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Friday, Apr 30 '10, Iyar 16, 5770

Today`s Email Stories:
Abrams: US Must Deal with Iran
Barkat Firm on Jerusalem
Netanyahu Wins Party Vote
Dayan: Make PA Pay for Boycott
Israel Wary of British Elections
US to Back Israel in UN
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Egypt: Incitement Out of Schools
Telling the Story of Greek Jewry
Multiple Sclerosis Breakthrough
Lone Soldiers No Longer Alone
OU Tackles ME Politics, Kashrut
Pile of Cars to Warn Drivers
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1. Report: Israel Nixes Weapons Sales to Turkey
by Maayana Miskin 
Israel Won't Sell Arms to Turkey


Israel has begun turning down Turkey's requests to buy certain advanced weapons, according to the military news and analysis sites Jane's Defense Weekly and  DEBKAfile. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan has made scathingly anti-Israel remarks, and has drawn closer to Syria and Iran.

According to the report, the Turkish navy was interested in acquiring the Barak 8 missile interceptor, a system developed jointly by Israel and India. The system provides 360-degree  coverage from missile or air attack.

Israeli sources said Turkey's request was rejected over fears that Turkey would allow Iran to study the technology. 

Indian military leaders were also against the sale, fearing, like Israel, that the technology would be shared with Iran. From there, it could be traded to Pakistan in exchange for nuclear technology, they worried, giving the Pakistani army a technological boost.

The Israeli air force has been blocked from Turkish air space for training. India has developed close military ties with Israel and may be a possible solution.

In November 2009, DEBKAfile reported that Erdogan had promised Iran that it would have Turkish support in case of an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites. Turkey agreed to pass on any intelligence information suggesting that Israel or the United States was preparing a strike on Iran, the report stated.

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2. Elliot Abrams: US Must Deal with Iranian Threat
by Hana Levi Julian 
Abrams: US Must Deal with Iran


A former national security official in the Bush administration told American Zionists this week that the United States should deal with Iran's threat to wipe Israel off the map – before Jerusalem does. 

Elliot Abrams, who served as Deputy National Security Adviser and senior director for Near East and North African Affairs in the Bush administration's National Security Council, told a symposium in Baltimore that Israelis live with “the threat of annihilation” every day. Abrams also served as Assistant Secretary of State under former President Ronald Reagan. 

Currently a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Abrams made his remarks at an April 25 symposium entitled “U.S.-Israel Relations in a New Era.”

“If the world does not act, I believe Israel will act,” he said, “and I hope the U.S. will.” According to the Baltimore Jewish Times, the former national security official pointed out that at present, there does not appear to be anyone backing up their words with actions on Iran, other than the State of Israel.

“We keep saying it's unacceptable for Iran to have a bomb, but we don't mean it,” he said. “We mean it's terrible, we don't want it. But when Israel says it's unacceptable, they mean it.” 

Iran's president has repeatedly threatened to destroy the State of Israel, and although the United Nations Security Council has ordered the country to cease its nuclear development activities, the Islamic Republic is continuing its race to enrich uranium at a level that would enable it to create an atomic bomb. Three sets of sanctions imposed on Iran by the United Nations in the hopes of forcing the country to stop its uranium enrichment activities have so far been ineffective. The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany are currently meeting in New York to discuss a fourth round.



3. Barkat: Jerusalem Freeze Would be Illegal
by Maayana Miskin 
Barkat Firm on Jerusalem


Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is in Washington this week to meet with senior United States officials. In a news conference held during his tour, Barkat took a firm stance on the Obama administration's pressure to stop building houses for Jews in eastern Jerusalem, saying a construction freeze would be “illegal”.

“There's no freeze... We're going to build, and we're not going to stop it,” Barkat told reporters. “It is illegal to stop it.”

Barkat admitted that construction in certain parts of the city had temporarily slowed following the Obama administration's angry reaction to a housing project in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, in northern Jerusalem. However, he said, the slowdown was a momentary gesture of respect for the US, and construction has since picked up steam again.

Barkat added that the Jerusalem municipality will not change its planning process despite the diplomatic incident regarding Ramat Shlomo. The city will continue to approve construction without involving the prime minister, he said. “It doesn't work like that,” he said. “Each of us has his own authority and his own decisions to make.”

During his visit Barkat met with several US lawmakers, among them House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor. Cantor backed Barkat's statement that Jerusalem will remain Israel's united capital, and said that both Democrats and Republicans back that view, despite the position taken by Obama and his staff.

Gathering support for continuing Israeli sovereignty over a united Jerusalem appears to be a central goal of Barkat's trip. 

Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have pushed for a freeze on construction of Jewish housing in all parts of Jerusalem east of the 1949 armistice line, including those neighborhoods such as Mei Shiloach (Silwan) and the Old City that are historically Jewish. The Palestinian Authority demands those neighborhoods as part of a future PA state, to be established in Judea and Samaria with Jerusalem as its capital.

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4. Netanyahu Wins Vote to Delay Party Elections
by Hillel Fendel 
Netanyahu Wins Party Vote


Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has won a critical vote in the Likud, giving him the right to postpone party primaries for 20 months. 

Over three-quarters, 77%, of Likud Central Committee voters were reported to have voted for his proposal postponing party primaries until 2011. The vote represented a significant, possibly fatal loss for the Manhigut Yehudit (Jewish Leadership) faction, headed by Moshe Feiglin, which had attempted to convince voters that postponing the elections would lead to the division of Jerusalem.

Some 2,055 Likud Central Committee members, nearly 81%, were reported to have voted - a strong indication that Netanyahu was going to win. His proposal required a 2/3 majority, and he received 10 percentage points more than he needed. He called on Likud members to vote for his proposal in order to allow him to "carry out my agenda at these difficult times" without the distraction of divisive party politics. 

The vote was accompanied by accusations that the Netanyahu camp had rigged the election by refusing to allow observers in the polling stations or to allow free access to the registration rolls.

When the polls closed at 10 PM, an exhausted Moshe Feiglin, who had appeared to be near despair during the course of the day, still refused to give up . Although the twenty month delay will give the Netanyahu time to marginalize Feiglin's faction by enlarging party ranks, Feiglin called a press conference and issued the same message he has been giving for nearly a decade: "I call upon the entire nationalist camp to join the Likud.... We will soon find ourselves facing elections for party leader, and we cannot afford to allow ourselves a nationalist leader who takes the votes of the nationalist camp and gives them to the left in such a disgraceful manner."



"I thank G-d for having surrounded me with such great people," he said, referring to all the Manhigut Yehudit volunteers who worked for today's elections.

Feiglin repeated throughout the day his prediction that the results of the vote today would determine the future of Jerusalem: "Netanyahu wants to delay the elections for the new Central Committee, so that he can have quiet for the next year or two and cut a deal with Obama for the division of Jerusalem, just as Obama has been demanding."

Feiglin claimed that if Obama has invited Shas party leader Interior Minister Eli Yishai to the White House for talks - it is a clear sign that the U.S. administration no longer attributes much importance to the Likud, but only to its senior coalition partner, Shas. "Don't you see?" he pleaded often throughout the day to Likud members. "Netanyahu wants to marginalize you! you have not interested him since the last party vote, and now he won't need you until the next election! And all this while the Likud itself is marginalized - even Obama realizes that!"

"We learned today," Feiglin said after the vote, "that Netanyahu cares only about what happens in his party. If it were not for Manhigut Yehudit, nothing would stand in his way to divide Jerusalem."

Prime Minister Netanyahu said after the vote, "This was an important achievement, which proves again that the Likud is a responsible and balanced movement that is worthy of running the country."

Questions About Feiglin's Strategy

MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) responded to the vote in the Likud by saying, "This was a sad defeat for Feiglin, but it proves that it doesn't matter how many people he signs up to the Likud, he will always lose because the Likud party hacks don't care about him. This is the moment of truth for Feiglin and his movement. I call on him to return home to the National Union."

The call may fall on deaf ears, however, because Feiglin has often stated his belief that the nationalist camp has no chance of passing its agenda unless it does so via a major party, namely the Likud. 

In Likud party primaries in 2007, Feiglin ran for the second time for party leader, receiving 23.4% of the votes while losing to Netanyahu. Feiglin was voted into the 20th spot on the party's Knesset candidates list prior to the 2009 elections, but was later demoted to #36 in what many feel was an undemocratic move. Netanyahu has said that Feiglin and his followers do not belong in the Likud.        



5. Yesha Council: Make PA Pay for Boycott
by Maayana Miskin 
Dayan: Make PA Pay for Boycott


Yesha Council head Danny Dayan has proposed the government compensate Israelis who suffer losses due to a Palestinian Authority boycott. Compensation money could come from PA taxes collected and transferred to them by Israel, he suggested to Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz.

Dayan referred to a PA boycott on goods produced by Jews in Judea, Samaria, or parts of Jerusalem. PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has told police to confiscate and destroy any such goods found in PA-controlled areas. 

Fayyad has played an active role in boycott activities, and has even publicly demolished Israeli goods himself, to the cheers of PA Arab crowds.

The PA has demolished many tons of goods in recent months, from cleaning supplies to watermelons. The boycott campaign has been backed by a new “Fund for National Honor and Might.”

"The Israeli government cannot stand idly by in the face of the Palestinian Authority's incitement and economic terrorism,” Dayan told Steinitz. “How can the government continue to make far-reaching gestures to the Palestinians while ignoring the incitement and boycott that it receives in return?”

"I call on you to determine that any sum dedicated by the PA to the organization intended to enforce the economic boycott - or any damage to Israeli factories due to this financial terrorism – be deducted from the tax money that Israel collects on behalf of the PA,” he added.

In March, MK Uri Ariel (National Union) proposed that Israel fight the PA boycott with a boycott of its own, by refusing to buy from PA Arabs or to employ PA Arab workers. Tens of thousands of PA Arabs work for Israeli employers, many of them at factories in Judea and Samaria. In total, nearly 10 percent of employed PA Arabs work for Israelis.





6. Israel is Wary of British Elections 
by Hillel Fendel 
Israel Wary of British Elections


Respected journalist Yaakov Achimeir says the tightly-contested upcoming British elections do not bode well for Israel. 

“At this point,” Achimeir told Arutz-7’s Hebrew newsmagazine on Wednesday, “it does not appear that either of the two large parties - neither Labor, which is currently in power, nor the Conservatives (Tories) - will receive a majority on May 6. Whoever wins will therefore need to bring in the 3rd-largest party, namely the Liberal Democrats, to form a coalition. It is clear that Lib-Dem leader Nick Clegg will have the ability to decide who will be the next British Prime Minister – Gordon Brown of Labor or David Cameroon of the Conservatives.”

Achimeir also said that it could very well be that Clegg will be Britain’s next Foreign Minister. From Israel’s point of view, this is not a positive development, Achimeir predicted, as he has taken some strongly anti-Israel positions over the past year and a half.

In January 2009, Clegg called for EU sanctions against Israel, including an arms embargo. Just four months ago, he publicly condemned Israel for having caused a "humanitarian crisis" in Gaza, and again called for EU pressure on both Israel and Egypt to lift restrictions on imports into the Hamas-run area.  

He has even questioned the idea of Israel being a Jewish State. “When Clegg was told that Netanyahu insists on Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish State,” Achimeir said, “Clegg questioned the very idea of a Jewish country.”

Specfically, Clegg was delivering the second annual lecture of the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism in Westminster last June, and said he did not believe he had ever heard an Israeli prime minister refer to Israel in such a way before. “Is the idea of Israel as a Jewish state something new?” he asked. Board of Deputies’ senior vice-president Jonathan Arkush rebutted and said, “The idea that Israel is a Jewish nation state is certainly not new at all. There are over 70 states with an explicit Islamic character and countries such as Britain, which is definitively Christian. Is there not room for one country with a Jewish character?”

Clegg would deal fairly harshly with Israel as Foreign Minister, Achimeir predicted. “Our relations with Britain are no less important than those with the United States,” he said. “Britain has an important status in Europe not only politically but also culturally. We cannot make light of Britain, as it carries much clout in the European Union.”

Achimeir's Nationalist History

Achimeir’s father Abba was a leader of the Revisionist Party, a forerunner of the Likud, and was one of those who were acquitted of the 1933 murder of Chaim Arlosoroff. Yaakov’s brother Yosef was a top aide to former Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir, and even served in the Knesset on behalf of the Likud for about a year, just before the 1996 elections.



7. US Will Continue to Back Israel in UN
by Maayana Miskin 
US to Back Israel in UN


United States officials who spoke to the pan-Arab paper Al-Sharq il-Awsat denied Thursday that America would stop using its United Nations veto to help Israel. The New York Times had reported that US President Barack Obama warned that America would no longer veto anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council.

Obama was quoted as having told Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that the US would stop exercising its Security Council veto if Israel did not work to promote peace talks with the PA.

A senior White House official told Al-Sharq il-Awsat that the NYT report was incorrect. America will continue to defend Israel's right to self-defense in the UN, and will continue to weigh in against selective criticism targeting Israel, he said.

The official declined to give details of Obama's talk with Abbas, saying only that the president had asked both Israel and the PA for “confidence-building steps.” America would like Israel and the PA to begin indirect negotiations, he added.

National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said Obama is “optimistic” regarding the chances for peace between Israel and the PA. Obama would like the parties to resume negotiations as quickly as possible, he said.