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1. JNF Donates 3,000 Trees to Palestinian Authority
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
A member of the board of the Jewish National Fund said “the system has gone haywire” after hearing reports that the venerable Zionist organization is donating 3,000 trees to the Palestinian Authority for a new city near Ramallah.
Maaleh Adumim Mayor Benny Kashriel, who also is a member of the JNF board, told Arutz 7 Monday morning he will bring up the issue with the JNF, which is considered a symbol of Zionism, particularly in the Diaspora where Jews have donated billions of dollars for planting trees and building the modern Jewish State.
Kashriel said the contribution to the PA is a grave step that was taken without any request for approval and without advance notice and reflects a “system that has gone haywire.”
The mayor of Maaleh Adumim, which along with the rest of Judea and Samaria has been slapped with a freeze on new construction with the threat of arrest for breaking the ban, said, “The country has gone crazy when it plants trees for the PA in Judea and Samaria at the same time that it forbids Jews to build. The system does not know who it is representing – us, the Palestinian Authority or the Americans?”
Concerning the government’s building freeze policy, Mayor Kashriel said he is “ashamed” of the government’s move, which he said are more drastic than those taken during the years of negotiations under the Oslo Accords that blew up into the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, nine years ago.
“As chairman of the local Likud faction, I am ashamed seven times over,” he said. “Even during Oslo we did not receive letters that remove our authority and turn us into criminals.” He also echoed sentiments of other leaders in Judea and Samaria to continue building despite the orders to halt new construction.
Kashriel said regional leaders will appeal to the High Court to overturn the building freeze, which he said violates the rights of residents of Judea and Samaria. He also has proposed that regional leaders stage a strike opposite the offices of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
2. Legal Appeal Against Freeze: 'Gov’t Didn’t Approve It'
by Hillel Fendel
The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the construction freeze in Judea and Samaria (Yesha). The appellants say the mini-security Cabinet has no right to enforce a blanket freeze on construction without receiving a full Cabinet decision.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu hurriedly convened his 15-member security cabinet last week, and rushed through an 11-1 vote in favor of the 10-month freeze. The two Shas ministers, opposing the decision, refused to take part in the vote – they walked out and did not vote against – and Minister Silvan Shalom, who later strongly opposed the decision, was abroad at the time. Only Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau voted against.
The other members – Prime Minister Netanyahu and fellow Likud party Ministers Ne’eman, Yaalon, Meridor, Steinitz, Saar, and Begin; Ministers Lieberman and Aharonovitz of Israel Our Home; and Barak and Ben-Eliezer of Labor – voted in favor of the freeze.
The Legal Forum says the decision has no standing without full Cabinet approval. Netanyahu did not bring the matter to a vote at the this week's Cabinet session Sunday, nor does he intend to – unless the Supreme Court forces him.
“A non-security related decision that involves such a grave blow at the property rights of so many people may not be made so secretly with no prior warning and with no possibility for Cabinet members to appeal it,” Attorney Yossi Fuchs of the Forum explained. “The mini-Cabinet did not even claim that this was a security decision, but rather stated vaguely that its purpose is to encourage the renewal of talks with the PA…”
Fuchs also noted that, despite objections by Cabinet ministers, the matter was not brought before the full government. It was noted that Minister Landau announced that he would work to force the Cabinet to discuss the matter, and that Minister Shalom had strong criticism of the decision.
The Forum demands that the construction freeze be itself frozen: “Residents of Yesha have been harmed as of the moment that the decree was signed, but the government will lose nothing if it simply waits until after a government decision before proceeding with the freeze.
“This is not an urgent matter,” Fuchs continued. “It is not related to any agreement with the Palestinian Authority, which has even announced that it does not accept the freeze because it does not include Jerusalem. There is therefore no need to relate to it as a ticking time-bomb.”
3. Iran Flouts West With Plans to Build 10 New Uranium Plants
by Avi Yellin and Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Iran and the United States traded diplomatic punches Sunday night, with the Islamic Republic announcing it will build 10 more uranium enrichment plants and the United States responding that it risks breaking international law. The Iranian declaration came only two days after the United Nations atomic energy watchdog took a swipe at Iran for building a previously undisclosed uranium enrichment facility.
Ali Akhbar Salahi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said that his government’s decision to build the new facilities is a “determined response” to what he called “the obscene move” made by the six powers (America, Britain, France, China, Russia, Germany) in the International Atomic Energy Agency, which last week demanded that Iran immediately halt all uranium enrichment activities.
Following weeks of Iranian posturing that it might be willing to cooperate with IAEA officials and allow inspection of some of its nuclear facilities, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani warned Sunday that the country could "seriously decrease" cooperation with the international agency.
"We have cordially approached to the world but we will not allow an inch of our nation's right to be wasted," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Sunday. "We treat the entire world with kindness and friendship. However, we are not joking around with anyone, and we do not allow the rights of the Iranian nation to be violated even by one iota.”
The United States responded swiftly, "If carried out, this would constitute yet another violation of Iran's continuing obligation of suspension of all enrichment-related activities including construction of new plants," according to a U.S. State Department spokesman quoted by the French new agency AFP.
Analysts doubt that Iran has the capability, both economically and technically, to carry out its construction plans, but the announcement itself throws into array Western efforts to pressure Tehran to back off its suspected plans to build a nuclear weapon.
Iran escalated its anti-Western policy with another move on Sunday, budgeting $20 million to investigate alleged human rights abused by the American and British governments, according to Iranian Press TV.
4. Demjanjuk Holocaust Trial Begins in Munich
by Hillel Fendel
John Demjanjuk, 89, a long-time United States citizen who is presently stateless, is once again on trial for Holocaust war crimes – this time not in Jerusalem or Cleveland, but in Munich.
This will be the third Holocaust trial for Demjanjuk. The first time was in Jerusalem in 1986-88, when he was accused of having been Ivan Marchenko, known as Ivan the Terrible. Marchenko ran the gas chambers at the Treblinka death camp, where well over 800,000 Jews were murdered in the course of approximately 10 months.
He was originally convicted of all charges, but five years later, in 1993, the Supreme Court reversed the verdict after new evidence was produced raising doubt that Demjanjuk was really Marchenko. He was returned to his long-time home in Cleveland, Ohio, where his American citizenship was restored – but not for long.
In 2001, Demjanjuk was again put on trial – this time for having served as a guard at Sobibor and other Nazi concentration camps in Poland and Germany. He was convicted, and in 2004, his U.S. citizenship was once again revoked. A year later, he was ordered deported. After further appeals and other delays, and after Germany announced it would try him for his responsibility in the deaths of some 29,000 prisoners at the Sobibor death camp, Demjanjuk was flown to Germany this past May.
In Sobibor, in the Lublin region of Nazi-occupied Poland, close to 300,000 Jews were gassed to death. Sobibor and Treblinka were the sites of the two successful Jewish prisoner uprisings in concentration camps. Both took place in 1943. Some 300 Sobibor prisoners escaped, out of 600, as did 600 out of 1,500 in Treblinka.
The current trial of the elderly Demjanjuk is expected to last several months; because of his physical condition, only two 90-minute sessions are scheduled per day. If convicted, he is expected to be sentenced to several years in prison. Germany has no death sentence.
The trial is likely to be Germany's last major trial from the Nazi era. Some 200 journalists from around the world are on hand to cover the story. Evidence against Demjanjuk includes documents such as an identity card, and about 20 witnesses, showing that he was at Sobibor in 1943.
5. Likud MK Danon: Stop Netanyahu But Don't Dump Him
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Likud party members' efforts against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his building freeze policy are aimed at encouraging the “silent majority” to speak up, but there is no need to dump him, according to Likud MK Danny Danon.
Danon has gathered enough signatures to convene a Likud Central Committee meeting to discuss the freeze. MK Danon told Arutz 7 he is trying to send a message to the Prime Minister, “Don’t touch development in Judea and Samaria".
“The Likud party is an ideological movement, and I think it is safe to assume that we have a large majority backing our proposal to remove the freeze that Security Cabinet ministers approved last week. “In private conversations with ministers, they agree with us but are afraid to speak out."
Referring to the Likud party platform to strengthen Judea and Samaria, MK Danon added, "Let’s not forget what we promised the voter 10 months ago.”
He insisted there is no intention to try to topple Prime Minister Netanyahu, who he said "knows he is breaking up his ideological base and will go into political oblivion if he does not change course.”
The Likud MK also differentiated the Likud party chairman from former Prime Minister and Likud chairman Ariel Sharon. “Sharon believed he had a [pea partner,” but Netanyahu knows there is none,” he explained, referring to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
While hoping that ministers from the Likud, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu parties will speak out against the building freeze, MK Danon said he was disappointed that Likud ministers Moshe Yaalon and Benny Begin supported the 10-month building freeze, contrary to election promises.
6. Fear and Loathing in PA over Temple Mount Link to Jews
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
An Arab university lecturer and writer is hiding underground out of fear for his life after shocking the Palestinian Authority with a book that links Jews with the Temple Mount. The Arab world has been conducting a campaign, including removal of tons of dirt containing archaeological evidence, to try to eliminate historical Jewish links with the Temple Mount.
Dr. Sari Nusseibeh, of Birzeit University in Ramallah, threw acid on the propaganda campaign that tries to convince Arabs that the First and Second Temples never existed. He wrote in a book, “The legendary Temple of Jerusalem may be the place of the Presence of the Almighty and where the High Priests served Him.”
PA officials are furious with Nusseibeh, a scion of a distinguished Arab family, who now is in hiding and cannot be contacted even by mobile phone.
However, Dr. Mordechai Kedar, Middle East expert at Bar-Ilan University, told Arutz 7 that Nusseibeh actually is “small potatoes” compared to a Muslim grand mufti, in the days of the British Mandate, who wrote in 1929 that the Holy Temples on the Temple Mount were Jewish,
According to Dr. Kedar, Nusseibeh already had made enemies in the PA after declaring he is not interested in returning to his former home of Ramle, located near Ben Gurion Airport. He also was threatened with death several years ago after urging Arabs to stop suicide bombings and to abandon their claim to a "right of return" to Israel.
Although Nusseibeh fears for his life, Dr. Kedar says he will continue his often outspoken statements against the Arab propaganda machine without worrying about being targeted by Muslims. Dr. Kedar frequently has been interviewed by the Al Jazeera television network, where he boldly charged Muslims with lying and trying to make Jews a punching bag,
“Our aim is to turns things around and hit them back,” he said. “In order to succeed, we need to know Arabic, Arab politics and Arab history.”
7. MK Leads Fight Against Noisy Muezzins
by Hillel Fendel
The fight against the muezzins - the pre-dawn, loud, mournful calls to prayer by Islamic prayer leaders, or recordings thereof - has reached the Knesset, where MK Aryeh Bibi (Kadima) is promoting a bill to silence them.
Bibi says that the 4 a.m. call to prayer “wreaks havoc in Jerusalem,” awakening people in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. “There is no reason why they can’t do what they do in Turkey, Egypt and elsewhere,” Bibi told Arutz-7’s Hebrew newsmagazine, “and that is to have a ‘silent radio station’ which ‘awakens’ every day at 4 o'clock with the call to prayer. This way, those who want to wake up can do so; why do they have to wake up the whole world?”
The freshman MK, a former Jerusalem police commander, has so far only raised the issue in a Knesset speech – but he also raised the ire of Arab MK Ahmed Tibi, who called Bibi a racist. Bibi replied, “What’s racist about it? They do it in Moslem countries as well. Tibi himself is racist number 1…”
MK Bibi said he would begin working on the exact formulation of the bill this week.
He said that when he was police chief in Jerusalem, “I approached the muezzin operators and asked them to lower the volume, and they often did.”
Problems with muezzins have been registered almost wherever Arab and Jewish populations live in close proximity to each other. In addition to most Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, other neighborhoods that have been known to suffer from the loud early-morning cacophony are Ramot in Jerusalem, Rosh HaAyin and Hevron.
The Marzel Method
Baruch Marzel of Hevron recently told Arutz-7 that he found a unique way of dealing with the problem: “The local mosques received money from Saudi Arabia to buy high-quality loudspeakers, which for some reason they directed straight at my window. So I went out and rented some loudspeakers myself, and played Shlomo Carlebach and Mordechai Ben-David - quality music - right back at them. The Civil Administration came and asked me to lower it, and I said I would – as soon as they turn down their own. And they did!
“I know that in Tel Aviv and elsewhere they also suffer from this noise,” Marzel said, “but there, they are afraid to do something that will offend ‘holy Islam.’ If they want to suffer, let them; we plan to fight.”
Worshipers at the Machpela Cave (Cave of the Patriarchs), as well, often suffer from the loud muezzin located inside the building. High-volume Hassidic music at nearby Gutnick Hall provides some respite for the Jewish visitors and residents, but has not yet achieved the goal of silencing the muezzins there.
Entebbe Threatened
Jerusalem City Councilwoman Yael Entebbe has also taken up the struggle against the midnight Islamic racket – and has had her life threatened for her efforts. “I have received many complaints from northern Jerusalem residents on this matter of midnight muezzin calls,” she said. “There is no reason why adults and children should have to be awoken in this manner. As a result of my efforts, I received a Facebook message threatening that an army of Muslims would come and send me to hell. I hope the police will find those responsible.”
