Israel Newsbriefs from JNS.org

The Israel Defense Forces held a comprehensive drill on Sunday to prepare for a scenario in which global jihadis enter Israel and take hostages in multiple locations.

The drill simulated a situation in which terrorists from Syria or Sinai infiltrate Israel and hold civilians captive in various venues, including hospitals, a hotel and a remote village. IDF troops were sent mock emergency call-up notices. The goal was to replicate a real-life situation and take into account all the logistical and operational pitfalls of such an event.

Most of the participating IDF troops were not informed of the drill ahead of time. The military’s chain of command, from Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz on down, was part of the drill.

“The overall impression from the drill was good, although there are many details that need to be sorted out,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement Sunday.

—Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org

5 rockets fired from Gaza

Five rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza on Sunday night, including two headed for Ashkelon which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system and three which exploded in open areas, Israel Hayom reported. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav “Poly” Mordechai said that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group was behind the attack, but that Israel “holds Hamas responsible for any terror emanating from the Gaza Strip.”

“Hamas is still in control of Gaza, and it bears the responsibility for what goes on there,” Mordechai said.

Hezbollah’s NOT terrorist?

While the hesitation of countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic and Italy has prevented a consensus among the 27-member European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that it is “hard to see how you cannot have a consensus” on that issue.

“I mean, it’s hard to see how you cannot have a consensus on Hezbollah as a terrorist organization,” Netanyahu told reporters before meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Jerusalem.

“If Hezbollah isn’t a terrorist organization, I don’t know what is a terrorist organization. I mean, they’re butchering people left and right across the world and now in the cities of Syria. They’re murdering civilians without letup, including on European soil, as was discovered in Bulgaria, as they try to do in Cyprus.”

Pope: ‘A Christian

cannot be anti-Semitic’

Pope Francis, meeting for the first time as pontiff with leaders from Jewish organizations and communities on Monday, told the delegation that due to “our common roots,” a Christian “cannot be anti-Semitic.”

A delegation of Jewish leaders from the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations gathered in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican to form a private audience for Pope Francis. During his remarks, the Pope praised the landmark Second Vatican Council declaration Nostra Aetate, which he described as a “key point of reference for relations with the Jewish people.”

“The fundamental principles expressed by the Declaration have marked the path of greater awareness and mutual understanding trodden these last decades by Jews and Catholics,” Pope Francis said, Vatican Radio reported.

Iran pres-elect linked

to Argentina bombing

Iran president-elect Hassan Rohani has been linked to a secretive government council responsible for a global assassination campaign in the 1990s that included the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which killed 85 people, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Citing a 2008 report by Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC), a U.S. non-profit group that documents patterns of human rights abuse in Iran, the Free Beacon reported Rohani sat on the Special Affairs Council, tasked with recommending people for assassination in consultation with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Reuel Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Free Beacon that there is nothing in Rohani’s background “that would suggest to you he has any moral qualms about bombing the enemies of the [Islamic] Republic.”

Samaria security lapses

The Samaria Residents’ Council said that the left-leaning Israeli group Machsom Watch, which monitors checkpoints in Judea and Samaria because it opposes Israel’s control over the area, has been exposing security weaknesses in IDF operations “to the enemy.”

The residents allege that members of Machsom Watch harass IDF soldiers at checkpoints in Samaria. Machsom Watch then reveals details such as the number of soldiers manning checkpoints and IDF security lapses, publishing the information online, the Samaria residents said.

PA media glorify terrorists

While the Palestinian Authority (PA) demands the release of all Palestinian terrorists imprisoned before the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords as a precondition for restarting peace negotiations with Israel, the PA media have been glorifying the murders committed by those same terrorists, Palestinian Media Watch reported in its June 19 bulletin.

On a PA TV broadcast that aired June 6 and June 8, the narrator called terrorist Ibrahim Faiz Abu Ali, who murdered 24 year-old taxi driver Roni Levy in December 1990, a “hero whose struggle brought honor to us and all of humanity.”

Similarly, on a PA TV broadcast that aired May 11 and May 12, the narrator called terrorist Faraj Saleh Abdallah Al-Rimahi, who beat 84 year-old Avraham Kinstler to death with a hoe in 1992, a “giant hero” who is “still writing the finest epics of endurance, heroism and self-sacrifice.” Both of these pre-Oslo terrorists are serving life sentences in Israeli prison.

Robert De Niro respects Israelis for ‘aggressiveness’

Actor Robert De Niro, known for his tough and aggressive personality on the big screen, said he appreciates similar qualities in the Israeli people.

“I always enjoy coming to Israel. Israelis are warm, they’re energetic people. Forthright. Very smart. I always like smart people. They’re nice people, you know. Aggressive, and I respect that aggressiveness because you need it in their situation,” De Niro said June 19 at the President’s Conference in Jerusalem, The Times of Israel reported.

De Nirohas played a number of Catholic roles in his movies, including “The Godfather Part II” and “The Mission” (in which he played a priest). De Niro’s signature toughness is perhaps best portrayed in the famous “You talkin’ to me?” exchange from the movie “Taxi Driver.”

Google-Waze deal probe

The Federal Trade Commisssion is examining Google’s $1 billion deal to purchase the Israeli navigation start-up Waze to see if the purchase violated any antitrust laws.

After the deal between Google and Waze was finalized June 11, Google believed it didn’t need to submit the deal for review because Waze’s revenue in the U.S. is less than $70 million. If the FTC determineds there were violations in the deal, Google will most likely have to re-sell Waze at a loss. Apple, Facebook and Microsoft all previously wanted to purchase the Israeli start-up.

Summer program worries

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has expressed concern over “summer camps” and “summer institutes” being organized in the U.S. by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)—groups ADL said have “established records of stoking anti-Israel activity.”

According to the ADL, the camps raise concerns of the indoctrination of children as young as eight years old into the anti-Israel movement, as well as bringing older recruits into the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement.

The groups organizing the camps have been major players within the BDS movement.

CAMERA Israel trip helps

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) is bringing nearly two-dozen student leaders on a 10-day trip to Israel to help “better recognize and counter news media errors and biases regarding Israel.”

Boston-based CAMERA, which also recently launched the student-geared website CAMERAoncampus.org, will bring the students to some of Israel’s top institutions to meet with experts in public relations.

“In our trip … students will visit top Israeli institutions and meet public relations experts to learn how to effectively communicate a message,” Aviva Slomich, CAMERA’s campus director, said in a statement.

“We will also take part in training sessions about media coverage and how to help promote sound reporting. In addition, the study tour includes meetings with journalists, policy makers, world-renowned academics, and government leaders,” she said.

In addition to visiting several strategic and historic locations such as Sderot, the Old City of Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, the students will meet several top experts in Israel, including Deputy Foreign Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Mark Regev, Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh, and Ishmael Khaledi, Israel’s top-ranking Muslim diplomat.

NBA win gives Israeli-born owner two straight titles

The Miami Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs, 95-88, in Game 7 of the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals on Thursday night to give Israeli-American team owner Micky Arison his second straight NBA championship.

Arison, who is also CEO of the Carnival cruise operator and bought the Heat in 2010, was born in Tel Aviv in 1949. His estimated wealth is $5.7 billion, making him the 211th-richest person in the world, according to Forbes.

Jewish Agency in Kiev

The Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) convened in the territory of the former Soviet Union for the first time, on Sunday in Kiev.

The meeting in the Ukraianian capital “was part of the Jewish Agency’s efforts to strengthen its connection with the Jewish communities of the former Soviet Union” and “a reflection of the shared destiny and the solidarity between world Jewry and Ukrainian Jewry,” said JAFI Chairman of the Executive Natan Sharansky, the Jerusalem Post reported.

About 200,000 Jews still live in the Ukraine and some Ukranian Jews have criticized JAFI’s decision to hold the meeting in Kiev due to recurring anti-Semitism.

New PA PM abruptly quits

Rami Hamdallah, the newly appointed Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister, abruptly submitted his resignation to PA President Mahmoud Abbas after only 18 days in office.

“The situation in this country forced me to resign,” Hamdallah tweeted on Sunday. “Conflicts, confusion, corruption. Palestine needs a real political reform.”

Hamdallah, who was the president of An-Najah University in Nablus, was appointed to the position following the resignation of Salam Fayyad. A political newcomer, many analysts suspected that Abbas choose Hamdallah for the position in order to maintain the ties with Western countries, which provide the PA with substantial amounts of foreign aid, that Fayyad had established.

But the PA, which is controlled by Abbas’s Fatah party, has been accused by many of corruption and mismanagement. Hamdallah was not a member of Fatah.

UNESCO adds Yad Vashem

Holocaust survivors’ testimonials, as archived by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, are among the 54 new additions to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Memory of the World Register.

The collection of “pages of testimony” — forms compiled by Yad Vashem in the effort to document the lives of Holocaust survivors — was founded in 1954 and contains about 2.6 million testimonials. The forms were filled out by relatives and friends of the victims.

The testimonials are part of Yad Vashem’s project to document the names of all the victims of the Holocaust. So far, the project has recorded the names of some 4.2 million victims.

— Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org

Panama gov’s Anti-Semitic comments are criticized

The Governor of Panama, Omaira Mayin Correa, has been condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for calling Jewish journalist Flor Mizrachi Angel “that little Jewboy from the Gestapo” on the radio June 17. The comment was a reaction to accusations from the journalist that Panama’s government is covering up corruption.

Simon Wiesenthal Center Director for International Relations Dr. Shimon Samuels, and the center’s Director for Latin America Sergio Widder, wrote a letter of complaint to Deputy Elías Castillo, president of the Latin American Parliament Deputy, asking him to “denounce the incident,” Israel National News reported.

“The Governor’s comments offend the memory of Jewish and other victims of the Nazi Gestapo and injure Panama, a long and devoted friend of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” Samuels wrote.

Pro-Israel students thrive despite

ongoing push by boycott advocates

By Ronen Shnidman, JNS.org

Who has the upper hand in the ongoing struggle on campus between Jewish students and advocates of the Boycott,

Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel? Experts at the 2013 Israeli Presidential Conference last week in Jerusalem expressed optimism about where pro-Israel students stand — with the most positive tone coming from University of California President Mark Yudof.

“Despite what you may have heard, Jewish students are thriving,” Yudof said on a June 19 Presidential Conference

panel titled “Campus as a Crossroads in the Life of a Young Jew.”

Yudof’s fellow panelists were Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, Taglit-Birthright CEO Gidi Mark, Chairperson of the European Union of Jewish Students Andi Gergely, and Israel Government Fellow and recent Cornell University graduate Rachel Greenspan.

While Sharansky, the most restrained panelist in terms of his optimism, appeared cautiously optimistic, he emphasized the need for college communities to mobilize support for Israel.

“Our main battlefield for the future is on American campuses,” Sharansky said he told then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a decade ago. Sharansky attributed the improvement on campuses since that time partially to the work of organizations like Taglit-Birthright, Caravan for Democracy, StandWithUs, and others.