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1. Beit Yehonatan 'A Victory for Equality'
by Maayana Miskin
Groups supporting Jewish rights in the land of Israel praised Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat's decision regarding the Beit Yehonatan housing complex
on Sunday. Barkat's decision to postpone the sealing of the stop
stories of the building was a victory for the principle of equality,
they said.
Deputy Mayor David Hadari, who has worked on behalf of the residents of
Beit Yehonatan, said, “I am pleased that Jewish life will continue in
Beit Yehonatan and in the Yemenite quarter that is now called Silwan. We
will continue to build and settle in every part of the city, east and
west.”
Regarding the legal status of the building, he said, “I am in favor of
enforcing the law on all illegal buildings in the east of the city, not
just on Beit Yehonatan.”
The Ichud Leumi (National Union) Knesset faction will hold its weekly
meeting in Beit Yehonatan on Monday at 2:30 p.m. The party earlier
joined residents of the building in filing suit against the city of
Jerusalem for discrimination, over the city's singling out of one of the
only Jewish-owned buildings in Shiloach (Silwan) for punishment over
building code violations, while hundreds of similar violations in the
neighborhood were ignored.
The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel termed Barkat's decision “a
victory for the principle of equality before the law.” Legal Forum head
Nachi Eyal, representing residents in their suit against the city, had
warned, “Selective law enforcement does not create rule of law, it makes
a laughingstock of the rulers.”
Regavim, a group which has fought illegal Arab construction on Jewish
land, called on other cities to “follow the example set by the Jerusalem
municipality and enforce the law equally on all.”
Barkat announced Sunday that the top floors of Beit Yehonatan would not
be sealed immediately as previously planned. Instead, he said, the
Jewish families living in the building will be allowed to remain, and
building code violations will be dealt with under a new program which is
to be implemented on all homes in the area, Jewish and Arab alike.
His decision came after the organization Ateret Cohanim threatened to
enforce an order allowing it to expel an Arab family from a Yemenite
synagogue in the area. The group allowed the Arab family to stay,
leading Barkat to allow the Beit Yehonatan families to stay as well.
2. IDF Chief: “We’re Risking Our Men to Bring Home Gilad Shalit”
by Hillel Fendel and Haggai Huberman
Freeing terrorists is not the only way to bring Gilad Shalit back home,
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi hints. Speaking to Israel
Arts and Science Academy high school students in Jerusalem on Sunday,
Ashkenazi said, “We are putting men at risk in order to bring him back…
We sent him there, we’re obligated to bring him back.”
Ashkenazi’s four-year term as Chief of Staff will end this February,
and he will be replaced by Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant. Ashkenazi has earned
high praise for his performance in upgrading the army in many areas,
especially in light of its less-than-sterling job in the Second Lebanon
War several months before he became Chief of Staff.
“As long as Gilad Shalit is still in captivity,” Ashkenazi told the
students, “the mission has not been completed. The IDF will make every
effort to bring him home… We are risking men for this purpose; [we are]
not revealing everything.”
Regarding the military tensions, Hamas rockets and Israeli retaliations
of the past week in Gaza, the Chief of Staff said, “We will not allow a
situation in which they fire at our citizens and towns from ‘safe
havens’ amidst [their] civilians. We've not lost our right to
self-defense. [But] in the next war as well, we will do everything to
reduce hitting civilians. In comparison with other countries and armies,
we can be proud of the ethics and morals of our soldiers.”
Ashkenazi singled out the city in which he was speaking, Jerusalem, as
having special importance: “This is not just another city… It’s
important that every soldier visit Jerusalem at least once.”
He further said that the army has upped the number of future soldiers
that it has allowed to postpone military service, but implied that the
quota of such soldiers is close to the maximum. In addition, he said,
though the army is not against a year of national service, “we will
reconsider the issue next year.” Ashkenazi added that more than 90% of
areas of service in the army are now open to women.
%InAd1%
3. Dr.Efraim Zuroff, Nazi Hunter: Lithuania Has Not Changed
by Dr. Efraim Zuroff
Dr. Zuroff is Director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center-Israel Office,
and Coordinator of the SWC Nazi war crimes research worldwide
(www.operationlastchance.org). Dr. Zuroff is also an author; his most
recent book was Operation Last Chance: One Man's Quest to Bring Nazi
Criminals to Justice, published by Palgrave/Macmillan.
The visit to Israel this past week of Lithuanian Prime Minister
Andrius Kubilius went virtually unnoticed by the Israeli media. In fact,
the report by David Lev on Friday on Israel National News ("Is
Lithuania Sincere About Owing Up to its Holocaust Past?") was, to the
best of my knowledge, the only attempt to assess the most important
aspect of current Lithuanian-Jewish relations, the attitude of the
Baltic republic to its bloody Holocaust past and the extensive
complicity of Lithuanians in the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of
Jews (both in their own country and outside her borders), in the light
of recent attempts by Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors to rewrite the
history of the Shoa [Holocaust, ed.] in a totally distorted manner.
Unfortunately, however, rather than exposing this insiduous campaign,
which has strong and very dangerous anti-Semitic undertones, the article
was an interview with Yisrael Rosenson,
the author of a recent book on LIthuania, which contained a totally
opposite assessment of the current situation. Rosenson is not only
woefully misinformed, but tried especially hard to paint present a
positive assessment of Lithuanian intentions and policy on Holocaust
issues, for reasons I can only surmise.
Thus, according to Yisrael Rosenson of the Efrata Teachers College in Jerusalem, "at least some elements of the country's society are making a very sincere effort
[my emphasis-EZ] to reevaluate their behavior, to make an honest
accounting of their crimes against the Jews." Apparently Rosenson is
referring to the government officials in charge of Holocaust education
in Lithuania, who according to him have established a national
"Holocaust educational center which coordinates programs for all
children in all the country's schools." In addition, he claims that
"There are Holocaust research centers in Lithuanian universities, with
many studies discussing the Lithuanian people's failures regarding the
Jews."
If these facts were indeed accurate, there be a basis for Rosenson's
positive appraisal of the sincerity of at least part of contemporary
Lithuanian society in this regard, but unfortunately his information is
all wrong and in fact the situation in this regard is far worse than he
could ever imagine.
First of all, there is no national center for Holocaust education. The
subject has been entrusted to three institutions, which instead of
preserving the accepted narrative of the Shoa, have been leading the
campaign to equate Communist crimes with those of the Nazis in an effort
to undermine the status of the Holocaust as a unique historical
tragedy. I am referring to the International Commission For The
Evaluation Of The Crimes Of The Nazi And Soviet Occupations, whose name
clearly indicates its agenda and stance on the false equivalency between
Nazi and Soviet crimes being actively promoted by the Lithuanian
authorities.
The second is the Genocide and Resistance Research Center, whose
attitude toward Holocaust issues is clearly manifest in its Museum of
Genocide Victims in the heart of Vilnius, which does not even mention
the Holocaust or the mass murder site of Ponar, but stresses the Jewish
origin of Communist officials in blatantly anti-Semitic cartoons in its
permanent exhibition.
The third organization involved is the Vilnius Tolerance Center headed
by Emanuel Zingeris, a Jewish member of the Seimas, who no longer is a
member of the local Jewish community and is one of the key operatives in
the efforts of the Lithuanian government to promote the Prague
Declaration of June 3, 2008, the main manifesto of the false equivalency
movement.
As far as Lithuanian universities are concerned, not a single one has a
Holocaust research center, nor are there any courses on Holocaust
history. In fact, just this past summer, Vilnius University purged its
most prominent Jewish professor, world-renowned Yiddish expert Prof.
Dovid Katz, who has been teaching there the past eleven years, and whose
primary sin was his courageous defense of several elderly Holocaust
survivors who fought with the Soviet anti-Nazi partisans and who were
accused in the local nationalist press of committing "war crimes"
against innocent Lithuanian civilians.
These trumped-up charges against Jewish heroes, whose only hope of
survival was to join the partisans, is part of the false symmetry being
promoted by the Lithuanian authorities in order to relativize the
Holocaust crimes of Lithuanians, as if they were the mirror image of
similar or equivalent crimes by Jews against Lithuanians, and thereby
deflect the fully-justified criticism of Lithuanian behavior during the
Shoa. Of course, if the campaign to equalize Communist and Nazi crimes
were to succeed, that would turn the Lithuanians from a "nation of
killers" into a "nation of victims," which would do wonders to erase
their guilt for Shoa crimes.
Rosenson is also wrong when it comes to the important issue of the
prosecution of Nazi war criminals. He correctly points out that there
was very strong resistance to doing so in Lithuania, but offers the
explanation that there was similar opposition to such trials in other
countries, pointing to France which did not try Lyon Gestapo chief Klaus
Barbie until the eighties. What he neglects to mention is that the only
reason there were any trials whatsoever of Lithuanian Nazi war
criminals in independent Lithuania was external pressure from the US,
Israel, and the Wiesenthal Center and that the local authorities did
everything possible to prevent any of the criminals from actually being
punished, turning the entire judicial process in these cases to a total
farce. Instead of serving as an important history lesson, like the trial
of Jasenovac concentration camp commander Dinko Sakic in Croatia, the
Lithuanian attitude toward their Nazi collaborators was one of
understanding and sympathy for the last people on earth to deserve such
treatment.
In view of all of the above, and given Rosenson's efforts to describe
Lithuania in a positive light, one can only wonder why a respected
religious Zionist educator would defend the truly-indefensible behavior
of a country which had the highest percentage of Jewish victims in the
Holocaust and is trying its hardest to erase or at least minimize the
memory of those crimes? The only possible answer is that in recent
years the Lithuanian government has allocated enormous sums to try and
improve its image in Jewish communities the world over. Can it be
that the year-long program on Lithuanian Jewish history which culminates
with a trip to Lithuania which is organized by Rabbi Rosenson
personally and sponsored by Efrata Teachers College has been the
recepient of Lithuanian government largesse? I hope that the existence
of this program and nothing more explains why Efrata hosted the previous
Lithuanian ambassador to Israel (currently the Deputy Foreign Minister)
despite the terrible acccusations made at that time by the Lithuanain
government against Jewish anti-Nazi partisans.
I do not know the answer to this question and I would like Rabbi
Rosenson to explain. I can only hope that Rosenson's interview was the
result of ignorance rather than funding , but something is very
seriously wrong when a respected Zionist religious educational leader
publically provides patently false information to defend those who are,
in my opinion, in the process of inflicting serious damage on the
interests of the Jewish people and the memory of the Holocaust.
4. IDF: 90 Arabs Try to Breach Qalandiya Crossing
by Elad Benari
Approximately 90 Palestinian Authority Arabs attempted on Sunday
morning to breach the Qalandiya crossing between Jerusalem and Ramallah,
the IDF website reported. According to the report, the Arabs hurled
rocks at security forces who were on the scene. Six rioters were
arrested and taken for questioning by security forces.
The Qalandiya crossing, a military checkpoint where Arabs with permits
can leave Ramallah for work, medical care, education or religious
reasons, is often a site of clashes between Arabs and the IDF. In
September, Arabs threw three firebombs at Israeli vehicles at the crossing. No one was injured, and there was no damage.
In June, a Border Police unit discovered three firebombs and a 12-centimeter/4.7-inch knife
in the possessions of two Arabs at the checkpoint. The weapons were
confiscated and the Arabs were turned over to security services for
investigation.
Earlier this year, about 50 Arab men and women tried to break through
the Qalandiya checkpoint, throwing stones at security forces and a
firebomb at the troops, but fortunately no IDF soldiers were injured.
Five of the attackers were arrested and the checkpoint was closed for
four hours.
The IDF also reported that over the past weekend, approximately 50
demonstrators gathered in Hevron, causing the IDF to declare the area a
closed military zone. The gathering was dispersed and three of the
demonstrators were arrested under charges of entering a closed military
zone.
%InAd2%
5. It’s All Israel’s Fault: PA Says ‘Occupation' Prevents Elections
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The Palestinian Authority countered Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman’s charges that the Ramallah government is illegal by claiming
that Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria is the reason it has not
honored its constitution that requires new elections as of two years
ago.
Israel's straight-shooting foreign minister
told the annual conference of Israeli ambassadors Sunday night, "The PA
has an illegitimate government that isn't holding elections." Any
agreements with Abbas' illegitimate government would not be binding, he
added.
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s term of office expired two years ago, but
the division between his hold on Judea and Samaria and the Hamas regime
in Gaza has been a principal factor precluding any possibility of new
elections.
However, the PA reacted to Lieberman’s comments by placing the blame on
Israel. On the official PA WAFA website, Fahmi Zarir, spokesman for the
Fatah Revolutionary Council, asserted that PA law cannot co-exist with a
Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.
“We are ready for a general election tomorrow,” he maintained, but
insisted that Israel first must “recognize our rights through the
recognition and support in the state on 1967 borders, the right to
self-determination. The Israeli occupation will not have legitimacy,
existence and stability unless our people enjoy their national rights.”
Zarir’s statement places a stronger hammerlock on the
American-sponsored “diplomatic process.” Abbas has taken an increasingly
hard-line position that “negotiations” with Israel mean Jerusalem’s
acceptance of his demands for sovereignty over the Western Wall, Temple
Mount and all of the Old City of Jerusalem; all of the capital’s
neighborhoods on land restored to Israel in the Six Day War in 1967,
consisting of approximately 230,000 Jews; and all of Judea and Samaria.
Abbas also has been holding out for the provision in the Saudi Arabia
2002 Initiative that Israel allow the immigration of several million
foreign Arabs who claim "refugee" status due to being descendants of
Arabs who left Israel in 1948. This has been rejected by virtually all
political leaders in Israel – from the right to the left - as being the
death knell of a Jewish state.
Against the background of the PA position, Foreign Minister Lieberman
(pictured) told ambassadors behind closed doors that there is no chance
of reaching a peace accord with the Palestinian Authority unless a
different approach is taken. Paralleling Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu’s “economic peace” plan of several years ago, the Foreign
Minister said that a peace pact is more likely after steps are taken to
strengthen and stabilize the PA economy.
Lieberman’s comments were similar to those of many analysts and
journalists covering the diplomatic process - a process they have called
“brain dead.” However, Lieberman’s tone, in direct opposition to that
of modern western diplomats who are careful to soothe foreign officials
and show optimism towards Arab initiatives, drew an unusually harsh response from Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“The position of the government of Israel is only that which the Prime
Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, expresses,” his office stated.
6. PA Says Paraguay Will Also Recognize Palestine
by Elad Benari
Officials in the Palestinian Authority claimed on Sunday that Paraguay
is set to join a number of South American nations who recently supported
a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state. According to the
reports, Paraguay plans to recognize an independent Palestinian state
next year.
A statement released by the PA’s Foreign Ministry which was quoted in
the PA-based Ma’an News Agency, said that Paraguay's Foreign Minister
Hector Lacognata gave a spring 2011 deadline for the country's
recognition of a Palestinian state on the so-called 1967 borders, lands
which were occupied by Jordan between 1948 and 1967. Lacognata made the
announcement to the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to Paraguay.
If Paraguay indeed announces its recognition of a Palestinian state, it
would be joining other South American nations who have already done so
or have expressed their willingness to do so.
Argentina announced earlier this month
that it recognizes “a free and independent Palestinian state within its
1967 borders.” Argentina reportedly said it decided to make the
announcement due to frustration at the slow progress of peace talks with
Israel.
Several days before Argentina, Brazil announced that it recognizes the Palestinian Authority
as a new independent Arab country. The announcement was criticized by
both Israel and the United States, with Israel expressing “regret and
disappointment” with the decision and pointing out that “recognition of a
Palestinian state is a violation of the Interim Agreement signed
between Israel and the PA in 1995,” a reference to the amended Oslo
Accords.
Uruguay has also recently announced that it will recognize a
Palestinian Authority state next year. “Uruguay will surely follow the
same path as Argentina in 2011,” Deputy foreign minister Roberto Conde
told AFP. “We are working towards opening a diplomatic representation in
Palestine, most likely in Ramallah.”
The European Union has also reaffirmed its readiness to recognize a Palestinian state
at an “appropriate” time, but did not recognize one outright, choosing
instead to express “regret” at Israel's rejection of a new construction
freeze on Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria, describing the communities
in Judea and Samaria as “illegal” and as an “obstacle to peace.”
%InAd3%
7. Lebanese Terrorists Avenge Suspected Murder by Fatah
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Lebanese terrorists bombed a store owned by an official of the Fatah
terror organization on Sunday, one day after Fatah was suspected of
murdering a rival terrorist leader.
The murder and bombing in the village of Ain el-Hilwah are being
investigated by a joint village and Fatah committee. Like most villages
of Arabs claiming a connection to Israel while being denied citizenship
in Lebanon, the residents are not under full control of the Lebanese
government.
The Sunday morning explosion at the gift store of Major Rasmi
Nasrallah, a member of the Palestinian Armed Struggle group, caused
damage but no injuries.
The attack followed by one day the brutal murder of a member of the
disbanded Jund al-Sham terror group. The slain man, Ghandi Sahmarani,
was a Lebanese citizen and wanted by authorities. He was found dead with
his legs and hands cuffed and with a fatal blow or bullet shot in his
head.
He was involved with several terrorist organizations and fought the
Lebanese army, reportedly having sheltered a number of terrorists.
The head of the Palestinian Armed Struggle, Mohammed Abdel Hamid Issa
who also is known as al-Lino, denied that Fatah was involved in the
murder.
Meanwhile, Fatah leaders in Israel denied charges by Hamas that it
plans to expel 50 Hamas terrorists from Judea and Samaria to Lebanon.
8. Report: U.S. Companies Trade with Iran Despite Sanctions
by Maayana Miskin
Over the past decade, United States-based companies have done billions
of dollars in trade with Iran, North Korea, and other countries under
sanctions for supporting terrorism, according to the New York Times.
Products traded with Iran include gum, cigarettes, and sports equipment.
One American company was permitted to do work on an Iranian gas
pipeline, despite sanctions aimed at Iran's gas industry in particular.
The transactions have been made possible by a 2000 law that allows
exemptions from sanctions for companies selling food or medical
products. The law was initially meant to allow humanitarian aid, but
following pressure from lobbyists, included permits for non-humanitarian
food products such as soda, beer, and additives.
Some purchasers of the “humanitarian” food products have been found to
have links to terrorism. The New York Times found that of the Iranian
chain stores that bought food colorings and cake sprinkles from the
American company McCormick & Co., one is government owned, and a
second counts blacklisted banks among its major investors.
Adam Szubin directs the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control, which issues licenses for trade with countries under economic
embargo. He told the Times that his office has limited resources and
cannot fully investigate every buyer; in addition, he said, deals are
allowed by law to go through even if the buyer has terrorist ties, as
long as less than half the company is owned by those engaged in
terrorism.
The report stated that Szubin's office has granted almost 10,000
requests to trade with countries under sanction in the past 10 years.
Stuart Eizenstat, who directed sanctions policy for the Clinton
administration, told the Times that allowing exemptions could be
positive “if it represents a conscious policy decision to give countries
an incentive.” However, he said, American policy is not served by
“loopholes like this that you can drive a Mack truck through.”
Iranians Feel Sanctions at the Pump
Tough American and European sanctions against Iran recently led to a
significant change in Iranian policy, as the government stopped
subsidizing gasoline, sending prices soaring from $0.38 per gallon to
$2.55. The country has been experiencing gas shortages due to the
sanctions, which have targeted Iran's fuel industry.
The Obama administration added new sanctions last week. Five new Iranian companies have been added to the Treasury Department's blacklist.
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Egypt Seeks International Help with 'Israeli Spy Ring' |
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Reprieve for Beit Yehonatan - and for Arab Synagogue Squatters |
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Hareidi Men Join IDF Intelligence |
