering France’s granting of full rights to Jews
(JNS.org) Sept. 27 marked the 221st anniversary of French Jews being granted equality
under the law by the French National Assembly. This political decision in 1791 was the
culmination of a long process granting Jews full rights that started before the French
Revolution of 1789. In 1785, a poll tax on Jews was abolished and Jews were allowed to
live all over France.
“I believe that freedom of worship no longer permits any distinction to be made between
the political rights of citizens on the basis of their beliefs and I believe equally that the
Jews cannot be the only exceptions to the enjoyment of these rights, when pagans, Turks,
Muslims, Chinese even, men of all the sects, in short, are admitted to these rights,”
French magistrate Adrien-Jean-Francois Duport, who introduced the resolution that
normalized the status of Jews in France, had said, according to Haaretz.
Now, turn the calendar forward to August 2012: Simon Wiesenthal Center Dean
Abraham Cooper told Reuters last month that French Jews have seen an uptick of 40
percent in anti-Semitic attacks since this March, when Islamist terrorist Mohammed
Merah killed three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Cooper also said
the increase in anti-Semitism is encouraging rising numbers of French Jews to leave the
country.
Despite the fact that anti-Semitism continued to be heavily present in France after the
1791 assembly law, Napoleon extended equal rights to the Jews of the lands he
conquered when he came to power in 1799.
Israeli experiment pits man against computer
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) More than two-thirds of participants in an
experiment held in Israel on Sept. 24 could not tell the difference between a person and a
computer.
In a game show simulation of the “Turing test,” in which the audience had to deduce
whether answers to trivia questions were provided by a human or a machine, the audience
witnessed multiple contestants: Intel Israel CEO Maxine Fassberg, Israeli model Adi
Neuman, Israel Space Agency chairman Professor Yitzhak Ben-Israel, and student
representative Jonathan Bonatzel. The contestants were asked assorted trivia questions by
TV host Avri Gilad, ranging from general knowledge to emotional intelligence and life
experience. One of the contestants was fed answers from a computer; the rest answered to
the best of their knowledge.
The audience then voted on who they thought was the computer among them. The more
than 2,500 votes showed that 27 percent correctly identified the student’s answers to be
computer-generated; one-third thought Professor Ben-Israel was the machine; 22 percent
thought it was model Adi Neuman; and 21 percent thought it was the Intel CEO.
“Since the majority of the participants did not correctly identify the computer, it shows
they thought it was a human, and therefore with some reservation it can be said the
computer passed the Turing test, at least for this event,” Israeli Science and Technology
Minister Professor Daniel Hershkowitz said.
There are a few notable machines that have successfully mimicked and defeated human
intelligence, including IBM’s “Deep Blue,” the supercomputer that defeated Russian
Chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997.
Ahmadinejad’s ‘different perspective’ features usual anti-Israel comments at UN
(JNS.org) Addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Yom Kippur, the holiest
day of the Jewish calendar, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened his remarks
by saying he has been speaking on the world’s problems for seven years and that he
wants to “raise such issues from a different perspective.”
His perpsective on Sept. 26, however, offered much of the same hostility to Israel and the
West.
Ahmadinejad said Iran is faced by a continuous “threat by the uncivilized Zionists to
resort to military action against our great nation,” and called for a new world order in
which Western countries working for “the devil” are not in control.
Erin Pelton, spokeswoman of the U.S. mission to the UN, said “Over the past couple of
days, we’ve seen Mr. Ahmadinejad once again use his trip to the UN not to address the
legitimate aspirations of the Iranian people but to instead spout paranoid theories and
repulsive slurs against Israel.” On Sept. 24, Ahmadinejad had told reporters that while his
country “has been around for the last seven, ten thousand years,” Israel has been
“occupying” territory in the Middle East for 60-70 years and has “no roots there in
history.”
Representatives from the U.S. and Israel decided not to be present for Ahmadinejad’s
Yom Kippur remarks.
Ahmadinejad said the world’s “current abysmal situation” has been caused primarily by
“the self-proclaimed centers of power who have entrusted themselves to the devil,” and
that Israel is driving that “reality.” He recommended the establishment of an
“independent fact-finding team” to uncover the “truth” about the Sept. 11, 2001 al-Qaida
terrorists attacks, and used his usual lingo by describing what he called the “hegemonic
policies and actions of world Zionism.”
Egypt’s Morsi vouches for Palestinian statehood at UN
(JNS.org) Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi told the United Nations General
Assmembly on Sept. 26 that his country is offering “full support to any course of action
Palestine decides to follow in the United Nations.”
“I call upon all of you, just as you have supported the revolutions of the Arab peoples, to
lend your support to the Palestinians in their endeavors to regain the full and legitimate
rights of a people struggling to gain its freedom and establish its independent state,”
Morsi, elected in June from the Muslim Brotherhood party, said.
Since Morsi’s rise to power, terrorist attacks in the Sinai and reports that Egypt is looking
to amend its 1979 peace treaty with Israel have fueled concern in the Jewish state over
relations with its southern neighbor.
Slamming Israel, the Egyptian president said at the UN that it is “shameful that the free
world accepts, regardless of the justifications provided, that a member of the international
community continues to deny the rights of a [Palestinian] nation that has been longing for
decades for independence.”
“It is also disgraceful that settlement activities continue on the territories of these
people,” he said, referring to Jewish building in Judea and Samaria.
Morsi did call for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons in his speech at the UN, but
stressed that all countries in the region have the right to “peaceful use of nuclear energy
within the framework of the [Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty].”
Apple’s new maps list Jerusalem without a country and specify no capital of Israel
(JNS.org) Controversy over Jerusalem—most recently abound at the Democratic
National Convention, where the party’s platform initially omitted but then restored
language affirming the city as Israel’s capital—has now entered the world of technology
as well.
The Algemeiner reported that Apple’s newly released operating system—the iOS6—
contains a mapping feature listing Jerusalem as an unaffiliated city that is not part of any
country, in addition to specifying no capital city for Israel. The Jewish state is the only
country on “Apple Maps” with no capital.
Every country on Apple’s new maps except for Israel has a capital city marked with an
encircled five-point star, according to the Algemeiner’s analysis.
Report: Abbas refuses investigation of PA sex scandal
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas ordered to “close the
case” involving alleged sexual harassment by PA Civilian Affairs Minister Hussen
Sheikh because it is “a sensitive time and we are facing elections,” the Jerusalem Post
reported, citing Palestinian investigative journalist Said Ghazali.
Abbas, in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, said to close the
investigation until after he returns from the U.S.
“If the public learns about it, we will lose the [PA] presidential and municipal election,”
Ghazali quoted Abbas as saying to two PA officials. “We already have enough scandals
and don’t need more.”
Skeikh’s case came about when a Palestinian woman claimed that he called her to his
office to fix a computer, but instead sexually harassed her, in addition to allegedly bribing
her.
Jewish cemetery vandalized near Prague
(JNS.org) Twenty-six out of 150 tombstones at a Jewish cemetery in the woods near
Prague have been vandalized, the Associated Press reported.
Miroslav Doubek, a Czech Republic Police spokesman, told the AP on Sept. 26 that
unknown perpetrators most likely knocked over the tombstones within the last two
months and also broke an unspecified number of tombstones into pieces. The cemetery is
located 40 miles away from Prague in a town called Prudice.
44 U.S. senators appeal to Cuban leader for release of Alan Gross
(JNS.org) Nearly half the U.S. Senate came together in a bipartisan letter led by Sens.
Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) that urges Cuban President Raul Castro to
release Jewish-American contractor Alan Gross on humanitarian grounds.
Gross has been imprisoned in Cuba since December 2009 after he was sentenced to a 15year term for bringing communications devices to the country’s Jewish community. At
the time of his arrest, Gross was working for a U.S. firm called Development Alternatives
Inc. (DAI) to promote democracy, but Cuba convicted him of “crimes against the state.”
“After three years of unjustly imprisoning American citizen Alan Gross, my colleagues
and I are hopeful that the Cuban government will take action and grant his release,” Sen.
Moran said in a press release.
The letter, signed by 44 senators, said that Gross is suffering from a number of
debilitating medical conditions, including severe weight loss and degenerative arthritis. It
also said that he is suffering mental anguish because of separation from his family and
their health issues—his elderly mother and daughter are both battling cancer.
Obama to UN: ‘Time is not unlimited’ on Iran
(JNS.org) In his speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, U.S. President Barack
Obama focused heavily on the wide range of issues afflicting the Middle East, including
the anti-American protests, the Iranian nuclear threat and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The president said a nuclear-armed Iran “is not a challenge that can be contained” and
that it “would threaten the elimination of Israel, the security of Gulf nations, and the
stability of the global economy.”
Obama began his address by remembering U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and
condemning the attackers. He emphasized to the crowd of world leaders that Stevens’s
assassination was an attack on all nations, not just the U.S.
“[The Middle East protests] are also an assault on the very ideals upon which the United
Nations was founded,” he said.
Obama spoke out against the incitement and hatred of the region, specifically stressing
the importance of condemning slander against Christians and Jews.
“The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam,” Obama said.
“Yet to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see
when the image of Jesus Christ is desecrated, churches are destroyed, or the Holocaust is
denied.”
Obama also said he is committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
While still voicing support for diplomacy, he said, “time is not unlimited.”
The president’s remarks come amid controversy surrounding the issue of setting “red
lines” on Iran’s nuclear program. Obama has resisted calls to establish an official U.S.
red line, which has led to a rift with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who
favors tougher language and sanctions.
When pressed on red lines during an interview that aired on the CBS program “60
Minutes” on Sunday, Obama said he would “block out any noise that’s out there” on Iran.
He said “any pressure that I feel is simply to do what’s right for the American people.”
Obama is not meeting with any foreign leaders on his UN trip, and reportedly turned
down a meeting with Netanyahu in Washington (though the White House denied that
report).
On the topic of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Obama’s remarks were brief. He spoke out
against “those who reject the right of Israel to exist” and called for “a secure, Jewish state
of Israel; and an independent, prosperous Palestine.”
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney also spoke on the Iranian threat Tuesday
during the Clinton Global Initiative conference.
“We should not forget—and cannot forget—that not far from here, a voice of
unspeakable evil and hatred has spoken out, threatening Israel and the civilized world,”
Romney said of Iran.
Israeli ambassador protests Ahmadinejad’s denial of Jewish history at UN
(JNS.org) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters at the United Nations
that while his country “has been around for the last seven, ten thousand years,” Israel has
been “occupying” territory in the Middle East for 60-70 years and has “no roots there in
history.”
Ahmadinejad, whose larger speech to the entire UN General Assembly was scheduled for
Yom Kippur on Wednesday, addressed a smaller UN assembly on the rule of law
Monday.
Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor left the room to protest the Iranian president’s
remarks.
“Ahmadinejad showed again that he not only threatens the future of the Jewish people, he
seeks to erase our past,” Prosor told reporters. “To allow Ahmadinejad to speak at the UN
about the rule of law is like appointing a pyromaniac to be a fire chief.”
On the topic of a possible Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Ahmadinejad said,
“Fundamentally, we do not take seriously the threats of the Zionists. We have all the
defensive means at our disposal and we are ready to defend ourselves.”
Additionally, in an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN Monday night, Ahmadinejad
explained his infamous comments regarding “wiping” Israel off the map.
“So when we say ‘to be wiped,’ we say for occupation to be wiped off from this world,”
he said through a translator. “For war-seeking to [be] wiped off and eradicated, the killing
of women and children to be eradicated. And we propose the way. We propose the path.
The path is to recognize the right of the Palestinians to self-governance.”
When pressed by Morgan about a two-state solution, Ahmadinejad declined to comment.
Syrian mortars strike northern Israel for first time
(JNS.org) Several mortars fired by Syrian government troops targeting rebels hit open
agricultural fields on Israel’s Golan Heights region on Tuesday morning, marking the
first time such an incident has taken place, Israel Hayom reported. The Israel Defense
Forces said no one was wounded in the shelling.
The IDF said on its website that it would not accept the spillover of violence from Syria
into Israel and that it has filed a complaint with United Nations forces operating in the
border area.
The mortars landed near Kibbutz El Rom in the northern Golan Heights. The shells were
apparently not aimed at Israel, rather at rebels in Syrian villages close to the border.
Heavy fighting between Syrian troops and rebels was reported in Syria’s Quneitra region,
which lies along the border with Israel.
There have been concerns in Israel that the ongoing internal violence in Syria could spill
over the border and that the long-quiet frontier area could become a new Islamist front
against Israel.
While Obama avoids Iran red line, Senate resolution sets one at nuclear capability
(JNS.org) While the Obama administration refuses to set a red line—the point after which
America would take military action—for the Iranian nuclear threat, the U.S. Senate
overwhelmingly passed a resolution stating that containment of a nuclear-capable Iran is
not an option.
The non-binding bipartisan resolution, which passed 90-1, was co-sponsored by Senators
Bob Casey (D-PA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) and affirms
that it is a “vital national interest of the United States to prevent the Government of Iran
from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability.”
The language of the bill sets an apparent “red line” at nuclear capability, which is similar
to the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. U.S. President Barack
Obama, meanwhile, has repeatedly said he will not establish an official red line. In a
conference call with rabbis before Rosh Hashanah, the president said no leader “wants to
tie his hands” by setting red lines or deadlines.
More recently, in an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Obama
responded to a question about red lines by saying, “When it comes to our national
security decisions, any pressure that I feel is simply to do what’s right for the American
people. And I am going to block out any noise that’s out there.”
The Israeli government, reacting to the Senate bill’s passage, said it “welcomes the
bipartisan support Israel receives in Congress.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) also praised the resolution.
“AIPAC applauds the Senate for rejecting a policy of containment of an Iranian nuclear
weapons capability and calling for an increase in sanctions against the world’s leading
state sponsor of terror,” the group said in a press release.
Barak suggests unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria
(JNS.org) Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke out in favor of a unilateral
withdrawal from portions of Judea and Samaria in an interview with Israel Hayom.
Under Barak’s plan, the communities of Gush Etzion, Maaleh Adumim and Ariel, which
contain 90 percent of the region’s Jewish population, would remain intact. Jews living
outside of those areas in secluded communities would be given the option of evacuating
or live under Palestinian control. Israel would continue to maintain security control over
the Jordan Valley and the hills overlooking Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Barak’s comments came under fire from the right. Likud MK Yuli Edelstein said, “This
is not a disengagement plan we are talking about. This is our survival.”
But Barak insists that the time is now for Israel to be realistic, “This is not an easy
decision, but Yom Kippur is a good time to take a long hard look at the facts and say ‘we
are no longer a young country,’” he said. “We are 64 years old. We haven’t been in Judea
and Samaria for a year or two. We’ve been there for 45 years. It is time to make decisions
not just based on ideology and gut feelings, but on an accurate reading of reality.”
Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority have been frozen for nearly
three years. No new talks are scheduled.
St. Louis passenger to State Dept: Don’t ‘deny Holocaust survivors our legal rights’
(JNS.org) At a U.S. State Department program on Monday marking the 73rd anniversary
of the SS St. Louis voyage, honoree Herbert Karliner—one of the voyage’s surviving
passengers—handed department officials a letter urging their so-far absent support of
legislation that would aid the restitution of Holocaust-era insurance claims.
The Miami Beach, Fla., resident—who as a child saw his father’s Peiskrescham,
Germany, store destroyed by the Nazis during Kristallnacht in November 1938, and
whose mother, father, and two sisters were all murdered at Auschwitz—is seeking the
payout of an insurance policy from Allianz that in 2011 was valued by economist Sidney
J. Zabludoff at $180,000. That claim, according to Karliner’s letter (a copy of which was
released by Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation-USA), is among the $20 billion insurance
companies such as Allianz and Generali owe Holocaust victims and their families.
While the proposed Tom Lantos Justice for Holocaust Survivors Act (H.R. 890) would,
as its language says, “allow Holocaust survivors (or their heirs) to pursue civil actions in
federal courts against insurance companies related to World War II-era insurance
policies,” the State Department has opposed that legislation.
“The Department of State has sought for many years to resolve claims for restitution or
compensation for Holocaust survivors and other victims of the Nazi era through dialogue,
negotiation, and cooperation rather than through litigation,” the department said in a
memo this year. “H. R. 890, by reopening Holocaust-era insurance cases already resolved
through diplomatic agreements, previous foreign state restitution programs or
international commissions, and class action settlements in federal court, would, if
enacted, conflict with these objectives. It would open the floodgates to litigation,
undermine commitments made by the United States, and weaken our ability to achieve
such settlements in the future.”
Karliner wrote in his letter that the State Department “pretends to honor me and other
Holocaust victims” at events such as the one held Monday, while at the same time
“working hard to deny Holocaust survivors our legal rights.”
“Because of this Administration’s actions, I and every other Holocaust survivor are
second-class citizens under the law,” he wrote.
After two victories, Israel’s World Baseball Classic run ended by Spain
(JNS.org) Israel fell to Spain, 9-7, in 10 innings Sunday to end the Jewish state’s run in
the World Baseball Classic (WBC).
Two days earlier, Israel had defeated Spain, 4-2, behind two home runs from San Diego
Padres prospect Nate Freiman, who also slugged two homers in the team’s 7-3 win over
South Africa Sept. 19 in the first game of the WBC’s qualifying round in Jupiter, Fla.
Israel’s 28-man roster was headlined by former Major League Baseball (MLB)
outfielders Shawn Green and Gabe Kapler. The team was mainly comprised of
American-born Jewish players who were allowed to compete because they can claim
Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return. Three of the team’s 28 players were born in
Israel—Shlomo Lipetz, Alon Leichman and Dan Rothem—and 10 were from the Los
Angeles area.
While baseball was introduced to Israel in 1927, it has been slow to catch on. Currently,
between 1,000 and 3,000 Israelis play in organized baseball or softball leagues, according
to the Times of Israel. A number of attempts have been made to grow the sport in the
Jewish state, including the Israel Baseball League (IBL), an experiment that ended after
one year in 2007.
If Israel were to have advanced past the qualifying round, several current Jewish MLB
players reportedly would have considered joining the team, including Chicago White Sox
third baseman Kevin Youkilis, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun, and Texas
Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler.
As Sinai threat grows, Egypt warns Israel against acting alone
(JNS.org) As calls are being heard for the Israel Defense Forces to enter Sinai to combat
rampant terror there, Cairo sent a clear message on Monday that it will not allow Israeli
forces to enter the Egyptian peninsula, Israel Hayom reported, citing the Egyptian
website “Masrawy.”
“Egypt will cut off the hand of any aggressor, from within as well as without,” an
unnamed senior official in Egypt’s Supreme Military Council said, according to the
website.
The official reportedly added that the Egyptian leadership was closely monitoring
developments in Israel following a deadly clash Sept. 21 between Sinai terrorists and
Israeli forces on the Sinai border. All three terrorists were killed in the clash, as was one
Israeli soldier.
Egypt is “conducting itself wisely and calmly, and will not let anyone harm even one
centimeter of Sinai soil,” the official was quoted as saying.
On Sunday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz remarked that even when
Israel completely seals its border with Egypt, the threat of terror emanating from Sinai
will not be eliminated.
Obama, Ahmadinejad both describe Netanyahu’s Iran statements as ‘noise’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad both treat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the
U.S. to set a “red line” over Iran’s nuclear drive as “noise,” according to two recent
interviews.
In an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Obama said that he
shares Netanyahu’s concerns over Iran but will make policy decisions based on U.S.
interests.
“I understand and share Prime Minister Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran should not
obtain a nuclear weapon because it would threaten us, it would threaten Israel and it
would threaten the world and kick off a nuclear arms race,” the U.S. president said.
But, asked by the interviewer if he feels any pressure from Netanyahu to “draw a line in
the sand,” Obama said, “When it comes to our national security decisions, any pressure
that I feel is simply to do what's right for the American people. And I am going to block
out any noise that's out there.”
Ahmadinejad, meanwhile, dismissed Netanyahu's demands as “noise” in an interview
with The Washington Post published Monday.
Ahmadinejad said, “We, generally speaking, do not take very seriously the issue of the
Zionists and the possible dangers emanating from them ... Of course, they would love to
find a way for their own salvation by making a lot of noise and to raise stakes in order to
save themselves. But I do not believe they will succeed.”
California students respond to ‘undemocratic’ anti-Israel resolution
By Jacob Kamaras/JNS.org
After being caught off guard by a resolution condemning a measure that would combat
anti-Semitism on California state campuses, pro-Israel students at the University of
California-Berkeley have responded by highlighting what they call the resolution’s
undemocratic nature.
The 12-member University of California Student Association (UCSA) on Sept. 15
registered two abstentions and 10 votes in condemnation of HR35—a unanimously
passed State Assembly resolution urging California schools to squelch nascent antiSemitism and crack down on anti-Israel demonstrations. HR35 also said Israel should not
be called a “racist” state.
The UCSA, however, said HR35 “is written to unfairly and falsely smear as ‘antiSemites’ those who do human rights advocacy focusing on Israel’s illegal occupation,
alleging that the UC faculty and staff involved in such work are motivated by antiSemitism rather than by the political ideals of equality and respect for universal human
rights they affirm, ideals UCSA and most California students share.” UCSA also called
for the University of California Board of Regents to divest from companies doing
business with Israel due to their alleged human rights violations.
Ariel Fridman, vice president of UC Berkeley’s Tikvah Students for Israel and an
Emerson Fellow for pro-Israel advocacy and education group StandWithUs, told JNS.org
that Jewish students learned of the UCSA resolution a mere half-hour before Rosh
Hashanah and were “completely blindsided” by it.
“Most students don’t even know that the UCSA exists,” Fridman said in a phone
interview. “It was completely not on our radar. So for them to have a meeting and a
resolution pass without any of our knowledge took us by complete surprise. They didn’t
have an agenda published, there wasn’t really any information or outreach to anybody.”
UCSA’s credibility is damaged by the fact that it acted “without any community
involvement,” Fridman added.
Due to Rosh Hashanah observance, the Tivkah group was not initially able to take unified
action against the UCSA resolution, according to Fridman. But since Rosh Hashanah,
Tikvah has mobilized students to write op-eds responding to the resolution and countered
a Sept. 20 anti-HR35 rally organized by Students for Justice in Palestine.
Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, criticized the UCSA resolution’s “devious,
undemocratic tactics.”
“They essentially ambushed Jewish and other pro-Israel students by using secretive
tactics, not notifying anyone who might disagree with the proposed resolution,” Rothstein
said in a statement.
Film on Tel Aviv Hasidic community will be Israeli entry at Oscars
By Ronen Shnidman/JNS.org
HAIFA—The Oscars’ foreign film entry from Israel this year will be “Fill the Void,” a
work that reveals an inside perspective on Tel Aviv’s Hasidic community.
The movie automatically gained its berth for this year’s Academy Awards after winning
the Best Feature Film category at Israel’s Ophir Awards on Sept. 21, along with another
six of the 15 awards given by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television at Haifa’s
Krieger Hall.
“Fill the Void” had a remarkably strong showing for first-time feature film director and
ba’alat teshuva Rama Burshtein, who is Hasidic herself. Her movie won half of the 14
awards it was nominated for, netting Burshtein awards for best director and best script, as
well as best film.
“There’s been so many twists and turns, it just goes to show that it is all really up to God
at the end of the day,” Burshtein told JNS.org right before leaving the Haifa venue to
return home for the start of the Sabbath.
Lead actress Hadas Yaron also took home the Ophir award of best lead actress for her
role in the film as Shira, an 18-year-old woman who must decide whether or not to fulfill
the wishes of her family by marrying her widowed brother-in-law, Yochay.
Reacting to “Fill the Void’s” victory in the best film category, Burshtein said she “never
thought this would happen.”
At a news conference earlier this month, Burshtein said the Orthodox world “is so
interesting it does not need to cope with the secular.”
“It can be very interesting and the drama can be very strong inside,” she said.
While 10 Israeli films have been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the
Oscars, none have won the award yet. Last year’s nominee from Israel was Joseph
Cedar’s “Footnote.”
French far-right leader calls for kippa ban
(JNS.org) French politician Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front party,
sparked controversy this weekend with a call to ban traditional Jewish head coverings
known as kippot.
Le Pen, known for her anti-immigrant and nationalist positions, has long called on
banning Islamic head coverings such as the niqab and burka, and has now added kippot to
the fray.
“Obviously, if the veil is banned, the kippa [should be] banned in public as well,” the
French daily Le Monde quoted Le Pen in an interview published Sept. 21.
French President Francois Hollande denounced Le Pen’s call for a ban on religious head
coverings, saying, “Everything that tears people apart ... divides them, is inappropriate.”
The president of the Conference of European Rabbis, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, said
Le Pen has, “once again, exposed herself as being unworthy of the mainstream French
political space,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Conservative movement’s
Rabbinical Assembly, said in a statement that Le Pen’s comments “encourage the growth
of bigotry in a nation to whom the world looks for democratic and tolerant leadership.”
France’s National Front party was founded in the 1970s by Jean-Marie Le Pen. Marine,
who succeeded her father, placed third in last spring’s presidential election.
Lieberman: No changes to Egypt peace treaty
(JNS.org) Speaking amid rumors that Egypt’s Islamist leaders are planning on reexamining the military appendix of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian Peace Treaty, Israeli
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman flatly rejected any indication Israel would agree.
“There is no chance that Israel will agree to any kind of change” to the peace deal,
Lieberman told Israel Radio. “The Egyptians shouldn’t try to delude themselves or
delude others, and they should not rely on this demand,” he said.
The change that Lieberman is alluding to is the agreement to limit the amount of
Egyptian troops and heavy weapons in the Sinai Peninsula under the treaty. Since the
Egyptian Revolution last year, Islamic terrorists have increasingly taken advantage of the
region’s lawlessness to launch attacks on Egyptian and Israeli targets, such as last week’s
attack that killed an Israeli soldier.
Speaking on the issue, Mohamed Essmat Seif al-Dawla, a political advisor to Egypt’s
president, said that Egypt has the right to defend all its territory. “The military appendix
in the Camp David Accords is inconsistent with the Egyptian constitution, which
stipulates that Egypt’s armed forces have the full right to defend the state's sovereignty,”
he said.
However, according to Israel Hayom, Lieberman said that what Sinai lacked was not
more Egyptian troops, but rather a willingness on the part of the government to fight
terrorists in the peninsula.
While Israel is alarmed by the increasing terrorist activity, it is also skeptical of the longterm motivations of the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egyptian government.
Israel set to open talks with PA over Gaza natural gas fields
(JNS.org) Israel has agreed to hold new talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) over the
development of a natural gas field off the coast of Gaza, an Israeli Foreign Ministry
report released Sunday said.
The field is estimated to hold 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. It was first discovered
over a decade ago by British Gas after authorization by then-prime minister Ehud Barak,
but has remained untouched since, Ma’ariv reported.
“Development of the Gaza Marine gas field will generate revenues that could contribute
dramatically to Palestinian fiscal sustainability,” the report says.
However, it is unclear how Israel and the PA would go forward with the development of
the field off the coast of Hamas-controlled Gaza, given that Hamas is a terrorist
organization.
Sinai terrorists kill IDF solider and injure another near Israel-Egypt border
(JNS.org) Terrorists from an al-Qaida-inspired group killed an Israeli soldier and injured
another in the Sinai Peninsula near the Israel-Egypt border at noon Sept. 21.
On Saturday, a Salafi organization called Ansar Jerusalem claimed responsibility for the
attack, saying it was a “disciplinary attack against those who insulted the beloved
Prophet” through the production of the film “Innocence of Muslims,” which has been
linked to recent protests throughout the Arab world.
The three Ansar Jerusalem terrorists came to the border between Egypt and Israel south
of Mount Sagi. In that area, the defensive fence being built by Israel is not yet complete.
The terrorists came with explosive belts, assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade.
After the soldiers, who were guarding contractors working on the fence, were shot, the
IDF returned fire, killing all three terrorists.
Forces “thwarted a major terror attack that was supposed to take place in Israeli
territory,” IDF Spokesperson Yoav Mordechai told Yedioth Ahronoth.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that without Israel’s decision to
build the security fence along its border with Sinai, the country “would be flooded with
illegal labor infiltrators, and terror squads.” A larger attack than what occurred Sept. 21
“was prevented largely due to this decision [to build the security fence] and the action
taken by IDF soldiers,” Netanyahu said, according to Israel Hayom.
France inaugurates new Holocaust memorial
(JNS.org) A new memorial for the Jews who were sent to an internment camp during the
Holocaust by the Nazi-collaborating French Vichy regime was inaugurated Sept. 21 by
the French government. The best-known camp was Drancy, located north of Paris, in
which nearly 65,000 Jews passed on their way to Holocaust death camps outside of
France. Only 2,000 of the Jews interred there survived.
French President Francois Hollande said he hopes what happened at Drancy would lead
to “vigilance” today, the Associated Press reported. France first openly addressed its own
government’s role in the Holocaust under then-President Jacques Chirac in the 1990s.
Since then, the French government erected several memorials around the country to
French-Jewish Holocaust victims.
Ahmadinejad calls ‘Innocence of Muslims’ film an Israeli plot
(JNS.org) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sept. 21 produced another antiIsrael conspiracy theory by saying the film “Innocence of Muslims,” which has been
linked to protests throughout the Arab world, was a plot by the Jewish state to “divide
[Muslims] and spark sectarian conflict,” AFP reported.
Ahmadinejad’s remarks come despite Californian Coptic Christian Nakoula Basseley
Nakoula’s admitted involvement with the film and the refutation of initial reports of
Jewish involvement. “Israeli Jew” Sam Bacile, initially identified in reports as the
producer of the film mocking the prophet Mohammed, turned out to be a pseudonym.
Speaking at a parade for the anniversary of the beginning of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war,
Ahmadinejad blasted the U.S. for only selectively censoring the film and said Iran should
use the “same spirit and belief in itself” from that war to combat sanctions and other
pressure from the international community in response to its nuclear program.
IDF thwarts planned terror attack
(JNS.org) An Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft successfully killed two terrorists affiliated
with the Defenders of al-Aqsa terror organization in the southern Gaza Strip on Sept. 20.
One of the terrorists, Anis Abu Mahmoud el-Anin, was in the final stages of planning an
attack against Israeli civilians. The other terrorist, Ashraf Mahmoud Salah, had admitted
in a previous investigation to helping others plan attacks on Israel from Egypt.
The IDF has become more concerned with Gaza terrorists taking advantage of the
situation in Egypt to launch attacks against Israel. Both men were also involved in
smuggling weapons into Gaza, the IDF said.
‘Support Israel, Defeat Jihad’ ad to appear on NYC subways
(JNS.org) An advertisement condemning radical Islam and supporting Israel will appear
in 10 New York City subway stations beginning this week, despite city attempts to
prevent the campaign, CNN reported.
The ad, which has generated some controversy over its message, reads: "In any war
between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man, Support Israel,
Defeat Jihad."
New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) initially refused to allow the ad to
appear. However, a federal judge overturned the MTA decision, arguing that the ad is
protected under the First Amendment.
"We don't think it's controversial," said Pamela Geller, the executive director of the
American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), the organization behind the advertisement.
"It's truth. The MTA has run anti-Israel ads before and no one had an issue about it. 'Any
war on innocent civilians is savagery': What's controversial here?"
One injured in French kosher supermarket explosion
(JNS.org) A package bomb exploded Sept. 19 inside a suburban kosher grocery store
near Paris, France. One person was wounded.
The explosion in Sarcelles (Val d’Oise), a Paris suburb, happened after two hooded
individuals dressed in black entered the store in the morning, placed the package and
threw what may have been a rock or a Molotov cocktail, according to different accounts
from people on scene, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
It is still unclear whether the incident is connected to the riots that broke out in the
Middle East after a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad was recently posted on
YouTube, or connected to the decision by a French newspaper to publish caricatures
representing the prophet.
Sixty-thousand people reside in Sarcelles, many of them Jews. “We might be Jews but
this is our country, our life is here and we won't be scared away easily. I just don’t
understand why the police doesn’t take more drastic measures against those Muslim
rioters,” said Charlie Levy, an owner of a business close the supermarket.
Polls: Swing state voters fear Obama foreign policy, Florida Jews back him 69%
(JNS.org) A public opinion poll conducted in the battleground states of Florida and Ohio
reveals widespread belief that U.S. President Barack Obama’s foreign policy strategy,
particularly regarding Iran, may fail. The poll also reveals favorable views of Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to Israel Hayom.
Commissioned by Secure America Now, which describes itself as non-partisan, the
foreign policy poll was taken after the start of the recent wave of anti-U.S. protests in the
Middle East.
More than 65 percent of voters in Florida and a similar percentage of Ohio voters said
Obama’s policy would not convince the Iranians to halt their nuclear program. More than
three-quarters of Florida voters and 70 percent of Ohio voters said a nuclear Iran would
arm terrorists who would use the nuclear weapons to attack the U.S. A full 61.2 percent
of Florida voters and 58.8 percent of Ohio voters said they approved of an Israeli strike
on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Nearly 48 percent of respondents in Florida and 45.9 percent of Ohio voters expressed
favorable opinions of Netanyahu. Just over 50 percent of Florida voters and 56.6 percent
of Ohio voters said the language calling Jerusalem Israel's capital had been intentionally
omitted by the Obama administration before being put back in the Democratic party
platform.
The American Jewish Committee, meanwhile, released a different poll showing that
Florida Jewish voters place Obama ahead of Republican presidential candidate Mitt
Romney by 69 percent to 25 percent. Five percent of respondents were undecided, but
none of them indicated a leaning toward Romney, the National Jewish Democratic
Council noted in a statement on the poll. A recent Gallup poll also found that Obama is
leading Romney 70 percent to 25 percent among Jewish voters nationwide.
Iran admits lying to IAEA about its nuclear program
(JNS.org) Iran has been systematically providing false information to the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) because it has been infiltrated by intelligence agencies
keeping tabs on Iran’s nuclear program, Israel Hayom reported, citing the the Al-Hayat
newspaper.
Iranian Atomic Energy Vice President Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, who heads the
country’s delegation taking part in the 56th session of the agency in Vienna, made the
revelation in an interview with Al-Hayat.
“The IAEA says it gets its information from the intelligence services belonging to the
member states, and we monitor and followed up seven years ago activities of the British
foreign intelligence service [MI6], which gathered information for people, which then
exposed [Iranian nuclear scientists] to assassination at the hands of Zionist intelligence
agents. Some of the information provided by the agency related to these events. For our
part, we sometimes gave false information to protect our nuclear sites and our interests.
This inevitably misled other intelligence agencies,” Davani said.
On Thursday, Israel said it would not attend a conference on the creation of a nuclear-free
Middle East scheduled to take place in Finland.
“This announcement was made on Wednesday in Vienna during a meeting of the
International Atomic Energy Agency by the director of the Israel Atomic Energy
Commission, Shaul Chorev,” spokesman Yigal Palmor told AFP.
Israeli technology fuels new fish farm that is Europe’s largest
(JNS.org) Israeli amnon, known also as St. Peter’s Fish or Israeli (blue) tilapia, is quickly
becoming a staple fish around the world, just like Israel’s fish-farming technology.
Last week, Poland opened the largest fish farm in Europe based, taking advantage of
Israel's high-tech methods that allow farmers to generate a larger amount of fish. Since
tilapia tend to eat weeds, algae, and other underwater plants, growing them can also help
keep rivers, lakes and even municipal water supplies clean.
The Polish fish farm was opened by the Israeli company AquaMaof Aquaculture
Technologies, which has developed a system that breeds fish under controlled
temperature conditions in any weather or climate environment, cutting energy costs by
some 70 percent, the company said, according to the Times of Israel. The 24,000-squarefoot facility should produce about 1,200 tons of tilapia annually.
This new development comes in the wake of an agreement signed in August between
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and representatives from Kenya and
Germany for a mutual project to use fish farming technology to purify Lake Victoria,
thereby providing clean water to millions of people. “While Iran tries to get a foothold in
Africa with weapons, bombs and terror, Israel brings Africa progress, as well as
agricultural and economic humanitarian aid,” Ayalon told Yediot Achronot.
“This is just an example of the difference between the fanatic ayatollahs’ regime and the
Israeli democracy.”
Israel’s Davis Cup tennis team beats Japan and moves to world’s final 16
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) After falling short the past two years, Israel’s Davis
Cup tennis team defied expectations and advanced to the World Group stage of the
annual tournament with a dramatic 3-2 road victory over Japan.
“This team is doing amazing things,” said team member Andy Ram upon returning from
Japan. Israel’s team includes Ram, Weintraub, Dudi Sela and Jonathan Erlich, and it
captained by Eyal Ran.
The World Group stage of the tournament includes the final 16 teams. The draw for the
2013 World Group stage was held on Wednesday in London. Israel will face France on
the road in the first round in February 2013. The last time Israel reached the World Group
stage in 2010, it fell 4-1 to Chile in the first round.
The Davis Cup team put itself in Israel’s sports history books in 2009 when it reached the
World Group semifinals before losing 4-1 to eventual champion Spain. Amir Weintraub
secured Israel’s 3-2 victory over Japan in Tokyo on Sunday, beating Go Soeda 6-3, 7-6
(5), 4-6, 6-3 in the fifth and decisive rubber game between the two teams.
“Everyone gave it their all, they are all heroes,” Ran said. “This is a major achievement
for Israeli tennis. After an amazing day like this, we definitely deserve to be in [the
World Group stage].”
RJC kicks off swing state TV ads with Jews who regret choosing Obama
(JNS.org) The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) on Sept. 19 kicked off the $5 million
television phase of its “My Buyer’s Remorse” advertising campaign, featuring the
testimony of Jews who regret voting for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
Appearing on broadcasts in the critical election swing states of Florida, Ohio, Nevada,
and Pennsylvania, the ads will run through Nov. 5. New Jersey voter Michael
Goldstein—the subject of the first ad—says Obama’s May 2011 statement that the 1967
borders should be a starting point for Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations “really
changed” his mind about the president, then goes on to cite economic reasons for his
change of heart.
“The jobs numbers are terrible, the unemployment rates are as high or higher than they
were when Obama took over,” Goldstein says.
RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said in a statement that the ads “give voice to the
nagging doubts that many Jewish voters feel about President Obama.”
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), however, released a statement
before Rosh Hashanah including Obama in its praise for the “close and unshakeable
partnership between the United States and Israel.” AIPAC said U.S.-Israel security
cooperation “has reached unprecedented levels.”
“President Obama and the bipartisan, bicameral congressional leadership have deepened
America’s support for Israel in difficult times,” the pro-Israel lobby said.
The RJC’s effort to sway Jewish voters in swing states has also included billboard ads
reading “Obama…Oy Vey!!”
French paper’s image of Mohammed being wheeled by Jew raises security concerns
(JNS.org) Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical weekly magazine, published several
provocative cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, raising renewed fears of rioting by
Muslims against Western targets, Reuters reported.
The cover of the magazine depicts Mohammed being pushed in a wheelchair by an
Orthodox Jew, while several more cartoons inside depict Mohammed naked, including
one that shows his genitals.
The French government said it was temporarily shutting down premises this coming
Friday, including embassies and schools in 20 countries, amid fears that they could
become targets of renewed protests or terrorist attacks. Police were also deployed to
protect the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo.
Dr. Richard Prasquier, head of the French Jewish umbrella Conseil Représentatif des
Institutions juives de France (CRIF), said in a statement condemning the cartoons that
“critics of religion must themselves heed criticism—not of their principles but of the
timing of their actions,” given the recent unrest in the Arab world linked to the
“Innocence of Muslims” film that demeaned Mohammed.
The editor of Charlie Hebdo, Stephane Charbonnier, pointed out the hypocrisy of the
situation, “We have the impression that it’s officially allowed for Charlie Hebdo to attack
the Catholic far-right but we cannot poke fun at fundamental Islamists,” said
Charbonnier.
He said “everyone is driven by fear, and that is exactly what this small handful of
extremists who do not represent anyone want—to make everyone afraid, to shut us all in
a cave.”
Charlie Hebdo has a reputation of being provocative and asserting its right to free speech.
Its Paris offices were firebombed last November after it published a caricature mocking
Mohammed, and Charbonnier has been guarded by police ever since.
Shrinking Jewish communities seek boost through offering incentives
(JNS.org) In the face of aging and shrinking ranks, many Jewish communities throughout
the country have begun to offer financial incentives to attract new members, the New
York Times reported.
Advertised in Jewish publications or through word of mouth, synagogue relocation
bonuses have included partial down payments on homes, discounted yeshiva tuition,
repayment of student loans and even free memberships to the Jewish dating Web site
JDate.
Stephen Savitsky, chairman of the board of the Orthodox Union, praised the practice as a
“proven model” saying, “Today, if you don’t have a financial program in the greater New
York area, then you’re probably at a competitive disadvantage.”
Dr. Steven M. Cohen, director of the Berman Jewish Policy Archive at New York
University, sees the financial incentives as being rooted in Jewish practice and anxiety
over demographics. “Being Jewish is not an individual spiritual practice,” Cohen said.
“There’s a free-floating anxiety about the future of Jews and whether there are enough
children and grandchildren to continue these Jewish communities.”
Despite the practice becoming more prevalent, some have voiced their skepticism.
“Intrinsic motivation will be far more enduring than external incentives,” said David
Bryfman, director of a Jewish education program in New York.
Israeli center sues Ahmadinejad’s NYC hotel on behalf of Hamas terror victim
(JNS.org) An Israeli law center that combats terrorist organizations by seeking
compensation for victims is suing the hotel that is hosting Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad at the United Nations General Assembly next week, seeking the president’s
room to satisfy a portion of a judgment one of its clients is owed by Iran.
The Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center said Sept. 19 that it filed a motion in Manhattan
federal court demanding that the Warwick Hotel deny Ahmadinejad a room and instead
grant that room to Stuart Hersh, a Shurat HaDin client who has never received a $12
million judgment owed to him by Iran after he was injured in a 1997 Hamas suicide
bombing in Jerusalem. A U.S. court found Iran liable for financially supporting that
attack in 2003.
Ahmadinejad will address the UN on Yom Kippur, Sept. 26.
“It is insult enough that Ahmadinejad will receive U.S. security personnel during his stay
in Manhattan, subsidized by American tax dollars,” Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of
Shurat HaDin, said in a statement. “But that outrage is eclipsed by the idea that this
craven outlaw will reside in the lap of luxury at a five-star hotel while his victims still
suffer from his underwriting of violent, illegal acts. Give him a cot at the UN or perhaps
the other murderers at the Libyan Mission will give him a bed.”
Shurat Hadin said it has secured more than $1 billion in judgments and collected $120
million in payments for terror victims and their families.
“We remain committed to getting Mr. Hersh, not Ahmadinejad, the star-studded
treatment,” the organization said. “The Warwick’s pursuit of profit is unconscionable.”
Hamas calls for Abbas to resign after he says Israel founded to ‘remain’
(JNS.org) Hamas demanded the resignation of Palestinian Authority (PA) President
Mahmoud Abbas after Abbas said Israel “was founded in order to remain and not in
order to vanish” as the result of a nuclear war with Iran, the Middle East Media Research
Institute (MEMRI) reported Sept. 18.
“We have condemned such statements coming from Israeli leaders, so we must certainly
[condemn them] when made by a Palestinian,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri,
who called the comments “a shock to the Palestinian people.”
Abbas made his remark during a recent meeting in Ramallah with a group of rabbis led
by former Israel Minister of Social & Diaspora Affairs Michael Melchior, according to
MEMRI. The PA leader, while saying Israel should not “vanish,” maintained that the
Jewish state’s existence “should not be at the expense of the absent Palestinian state.”
Nevertheless, Hamas disavowed the comments.
Romney says Palestinians ‘have no interest’ in peace
(JNS.org) Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that Palestinians “have no
interest whatsoever in establishing peace,” according to video footage released by Mother
Jones magazine.
At a private fundraiser in Florida in May, Romney elaborated that Palestinians are
disinterested in peace for “political purposes” and are “committed to the destruction and
elimination of Israel,” according to the footage.
Romney said putting pressure on Israel to resolve the conflict is “the worst idea in the
world.” Regarding proposals for a Palestinian state in which a “border between Israel and
the West Bank is right next to Tel Aviv,” he said Iran “would want to do through the
West Bank exactly what they did through Lebanon, what they did near Gaza.”
“The Iranians would want to bring missiles and armament into the West Bank and
potentially threaten Israel,” Romney said.
Given the Palestinians’ attitude about Israel, Romney called peace “almost unthinkable to
accomplish.” According to reports, Mother Jones obtained the video from James Carter
IV, President Jimmy Carter’s grandson, who leaked the footage to exact revenge on
Romney for criticizing Carter.
“James: This is extraordinary. Congratulations! Papa,” Jimmy Carter wrote his grandson
in an email reacting to the video, the Associated Press reported.
Founder of PJ Library, Jewish literacy nonprofit, launches poster initiative
(JNS.org) Philanthropist Harold Grinspoon—founder of PJ Library, a well-known Jewish
nonprofit that gifts award-winning children’s books to families around the world—has
launched a new venture that distributes posters to “connect Jewish thought and art to
prompt conversations, instill pride, spark creativity, and more widely tie together the
Jewish people,” his foundation said.
The “Voices & Visions” project creates packages of 18 posters with significant Jewish
quotes, and both the “voice” of the quotes’ speaker and the “vision” of the posters’
designer are explained.
Jewish organizations including “Moishe Houses, Hillel Houses, Birthright groups,
federations, Jewish community centers, synagogues, day schools, camps, and others” will
exhibit the posters—with about 7,000 people and groups receiving them this month,
according to a press release.
“We have a rich heritage of profound Jewish minds that call out from the past and inspire
us in the present,” Grinspoon, whose charitable foundation is based in West Springfield,
Mass., said in a statement.
Grinspoon’s PJ Library, meanwhile, delivered its 3 millionth book in May.