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1. House Republicans Giving Green Light for Israeli Strike on Iran
by Gil Ronen
Nearly one third of the Republican congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a resolution that would support Israel's right to use “all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran”, including military force.
The resolution was introduced by Rep. Louie Gohmert [R-Texas] and 46 co-sponsors.
House Resolution 1553 “condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its threats of ‘annihilating’ the United States and the State of Israel, for its continued support of international terrorism, and for its incitement of genocide of the Israeli people.”
It “supports using all means of persuading the Government of Iran to stop building and acquiring nuclear weapons” and pledges that the U.S. will ensure that Israel “continues to receive critical economic and military assistance, including missile defense capabilities, needed to address the threat of Iran.”
In addition, it “expresses support for Israel’s right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran, defend Israeli sovereignty, and protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within a reasonable time.”
Iran lobby alarmed
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a pro-Iranian lobby group, is up in arms over the proposed resolution.
“Obviously we are reaching silly season in Washington with the elections in November,” NIAC's founder-president Trita Parsi told RN, a news venue that focuses on Russian issues. He added that “there have already been some signs that Israel is going to be a major element that some Republicans will use to get both voters as well as finance, donations to campaigns, away from the Democrats.”
However, Parsi said, “even silly season has real repercussions on the real world.” The resolution would send “a dangerous signal” to Israel, that some in congress would welcome military action by it against Iran, while the White House and U.S. military oppose such a strike, he argued.
NIAC's website warned that the “game plan” behind HR 1553 was spelled out earlier this month by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton in the Wall Street Journal, when he wrote: “Having visible congressional support in place at the outset [of an attack] will reassure the Israeli government, which is legitimately concerned about Mr. Obama's likely negative reaction to such an attack.”
“The Obama Administration quietly resisted Congressional efforts to pass unilateral economic sanctions for over a year, before ultimately giving in to Congressional pressure,” NIAC wrote. “Now that 'crippling' sanctions have been put in place, the far-right wing and Iran-hawks have begun openly advocating for what has always been their ultimate objective: war with Iran.”
NIAC warned that an attack on Iran would ignite a regional war that would put the lives of “innocent Americans, Iranians, and Israelis” in harm's way, as well as risking the pro-democracy movement in Iran, U.S. national security and the stability of Iraq and Afghanistan and the global economy, which relies on oil from the Persian Gulf.
NIAC denies allegations that it is used as a tool by the Iranian regime, citing its condemnations of human rights abuses in Iran.
2. Ramon Advises PA Not to Enter Direct Talks
by Hillel Fendel
Ex-Justice and Interior Minister Chaim Ramon advised top PA negotiator Saeb Erekat in a private conversation that it would not be worth the PA’s while to enter into direct talks with Israel - in direct contrast with the official Israeli position. MK Michael Ben-Ari says the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) must investigate the matter.
An unidentified man contacted Israel Radio, saying he overheard the conversation in the Jerusalem Colony Hotel dining room three weeks ago. From his detailed reenactment of the talk, it appears that he was able to record it, but he refused to confirm or deny this detail.
Ramon was a controversial left-wing Knesset Member of the Labor Party for more than two decades, and switched to Kadima with Ariel Sharon after the Disengagement from Gush Katif. He resigned from the Knesset a year ago, two years after he was convicted of indecency with a female soldier who asked to be photographed with him.
According to the witness, who said another person was with him at the time, the conversation took place less than two feet away from him.
Ramon reportedly said clearly that he was sent to speak with Erekat by President Shimon Peres. “He said in these words: ‘I was sent by the President of Israel, Shimon Peres,’” the man, whose voice was electronically garbled during the broadcast, related.
The witness said, “It was perfectly clear throughout the conversation that Ramon was sent to advise the Palestinians how to conduct the proximity talks and that it would be pointless to enter the direct talks because in any event Netanyahu will not agree to grant anything to the PA.”
“For instance,” the witness recounted, “Erekat said that the previous prime minister [Ehud Olmert] offered to have 50,000 or 60,000 Arab refugees enter Israel, but the PA demands 100,000 or 200,000. Ramon said that if you [the PA] did not agree then to Olmert’s offer, there is no way that Bibi [Netanyahu] would agree to more. So Erekat said, ‘So what do you propose?’ and Ramon said, ‘Not to enter the direct talks; you won’t get anything anyway.’”
The witness also said that Ramon told Erekat that “if the PA wants more checkpoints to be removed, it must do X, Y and Z.” However, interviewer Ayala Hasson did not ask him to elaborate on what steps Ramon told Erekat must be done.
Responses:
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union)
“The Jewish section of the Shabak must be called in immediately, in order to arrest and interrogate all those who took part in acts of treachery, from the Oslo Agreements up until this latest act of undermining by Ramon [and] Peres…”
Chaim Ramon
Contacted while abroad from Israel Radio, Ramon first smashed down the phone, then agreed to give this response: “This is a case of distorted hearing. Some of the things never happened at all, and others are things that he thought he heard. I have been meeting for many years with various people in the PA; this is not new. What I say in my talks with them is what I say in the media as well.”
Saeb Erekat
He first said he is not willing to elaborate on his personal meetings, but later denied that Ramon had advised him not to enter direct talks: “It is all an absolute lie. I am against having one of you tell me what to do, whether it’s Chaim Ramon or someone else. The decision regarding direct talks is a Palestinian decision that has been known for a half-year already, unconnected to the meeting with Ramon.”
President Shimon Peres
The office of President Peres acknowledged that Ramon had dined with Peres the night before the said meeting with Erekat, but said that Peres had actually requested that Ramon pressure Erekat to enter direct talks. The statement released by the presidential office stated, “Peres never asked Ramon to meet with Saeb Erekat. The president always meets with senior leaders from around the world, including Palestinian leaders, and does not need intermediaries.”
3. Going on Offensive to Expose World Hypocrisy vs. Israel
by Eli Stutz
If you heard about an attack on a Palestinian refugee camp in which hundreds of civilians were killed, would you assume that the attack had been perpetrated by Israel? According to Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, you very likely would - and you'd be wrong.
In an op-ed that appears today in the Wall Street Journal, Deputy Minister Ayalon had harsh words for an international community which berates Israel for its actions, while ignoring similar actions by other countries in a multitude of conflicts.
Vividly describing a brutal attack on a Palestinian refugee camp where 500 people were killed, Ayalon writes, "While most will assume that the events described above took place in the West Bank or Gaza, they actually took place in Lebanon in the summer of 2007, when Palestinian terrorists attacked the Lebanese Army, which struck back with deadly force."
Ayalon highlights the fact that when Israel is not involved, the world is silent. "At the time, there was little international outcry," he writes. "No world leader decried the 'prison camps' in Lebanon. No demonstrations took place around the world; no U.N. investigation panels were created and little media attention was attracted. In fact, the plight of the Palestinians in Lebanon garners very little attention internationally."
According to Ayalon, there are more than 400,000 Palestinians in Lebanon, lacking basic resources and deprived of their rights. And therefore, he writes, "It is the height of irony that a Lebanese flotilla is organizing to leave the port of Tripoli in the next few days to bring aid to Palestinians in Gaza."
Ayalon goes on to expose the truth about Gaza, that instead of being a poverty-stricken region with a major humanitarian crisis, its markets are actually brimming with food. "This is the same Gaza that just opened a sparkling new shopping mall that would not look out of place in any capital in Europe. Gaza, where a new Olympic-sized swimming pool was recently inaugurated and five-star hotels and restaurants offer luxurious fare."
All this comes to expose the hypocrisy of the flotilla missions, says Ayalon. "Whether it is from Turkey, Ireland or Cyprus, those that participate in these flotillas reek of hypocrisy."
Ayalon's senior advisor, Ashley Perry, explained Ayalon's motivation for the article to Israel National News. "The purpose was to expose the hypocrisy of many of the so-called human rights activists who try single out our conflict and Israel from the many conflicts around the world," said Perry.
"The flottila exposes something we aways knew, but just makes it more obvious. The Lebanese perpetrated injustices against its own Palestinians, and have left them in second class status. It really exposes the hypocrisy of the whole flotilla exercise."
Ayalon and Foreign Minister Avigdor Leiberman have stated in recent months that now is the time for Israel to stop being defensive and to go on the offensive when it comes to international PR. Ayalon's piece in the Wall Street Journal appears to be a step in that direction.
4. Synagogue in Maryland Vandalized
by Elad Benari
A synagogue in Olney, Maryland was vandalized earlier this week.
Parents who arrived to drop off their children at B’Nai Shalom Synagogue’s summer day camp on Monday morning discovered that anti-Semitic words and symbols, including swastikas and the words “Arbeit Macht Frei” (work will set you free, the same words that were on the sign above the Auschwitz concentration camp) and “Juden raus” (Jews out), were spray-painted along the building.
A pile of coins was left at the door of the synagogue, possibly to indicate that Jews are money hungry .Two homes in the vicinity were also spray-painted with swastikas.
Synagogue Rabbi Ari Sunshine said during an interview with NBC News that he did not immediately have the graffiti painted over so that his congregants could see what had happened: “If we just cover over the words and the symbols and get rid of it in the next hour or two hours, without a chance for people to come together and work at that and symbolically stand together as we remove these words, then a great teaching opportunity will have been lost.”
Community President Debbie Kovalsky said during an interview with community publication ‘Gazette.net’ that the damage is “heart wrenching to see. The fact that someone out there is knowledgeable about this kind of hate, this is more upsetting than some teenager with spray-paint… We will heal, but this should not be tolerated in any community.”
The vandals have not yet been caught. Montgomery County police are investigating the attack as a hate crime.
This is the second crime against a synagogue in the past week. On Friday, an explosion hit the Jewish synagogue in Malmo, Sweden, shattering three window panes but causing no injuries. This followed another explosion in the same synagogue two weeks earlier, again without injuries.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents around the world has risen over the last year to troubling numbers. According to a report published in April by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University, 2009 was the worst in terms of anti-Semitism. In the United States 116 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded, up from 98 in 2008.
In Sweden, 79 anti-Semitic crimes were reported in 2009 in Malmo alone. The continued anti-Semitic acts have caused many Jews to flee the town.
5. Nazi Guard, 89, Charged in Germany with 430,000 Deaths
by Hillel Fendel
Never too late for justice: A suspected former Nazi death camp guard, aged 89, has been charged in a German youth court with participating in the mass murder of 430,000 Jews at the Belzec death camp in occupied Poland.
Samuel Kunz, the world's third most wanted Nazi suspect according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, is accused of guarding in Belzec starting in January 1942 – at the age of 20. German law stipulates that those accused of crimes between ages 18 and 21 can be brought to trial as either minors or adults; the judge then decides whether the convict should be sentenced as an adolescent or an adult.
The German authorities decided to try Kunz as an adolescent, giving him hope that his sentence will be relatively lenient. His trial will be held in Bonn, the former capital of what used to be West Germany.
Kunz also allegedly served as a guard in the Trawniki-SS training camp. He was discovered during the course of the search for evidence in the case of Sobibor guard Ivan Demjanjuk, who is currently on trial in Germany.
At Least Ten Direct Murders
In addition to being charged generally with participating in the murder of over 430,000 Jews, Kunz is also accused of murdering ten Jews personally.
"In July 1943, the defendant is accused of having shot two persons who had escaped from a train going to the death camp and had been captured by guards," the indictment statement said. In addition, between May and June 1943, he allegedly killed eight Jews who had been wounded but not killed by another guard at Belzec. "The defendant then took the weapon from the other guard to shoot the wounded victims to death," according to the statement.
AP reports that Kunz had long been ignored by the German justice system, where former officials were not particularly interested in going after relatively low-ranking camp guards. In the past ten years, however, the younger German prosecutors are actively bent on bringing all surviving Nazi suspects to justice.
6. Journalist Menachem Benn Moves to Shomron
by Hillel Fendel
Gratification in the Shomron: Poet and Maariv newspaper columnist and critic Menachem Benn has moved to the town of Nofim (Horizons), following a tour he took with the Shomron Regional Council.
Over the past two years, the Council has run over 100 trips and tours for Knesset Members, Cabinet ministers, journalists and others who play key roles in forming Israeli policy. This week, it scored one of its biggest successes: One of the participants actually moved to a Shomron town - a mixed religious-secular community named Nofim, above Kaneh Brook near Karnei Shomron.
Benn’s visit took place several months ago, and soon after, he and his wife Shlomit and family decided to pick up and move. Yesterday (Wednesday), they did it.
Shomron Council head Gershon Mesika greeted the Benn family as they arrived, and granted them a new Mezuzuah, which Benn immediately affixed to one of the doorposts in his new home in accordance with Jewish Law.
Menachem Benn has gained notoriety in the past for his views against the existence of AIDS as a new disease, and for declaring that he can prove the existence of G-d “in two minutes” while at the same time opposing Orthodox Judaism. He attacked Defense Minister Ehud Barak in a column last year for his decision to remove Yeshivat Har Brachah from the Hesder arrangement, writing that Barak “destroyed his party and is more than ready to destroy the country… He is already dividing the IDF and pitting its finest knit-kippah [religious Zionist] combat soldiers against it.”
“When I took that wonderful tour in the Shomron with Yossi Dagan and Boaz HaEtzni,” Benn told Arutz-7 a few hours after his move, “I saw that the Shomron is simply a beautiful place. It has both the magic of Jerusalem and the friendliness of the coastal plane.”
“Beyond the absolute importance of the Shomron settlement enterprise in terms of security and diplomacy,” he said, “these are wonderful places and have warm and special people... The people and what they do here are one of the purest things in the country. I hope to spend the rest of my life here.”
“From the window of my new home I can clearly see the towers of Tel Aviv,” Benn continued. “If Arabs were sitting here instead of me, they could easily fire rockets at the city – and this is true of all of Judea and Samaria… The Shomron is the Land of Israel and Jewish settlement at its best, and whoever is crazy enough to give control of this area to the Palestinians would end up causing a terrible war – both a civil war and one with the enemy…”
A previous high of the Shomron Council touring program was registered this past April, when popular TV and Army Radio broadcaster Avri Gilad told his listeners that his visit to the Shomron had led to a revolution in his thinking. He said at the time, “Yesterday I was on an awareness-revolution tour in settlements in the Shomron. I visited places that I had been taught to hate, and I came back confused. Confused at the stupidity of the State that called on people to settle those areas, gave them licenses to build, and then froze them… I was surprised to meet a community of people with whom I had a lot to talk about, and with much warmth and closeness. Most of the leftist talk about settlers is simply hatred.”
7. Shiloh, Israel's Capital for 400 Years, Being Uncovered
by Gil Ronen
As Israel's enemies attempt to deny the nation's connection to its homeland, archaeologists keep digging at the facts.
In Shiloh, north of Beit El, excavations are currently being carried out under the auspices of the Archaeological Staff Officer for Judea and Samaria in the IDF Civilian Administration Antiquities Unit and the Binyamin local authority.
Shiloh was where the Holy Sanctuary – precursor to the Holy Temple – stood for about 400 years during the era of the Judges. It is first mentioned in the Book of Joshua, which also states that the Holy Sanctuary was built there. In the Book of Samuel, Shiloh is mentioned as a religious center, where Elkana and his family go to give sacrifices to G-d. During that pilgrimage, Elkana's wife, Hana, asks G-d to give her a son – and eventually gives birth to Samuel the Prophet.
Shiloh is believed by researchers to have fallen into ruin after the Israelites' unsuccessful war with the Philistines, in which the enemy took the Holy Ark captive. The Ark was soon returned to Israel, but was never brought back to Shiloh. Instead, it was taken to Kiryat Yearim until King David had it delivered to Jerusalem.
Archaeological findings indicate that a Jewish presence continued at Shiloh until the year 722 BCE, when the Kingdom of Israel was defeated by Assyria. According to the Book of Judges and the Mishna, unwed Jewish women traditionally went to the vineyards of Shiloh to dance on Tu B'Av.
More Website News:
 | Philistine Temple Ruins Uncovered in Goliath's Hometown  |
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| Agreement Reached: Only “Made in Israel” IDF Uniforms  |
| Gush Katif Book and Debate Answer Hard Questions |
| Australia Adds New Economic Sanctions Against Iran |
