 | ||
 |         |  |
 | ||
| MP3 Radio | Website News Briefs: | |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
 |  |
1. Ancient Tzfat 'Fighting a War Against Saudi Money'
by Gil Ronen
Tzfat's chief rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, explained Wednesday that the ancient city is fighting a Saudi-financed invasion, after Labor MK Daniel Ben-Simon launched an unprecedentedly rude attack on the rabbi.
Speaking in the Knesset plenum, Ben Simon said: “This rabbi... this insane rabbi... this recidivist... every once in a while he comes out with his mantra in a city in which people coexist.” Ben-Simon said Rabbi Eliyahu should be “isolated” because of his opinions regarding Arabs. Ben-Simon may be referencing Israeli journalists' undeclared decision in 1984 to cease reporting about Rabbi Meir Kahane when he became too powerful, in their opinion.
Ben-Simon's attack reflects the Israeli Left's long-held view that any criticism of Arabs by Jews is motivated by “racism.” The Left often equates the Jewish-Arab struggle in Israel to tensions in the segregated South in the US, or to the South African apartheid regime, with Jews in the role of whites.
Rabbi Eliyahu appeared unfazed by the vitriol. “Some people,” he said, “are swept away by the UN motto that Zionism is a form of racism.”
"People need to know that there is a quiet war going on here,” he told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language news magazine. “The war today is a war against Saudi and anti-Semitic money and they are buying another parcel of land, another house and another goat” [a reference to the old-time Zionist precept of patiently redeeming the Land of Israel with “another parcel of land and another goat. - ed.].
"They are trying to break us with this money. The state is doing nothing. We cannot sit back passively when they are trying to take us over and offering endless sums of money for every apartment in Tzfat and other places.”
“The law does not apply” to the Arabs in the Negev and Galilee either, he said with pained sarcasm, “and Jewish MKs attack whoever defends them instead of giving him a hand.”
"The same thing happened with soldiers in 'Cast Lead,' the soldiers who fought on board the Marmara... [the leftists] fight against anyone who struggles for the Jewish identity of the Land.”
"We are not taken aback,” he intoned. “We hurt for them, we are sorry about them. In our eyes, Zionism is a source of pride, it is an expression of the Torah. I am proud that I was attacked over uttering words of Torah.”
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) had words of support for Rabbi Eliyahu and the Jewish residents of Tzfat Wednesday. He said that “the Tzfat affair is not the first of its kind in the Galilee.”
"The ongoing taking over of Jewish land in Tzfat and the Galilee is not sporadic," he said, "but a trend that is funded by the Islamic Movement, which wants to see Israel destroyed.”
2. Kadima Embarrassed as Past Promises Revealed
by Maayana Miskin
The Knesset's leading opposition party, Kadima, was embarrassed Wednesday when it was revealed that party leaders had supported stipends for kollel students. Kadima MKs have vociferously opposed the stipends in recent debates.
MK Yohanan Plesner attacked the Likud in a speech Wednesday, criticizing the party for giving in to hareidi-religious demands.
His accusations angered Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Leitzman of the hareidi-religious United Torah Judaism party. “Are you in Kadima not ashamed of yourselves?” he asked. “You're attacking the Likud... ? I want to read to you from a document recording the coalition negotiations between United Torah Judaism and Kadima, headed by Livni.”
Leitzman proceeded to read a passage in which Kadima promised to continue paying stipends to eligible kollel students. “Just as the government is doing now,” he concluded. “What hypocrisy, what an embarrassment.”
Kadima attempted to form a coalition after the last national elections, but was eventually forced into the opposition as Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu managed to bring nationalist and religious parties to his side, leaving Kadima with too few seats for a government despite its status as the largest Knesset faction.
Prime Minister Netanyahu recently added more than 110 million shekels to the state budget for stipends for married fathers learning Torah full-time in yeshivas (kollels). The change followed a High Court decision that found the stipends to be discriminatory, as they are paid only to kollel students and not to those learning in other institutes of higher learning.
Hareidi Parties Receive Islamic Movement Support
The kollel stipends debate made for strange bedfellows as the stipends were slammed by MK Aryeh Eldad of the largely religious National Union party, while receiving support from MK Ibrahim Sarsur of the virulently anti-Zionist Ra'am Ta'al.
Eldad accused hareidi leaders of encouraging hate between various sectors of society. By insisting on special treatment, including exclusion from military service and extra funding, hareidi society gives those who detest religious Jewish life justification for their hate, he said.
Sarsur, on the other hand, said he is in favor of the stipend. “I think the hareidi students should get this stipend, it' a small amount and doesn't meet their needs or those of their children,” he said. “There's no excuse to punish their innocent children.”
“My research shows that we have 3,000 Muslim religious scholars,” said Sarsur, whose party is affiliated with the Islamic Movement. “With the help of our hareidi Jewish brothers, we will find a way to work together” and get funding for all, he concluded.
3. U.S. Indicts One in DC Subway Bomb Plot
by Maayana Miskin
A Pakistani-born American citizen was charged Wednesday in Virginia for plotting a terrorist bombing. The man, 34-year-old Farooque Ahmed, planned to target the Washington DC subway system.
FBI agents stressed that America was never in danger from Ahmed's plot. While Ahmed believed he was communicating with Al-Qaeda operatives to plan the attack, he was in fact dealing with FBI agents, they said.
Ahmed was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization, collecting intelligence to help plan a terrorist attack on a transit facility, and attempting to provide material support to help carry out multiple bombings to cause mass casualties. If convicted, he could face up to 50 years in prison.
He is accused of agreeing to carry out surveillance of the subway station in Arlington, Virginia, and of suggesting a plan to put bombs on trains. He allegedly planned to plant explosives where they would kill as many people as possible.
US Assistant Attorney General for National Security David Kirs said, “Today's case underscores the need for continued vigilance against terrorist threats and demonstrates how the government can neutralize such threats before they come to fruition. Farooque Ahmed is accused of plotting with individuals he believed were terrorists to bomb our transit system, but a co-ordinated law enforcement and intelligence effort was able to thwart his plans."
4. Nov Elections:Pro Israel, Anti Iran Issue in NY Comptroller Race
by Maayana Miskin
America's ties to Israel sometimes come up in U.S. elections, as does the Iranian nuclear threat. Recently both issues made an appearance at the state level, as New York prepared to vote for State Comptroller. Although the position does not include foreign policy, it does include investment decisions.
Comptroller Thomas Dinapoli has touted his tough stance on terrorist regimes and those that flagrantly abuse human rights. Dinapoli has used his position to hit Iran and Sudan when it comes to investing the state's $129 billion pension funds.
He met this week with members of the Bukharian Jewish community and received their support. He told them that he supports Israel, and has purchased Israel Bonds.
Dinapoli told the Bukharian leaders that he is committed to divesting from companies that do business with Iran. The Islamic regime in Iran has been hit by tough sanctions over its refusal to open its nuclear program to international oversight, which has been coupled with calls to destroy Israel.
Republican candidate Harry Wilson has charged Dinapoli with bearing partial responsibility for the hit that New York employee pension funds took during the economic downturn. Wilson, who has a strong background in finance, has promised “a turnaround” if he is elected.
Dinapoli has said that Wilson's financial background is nothing to be proud of, saying recently that his opponent “comes out of a culture and value system that engaged in some very reckless behavior.”
5. Kadima MK Sees Tea Party Brewing in Israel
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
No sooner than Kadima Knesset Member Ronit Tirosh said this week that over taxation will spawn an Israeli version of the anti-big government American Tea Party, English-speaking Israelis were advancing plans to open an American branch in Tel Aviv.
The grass roots Tea Party has rocked the American political system, dividing the Republican party and attracting former GOP vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin as its undeclared candidate to run in the 2012 presidential election.
The Tea Party has all the markings of a conservative, patriotic and evangelical movement, against “Big Brother” and high taxes and in favor of anything that symbolizes the once shining image of a free, strong and powerful United States. The common thread with an Israeli version is that its popularity will come from the grassroots by people fed up with over taxation, a theme that MK Tirosh hammered home in a column this week in Globes.
“True, Israelis are greater suckers and more passive [than Americans], but we too are not far off from a Tea Party,” she predicted.
Next Sunday, one week after Tirosh wrote her column, anti-Obama Americans will begin a local branch of the US Tea Party with a “Saying No to Obama” rally at the ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) House in Tel Aviv, with a political focus much broader than high taxes. Among MKs expected at the rally are Druze MK Ayoub Kara, whose views are eye-to-eye with Jewish nationalists', and Likud colleagues Danny Danon and Yariv Levin. The head of the Samaria Regional Council, Gershon Mesika, also will attend.
MK Tirosh's warning of an Israeli Tea Party was based on the policies of the Israeli government that "spends our money like water."
"First," she wrote, "we were required to pay a ‘duty on over consumption’ [of water], otherwise known as the ‘drought tax.’ Then, the Israel Tax Authority ‘updated’ water rates – effectively raising them – and the people were quiet."
“Then, in order to improve the wringing of money from the people, it was decided to require local authorities to set up water corporations. These corporations, we were told, would massively enforce collection while also collecting VAT [Value Added Tax}, something that had never before happened. And the people? Still silent.”
Rendering her version of American complaints of big corporations using government handouts for fancy perks, she said water corporations “grew to monstrous budget-gobbling size … built luxurious offices, bought cars, set aside job positions and received salaries for them.”
Meanwhile, budgets are being cut for education, and property taxes are raised to fund basic services.
6. US Education Dept Bans Anti-Semitism Under Title VI
by Chana Ya'ar
The U.S. Department of Education will protect Jewish students against anti-Semitism under Title VI, after a six-year campaign.
Title VI, a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, requires schools that receive federal funding must ensure their programs and activities are free from discrimination based on “race, color or national origin.” Violation of the law can cost a school its federal funding.
The ruling came after a Title VI complaint filed with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in 2004 by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) on behalf of Jewish students at the University of California, Irvine.
The complaint alleged that students had been subjected to years of anti-Semitic harassment, intimidation and discrimination that the university knew about but failed to redress.
Although the complaint filed with OCR was dismissed, the issue of campus anti-Semitism was raised with members of Congress and later by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Russlyn Ali, the U.S. Department of Education’s Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, wrote in a letter dated October 26, 2010, that Jewish students would join others who merit protection under the law.
“Anti-Semitic harassment can trigger responsibilities under Title VI,” he wrote. “While Title VI does not cover discrimination based solely on religion, groups [such as Jews] that face discrimination on the basis of actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics may not be denied protection under Title VI on the ground that they also share a common faith.”
Remedial steps in dealing with anti-Semitic incidents could include “publicly labeling the incidents as anti-Semitic,” and educating teachers and students on the history and dangers of anti-Semitism and how to recognize it when it occurs.
In addition, the letter clarified that schools must “take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment and prevent its recurrence.”
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein and Susan B. Tuchman, Esq., director of the group’s Center for Law and Justice, issued a joint statement praising the decision.
“Now, when Jewish students are being harassed or intimidated, or facing a hostile anti-Semitic school environment, their schools will no longer be able to ignore the problem, or make token efforts to redress it. There will now be financial and other consequences under federal law if colleges and universities do not respond to end the anti-Semitic harassment and prevent it from recurring,” they said.
“Our children and grandchildren should never be confronted with anti-Semitic bigotry at their schools. But if they are, they now can rest assured that they have legal recourse. OCR is obligated to respond to the problem,” they noted, “and their schools are obligated to fix the hostile environment so that Jewish students can get their education in a safe environment that is conducive to learning.”
7. Largest IDF Medical Course Concludes
by Elad Benari
The IDF Medical Corps completed this week the largest doctors’ course in IDF history. The IDF’s website reported that 50 new doctors will be given their ranks next week and will be assigned to the various air, sea, and land IDF units.
Yedioth Ahronoth reported that once the ranks are given to the doctors, the IDF will officially close the doctors' shortage gap. The doctors will be assigned to 35 different battalions, of which 17 never had a regular doctor, relying on a paramedic or temporary physician.
The IDF’s Chief Medical Officer, Brigadier General Dr. Nachman Ash, told Yedioth Ahronoth: “In recent years, we’ve had to solve the shortage in different ways. About 25 troops did not have a regular doctor, and now we are completing the process that gives an answer to this essential need.”
Ash explained that the solution is due in part to a change in reserve conditions, which now include a refund of tuition fees and benefits. Also contributing to the change is an extensive campaign the IDF ran encouraging future soldiers to join the Medical Corps.
Ash, who gave the IDF’s future doctors their final examination, congratulated them and said: “These are doctors who are fully motivated, they are ready and willing to perform their duty. There is no doubt that from now on, with all the IDF’s field units manned by doctors, the response to our soldiers will also improve accordingly.”
The youngest doctor in the group is Aviram Hochstat, who is nearing his 26th birthday and will be assigned to one of the IDF’s infantry battalions. Hochstat told Yedioth Ahronoth that while he volunteered at Magen David Adom as a teen, he never thought of going into medicine. He said that the biggest challenge in the process of becoming an IDF doctor is the first years, since they are mostly theoretic in nature.
“Afterward it became much more interesting, we took courses, we worked in a hospital,” said Hochstat. “Over time I realized I wanted to be a doctor in the battalion. I think that despite the young age, these studies make you very mature. When you make decisions that can affect whether a person lives or dies, it makes you a more sensible adult, so I am convinced that I will succeed in my job.”
The Medical Corps noted that a small decline in the number of IDF doctors is expected in the years 2013 and 2014, but the numbers are expected to rise again in 2015 when the first graduates of the IDF’s medical school which opened two years ago at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University complete their studies.
8. Poll: Young PA Arabs want Sharia Law, Seek Iran as Ally
by Maayana Miskin
A poll conducted by the Palestinian Authority-based Palestinian Center for Research and Cultural Dialogue (PCRD) found that young PA Arabs want to live in a country run by Islamic law, and a plurality sees Iran as its natural ally.
One thousand Arab men and women ages 18 to 30 who live in Judea and Samaria were polled for the survey, which was conducted in October.
The populace polled lives under the PA, dominated by the secular Fatah group, but 38.3% of them said they wish to live in a state governed by Islamic law (Sharia). An additional 34.7% said the state should be run using a combination of Sharia law and civil law.
Only 22.9% expressed support for the use of secular law in a future Arab state in Judea and Samaria. Less than half expressed support for a democratic regime, while 28.1% want an Islamic regime where all parties are based on Islamic principles, and 17.2% want an Islamic theocracy with just one party.
Respondents were slightly more flexible when asked what type of government should be in place in what was called “historic Palestine” -- a term referring to the entire state of Israel, including Judea and Samaria. 34.7% said Islamic law should rule a binational state that includes Israel as well, while 20.2% said they would be willing to live in a secular state as long as it was officially Muslim.
The most popular potential PA ally was Iran, which 18.7% chose as “the best ally to Palestinians in the long run.” The second most popular ally was Jordan, with 18.1% support, followed by Saudi Arabia, with 10.7% support.
Western countries had fewer supporters, but still made the list: 2.3% said they would ally with the United States, 3.1% chose Germany, and 5.7% chose Japan. “Scandinavian Countries” was the most popular choice for a potential ally outside the Muslim world, with 7.5% support.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party won the most support from young voters, but was closely followed by “none of the above.” 39.1% said they support Fatah, while close to 31% said they do not support any existing PA party, and more than 40% said they would support the establishment of a new party. 9.8% said they support Hamas.
The left-leaning Israeli paper Ha'aretz chose to emphasize the poll's findings regarding PA democracy, while ignoring the results showing Iran's popularity, and respondents' lack of interest in democracy. The poll found that most young PA Arabs see the PA as having “good” or “average” performance when it comes to democracy, and 71% are satisfied with the state of human rights.
More Website News:
 | Lebanon Convicts Israel 'Collaborators' in Absentia  |
| Hariri Investigators Chased Out of Southern Beirut |
| Jordan PM: Only Resolving Palestinian Issue Will End Terrorism |
| Education Minister in Beit El |
| United Nations Nod Goes to Minister Erdan |
