 | ||
 |         |  |
 | ||
| MP3 Radio | Website News Briefs: | |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
 |  |
1. New Pro-Israel Senator Ties Obama in Poll for President
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Republican pro-Israel Senator-elect Scott Brown, who shocked the Obama administration with a stunning victory in a special election last week, tied the President in a new poll by Newsmax/Zogby.
The Republican Senator-elect received 46.5 percent support from respondents who were asked if they would vote for him or U.S. President Barack Obama if elections were held today. President Obama received backing of 44.6 percent.
The immediate effect of Brown’s victory is that the Democratic party no longer has enough senators to stop a filibuster, which the Republicans are likely to enforce to prevent passage of President Obama’s health reform bill in its present form. A longer-term effect is Brown’s strong pro-Israel stand, which apparently found sympathy among voters that elected the first Republican senator from Massachusetts in decades. The special election was held following last year’s death of Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy.
Former Bush strategist Mark McKinnon told Newsmax, “The real problem for Obama is that he has lost the middle, and losing the middle means losing independents . . . if you lose independents, you’re going to lose the presidency.” An overwhelming number of voters classifying themselves as independents voted for Brown.
Jewish and non-Jewish support for President Obama’s Middle East policies has fallen sharply since his “reaching out to the Muslim world” speech in Cairo last June, when he called Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria “illegitimate’ as well as illegal. He also called for Israel to halt all building for Jews in the same region as well as in eastern Jerusalem.
The President admitted last week that he raised expectations in the Arab world, which now refuses to settle for less than the American administration offered.
Senator-elect Brown’s position paper on Israel states, "I stand steadfastly behind Israel's right to defend itself against attacks from state and non-state actors alike. I oppose the rising tide of efforts worldwide aimed at undermining this fundamental right. The United Nations' commissioned Goldstone Report is a blatant manifestation of such an effort. Deeply flawed from the start, the 'report' accuses Israel of war crimes with little reference to the fact that Israel held its fire for years while thousand of rockets were fired at innocent civilians.
"I also firmly support the security barrier erected by Israel which has proven to be enormously successful at defending and protecting Israeli civilians against waves of deadly terrorist attacks… I unequivocally support the recently executed ten-year memorandum of understanding between the United States and Israel which will provide $30 billion in military aid to Israel until 2017."
The Republican senator backs the "two-state solution” that calls for turning the Palestinian Authority into an independent state, but only on condition that it is “premised on security for Israel and is not imposed by outside parties, recognizes that a strict return to the 1967 borders is both unrealistic and unsafe and reaffirms Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.”
Concerning Iran, he has stated that it “represents the biggest threat to Israel. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier who has threatened to wipe Israel off the map. Meeting with him confers legitimacy when the only correct response is to treat him as an outcast.” His Democratic opponent in the senatorial contest backed a meeting with the Iranian president.
"A personal meeting with Ahmadinejad, as suggested by my opponent, would embolden him and be used as a propaganda tool to strengthen his position,” Brown said.
2. Shevathon News: Rabbi Zalman Melamed Blesses Supporters
by Arutz Sheva
A week before the upcoming Arutz Shevathon Fundraiser – Thursday, Jan. 28, Rabbi Zalman Melamed - founder of Arutz Sheva, Dean of the Beit El Yeshiva, and co-Chief Rabbi of Beit El - blesses the supporters of Arutz Sheva in a special video appearance.
[flas
Rav Zalman emphasizes how Arutz Sheva brings the love of Torah, the People of Israel, and the Land of Israel to far-off places in the world, and “is in many ways, the only voice that does this.”
The Arutz Shevathon is a 12-hour live video and radio experience, featuring nearly all the Israel National Radio show hosts - Tovia Singer, Tamar Yonah, Yishai Fleisher and more – as well as special guests. The latter include Knesset Members, led by Arutz Sheva founder MK Yaakov 'Ketzaleh' Katz. The Shevathon will be broadcast on live video on IsraelNationalNews.com and on IsraelNationalRadio.com on Jan. 28 from 7 a.m. - 7 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time.
To support Arutz Sheva, call in during the Shevathon to: 1-800-270-4288 from the U.S. and Canada. Click here to donate now via the online registration form.
Arutz Sheva sees its role as an alternative media source as crucial, in a political and media environment that is increasingly hostile to Israel. The hostility ranges from the Goldstone Report that targeted Israel's right to defend itself, to the daily and ever-intensifying pressure on Israel's leaders to relinquish the Jewish homeland. Arutz Sheva hopes to continue in its mission to bring the truth to light, and to promote the values of Torah, a strong Israel and of a proud Jewish people - all of this through up-to-the-minute coverage of the news online, by e-mail, on the radio and via video.
Arutz Sheva is optimistic that its Shevathon goals will be reached, and that it will continue growing as a unique source of information on the events in Israel and the entire Jewish world.
3. Arrested Rabbi is Blindfolded Before Meeting Lawyer
by Hillel Fendel
Extreme measures were taken by police authorities against a Shomron (Samaria) rabbi who was arrested for questioning on involvement with the torching of a mosque. He was forced to meet with his lawyer while blindfolded.
Rabbi Yitzchak Shapira, Dean of the Od Yosef Chai (Joseph Still Lives) Yeshiva in the Shomron (Samaria), was arrested on Tuesday night, with police insinuating that he may have been involved in the torching of a mosque in Kafr Yassuf, near Tapuach, last month. Rabbi Shapira emphatically denies all involvement in the incident.
Rabbi Shapira’s lawyer, Moti Grossman of the Honenu Civil Rights Organization, said that he met with his client after midnight in the Petach Tikvah police station, and said he was shocked to see the rabbi “with his eyes blindfolded as if he were a terrorist. It was very difficult to see this, especially as he is a respected rabbi.”
"The Shabak (General Security Service) is exerting all sorts of heavy pressure on him," Grossman said. "They didn’t even allow him to keep his tefillin and prayerbook after he finished praying. This is a clear to attempt to pressure someone under interrogation.”
The police announced that Rabbi Shapira would be held overnight, if not longer, and students from his yeshiva arrived at the Petach Tikvah police station in solidarity with their rabbi. They sang and danced to show their support.
Rabbi Shapira lives in the Shomron community of Yitzhar, where several students were arrested in recent overnight raids on similar suspicions.
MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), who took part in the impromptu rally outside the police station, said he was shocked at the rabbi’s arrest. "I condemn the police for its methods,” he said, “which have been taken from the darkest, most oppressive regimes. The agenda of the police against residents of Yitzhar smacks of attempts to conduct a 'lynch' against them.”
4. Israel's Next Hizbullah War May Escalate Into Fight With Lebanon
by Malkah Fleisher
If Israel and Hizbullah ever go to battle again, it may lead to a full-out war between the Jewish State and Lebanon. According to the Washington Post, Hizbullah's rearmament deep in northern Lebanon would force Israel to fight the terrorist army far past the border.
Although 10,000 U.N. troops patrol southern Lebanon and believe they are putting a damper on Hizbullah maneuvering close to Israel's border, analysts say the group of international soldiers is essentially obsolete. Hizbullah's redeployment has focused away from the border and further north into Lebanon, where UNIFIL troops do not patrol.
Israeli intelligence suggests that Hizbullah rocket sites may extend north of the Lebanese capital of Beirut. Because of new capabilities in the terror group's estimated 40,000-70,000 missile arsenal, the range of some their rockets – even from Beirut – may reach Tel Aviv. Lebanese politicians and analysts, as well as analysts from the U.S. Army War College, all agree that Hizbullah has performed very effectively and has grown stronger since 2006, according to the Post.
With Iran backing Hizbullah and the United States traditionally aligning with Israel, the next Israeli exchange with Hizbullah could mushroom into a massive battle on Lebanese soil.
Retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser who is now a senior researcher at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, said Israel will "not contain" the next war against Hizbullah, and that "the only way to deter the other side and prevent the next round -- or if it happens, to win -- is to have a military confrontation with the state of Lebanon."
In the meantime, the Lebanese army has signed an agreement with the French company Euro Tech to revamp 13 of Lebanon's Gazelle helicopters owned by Lebanon. They will also equip 10 Puma helicopters given to Lebanon by the United Arab Emirates. According to the UAE, the gift helicopters are not for combat use. However, France expressed concern about arming the Lebanese army in an Al-Hayat report on Friday, stating that Gazelle helicopter missiles could end up in the hands of Hizbullah.
Along with the overhaul, Euro Tech will train the pilots on flying the Pumas.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said earlier this month that the increasing influence of Hizbullah in the Lebanese government, along with cooperation between the country's army and Hizbullah, have in effect made the terrorist organization a part of Lebanon's military.
5. Fatah Removes All Anti-Ahmadinejad Content on Website
by Malkah Fleisher
The official Fatah website, Voice of Palestine, has announced that it will remove any material on their website which supports opponents to the rule of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollah in Iran.
On January 20, the Palvoice website alerted readers that their technical staff would delete all links of search engines such as Google and Yahoo which make anti-Ahmadinejad or pro-opposition statements.
The decision was a reaction to an article published about the "uprising of the Iranian people" which the Fatah website called "insulting to the Iranian regime." The website vowed not to "offend the Iranian regime" or jeopardize the "fraternal relationship between the two countries."
Iran heavily funds the Hamas terrorist organization. Fatah's rival that wrested control from it in a bloody militia war Gaza three years ago.
6. BBC Cited for 2 Blatant Anti-Israel Reports
by Hillel Fendel
Internationally renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin, CAMERA, and various media analysts have joined the fray of complaints against BBC for its "bias against Israel."
The two issues reported on unfairly by BBC relate to Israel’s alleged organ-harvesting of Palestinian Authority residents and its treatment of Arabs in Jerusalem.
Last month, in what was essentially a rehash of a 15-year-old story, British media reported on an admission by an Israeli pathologist that there had been incidents of “harvesting” of organs from Israeli soldiers and Arabs. The BBC’s headline screamed that Israel was harvesting Palestinian organs, without mentioning that Arabs were not the focus of the misguided policy, illegal in Israel.
Even renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin responded. In a letter to BBC Director Mark Thompson, Kissin wrote, "I receive verified reports on an almost daily basis of the BBC's slander and bias towards Israel, painfully reminiscent of the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda. It beggars belief that the British taxpayer should be funding an organization aligning itself with Iran's despotic leader in its anti-Semitic propaganda."
BBC’s response to Kissin was even more misleading than the original article, London's Jewish Chronicle reports. Thompson replied to Kissin, “This report was not created by the BBC, but was a translation of a news story which appeared on Israeli television... I am also assured by the World Service that the Israeli government has not denied the story since it broke.”
The reason Israel did not deny the story is because it was true; until it was stopped, there had, in fact, been illegal organ harvesting, irrespective of ethnic origins. But, as an Israeli Embassy spokesman said, the problem with the BBC report was that it was a “despicable attempt” to claim that Israelis have been involved “in the specific harvesting of Palestinian organs.” Israel protested the BBC’s emphasis on “simply one component” and called it “an attempt to manipulate the hearts of the readership.”
Mideast media analyst Tom Gross noted that some countries, such as China, “do remove live organs for transplant. There is scarcely a word about this in the British media. The Iranian-backed Lebanese terror militia Hezbollah has been accused of harvesting the organs of Lebanese Christians, with hardly any investigation of this charge by the so-called human rights groups of America and Europe.”
Gross also noted that BBC, unlike other media, “used a sensationalist and shocking photo, which was not even from Israel, to give the false impression that the Israeli government had been involved in wrongdoing.”
Second Incident: Eastern Jerusalem
More recently, regarding BBC’s Jan. 18th edition of its flagship documentary program Panorama, political commentator and analyst Robin Shepherd wrote, “Rarely will you get a clearer insight into the flagrant institutional bias inside the world's most powerful media outlet than this. The slipperiness of the tactics employed, the unabashed censorship of vital historical context, and the blatant pursuit of a political agenda constituted a lesson in the techniques of modern day propaganda.”
Shepherd offered a point-by-point analysis of the program’s bias and misrepresentations; it is cited at length on the CAMERA site.
The Jerusalem Municipality responded to one specific point made on the program by narrator and reporter-on-the-ground Jane Corbin. She said that demolitions of Arab structures have been increasing, “and in fact, we've got hold of a list that shows there's another 40 to go before the end of the year. That's because the municipal government has a budget that it has to use up for demolitions." In response, the municipality stated, "The amount of demolitions carried out by the Jerusalem Municipality every year is determined solely by the number of illegally constructed buildings erected by those residents who flouted the law. The number of structural demolitions conducted in eastern Jerusalem by the Jerusalem Municipality actually decreased in 2009 - from 86 in 2008 to 65 in 2009, a 25 percent decrease.”
“Furthermore,” the statement continued, “there is simply no connection whatsoever between the annual budget of the Jerusalem Municipality and the number of demolitions conducted. Throughout the program, Ms. Corbin presents a completely and utterly false representation of the facts and a distasteful distortion of reality. It would be prudent to ask Ms. Corbin what happened to her alleged list of 40 planned demolitions since her filming in late 2009. You'll easily find yet another one of her distasteful distortions."
Criticism of the BBC film came from yet another direction, a watchdog site named “Just Journalism.” This site focused on the program’s coverage of a shooting of two Arabs in eastern Jerusalem by an Israeli man in September 2009. Though the shooter was released from detention after it was found that he shot in self-defense, Corbin barely mentions this – and instead, presents only misleading video footage of the incident. In short, Just Journalism states, the episode “was portrayed by the BBC in a highly misleading way, by the heavy emphasis of one version of events to the near exclusion of the other. All the relevant facts were in the public domain, making this difficult to justify.”
7. Rafi Peretz New Chief Rabbi of IDF
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The defense establishment has appointed Rabbi Rafi Peretz as Chief Rabbi of the IDF, and he will replace Rabbi Avichai Ronsky, whose term of office was not renewed in an unprecedented move by Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Rabbi Peretz won national recognition immediately before the 2005 expulsions in Gush Katif by embracing and dancing with soldiers who came to his community of Atzmona to expel residents and destroy houses, synagogues and other public facilities. He said that the unity of the IDF is paramount, although he was against the expulsion edict. He is head of the Ometz “mechina.” a pre-military Torah institute that has been relocated to Yated in the Western Negev. Rabbi Peretz serves in the IDF as a reserve helicopter pilot
He will be elevated from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to Brigadier General and will become a full-time army officer. The IDF said the appointment was made after consulting with Israel’s chief rabbis and Defense Minister Barak, who approved him.
Barak fired Rabbi Ronsky by taking the extraordinary move of not renewing his term, which expires this summer. The Defense Minister is known to have disapproved of the way Rabbi Ronsky, a colonel in the reserves until promoted to Brigadier General at the time, carried out the mission given to him by then-IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, a secular Jew, who wanted someone to renew soldiers' faith and motivation following the 2005 expulsions that divided the country.
Rabbi Ronsky went out into the field with soldiers but often was accused by Israeli popular media with “religious coercion” by instilling Jewish belief among soldiers. Rabbi Peretz offers a different image from his predecessor, who grew up as a secular Jew but moved closer to Torah following frightening experiences in the Yom Kippur War.
Whereas Rabbi Ronsky heads a yeshiva in the community of Itamar, in northern Samaria, the beardless Rabbi Peretz’s mechina, like most others, commits its students to serving in the IDF after a maximum of two years of learning Torah full-time. Itamar students have the option of enlisting in the army for the regular three-year service, join the Hesder Torah study program with less time in the army, or continunig to learn in yeshiva.
Military sources have indicated that IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi respects Rabbi Ronsky’s work but decided not to fight Barak’s decision not to renew his term of office.
