 | ||
 |         |  |
 | ||
| MP3 Radio | Website News Briefs: | |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
 |  |
1. Greece, Israel to Tighten Ties After PM's Visit
by Maayana Miskin
Greece and Israel will undergo “a major upgrade of relations,” said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesmen following a meeting between Netanayhu and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, whose visit this week was the first visit by a Greek prime minister in decades.
Israel's tighter ties with Greece come on the heels of a sharp deterioration in ties between Israel and Turkey. Papandreou denied a connection between the two, telling reporters, “I've been thinking of forging closer ties with Israel for about two years.” However, the history of Greek-Turkish relationships has been characterized more by conflict than by cooperation, with the once violent controversy of the two countries over contorl of Cyprus a noted example. Both countries' national days celebrate victories over one another.
Papandreou met with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Opposition leader Tzipi Livni. He also travelled to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
In his meeting with Papandreou, Netanyahu gave the Greek prime minister a message to pass along to Abbas. “I am not skeptical, and neither are you, about peace with the Palestinians,” he said.
The two prime ministers discussed their countries' shared ground. Jerusalem and Athens provided the basis for Western civilization, Netanyahu said, and Israel and Greece are now sources of stability in the Middle East. Papandreou recalled the Holocaust, in which many Greeks were killed, concluding, “We too say 'never again.'”
The planned upgrade in ties is expected to include closer cooperation regarding finance and technology. Greece has been experiencing a severe economic crisis in recent months.
Papandreou spoke to both Lieberman and Abbas about the possibility of direct negotiations between the PA and Israel. Lieberman said that Israel would like to move to direct talks with the PA, but cannot extend a temporary prohibition on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria as Abbas has demanded. Abbas said the PA would agree to direct talks only if the construction ban continues and Israel agrees to base the borders of a PA state on the 1949 armistice line.
2. Missing Elite Combat Soldier Found Alive and Well
by Elad Benari
A missing IDF soldier from the IDF's elite commando "Sayeret Matkal" unit was found alive and well around midnight Thursday. The 21 year-old fighter had returned to his Ashkelon coastal community home in Kochav Michael, said a spokesperson for the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.
The circumstances of the soldier’s disappearance are as of yet unknown, but he apparently had been bothered by personal prolems during a grueling 13-mile march and training exercise in a forest between Jerusalem and Be'er Sheba, according to his comrades.
He was missing since the pre-dawn hours after his unit participated in a training exercise. The soldier was last seen at 4:00 A.M. His commanders immediatey called off the exercise and decided to begin the search for him when he failed to make it to a pre-determined gathering place. Hundreds of soldiers, backed by helicopters, combed the area for the missing comrade.
Kidnapping or a terrorist operation had not been ruled out but had been discounted, based on soldiers’ comments that the soldier was under heavy stress. He had said during the exercise that it was extremely difficult for him.
3. Abbas: American Jews on My Side Now
by Maayana Miskin
American Jewish lobbyists have been convinced to take a pro-Palestinian Authority position, and to ask US President Barack Obama to turn up the pressure on Israel, according to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas made the claims while speaking at a meeting of the Fatah organization's central committee.
The lobbyists “told me that I had created a revolution among American Jews, and that they had decided to go to President Obama and tell him: there is a Palestinian partner for peace – but is there an Israeli partner?” Abbas said.
"They promised they would go to Netanyahu and tell him to disassemble his coalition or announce that he agrees to a two-state solution,” he added.
The US Jewish leaders Abbas referred to were members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization, the Anti-Defamation League, and the left-wing Americans for Peace Now and J Street organizations.
Abbas met with them in June, at a dinner hosted by the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace. During his speech at the dinner Abbas condemned violence, incitement and Holocaust denial.
The PA leader accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of attempting to undermine him when it came to US Jews. “Binyamin Netanyahu tried as hard as he could to convince the Jewish lobby not to meet with me, and told them I'm a liar... When they told him what I just told you [following the meeting] he got angry and told them I'm fooling them and they can't believe me,” Abbas claimed.
4. Shalev: Lebanon Ships Will Not Be Allowed to Enter Gaza
by Elad Benari
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Israel Gabriella Shalev warned on Thursday that two ships preparing to set sail from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip in order to bring aid to the Strip would not be allowed to reach their destination.
In a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and current UN Security Council President Joy Ogwu, Shalev wrote: “The stated intention of these vessels is to violate the existing naval blockade of Gaza."
She added: “Israel reserves its right under international law to use all necessary means to prevent these ships from violating the aforementioned naval blockade. Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that these vessels carry weapons or individuals with provocative and confrontational intentions.”
Israel recently eased the blockade of the Gaza Strip following international criticism which came after the IDF raid on the Gaza aid flotilla in May. Israeli soldiers who boarded one of the boats in a peaceful attempt to prevent its entrance into Israel's territorial waters killed nine Turkish citizens when attacked by passengers wielding knives and blunt weapons. The ship was found not to be carrying any aid.
Israel allows ample food and other aid into Gaza only via land crossings so as to control the passage of arms and materials that can be utilized for aggression against her. Israel allows Gazan to cross for medical aid as well, but. continues to maintain the legal naval blockade instituted after Hamas seized control of Gaza. Hamas-ruled Gaza is a hostile, terrorist entity that bombarded Israeli civilians with thousands of rockets until Israel reentered the area in December 2008 in Operation Cast Lead and holds Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit captive without adhering to international law. In her letter, Shalev noted the option of delivering aid to Gaza by land and added that sending ships to Gaza is meant “to incite a confrontation and raise tension in our region”.
UN officials have urged countries not to attempt to break the Israeli naval blockade on the Strip. UN under-secretary-general for political affairs Lynn Pascoe was quoted in Reuters as having said on Wednesday that “such convoys are not helpful to resolving the basic economic problems of Gaza and needlessly carry the potential for escalation.”
Earlier this week, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal during a visit to Syria. During the meeting, Davutoglu said that Turkey will continue to devote efforts to breaking the siege on Gaza. He added that Turkey insists on an Israeli apology over the raid on the Gaza flotilla, as well as compensation for families of the casualties, and an independent international probe of the raid.
5. FBI Targets Online Terror, 70,000 Blogs Closed
by Maayana Miskin
As many as 70,000 blogs have been shut down as the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation targets online terrorism. The heads of BurstNet technologies, which was behind the shutdown, say they were told by FBI agents that the blogs included links to terrorist material.
Among the terrorist materials taken offline were bomb-making instructions and a list of Americans targeted for assassination, BurstNet said. The terrorist material may have been linked to the pro-terror online magazine Inspire, which is connected to Al-Qaeda.
Representatives of BurstNet said the material was “potentially inciting dangerous activities.”
BurstNet shut down the Blogetery website, which provides free blogging. Company representatives stated that the FBI did not require them to take Blogetery offline altogether, but that they did so due to the site's previous violations of terms of service. Representatives argued that the number of blogs shut down was far less than the 73,000 claimed by Blogetery.
A similar site, Ipbfree.com, was taken offline shortly after Blogetery, leading to theories that the two instances were linked. The site has not made the reasons for its shutdown public.
Free speech activist groups, among them the Center for Democracy and Technology and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, criticized the move to close Blogetery. Spokesmen for both organization expressed concern for the “innocent blogs” taken offline due to the alleged terrorist content.
The US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee met in May to discuss the problem of online terrorism. Many speakers and members of the subcommittee expressed concern over terrorist recruitment online, but decided against forcing service providers to shut down terrorism-linked material.
One speaker, Brian Jenkins of the RAND Corp., said online terrorist recruiting has largely been a failure, with about 15 Americans recruited to terrorism each year.
However, the FBI recently warned that domestic terrorism is among the foremost threats facing America. FBI Director Robert Mueller told the Obama administration that “home grown and lone-wolf extremists” are as great a potential danger as Al-Qaeda and other international terrorist networks.
6. Artist Apologizes for Slanderous 'State of Judea' Exhibit
by Maayana Miskin
Artist Yossi Even-Kama has apologized for attributing false quotes to real rabbis. The quotes, which were included in Even-Kama's recent exhibition at the Shenker College of Engineering and Design, contain calls to kill Jews who are not religiously observant.
Even-Kama did not apologize for the display itself, which portrays an imaginary future in which Israel's political and religious right stages a violent revolution and takes over the country, creating the “state of Judah” in its place. During the revolution as portrayed by Even-Kama, the religious right incites to civil war and carries out bombings in which dozens are killed.
The display features posters in which a black Star of David inside a white circle on a red background is used as a symbol of the revolution; the imagery drew accusations that Even-Kama was linking Jewish symbols to Nazi graphics.
Several rabbis protested the inclusion of their names in the display, where they were alleged to have called to murder Jews who do not follow Torah law.
"I was shocked to discover this morning, the day before Tisha B'Av, that my name and title were included in a list of rabbis who 'call to kill Jews,'” on of the rabbis said in letters to Even-Kara. “It should be noted that I discovered this due to the many responses I received to my 'signature' on this horrific document.”
The rabbis noted the timing of the exhibit's opening “during the days of national mourning over the destruction of the Temple, which was caused among other things by senseless hatred among Jews.” The opening also coincided with the fifth anniversary of the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria under the Disengagement plan.
In his apology to the rabbis, Even-Kama explained that in order to create his exhibit, he had hunted for a list of rabbis' names online, and had then altered the names. “Unfortunately, I missed some of the names, including yours,” he wrote. “I don't know you or your work or your philosophy, and I have nothing against you personally.”
One rabbi whose name was included in Even-Kama's display, Rabbi Azriel Ariel of the town of Ateret, shared his reaction to the “libelous” display with Arutz Sheva. “Hatred is a form of mental illness,” he said. “G-d created all people in his image. We are all one, and man's natural state is to love his fellow man.”
The hate on display at Shenkar indicates an inner emptiness, he added.
Adding to the controversy over Even-Kama's display was the fact that Shenkar is now headed by Yuli Tamir, a former Minister of Education who was a founder of Peace Now. “It's frightening to think that the person giving a platform to this extremist and hateful display was once the Education Minister, responsible for educating our children,” said Danny Dayan, head of the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) council.
7. Left-Wing Revenge? Hebrew U. Sacking Anti-NIF Lecturer
by Gil Ronen
Hebrew University lecturer Dr. Ran Baratz, a highly respected and very popular lecturer in the university's Department of Philosophy, was recently informed that he would not be employed at the institution in the next academic year. 150 students from all parts of the political spectrum have signed a petition calling on the university to reconsider its decision and keep Baratz on its staff, and 50 of them sent letters to the same effect.
The Knesset's Education Committee will convene a special session to discuss the Baratz affair. Committee Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home) said that the university's decision was “strange” and said that a “dark cloud” hangs over the university.
Many of Dr. Baratz's supporters claim that the university's decision is motivated by the leftist establishment's desire for revenge against Baratz, who is a research fellow at the conservative Shalem Institute and co-authored a 2003 report on the New Israel Fund. The report served as the basis for Zionist student group Im Tirtzu's report on the Fund, which has created international uproar.
Baratz also contributed to a more recent Im Tirtzu report concerning the silencing of Zionist opinions by leftist academics. He teaches at the Jewish Statesmanship Center for Strategic Planning, and regularly writes in daily Yisrael HaYom, and in the internet magazine Maraah, which describes itself as “politically incorrect.”
Interestingly, however, a Facebook group formed in support of Baratz was created by Yoni Buchsbaum, a student who is described by lecturers as a Communist. In his comments he made on the group's homepage, Buchsbaum confirmed that he belongs to the political left and explained that the issue at hand is not political, but relates to the quality of instruction in the university.
The Department of Philosophy denied there were any political considerations behind the decision to discontinue Baratz's employment. It said that the university had issued a tender for a permanent position on the Department's staff and that based on purely academic criteria, three different committees preferred another candidate over Baratz.
A co-author of the report on the NIF, Dr. Moshe Ifargan, appeared on Channel 1 television Wednesday and said that even if another candidate was more suited for the permanent post, the university could have kept Baratz on its staff in his present status as a teaching fellow. Baratz's doctoral thesis was cited for “special excellence,” he noted, and the fact that so many students had come out in support of Baratz was testimony to his talent as a lecturer.
Ifargan said that a senior professor had told him that another excellent lecturer was denied a post in the Department of Philosophy last year only because he resided in a community within Judea and Samaria.
More Website News:
 | Study: Post-Traumatic Stress Lowest in IDF  |
| Hizbullah Possible Culprit in Juarez Car Bomb |
| PA Arabs Tell Pop Group: Don't Sing about Babylon |
| Iran Revolutionary Guards Begin to Feel the Bite of Sanctions |
| Hizbullah to Face Charges in Hariri Slaying, Israel Blamed |
