- 1 jan 2012
Holocaust garb causes outrage in Israel faith row
An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man argues with a secular man
By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Ultra-Orthodox Jewish demonstrators caused outrage on Sunday by dressing children as Holocaust victims to protest against what they see as persecution of devout Jews seeking gender separation in Israel.
A boy wearing a cloth cap and the sidecurls of an Orthodox Jew was the centrepiece of the Jerusalem protest late on Saturday.
His hands were raised in surrender and a yellow Star of David inscribed with "Jude", Jew, in German, was sewn on his jacket. The image mimicked a memorable photo of a terrified Jewish boy during a roundup in the Nazi-occupied Warsaw Ghetto in World War Two.
"Nazis, Nazis," some of the protesters shouted at police.
Other children and young men were dressed in replicas of striped concentration camp uniforms at the protest attended by hundreds of ultra-Orthodox Jews in traditional black garb.
"Prisoner uniforms and yellow patches with the word "Jew" written on them in German are shocking and appalling," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement.
"The use of yellow patches and small children raising their hands in surrender crosses a red line which the ultra-Orthodox leadership, who are largely responsible people, must not accept," he said.
Emotional debate
Israeli burka
Israel is in the grip of an emotional debate over attempts by Jewish zealots to impose and enforce gender separation in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods and other public places.
Much of the controversy has stemmed from ultra-Orthodox men trying to force women to sit in the back of public buses in deference to religious beliefs against any mixing of the sexes in public.
President Shimon Peres has described the debate as a battle for the soul of Israel.
The issue jumped to the top of the public agenda in Israel nearly two weeks ago when an eight-year-old girl complained on television that ultra-Orthodox men spat at her on the way to school, accusing her of dressing immodestly.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has political alliances with ultra-Orthodox parties but is facing mounting public anger over such incidents, has vowed to crack down on zealots who harass women.
Posters at the protest accused the "Zionist entity" of carrying out "an unprecedented attack on the 'Haredi' community", referring to ultra-Orthodox Jews.
Some groups within the ultra-Orthodox community do not recognise Israel, saying such a state can only be established with the coming of the Messiah.
"You will not be able to impose on us sinful (Western) culture. We will remain faithful to the laws of Holy Torah," read one protest sign at Saturday's demonstration.
Speakers at the protest singled out an activist, jailed for vandalising a computer store he deemed heretical in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood, as a victim of what they called government persecution.
Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel's national memorial to the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, said the protesters' use of Holocaust imagery was a "profound insult" to survivors.
"This is totally unacceptable and degrades Jewish values," Shalev said on Israel Radio.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=449259 17 jan 2012, 15:12 , Respect -
Maria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2hnR6ppA88
17 jan 2012, 15:13 , Respect -
Maria 4 jan 2012
Israel Shas minister warns of split over Orthodox controversy
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli society could be torn apart if disputes between ultra-Orthodox and less observant Jews continue to heat up, Israel's religious affairs minister said on Wednesday.
In a telephone interview, Yaacov Margy, who also serves as director-general of Shas, a religious party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government, condemned an incident last month in which zealots seeking gender separation spat at a schoolgirl they accused of dressing immodestly.
That attack was disclosed by an Israeli television station, whose report on the violence stunned many in Israel, where concerns over religious coercion are mounting among its mainly secular population.
Margy said such incidents and ultra-Orthodox protests -- in the latest, on Saturday, children were dressed as Nazi Holocaust victims to suggest public persecution of the community -- had been overblown in the media.
"If they ganged up on an 8-year-old girl, this is something that must be uprooted. We have a police force, courts -- anyone who is violent must be dealt with. But we don't have to go crazy," he said.
Margy accused media outlets of fueling the religious-secular dispute by covering in detail ultra-Orthodox protests.
"If we have a problem in Israeli society we should deal with it through dialogue," he said. "I call on all people in the media and the extremists on both sides, crazy people: 'climb down off the roof'."
He said he feared that failure to do so "will tear Israeli society apart," and pointed to banners at a recent secular demonstration where protesters voiced their fear that Israel could become like Islamist-ruled Iran.
"Every morning I go to look at the window and check whether I see some pro-Khomeini protest at my doorstep," he said referring to the religious leader who led the 1979 Iranian revolution. "All I see are green fields, a good atmosphere and good neighbors."
That view contrasts sharply with a cautionary note sounded last month by Israeli President Shimon Peres who said the country was in the grip of a battle for its soul.
Back of the bus
An emotional national debate has been raging over issues such attempts to segregate sidewalks in areas where devout Jews live and back-of-the-bus seating for women on public buses that ply religious neighborhoods and which are patronized by ultra-Orthodox passengers.
Turning to coalition politics in which his Shas party has traditionally been a king-maker, Margy said he was "very disappointed" in Netanyahu's right-wing government, where a major partner has promoted contentious legislation governing marriage.
The bill introduced by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party would give Israelis a freer hand at choosing rabbis to register them for marriage.
Jewish marriage in Israel is administered by Orthodox rabbis, whose refusal to register mixed couples poses difficulties for Yisrael Beitenu's considerable Russian immigrant constituency, some of whom are not Jewish according to ritual law.
"Nobody expects the Jewish state to permit mixed marriages," Margy said.
With 11 lawmakers in Netanyahu's 66-member coalition, Shas has enough sway to stand up and be heard as it helps assure the government of majority support in Israel's 120-seat legislature.
The next parliamentary election is not due until 2013, but Netanyahu has scheduled an early Likud leadership ballot for Jan. 31, raising speculation the date of a national vote might be brought forward.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=450093
Report: Israel to reach out to Egypt Islamists
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israel has decided to try and open dialogue with Islamic factions in Egypt, Hebrew media reported Wednesday.
Israel's Foreign Ministry has instructed the Israeli ambassador in Cairo Jacob Amity to start talks with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and Salafi parties, the Israeli daily Maariv reported.
According to Maariv, Israel's former ambassador to Egypt Yitzhad Levanon suggested establishing relations with the Islamist movements after the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in January, but the Foreign Ministry rejected the initiative.
But the ministry reconsidered in light of the parties' strong showing in elections, Maariv reported.
The Muslim Brotherhood looked set to win a dominant role in Egypt's first free parliament in decades as Egyptians went to the polls on Wednesday for a second day in the final stage of the election for the assembly's lower house.
The Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has led after two of the three rounds of voting and the rise of Islamist parties in the poll has prompted Western concern for the future of Egypt's close ties to Washington and peace with Israel.
Founded in 1928, the Brotherhood is Egypt's best organized political force, emerging stronger than others from three decades of autocratic rule under Mubarak. The new parliament will pick a 100-member assembly to write a new constitution.
The more hardline Islamist al-Nour Party has come second in the voting so far. It is a Salafi group promoting a strict interpretation of Islamic law and its success has raised the prospect of a chamber dominated by Islamists.
Some analysts believe, however, that the Muslim Brotherhood could seek to build a coalition with secular groups.
That could ease concerns at home and in the West about the rise of the Islamists in a country whose economy is propped up by tourism.
The staggered lower house election concludes with a run-off vote on Jan. 10 and 11, with final results expected on Jan. 13. Voting for the upper house will be held in January and February.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=449967 17 jan 2012, 15:18 , Respect -
Maria 5 jan 2012
WHERE ARE YOU FROM? FROM ISRAEL!! PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the 2012 Taglit Mega-Event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3fxXmkTGjg
Israeli Photo For al-Aqsa Mosque Without The Dome Of The Rock
On Thursday, Israeli pictures have been published in an Israeli newspaper, where the dome of the rock has been edited out. The dome of rock is the golden roof of the important mosque al-Aqsa. It is written in the Jewish holy book, Talmund, that the first temple of Jerusalem, the temple mount was built there. This is a way of deny the presence and rights of the Muslims holy building, and to show that they want to be in charge there.
The governor of Jerusalem, Adnan al Husseini, told PNN that this is not the first time the Israeli publish this kind of photos. Many publishing has been made in tourism magazines and agencies.
"This is a promotional process for supporting the case of changing the reality, and this is a policy of many settlement organizations in the world. A try to publish another reality to let the world feel that they lost something, which is the structure, and that al-Aqsa Mosque was built on the Structure's spot" said Husseini
He also said, it is important for the whole world to see what Israel is trying to do, to delete what exist in reality and just replace it for Israeli benefits.
Al Husseini said"I don't blame anyone but the Arab countries, which are standing watching al-Aqsa mosque getting destroyed"
http://fwd4.me/0joh
Israel warns Egypt over border patrol
EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities have warned Egyptian officials to improve monitoring along their shared border, Egyptian security sources said Thursday.
Security officers told Ma'an the warning was issued after 17 migrants crossed illegally into Israel on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Egyptian security officials said soldiers had seen African migrants working for Israeli authorities to build a wall along the border.
Since August, Israel has sped up construction of a giant fence it is building along its frontier with Egypt's Sinai peninsula.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=450351
Israel's Netanyahu nixes bill on naming top judges
By Ori Lewis
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday withdrew proposed legislation seen by critics as unfairly favoring his rightist coalition, after being told by the attorney-general that a court would probably deem it as flawed, a spokesman said.
If it had become law, the legislation would have allowed a change in the makeup of a committee of politicians and jurists that appoints Supreme Court judges, facilitating the naming of justices that right-wing lawmakers see as favorable to them.
The bill also proposed annulling Israel's bar association elections, held last month, which nominated two members to the committee who are seen as opponents of many influential right-wing lawmakers on judicial appointments.
"The attorney-general told the prime minister that if the bill were voted into law it would not stand up to scrutiny in court, so he has decided to shelve it in its current form," said a spokesman in Netanyahu's office, who declined to be named.
Netanyahu's conservative government has come under attack for promoting legislation that critics said would weaken the independence of Israel's judiciary.
In a country that does not have a constitution, the Supreme Court is widely respected as an independent-minded watchdog over the legislature and guarantor of civil rights.
Netanyahu has insisted he will protect the independence of the judiciary. The spokesman said that Netanyahu himself had not been a proponent of the bill.
Parliament on Monday passed a government-backed amendment that paves the way for a justice perceived by right-wing lawmakers as an ally, to be appointed as then next chief of the Supreme Court.
Last month, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch accused government allies of waging a poisonous campaign against the judiciary, saying they were undermining the legal system's cherished independence.
Speaking at a legal conference, Beinisch said the judiciary faced: "a de-legitimization campaign headed by several politicians, parliamentarians and even government ministers, who propagate false and misleading information."
The Supreme Court is dominated by secular Jews of European descent. Just one of the court's 13 justices is an Orthodox Jew while the only one who originated from Jewish communities in the Middle East and north Africa has retired.
By contrast, parliament and the government host a large number of representatives from both those groupings and they say the court should better reflect their growing prominence in Israeli society.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=450189 17 jan 2012, 15:18 , Respect -
Maria 17 jan 2012, 15:19 , Respect -
Maria 7 jan 2012
Pakistan ties with Israel? Why not, asks Musharraf
By Qasim Nauman
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan should consider establishing ties with Israel, said exiled former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, remarks likely to anger many in the Muslim-majority country where he hopes to make a political comeback.
Musharraf, who resigned in 2008 in disgrace, has said he plans to return to Pakistan this month, despite possible arrest, in order to participate in a parliamentary election due by 2013.
On Sunday, he is scheduled to address a rally via video in Pakistan's biggest city and commercial hub, Karachi, sources in his recently formed All Pakistan Muslim League said.
Speaking in favor of relations with Israel could make Musharraf more unpopular, especially among militants who made several attempts on his life with bombings because of his support for the US "war on terror" following the 9/11 attacks.
Those same groups want the destruction of Israel.
"There is nothing to lose by trying to get on Israel's good side," Musharraf, a former army chief, told the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz in an interview carried on its website.
"Pakistan also needs to keep readjusting its diplomatic stand toward Israel based on the mere fact that it exists and is not going away."
That kind of talk could comfort Israel, which is increasingly nervous because Islamist groups have been making political gains in Arab states following revolts that brought down autocrats in the region.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on Musharraf's remarks.
Conspiracy theories abound
Pakistan has been a staunch supporter of demands for a Palestinian state. Pakistan and Israel, however, have maintained covert contacts for decades, officials have said.
According to an October 2009 US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, the head of Pakistan's main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, said he had contacted Israel officials to head off potential attacks on Israeli targets in India.
A senior ISI official said the agency has never established any contacts not authorized by the government and which were not in the interests of Pakistan.
Many Pakistanis think Israel and the United States are constantly plotting against Pakistan -- a belief that inspires abundant conspiracy theories. Pakistani media routinely rail against Jews and Israeli plots.
Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup, said Israel's influence in the United States and its relations with Pakistan's main rival, India, can help Pakistan gain influence abroad.
The first public talks between Israel and Pakistan were held in 2005.
They were described as a "huge breakthrough" by then Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, but sparked fury in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed South Asian nation that is home to some of the world's most feared militant groups.
"I felt I needed to test the waters in Pakistan when it comes to Israel," Musharraf said.
"We have been anti-Israel in Pakistan because of Palestine ... But I believe in realism and in assessing ground realities."
Musharraf left office, and Pakistan, after his allies lost a 2008 general election and he faced an impeachment motion by the new coalition government for invoking emergency rule and suspending the constitution.
A Pakistani court issued an arrest warrant for Musharraf in February 2011 over accusations that he failed to provide adequate security to former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December 2007.
Musharraf was declared a fugitive of law after he failed to respond to a court summons.
He has denied suggestions that he, his security agencies, or the military were involved in Bhutto's murder.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=450661 17 jan 2012, 15:19 , Respect -
Maria 17 jan 2012, 15:20 , Respect -
Maria 9 jan 2012
Israeli Parliamentarian Pours Water on Arab Lawmaker
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) – Israeli Knesset member Anastassia Michaeli of the extremist Yisrael Beiteinu Monday poured water on Arab MK Ghaleb Majadleh in a heated discussion during the Education, Culture and Sports Committee meeting, according to the Israeli media.
The committee was discussing reprimand of an Arab school principle after taking his students to participate in a human rights demonstration in the Galilee.
Arab MKs condemned the punishment under the pretext that it violates freedom of speech, while Michaeli claimed that the principle’s action were “dangerous.”
Majadleh, MK from the Labor Party, called Michaeli a “fascist” and requested the head of the committee to silence her. However, she emptied a glass of water of him before she was removed from the session.
Michaeli had proposed a bill to ban the Islamic call for prayer through loudspeakers in mosques.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18626
Israel Aerospace sells $1.1 bln arms to Asian nation
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israel Aerospace Industries will sell weapons systems worth more than $1.1 billion to an Asian country over the next four years, the state-owned defense contractor said on Monday.
It said the deal had been signed but did not identify the buyer. Israel's past defense trading partners in Asia have included Singapore, South Korea, India and China.
The sale includes IAI aircraft, missiles and intelligence technologies, an Israeli defense industry source told Reuters. It is the company's most lucrative deal since the Indian navy bought an aerial defense system for $1.1 billion in 2009.
IAI also develops military and commercial aerospace technology, including communications satellites, and unmanned air systems. Like other Israeli firms, it was hit by the government's suspension last year of defense exports to Turkey after diplomatic feuding frayed a once-strong alliance.
Israel plans a public offering of 20-30 percent of IAI, its biggest defense contractor, this year, the Finance Ministry said in April.
TheMarker financial news website reported that the company, which had sales of $3.15 billion in 2010, was expected to be valued at $2.5-3 billion at privatization.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=451214
Israel TV star joins politics as likely Netanyahu rival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_aR9MkvnRk
By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- A popular Israeli television news anchor announced on Sunday he was quitting his job to run for parliament, a move seen as posing challenges for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for his main centrist and left-of centre rivals.
Yair Lapid, 48, son of a former justice minister, has cast himself as a political moderate, fueling speculation he may seek a role in the centrist Kadima party headed by former foreign minister Tzipi Livni, or start his own faction.
A statement posted on Israel's Channel 2 station's website on Sunday said he had now informed his superiors he intended to leave his three-year stint as weekend news anchor "to enter public life and run in the next parliamentary election."
He did not say whether he would form his own party or join another, the statement added.
Lapid soared to stardom in the 1990s as an evening talk show host. Last month an opinion poll suggested that if he headed a party he could win enough seats to make it the second largest in parliament, which could land him either a key cabinet job or a role as opposition leader.
Israeli media see Lapid as a possible successor to Livni to lead Kadima. His father, the late Yosef Lapid, a justice minister, headed a now-defunct centrist party called Shinui.
Israel's next parliamentary election is expected in 2013 but speculation has been rife that the date may be advanced since Netanyahu's decision to hold a snap leadership vote in his right-wing Likud party on Jan. 31, which pundits see as a bid to thwart any efforts by potential rivals to unseat him.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=451061 17 jan 2012, 15:20 , Respect -
Maria 10 jan 2012
Drivers protest Israeli-only roads in West Bank
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzSgqvJ11QE
By Jenny Baboun
JERICHO (Ma'an) -- Around 60 people from across the West Bank on Tuesday tried to drive from Jericho to Ramallah on an Israeli-only road to protest Israel's restrictions on Palestinian movement.
Popular resistance committees organized the motorcade of around 50 cars to protest the network of roads in the West Bank designated for the exclusive use of Jewish settlers.
Committee spokesman Bashir Tamimi told Ma'an the protest aimed to send a message that the roads were built on Palestinian land and to protest settler attacks on Palestinians and holy places.
Protesters drove to the Jericho checkpoint with Palestinian flags on their cars, where they were met by dozens of Israeli soldiers who refused to let them pass.
Tamimi said forces detained five people, including a 15-year-old girl.
An Israeli military spokesman said the protesters were "behaving violently." Asked to elaborate, the army official said they were "acting in a manner that they needed to be detained."
Video footage taken by activists shows two people detained for peacefully protesting, and an Israeli soldier trying to confiscate a journalist's camera.
Around 43 percent of the West Bank is off-limits to Palestinians because Israel has allocated it to settlers. Israel has erected over 500 checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank, impeding Palestinians' movement in order to ease travel for settlers, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.
In 2011, five Palestinians were killed -- including two children -- and 1,000 injured by settlers or security forces in incidents related to the settlements, the UN agency said in a report released Tuesday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=451571
WAFA Monitors Incitement and Racism in Israeli Media
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) - Palestine News and Information Agency (WAFA) monitored incitement and racism against the Palestinians and Arabs published by the Israeli media between December 23 and 30.
Israel today newspaper published news piece under the title “Anger Erupts after Closing Legal Investigation with Zoubi”, in which Knesset Member, Anastasia Michaeli considered the attorney’s decision to close legal investigation with Arab Knesset Member, Hanin Zoubi, as “supportive of terrorism in Israel and the whole world.”
Other Israeli Knesset Members said that Israel’s legal system proved its weakness when it submitted to terrorism supporters, and abandoned Israeli soldiers and officers, stating that the closure of investigation is a scandalous decision against Israel.
Israel today also published an instigating article by Reuben Barcoin, in which he discussed the rising Islamist movements in the Arab world and their pursuit to revive Saladin’s “myth.”
Barcoin said, “Those in Israel, who urge to compromise with the Palestinians under these circumstances, are subjecting themselves to mockery from both Palestinians and Islamist extremists.”
He said that Muslims are drowning the world with terrorism and murder and questioned whether there is anyone who could stop that “Islamic witchcraft!”
“Little Israel is surrounded; Israel’s enemies look for drowning it with Arab refugees, Sudanese immigrants, as well as the Palestinian terrorists, who target residents of southern Israel,” he added.
Chen Ben-Eliyahu wrote a racist article published on NFC website, in which he said that the Palestinian reconciliation aims to destroy the state of Israel and to establish a “terrorist Arab ‘Palestinian’ state” instead.
He said, “This agreement between Hamas and Fatah headed by the two terrorists, Abbas and Mashal reveals that despite of the tactic differences between them, their unified goal is to destroy Israel.
Ben-Eliyahu said that the Israeli response to the Palestinian reconciliation must be “a Jewish state for the Jewish people on all of Israel’s land.”
NRG website published an article written by the Israeli journalist, Lilach Sigan, in which she claimed that the Israeli society has forgotten the meaning of democracy and true values their nation counts on.
“Democracy that doesn’t respect everyone’s rights is not one,” she said “not only ‘religious’ people overstep the law; many seem to violate the law without being punished, such as the Arab Knesset Member, Saed Nafi’, who met freely with the terrorism leaders in Syria and in the Gaza Strip, and Zoubi, who joined the aggressive flotilla against the state of Israel.”
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18646 17 jan 2012, 15:20 , Respect -
Maria 11 jan 2012
Minister: Ethiopians should 'say thank you' for what they got
Ethiopian social activist draws Immigrant Absorption minister's ire after telling Knesset Committee they are 'hypocrites' who are 'creating a 21st Century version of Apartheid in Israel'.
In a case of new immigrants versus the more established immigrants, Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver caused an already heated Knesset Committee meeting to get out of control.
Speaking at a Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee meeting on discrimination against the Ethiopian community in Kiryat Malachi, Landver told an Ethiopian social activist: "Say thank you for what you got."
Her statements came in response to those made by the social activist, Gadi Yiberkan, who called the MKs hypocrites and said: "You have created a 21st Century version of Apartheid in Israel."
Landver then replied: "While you hand out marks you need to understand that the State of Israel invests a lot in this matter," and stressed "Say thank you for what you got." MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) then joined the argument, screaming at Yiberkan: "When they were speaking against haredim no one said a word, I wish I was Ethiopian."
The Ethiopian community is angered by what they believe is the racist behavior of Kiryat Malachi's established residents who are unwilling to rent out or sell them apartments. Some of the residents have even signed contracts under which they have made a commitment not to sell or rent out apartments to members of the Ethiopian community.
Members of the Ethiopian community and their supporters numbering in the thousands demonstrated against the discrimination in Kiryat Malachi on Tuesday night.
Speaking at the Knesset meeting, Committee Chairman MK Danny Danon (Likud) said: The Kiryat Malachi case is a warning bell but it isn't the only case. We want to come out of the committee meeting not just with platitudes and empathy but with decisions on the legislative level."
Danon announced his intention to promote a legislation package that would aggravate punishment and declare racial discrimination as a criminal offense with a NIS 100,000 ($26,000) fine and up to six months imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bureau announced that Netanyahu has directed his advisor on Ethiopian affairs Allali Admaso to act to strike out against the phenomenon of racism against Ethiopian immigrants.
Admaso met on Tuesday night with the organizers of the demonstration. According to the bureau, the prime minister stressed that "racist phenomenon are inciting and have no place in Israeli society."
http://fwd4.me/0rod
Israeli air force rabbi quits in sex-segregation flap
Rabbi Lieutenant-Colonel Moshe Raved
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A top Israeli military rabbi resigned on Tuesday after making comments that appeared to condone allowing ultra-Orthodox troops to avoid contact with women, which stirred debate over the sway of religion in Israel.
The ultra-Orthodox make up some 10 percent of Israel's population and the secular majority often chafes at their welfare benefits and electoral clout.
Secular Jews have complained about the spread of ascetic practices such as sexually-segregated buses. Anger boiled over last month after an 8-year-old girl complained of being spat on by men who deemed her dress immodest.
The ultra-Orthodox are routinely exempted from conscription, but a small number, in the low thousands, have been persuaded to volunteer for the armed forces.
To accommodate devout troops, the military had quietly excused some from attending mandatory functions when women were present. When the practice drew attention, chief of staff Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz announced on Army Radio that full attendance would be enforced.
Lieutenant-Colonel Moshe Ravad, chief air force chaplain, who was in charge of enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews, said last week he feared for the volunteers' "piety." His comments, leaked to the media, were widely interpreted as a rejection of the orders requiring soldiers to attend mixed-sex events.
In an online newsletter, the military said Ravad "apologised for the way in which his view was made public in recent days" and tendered his early resignation to the air force commander, who reprimanded the rabbi for his conduct.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=451621
Update: Israel says to take in Syria refugees if Assad falls
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israel is making preparations to house refugees from Syrian President Bashar Assad's minority Alawite sect should his government fall, Israel's military chief told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
"On the day that the regime falls, it is expected to result in a blow to the Alawite sect. We are preparing to take in Alawite refugees on the Golan Heights," a committee spokesman quoted Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz as saying.
Assad has faced 10 months of popular revolt in which more than 5,000 people have been killed, according to United Nations figures. Israeli officials have said they do not expect his government to last more than a few months.
Earlier on Tuesday Israel tightened its law on infiltrators to stem an increasing flow of African migrants crossing its porous Sinai Desert border from Egypt, drawing sharp criticism from refugee groups and activists.
Illegal migrants including asylum seekers now face up to three years' imprisonment under the amended legislation, which aid groups denounced as an "immoral" response to refugees fleeing civil conflict.
'Assad will fall'
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said last week that Assad "is weakening" and will fall this year.
"In my opinion ... he won't see the end of the year. I don't think he will even see the middle of this year. It doesn't matter if it will take six weeks or 12 weeks, he will be toppled and disappear," Barak said.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israel rarely censured the Assad government for its domestic crackdowns and has said little about the crisis that erupted last March. Successive Israeli governments have sought peace with Assad, seeing his government as a possible anchor for wider Israeli-Arab accommodation.
But in May last year, Israel accused Syria of orchestrating deadly confrontations on the ceasefire line between the two countries as a distraction from Assad's bloody crackdown.
At least 23 people were killed and scores were wounded when Israeli troops fired on Palestinian protesters who surged against the fortified boundary fence.
The United States, Russia and the United Nations voiced deep concern about the flareup, but it proved to be brief and was not repeated. Israeli sources note that Assad has not tried since then to turn the Golan into a "second front" in a bid to externalize his crisis.
Although Israel and Syria are technically at war, and Syria is home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war of Israel's foundation, the Golan Heights had long been quiet.
A United Nations force patrols the demarcation line between the Golan Heights and Syria.
Barak said Syrian weapons could be transferred to the militant Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, "something we view with great gravity. Syria is believed to possess chemical weapons."
The defense minister said that "when central authority weakens (in Damascus) all kinds of factors can create friction to try and act in the Golan Heights, and there are enough bad people in the region."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=451510 17 jan 2012, 15:21 , Respect -
Maria 12 jan 2012
Rights Group Denounces Israeli High Court Ban on Family Unification
RAMALLAH, (WAFA) – An Israeli High Court ban on Palestinian family unification with their Israeli spouses that would literally separate families Thursday provoked strong condemnation from human rights groups who described the decision as discriminatory.
By a vote of 6-5, the Israeli High Court upheld on Wednesday what is called Citizenship Law that bans Palestinians married to Israelis from obtaining Israeli citizenship or even living in Israel.
The court has rejected an appeal by Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, and other human rights organizations against the citizenship law.
Responding to this decision, Adalah said the court decision would affect thousands of Palestinian families who may have to live abroad to stay together or live apart or live illegally in Israel.
“The Supreme Court approved a law the likes of which do not exist in any democratic state in the world, depriving citizens from maintaining a family life in Israel only on the basis of the ethnicity or national belonging of their spouse,” said Adalah in a statement issued Thursday.
“The ruling proves how much the situation regarding the civil rights of the Arab minority in Israel is declining into a highly dangerous and unprecedented situation,” it said.
Most of the marriages that demand unification are between Israeli Arabs and Palestinians from the West Bank or abroad.
“In March 2009, Adalah submitted three expert opinions from international legal experts in the UK, South Africa and the Open Society Justice Initiative, who argued that the Citizenship Law violated the right to family life, and is discriminatory and unconstitutional,” said the statement.
Until the mid-1990s, Israel had allowed Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip to obtain unification at the place of residence when married to an Israeli citizen, whether that was Palestinian or Jewish.
However, Israel started delaying for years family unification applications forcing Adalah and other rights organization to appeal to the High Court to overrule the Israeli government ban on granting Palestinians married to Israelis the right to live in Israel.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18669 17 jan 2012, 15:21 1 -
Maria 13 jan 2012
Netanyahu says Iran sanctions starting to work
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that harsh international economic sanctions against Iran, which Israel fears is developing a nuclear weapon to threaten it, have started to have an effect.
In an interview in Saturday's "The Australian" newspaper, Netanyahu said: "For the first time I see Iran wobble ... under the sanctions that have been adopted and especially under the threat of strong sanctions on their central bank."
An official in Netanyahu's office confirmed to Reuters the accuracy of the quotes in the interview that was conducted on Tuesday.
Iran has come under increased pressure since the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported in November that Tehran appeared to have worked on designing a nuclear weapon and that secret research to that end may be continuing.
Iran says it wants only nuclear power and some other civilian types of radioactive material.
A high-level team from the IAEA is expected to visit this month, seeking explanations on long-standing concerns that Iran may be trying to develop nuclear weapons capability.
Iran's envoy to the IAEA has said the Islamic Republic is ready to answer the agency's questions in order to remove "any ambiguities" about its nuclear work and clear up the issue once and for all.
Western diplomats have often accused Iran of deploying stalling tactics in the nuclear standoff with the powers, including the United States, China and Russia, to buy more time while it advances its atomic activities.
Some experts reckon Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium for one bomb next year, giving it a possibility of then, at some future date, constructing a viable weapon within months.
Iran has accused Israel of causing a series of spectacular and sometimes bloody mishaps to its nuclear and ballistic missiles development program.
But Israeli officials have, as always, declined to make any comment on any involvement in those events, although some have publicly expressed satisfaction at the mishaps.
"May there be more like it," Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israel's Army Radio after a large explosion at a missile facility that killed 17 troops including an officer regarded as the architect of Iran's missile defenses last year.
In the latest incident on Wednesday, Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan was killed by an explosion in his car, an attack Iran said was carried out by Israel's Mossad spy agency.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=452288
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCKTKMFTprM
Thailand says Lebanese in custody after Israel tip-off
Thai security personnel inspect the site of a bomb blast on a roadside in southern Thailand's Pattani province Jan. 3, 2012. Two soldiers were killed in the bomb attack by suspected Muslim militants, police said.
BANGKOK (Reuters) -- Thai authorities have arrested a Lebanese suspect after a tip-off from Israeli officials, the deputy prime minister said on Friday, adding that police had stepped up security and he was confident the situation would be contained.
"A Lebanese suspect from the Hezbollah group has been taken into custody by Thai officials and police are investigating further," Chalerm Yumbumrung told Reuters.
"Following concern raised by the Israeli embassy about a possible attack by a group of Lebanese terrorists in Bangkok, Thai police officials had been coordinating with Israeli officials since before the New Year."
Defense Minister Yuthasak Sasiprapha said Thai and US intelligence officials were monitoring the movements of other individuals and were stepping up precautions in areas deemed to be at risk such as tourist sites and Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport.
A defense ministry source said Israeli intelligence had contacted Thai officials on Dec. 22 with information that two or three suspects could be planning an attack in Thailand. However, the individuals traveled to the south and left the country.
The Israelis alerted Thai officials again on Jan. 8 of the danger of an attack around Jan. 13 to 15 in areas where there are often large concentrations of Western tourists, such as the Khao San Road, which is popular with young backpackers.
The arrest was made after the second Israeli warning, the source said, adding that Thai security officials were working closely with the United States and Israel.
Defense Minister Yuthasak said the Israeli embassy and synagogues could also be targeted and that the attacks could come in the form of car bombs.
"Thai officials had not intended to release the news at this time since it could have an impact on tourism and cause panic among citizens," he said.
Earlier, the US embassy had warned of a possible attack by "foreign terrorists" and told its citizens to be careful in areas of the capital frequented by tourists.
"We're warning all US citizens to take caution when visiting public areas where Western tourists are known to gather in Bangkok," said Walter Braunohler, spokesman at the embassy. He declined to give further details.
Bangkok, a magnet for tourists with its vibrant nightlife and a transit point for those heading for Thailand's beaches, has faced political turmoil in recent years but threats of foreign attacks are rare.
Hezbollah, a Shiite Islamist group in Lebanon backed by Syria and Iran, is on the official US blacklist of foreign terrorist organizations.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=452210 17 jan 2012, 15:22 , Respect -
Maria 15 jan 2012
Israel 'disappointed' with Obama on Iran
By Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- A senior Israeli official voiced disappointment in the Obama administration on Sunday, saying "election-year considerations" lay behind its caution over tough Iran sanctions sought by US legislators.
While Washington has been talking tougher about Iran's nuclear work and threat to block oil export routes out of the Gulf if hit with harsher sanctions, new US measures adopted on Dec. 31 gave President Barack Obama leeway on the scope of penalties on the Iranian central bank and oil exports.
Moshe Yaalon, Israel's vice prime minister, contrasted the administration's posture to that of France and Britain, which he said "are taking a very firm stand and understand sanctions must be imposed immediately."
"In the United States, the Senate passed a resolution, by a majority of 100-to-one, to impose these sanctions, and in the US administration there is hesitation for fear of oil prices rising this year, out of election-year considerations," Yaalon told Israel Radio.
"In that regard, this is certainly a disappointment, for now."
The Democratic president says he is determined to deny Tehran -- which insists its nuclear program is for peaceful needs only -- the means to develop an atom bomb. His aides cast their sanctions strategy as a bid to work collaboratively with foreign powers and win over states that import Iranian oil without triggering price-boosting shocks to energy markets.
Mixed messages
The remarks by Yaalon, a member of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, appeared to jar with praise Defense Minister Ehud Barak offered last month for what he described as Obama's resolve against Iran.
Running for re-election in the face of Republicans who hold sway over big pro-Israel constituencies, Obama has sought to burnish his credentials as a friend of Israel despite having frosty relations with Netanyahu.
In a phone conversation with the prime minister Thursday, Obama "reiterated his unshakable commitment to Israel's security," the White House said. Both sides said the leaders' discussion dealt with Iran and Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking.
Reputed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, Israel sees the makings of a mortal threat in Iran's uranium enrichment and missile projects, and has threatened to resort to force if it deems diplomatic isolation of its foe a dead end.
The prospect of Israel worsening regional instability with a unilateral strike has stirred worry in war-weary Washington.
Obama's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Martin Dempsey, was due to make his first visit to Israel on Thursday.
Israeli media predicted Dempsey would seek to persuade his hosts not to "surprise" the United States on Iran. The US embassy had no immediate information about the visit's agenda.
Yaalon, himself a former top armed forces commander, said Israel should not "leap forward" to attack Iran.
"But Israel has to be ready to defend itself," he said. "Let's hope we do not arrive at that moment."
Netanyahu sounded sanguine last week about the efficacy of big-power pressure on Iran, telling an Australian newspaper: "For the first time I see Iran wobble ... under the sanctions that have been adopted and especially under the threat of strong sanctions on their central bank."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=452666
Joint US-Israel military exercise postponed
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- The United States and Israel have postponed a joint military exercise due to be held in the coming weeks until later in the year, an Israeli security source told Reuters on Sunday.
"I can confirm the exercise has been postponed, probably to the end of 2012," said the source, who declined to be named.
The air-defense drill, named "Austere Challenge 12", is expected to be the largest-ever exercise between the two allies, who regularly hold joint military manoeuvres.
Israeli media reports originally said it was canceled due to budgetary constraints, but some pundits speculated that the real reason was to avoid further raising tensions with Iran, although when asked, the source ruled this out.
"It's for a host of reasons, mainly logistical, but not the reason you cited (tensions with Iran). Israel and the US are expected to be putting out a joint statement soon," the source said.
Israel sees the makings of a mortal threat in Iran's uranium enrichment and missile projects, and the Israel's leaders have not ruled out the use of military force to stop it.
Iran says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
Tensions between Washington and Tehran have risen in recent weeks after US President Barack Obama signed a bill on New Year's Eve that, if fully implemented, would make it impossible for most countries to pay for Iranian oil.
Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important oil shipping lane, if sanctions prevent it from exporting oil. The United States has said it will not tolerate such a move.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=452762 17 jan 2012, 22:01 , Respect -
Maria 16 jan 2012
Abu Zuhri: OCHA report additional proof to Israeli crimes
GAZA, (PIC)-- The recent report of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied land provided another proof of Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said on Sunday.
He added in a press release that the report included accurate data on Israeli “state terrorism” such as murder, destruction of land and property, eviction of indigenous people, and Judaization.
The OCHA report is an “important, qualitative report” as it provided yet another international condemnation of the “Zionist crimes”, Abu Zuhri said.
The spokesman asked the world community to assume its responsibility in curbing such crimes, and called on the Arab and Islamic peoples to prepare for defending their holy shrines in light of the continued international silence toward them.
http://fwd4.me/0kNJ 17 jan 2012, 22:16 , Respect -
Maria 16 jan 2012
Israeli Parliamentarians Support ‘Price Tag’ Acts, Charges Lawmaker
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) – Several members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, support violent acts by extremist Israelis involved in the “price tag” operations carried out by Jewish settlers in the West Bank, according to charges by an Israeli lawmaker published Monday.
Member of Knesset Zahava Gal-On, of the leftist Meretz party, Sunday asked the Knesset Ethics Committee to investigate ties between right-wing Knesset members and the extremist settlers, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.
She charged that the right wing lawmakers, including the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, openly praised acts of the settlers during a committee session attended by some of the extremist settlers, some of whom were later banned from entering the West Bank for their role in the price tag attacks and one was later arrested on suspicion of arson of a mosque in Israel.
She said a wanted extremist was arrested outside the Knesset when he was trying to enter the building at the invitation of a lawmaker from the right-wing National Union.
Gal-On even accused a lawmaker from the ruling Likud, who is also coalition chairman, of undermining Israeli army activities in the occupied territories by passing on information to settler leaders. The lawmaker had openly admitted to doing that and intends to continue doing it.
Several world governments, including the United States, had asked the Israeli government to pursue and prosecute members of the price tag organization involved in violent acts against Palestinian civilians and property in the West Bank.
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=18691
Don’t Do It, Bibi
by Roger Cohen
PARIS — A U.S. ambassador in Europe was recently asked by an Israeli ambassador what could be done to improve the lousy relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama. He replied: “Every once in a while, say thank you.”
The American ambassador added a couple of other thoughts. “Maybe, once in a while, ask the president if there’s anything you can do for him. And above all stay out of our election-year politics.”
This sharp riposte reflects Obama’s fury at several things: the way Netanyahu has gone over his head to a Republican-dominated Congress where he is a darling; Netanyahu’s ingratitude for solid U.S. support, including the veto of an anti-settlements resolution at the United Nations last year and opposition to the unilateral Palestinian pursuit of statehood; the delaying tactics of Netanyahu reflecting his conviction Obama is likely a one-term president; and Netanyahu’s refusal to pause a second time in settlement building for the sake of peace negotiations.
I would add a further piece of advice to Netanyahu if he cares about his dysfunctional relationship with Obama — and he should because Israelis know the United States matters and might be disinclined to re-elect a man who has poisoned relations with Washington. That advice is: Do not attack Iran this spring or summer.
Netanyahu is tempted to bomb Iran in the next several months to set back its opaque nuclear program and — despite a call from Obama last Thursday and messages from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta — has declined to reassure the United States that he will not. Several factors, Iranian and American, incline Netanyahu to move soon.
The first is the Israeli judgment that Iran is close to “irreversibility” in its pursuit of the various elements — from uranium enrichment to trigger mechanisms — needed for a nuclear warhead. The start of enrichment at the Fordow underground facility near Qum intensified these concerns, as has Iran’s bellicose tone in response to threatened oil sanctions.
Then there is the American political calculus. An Israeli strike a few months before the U.S. election in November would stymie Obama. He would be in no position to express anger given the clout of the pro-Israel lobby, the important Jewish vote in Florida and the fulsome support any Israeli bombing would get from the Republican contender — probably Mitt Romney.
By contrast, a re-elected Obama would, as a second-term president, have room to mark his displeasure if Israel was to go it alone. Because awareness is growing that Obama could indeed win, these considerations carry weight in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu has always portrayed himself as the man standing between Iran and a bomb. A hawk, he has a taste for the dramatic. Israel, in such issues, has already gone it alone once, when it bombed a Syrian nuclear facility in 2007. At this stage, the U.S. and Israeli triggers appear distinct — with Panetta saying “our red line to Iran is, do not develop a nuclear weapon” whereas the Israelis see irreversible nuclear capability as unacceptable even if a weapon is not being made. In that discrepancy lurks danger.
Don’t go there, Mr. Netanyahu. It would be a terrible mistake. Choosing between the United States and Iran is a no-brainer. One is a great power and essential friend. The other is a blustering, combustible society that’s been tinkering with a nuclear program for decades and whose closest regional ally, Syria, is on the brink.
Israel’s dream is that the United States will do the bombing for or in conjunction with it — one reason for the Israeli refusal to clarify its intentions. But, short of an outrageous Iranian provocation such as blocking the Strait of Hormuz, that’s not going to happen before November.
In an election year, with U.S. intelligence convinced Iran is not yet building a bomb, Obama will not send oil prices soaring and the Muslim world into another bout of anti-American rage. A lot of his presidency has been precisely about extraction from war and easing of Islamic hostility.
Netanyahu did say this past weekend that “for the first time” he saw some “wobble” in Iran as a result of sanctions. But he also called for “a clear statement” that the U.S. would “act militarily” if sanctions fail. Meanwhile, in a good-cop-bad-cop routine, his vice prime minister was grumbling that U.S. sanctions had been disappointing.
Here’s the bottom line: an Israeli attack unites Iran in fury, locks in the Islamic Republic for a generation, cements the Syrian regime, radicalizes the Arab world at a moment of delicate transition, ignites Hezbollah on the Lebanese border, boosts Hamas, endangers U.S. troops in the region, sparks terrorism, propels oil skyward, triggers a possible regional war, offers a lifeline to Iran just as Europe is about to stop buying its oil, adds a Persian to the Arab vendetta against Israel, and may at best set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions a couple of years.
Sound promising?
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, will visit Israel soon. Netanyahu should listen, take his finger off the Iranian trigger — and realize Israel’s fate hinges more on Ramallah than Tehran.
You can follow Roger Cohen on Twitter at twitter.com/nytimescohen.
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