Egyptian, Israeli military alerts prompted by Islamist mutiny threat from Sinai and first attacks

A new Egyptian crisis arena:  the Egyptian and Israeli armies Friday, July 5, raised their alert levels on either side of the Sinai border after the Muslim Brotherhood declared Sinai its center of revolt and revenge for the Egyptian army’s ouster of Mohamed Morsi as president Wednesday, July 3.

Following a multiple Islamist attack in northern Sinai, the Egyptian army went on high alert in the Suez and North Sinai provinces. The Sinai border crossings to the Gaza Strip and Israel were closed. The army spokesman in Cairo denied declaring an emergency – only a heightened alert.

Israel has imposed a blackout on news from this tense region, but debkafile reports reinforcements were sent in Friday to boost the IDF units standing ready along the Egyptian border.

Egyptian forces also shut down all three underground passages running from the mainland to Sinai  under the Suez Canal. Egypt’s Third Army was deployed to secure them, under the command of Maj. Gen. Osama Askar.

Further measures imposed for guarding Suez Canal cargo and oil shipping against possible rocket fire from central Sinai included the stationing along its banks of Patriot anti-missile batteries and anti-air weapons systems, according to debkafile’s military sources.

Around one-third of the world’s oil supplies from the Persian Gulf pass through the Suez Canal on their way to the Mediterranean and Europe.
These emergency measures were clamped down Friday after the Muslim Brotherhood established a Sinai "War Council" to mount a rebellion against the army in collaboration with the radical Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami as well as the al Qaeda-linked Salafist groups in the Gaza Strip and Sinai.

The ousted Muslim Brotherhood’s strategy is seen by intelligence sources as designed to transform the Sinai Peninsula into an area of revolt and a base for attacking Israel. They are counting on the army having its hands too full with maintaining security in the mainland cities of Cairo, Alexandria and the Nile Delta to have troops to spare for Sinai. They intend to demonstrate that the military are incapable of at one and the same time fighting the Egyptian people, defending Western shipping in the Canal and Gulf of Suez and preventing attacks on Israel.

The new Sinai War Council set up by Morsi’s followers released a video tape threatening that “rebel’ forces would target any army and police personnel found in Sinai in retribution for the military coup.

debkafile’s military sources also report that Maj. Gen Ahmad Wasfi, head of the Egyptian Second Army, said after an emergency meeting at the headquarters of Defense Minister Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi Friday that the Egyptian army “would use force to prevent the creation of an Islamic caliphate in Sinai.”

The new Islamist coalition launched its “revolt” Thursday night, July 4, by firing a couple of Grad rockets at Eilat. They exploded harmlessly outside Israel’s southernmost town. Israel’s military spokesman has drawn a curtain of secrecy of the event. However, the IDF’s Adom Brigade and its three sub-units, along with the Gaza division, were known to have been placed on high alert.

The Islamist Sinai War Council struck again Friday morning, with a multiple attack by Salafist gunmen associated with Hamas and Jihad Islami in northern Sinai. They fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine guns at Egyptian military intelligence headquarters in northern in Rafah and El Arish airport as well as several Egyptian military and border guard facilities.

Our sources report they attacked in wave after wave, the gunmen shooting from heavy machine guns and rocket launchers mounted on minivan as they raced around. Army helicopter gun ships were finally brought in to halt the assault. No word on casualties or the scale of episode has been released.

http://www.debka.com/article/23098/Egyptian-Israeli-military-alerts-prompted-by-Islamist-mutiny-threat-from-Sinai-and-first-attacks

How Israel Spies on Us All through the NSA

The very same Israeli agents who had prior knowledge of the false-flag terror attacks of 9-11 - and who owned the electronic messaging system that was used to warn Israelis to avoid the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 - are behind the NSA's illegal and secret tapping of our phone calls. Is this just a coincidence or is it the conspicuous tip of Israel's criminal operations in the United States?

The latest revelations from Edward Snowden that the NSA is spying on the European Union is Der Spiegel's current cover story.

"If it is true that EU representations in Brussels and Washington were indeed tapped by the American Secret Service, it can hardly be explained with the argument of fighting terrorism."
- German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger

A current report in Der Spiegel says that the National Security Agency (NSA) has bugged European Union (EU) offices and gained access to its internal computer networks. It also reports that the U.S. spy agency taps half a billion phone calls, emails, and text messages in Germany in a typical month.

"If the media reports are correct, this brings to memory actions among enemies during the Cold War. It goes beyond any imagination that our friends in the United States view the Europeans as enemies," German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said. As the German justice minister said, such spying “can hardly be explained with the argument of fighting terrorism.”

To understand how and why the NSA spies on Europeans and Americans I recommend reading The Shadow Factory:  The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America (2008) by James Bamford. The chapter that I found most interesting was “Wiretappers” in which Bamford discusses the Israeli connections to the NSA. This chapter describes how two Israeli companies are at the center of the illegal tapping of our phone calls and email and focuses on Jacob “Kobi” Alexander, the Israeli criminal behind one of them.

It is amazing that patriotic Americans like Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden are hounded to the end of the Earth and prosecuted for their whistle-blowing actions to shed light on illegal activity, while the Israeli criminals, like Kobi Alexander, who are actually behind the criminal activity, are allowed to flee with their ill-gotten gains. 

Kobi Alexander, the Israeli criminal behind Verint, is tied to the terror attacks of 9-11. Why did the FBI allow him to send $57 million of stolen money to Israel and flee from justice while he was under investigation in June 2006? How does one wire $57 million to a foreign bank without the federal government knowing?

Alexander, wanted by the FBI for a long list of serious crimes, was the former head of Verint, the Israeli company behind the snooping at Verizon. He was also part owner of Odigo, the Israeli text messaging company that was used to send warning messages to Israelis telling them to avoid the World Trade Center on 9-11. Alexander’s father, Zvi, who helped him acquire tens of millions of dollars illegally, is a former business partner of the late Marc Rich, the senior Mossad operative who sent two of his Belgian-Israeli agents to New York City to manage the shipping of steel from the World Trade Center to Asia - where it was destroyed. More

Israel debates ‘price-tag’ attacks on Muslims

Ibrahim Hamza was up before first light. When he went out to his truck, he thought it was a simple flat tire. But it didn’t take long for Hamza, from one of the founding Muslim families who settled this village west of Jerusalem centuries ago, to realize that the tires had been slashed on 28 vehicles on his street.

Before the media — along with the police and later the president of Israel — began to arrive, Hamza and his neighbors found the spray-painted graffiti, in Hebrew, scrawled on a nearby stone wall: “Racism or Diaspora.” The English translation doesn’t quite convey the message, which is closer to “Get out or else.”

The vandalism two weeks ago in Abu Ghosh is part of a growing phenomenon in Israel and the West Bank called “price tag” attacks. Initially, these acts of vandalism — spray-painting mosques, desecrating cemeteries, burning Korans, chopping down olive trees — were part of a campaign, assumed to be waged by Jewish extremists, to extract retribution for actions against Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The idea was that anytime the Israel Defense Forces removed an illegal outpost or Palestinian militants attacked settlers, somebody would pay a price.

Now, the attacks are growing and so are the targets, which include not only Muslims in the West Bank and Israel, but left-leaning activists, as well as Christian schools, churches and monasteries, which vandals have tagged with graffiti.

According to civil rights groups, price-tag attacks have grown from a handful in 2008 to 23 so far this year. One group counts more than 20 incidents at mosques and churches since 2010. There were three price-tag incidents in June in neighborhoods and towns around Jerusalem.

Israeli society is grappling with what to call the assaults. Are they “terrorism” or “hooliganism”? Or, as they are labeled now, “a criminal incident with nationalistic motives”?

Beyond semantics, the question is made more urgent by the fact that few perpetrators have been arrested, despite the prowess of the Israeli army, police and domestic intelligence services.

In a country where security cameras are ubiquitous and thick dossiers are amassed on Palestinian teenagers who throw rocks, many Israelis suspect the reason why more Jewish vandals are not arrested is that the state is not very interested in doing so.

In a poll released this week by Israel’s Channel 10 News, almost 60 percent of those surveyed agreed that the government “didn’t really want to catch” price-tag attackers.

There have been a few arrests. The most recent was Monday, when a 22-year-old Israeli was detained in connection with a price-tag attack at the Monastery of the Silent Monks at Latrun in September. Assailants torched the monastery’s doors and spray-painted

“Jesus is a monkey” and the word “Migron,” a reference to an unauthorized settler outpost forcibly evacuated by the Israeli army in September.

Many Israelis and Palestinians wonder who might be inspiring these acts. Suspicions fall upon ultranationalists and radical rabbis.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/israel-debates-jewish-price-tag-attacks-on-muslims/2013/07/05/6ce28e18-e333-11e2-bffd-37a36ddab820_story.html

Shadow Foreign Secretary Tells the Left to Back Israel

Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander has warned critics of Israel on the left that “now is the time to deepen, not weaken” economic and cultural links.

Mr Alexander said Labour supporters must “desist from language of delegitimisation” and stop attempts to cut academic and trade union ties with Israel.

Speaking at the Labour Friends of Israel annual lunch in Westminster on Tuesday, Mr Alexander said many on the left of British politics found it “almost axiomatic” to be seen as anti-Israel.

He said: “The debate is endangered even more when the boundary between legitimate criticism of Israeli government policy gives way to some of the worst and most familiar kinds of antisemitism.”

The MP, who has twice visited Israel as part of LFI delegations, also criticised the expansion of Israeli settlements, saying that they “harm peace”.

He said “urgent and passionate” work was needed to secure security for Israelis and to “alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people”.

Israeli and Palestinian advocates of a one-state solution were living in a “fantasy”, he added. “A one-state solution is simply not a solution at all. It would mean either the demise of Israel as a Jewish state or the demise of Israel as a democratic state.”

Mr Alexander said the threat posed by Iran must be taken seriously. The country’s funding of Hizbollah, support for Syria’s President Assad, and supply of weapons to the Taliban, meant “a nuclear armed Iran is not simply a threat to Israel, it is a threat to all nations”.

He added: “Israel has a right, indeed an obligation, to defend itself, and as past conflicts remind us, that demands a strong Israeli Defence Force.”

Israel’s ambassador to Britain Daniel Taub praised LFI, calling the group a “voice for clarity and honesty”.
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was among the Labour front bench MPs at the lunch — he is due to visit Israel this month.

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/109222/shadow-foreign-secretary-douglas-alexander-warns-labour-over-israel?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Palestinians sue US groups over support for settler attacks

A recently-filed complaint in a New York district court has the potential to compensate and provide judicial recourse to a handful of Palestinians terrorized by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. The civil suit is filed under a law that until now has been used almost entirely to prosecute Muslim and Palestinian Americans.

On 17 May, the New York-based commercial law firm Melito and Adolfsen filed a complaint against five US organizations alleging that they had violated the material support statute, which prohibits individuals from “knowingly providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.”

The organizations are alleged to have supported terrorist activities by funding settlers who have firebombed, thrown stones and shot at Palestinians, burned Palestinian land and trees, and vandalized Palestinian houses of prayer in the West Bank.

The case is filed on behalf of 15 plaintiffs: 13 Palestinian individuals, one mosque and one Greek Orthodox monastery. All of the plaintiffs have experienced a physical attack or, what is commonly referred to as “price tag” assault, by settlers from nearby Jewish colonies that are given financial support by the defendants of the lawsuit.

The five organizations cited in the lawsuit are The Hebron Fund, Central Fund of Israel, One Israel Fund, Christian Friends of Israel and American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, all based in New York.

The complaint argues that without the monetary support of these American organizations, Israeli settlements would not be able to exist.

America’s courtrooms have played a crucial role in the US global “war on terror.” Under the material support statute in the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the government has prosecuted dozens of individuals and organizations for providing “material support” to “terrorism.”

Furthermore, over the past dozen years, the courts have seen an increasing number of civil lawsuits filed under a provision within the Anti-Terrorism Act that allows a US national to sue an individual or organization to recover damages from an act of terrorism.

Twist

Overall, more than 150 cases have been filed under the material support statute. According to a recently published article in the Harvard Law School’s National Security Journal, the majority of these cases have been brought against Muslim-affiliated organizations and individuals, including, notably, the Holy Land Foundation (“The chilling effect of the ‘material support’ law on humanitarian aid,” May 2013 [PDF]).
So this latest lawsuit filed under the material support law represents a twist on its established application, but not only because the plaintiffs are Palestinians. Representatives from Melito and Adolfsen explained to The Electronic Intifada that although the alleged acts of terror were committed overseas, the New York district court has jurisdiction in this case because the defendants are all US-based organizations.

Significantly, these organizations conduct the majority of their fundraising activity within the US — soliciting and raising money under the auspices and with the incentives of US tax law.

That US organizations that send money to fund settlement activity are able to register for tax-exempt status has been a source of consternation for some time.

The New York Times reported in 2010 that “at least 40 American groups … have collected more than $200 million in tax-deductible gifts to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the last decade” (“Tax-exempt funds aid settlements in West Bank”).

Although settlers are not necessarily members of a foreign terrorist organization, they are allegedly violating the “law among nations” by intentionally driving the indigenous population from their land. The complaint asserts that “defendants are providing material support and financing for acts of terrorism and the efforts to drive the people of occupied Palestine off their land.”

“Forefront of Israel’s battle”

The complaint primarily cites the rhetoric on the organizations’ own websites as evidence of their support for terrorist activities in the West Bank. For example, the Christian Friends of Israel openly bemoans the Oslo accords as a “territorial concession,” and characterizes settlers as being on the “forefront of Israel’s territorial battle.”

In addition, public records obtained by Jared Malsin at Salon.com revealed that The Hebron Fund gave money to support two men from the Jewish Underground convicted of carrying out deadly car bomb attacks on Palestinians in the 1980s (“New York charity abets Israeli settler violence,” 15 December 2011).
If the trial is allowed to go forward, the extent and kind of support that these organizations have given to various settlements will be further scrutinized.

The complaint’s argument seeks to portray settlers as “terrorists” on the basis that they operate independently from the Israeli government and with a distinct aim.

“Settlers would be unable to live in occupied Palestine but for the material support and financing provided by the defendants,” states the complaint.

Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and their land have sharply increased over the past five years.

According to a 2012 report by the Jerusalem Fund, there was a 315 percent increase in attacks from 2007 to 2011. From 2010 to 2011 alone there was a 39 percent increase (“When settlers attack”).

During the first two weeks of June, 540 trees and 2,000 dunams of Palestinian grazing land were damaged by settler attacks, according to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (one dunam is equal to 1,000 square meters) (“Protection of civilians: Two week reporting period,” June 2013 [PDF]).

And in the first five months of 2013, there were as many such attacks as in the whole of 2012.
In mid-June, the Israeli ministry distanced itself from the actions of settlers, but stopped short of designating “price tag” attacks and the like as “terrorism.”

As for the US, in its 2011 annual Country Reports on Terrorism, the State Department referred to “price tag” attacks as “terrorist incidents” (“Country reports on terrorism, 2011,” June 2012 [PDF]).
And in its 2012 report, it referred to them as expressions of “violent extremism” (“Country reports on terrorism, 2012,” May 2013 [PDF]).

Delicate approach

In an interview with Al Arabiya, attorney Eric Lewis was supportive of the pending complaint, saying, “I think it’s important for the American justice system to show that they are going to apply the statue in a neutral and even-handed way” (“Palestinians to sue US pro-settler groups,” 6 June 2013).

Lewis has served as an attorney to detainees at Guantanamo Bay and represented Palestinians accused of material support for terrorism.

However, for others, the lawsuit necessitates a delicate approach. According to Shayana Kadidal from the Center for Constitutional Rights, whether or not the suit reaffirms the problematically wide scope the law has acquired will depend on how it is argued.

Prior cases have helped to establish a broad interpretation of what constitutes material support, such as sending socks and cash to a particular group or providing training courses on diplomacy (“The legal black hole in lower Manhattan,” 27 April 2010).

Additionally, in US Attorney General Eric Holder’s case against the Humanitarian Law Project, the Supreme Court determined that intent to support terrorism was not necessary for a defendant to be found guilty of violating the statute. The activity in question was the Humanitarian Law Project’s educational work with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka (“The First Amendment’s borders: the place of Holder vs Humanitarian Law Project in First Amendment doctrine,” Georgetown University law center, 2012 [PDF]).

Such rulings have made the “material support” statute function as “the primary tool for prosecutorial overreach,” according to Kadidal.

Sirene Shebaya, a civil liberties attorney, views the lawsuit with both interest and apprehension.

“It’s an understandable, novel and interesting way to use the law, but I still have deep reservations that it would expand the use and application of material support,” she told The Electronic Intifada.

Attorney Eric Lewis told commented to The Electronic Intifada: “If the cases are to go forward then the definition of terrorism should be applied literally and neutrally. Under the 2333 definition, both settler charities and charities that support families of those who die in the territories are both covered in my view.”
The organizations being sued did not respond to requests for comment.


Charlotte Silver is a journalist based in occupied Palestine and San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter @CharESilver.

 http://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinians-sue-us-groups-over-support-settler-attacks/12586

Western Wall security guard charged with murder

The Western Wall security guard who shot and killed a homeless Jewish man while on duty has been charged with murder.

Jerusalem District Court on Thursday indicted Hadi Kabalan in the June 21 murder of Doron Ben Shlush.

Kabalan, a 25-year-old Border Police officer from the Druze village of Beit Jann who was new to the job at the Western Wall, claimed after the shooting that Ben Shlush had shouted “Allah hu akbar” (“God is great”) in Arabic and tried to pull an object from his pocket near the public bathrooms before the guard fired his sidearm more than 10 times.

But an investigation reportedly found that Ben Shlush yelled “Druze, you son of a bitch” at the security guard before Kabalan shot him at close range.

According to reports, Ben Shlush lived or volunteered at the Chabad House near the Western Wall and was well known by Kotel security.

http://www.jta.org/2013/07/04/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/western-wall-security-guard-charged-with-murder

Israeli lawmakers discuss commemorating Armenian genocide

 Jewish Holocaust of Armenians

Israeli lawmakers dedicated a session of parliament Tuesday to discussing whether to commemorate the Armenian genocide, a controversial and sensitive issue that could further aggravate the country's strained relations with Turkey.

When ties were stronger, Israel refrained from official recognition of the killings of minority Armenians early in the 1900s as genocide, citing diplomatic reasons. But diplomatic relations have been strained since Israeli soldiers killed nine Turkish activists in 2010 during an attempt to block a flotilla of aid bound for the Gaza Strip.
Some Israeli lawmakers say the time has come for their nation to finally divorce the issue from diplomatic concerns and take a clear, moral stance.

"The Armenian genocide has been swept under the rug" for fear of upsetting foreign relations, said Zehava Galon, who initiated the debate. "We must not politicize this matter," said Reuven Rivlin, the Knesset speaker, a longtime supporter of Israel making a clear statement of recognition.

The Knesset came to no decision on the motion Tuesday but plans to hold another session on the issue.
The genocide of 1915 to 1918 claimed the lives of about 1.2 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, which became the modern republic of Turkey. The Turkish government disputes that a genocide took place, saying the number of deaths  was much smaller and the victims were killed in chaos of World War I and its aftermath.

The issue has strained Turkey's ties with several countries advancing legislation to recognize the genocide. In Israel's case, this might push the relations beyond repair.

The Israeli motion calling for a commemoration, which was filed by left-wing opposition lawmakers but supported by some conservatives as well, drew criticism from some members of the Knesset. Robert Tivayev, who recently joined Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition, said the issue was being used for political purposes.

"This is not a matter for politicians but for academics," he said. "They alone must determine whether genocide took place or not."

If academics and historians rule the events as genocide, Tivayev said, "Israel should be the first to recognize it."

The Knesset debate came a day before the state comptroller was scheduled to publish a report on the 2010 flotilla deaths.  According to early reports, the report will criticize Netanyahu for underestimating the potential seriousness of the flotilla interdiction.

Last month, Turkey drafted a 144-page indictment of senior Israeli military officers, including Gabi Ashkenazi and Eliezer Marom, then chief of staff and navy commander respectively.Turkish news  reports say the trial of Israeli generals will start in November, after authorities approved the indictment seeking multiple life sentences for the officers, who have been advised by Israeli authorities to refrain from visiting Turkey.

Despite a desire to mend relations with Turkey, Israel has refused to apologize to Turkey for the flotilla events. The standoff has left diplomatic and military relations strained, although civilian trade continues.

On occasion, the strain spills over into other arenas. Recently, Israel was excluded from the Global Counterterrorism Forum meeting after the U.S. reportedly accepted a Turkish veto. Israel's claims that Turkey had blocked its officials from participation in a NATO summit were denied by the U.S.
U.S. officials have urged Israel to repair its ties with Turkey to enhance regional strategic stability.

 http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/06/israeli-parliament-debates-armenian-genocide-amid-continued-tension-with-turkey.html

Newspaper apologizes for printing cartoon showing Israel as ‘Moloch’

A cartoon purportedly showing Israel as a greedy “Moloch,” published in a major German daily, has set off a firestorm of protest, despite an apology by the newspaper.

Artist Ernst Kahl said he was shocked to learn that the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily newspaper used his drawing of a greenish, horned monster being served breakfast in bed by a pale, plump maid - originally created for the German gourmet magazine “Der Feinschmecker” - to illustrate a review of two new books on Israel, according to German news reports.

Heiko Flottau’s review, with the headline “The Decline of Liberal Zionism,” dealt with American author Peter Beinart’s book, whose title in German translates to “The American Jews and Israel. What is going
wrong,” and German TV journalist Werner Sonne’s book “Raison d’état? Germany’s Liability for Israel’s Security.” The article appeared in the prominent paper’s July 2 edition.

Under the lurid illustration, the caption reads, “Germany at your service. For decades, Israel has been provided with weapons, partly free of charge. Israel’s enemies consider the country to be a voracious Moloch. Peter Beinert regrets that it’s gotten this far.”

One day after the article came out, Editor Franziska Augstein issued a statement that “the publication of the illustration in this context was a mistake.”

Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, decried the use of the image. Likewise,

Jewish columnist Henryk Broder, in his commentary in German daily newspaper Die Welt, compared the drawing to the infamous “Sturmer” caricatures published by rabid anti-Semite Julius Streicher during the Third Reich. The Simon Wiesenthal Center also has weighed in. Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Los Angeles – based organization, blasted the illustration in a comment to the Jerusalem Post.

Deidre Berger, head of the Germany office of American Jewish Committee, lodged a complaint with the German Press Council over the pairing of the article with the drawing, and Israel’s ambassador to
Germany, Yakov Hadas-Handelsman protested in a letter to the paper’s editor in chief, Kurt Kister.

Meanwhile, artist Kahl told Germany’s main Jewish weekly, the ”Jüdische Allgemeine,” that his illustration for the gourmet magazine was among his drawings that had been available for use by the
Sueddeutsche Zeitung. But he said he wished the Sueddeutsche editors had asked him before using it in this context. “I would have absolutely said ‘no,’” he told the Allgemeine.

http://www.jta.org/2013/07/04/news-opinion/world/newspaper-apologizes-for-printing-cartoon-showing-israel-as-moloch

Doorway by Doorway, Rabbi Seeks Montana’s Jews

Montana’s small Jewish population is scattered across a huge state that has more rodeos than rabbis, but one man is logging thousands of miles to seek out the faithful one doorway at a time.

Rabbi Chaim Bruk has set his sights on making sure each Jewish home in Montana has a mezuzah at its entrance— and that those already hanging are kosher.

Montana’s only orthodox rabbi sees the project as a way of connecting Jews to their traditions. He says the mezuzahs — small parchments of handwritten biblical verses, rolled into roughly 4-inch cases and fastened to door frames — are a reminder that God is the ultimate home protection in a state where many people believe that such security begins and ends with a gun.

“I’m young. I’m 31. I got a long life ahead of me — God willing — and I hope to get every house,” he says. “Montana should be the most protected state in the union. Not only because of our weapons but because of our mezuzahs. We’ll be protected by the Second Amendment and by the mezuzahs.”

After his grandmother died shortly before Passover this year at age 90, Bruk wanted to perform a mitzvah — a religious good deed — to honor her memory. So the co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Montana secured funding from a relative to purchase an initial 200 mezuzahs to hand out for free.

Bruk says he has visited hundreds of Jewish homes in Montana and noticed too often that they either didn’t have mezuzahs or that those hanging didn’t adhere to Jewish law. He says he found text written on paper rather than parchment and cases hanging with no verses inside.

His mission is an ambitious one in a state with more than 147,000 square miles and a Jewish population estimated at 1,350 by the 2010 Census. Bruk scoffs at that number, which he believes is actually more than 3,000.

He has put up more than 30 mezuzahs in less than five weeks, traveling from Whitefish near Glacier National Park to Dillon in the southwestern part of the state. He has enlisted the help of two rabbinical students who are traveling in central and northeastern Montana.

Bruk is getting the word out by social media, email blasts and his website, www.jewishmontana.com. He also calls those whose homes he knows don't have mezuzahs.

That's how Bruk came to install a mezuzah at the home of Jake Matilsky on Sunday. Matilsky moved to Helena from Boston about a year ago and got to know Bruk by occasionally going to the rabbi's Shabbat dinners in Bozeman.

"I got a phone call. 'Jake do you have a mezuzah on your door?' 'No, I don't'. 'Jake, you need a mezuzah on your door.' And here we are today," Matilsky said Sunday.

Bruk sped through a blessing while Matilsky pressed the 4-inch transparent case against his doorway, giving the adhesive time to stick to the wood.

Matilsky completed the brief ceremony by pressing his hand to his mouth and then to the case for the mezuzah's inaugural kiss.

Just in time for his family's arrival from New Jersey, Matilsky says.

"Now you'll be very proud, your mother will see your mezuzah," Bruk says.

Bruk drew smiles and naysayers when he and his wife, Chavie, moved from New York City to Montana in 2006. His fish-out-of-water status led to newspaper stories from Jerusalem to New York, where the Post called him "the kosher cowboy."

That attention has had the effect of attracting people curious about his message and his programs, which include kosher certification for Montana food producers.

He has found Jews in Montana are "thirsting" for traditional Judaism, he says.

"It has opened up many doors, because people are just intrigued," he says. "Our motto's been baby steps. We're not here to make people Orthodox. We're here to make people comfortable with their traditional Jewish lifestyle."

 http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/doorway-doorway-rabbi-seeks-montanas-jews-19580469#.UdYPRKxiKHt

israeli Prime Monster Tells Red Cross: “Freeing Hamas Prisoners Means More Terror”

PM Binyamin Netanyahu tells Red Cross Pres. Peter Mauer a freed Hamas prisoner deported to Gaza soon was glorying in his return to terror.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Mauer on Monday of a recent case in which a Hamas prisoner freed on humanitarian grounds soon gloried in his return to terror.

The ICRC, which often advocates on behalf of prisoners in Israel, never once convinced Hamas to allow a representative to visit and check on the health and well-being of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the entire five-year period during which he was held captive in Gaza, ruled by the terrorist organization.

The story related to Mauer on Monday by Netanyahu involves the case of Ayman Sharawna, a Hamas operative sentenced to 38 years in an Israeli prison for his part in the May 2002 terrorist attack on Be’er Sheva.

Sharawna was one of more than 1,000 terrorists released as part of the prisoner exchange deal that freed Shalit.

He was soon arrested again after returning to terrorist activity. But after engaging in a hunger strike, international organizations pressured Israel for his release on humanitarian grounds.

Among them was the ICRC, which expressed concern for his health, claiming that Sharawna would die if the prison authorities did not find an immediate solution. The ICRC also called on the Israeli Prison Service not to feed or otherwise medically treat the terrorist against his will.

Four months ago, an agreement was reached to expel Sharawna to Gaza – but that’s not the end of the story, the prime minister told Mauer.

“One month ago, an article was published in which Sharawna gloried in his return to military activity in Hamas.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169496#.UdTdKaxiKHv

Netanyahu: There’s No Place Israel’s Long Arm Can’t Reach

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave an emotionally charged speech in the Knesset on Tuesday, during a special meeting marking the 37th anniversary of the Entebbe raid – in which his brother Yonatan, who led the operation, was killed.

Netanyahu warned that “the threats we faced 37 years ago continue, and today I say there is no place the long arm of the State of Israel cannot reach and will not reach in order to defend the country.”

At the time of the operation, Netanyahu said, he was studying in the US, and the moment he heard IDF soldiers had landed in Entebbe, he knew his brother had to be there, and called his parents.

“This day changed my life and the lives of my parents and my brother [Ido]. My parents have died since then, but I will never forget their grief over the fall of their firstborn son,” the prime minister said.

Netanyahu also recounted attending a ceremony in Uganda honoring his brother and the others who fell in the Entebbe operation, saying he does not take it for granted that a foreign country would honor IDF soldiers.

Opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich said Netanyahu must use Israel’s “long arm” to bring peace.
“Like it or not, you, Netanyahu, are our leader. Not every leader faces the same challenges,” she stated. “Just as we need courage to fight terror, courage and wisdom are needed to maintain a Jewish and democratic state.”

Yacimovich called on Netanyahu to show the level of courage displayed in the Entebbe raid to ensure that Israel does not become a binational state and to fulfill the Zionist vision.

The Labor leader repeated her promise to offer support to the prime minister if he begins peace talks, quoting former prime minister Menachem Begin, who was opposition leader during the Entebbe raid, as having offered support to thenprime minister and rival Yitzhak Rabin.

MK Omer Bar-Lev (Labor), who was a commander in the raid, initiated the special Knesset meeting and asked Netanyahu to initiate a “social and economic Entebbe operation.”

“Today, when social gaps are widening, when we are at a dead end in peace negotiations, when the Iranians threaten us, we must renew the spirit of Entebe, the spirit of Zionism,” Bar-Lev said.

“We seem to have lost our daring, which allowed Zionism reach where it has over the years.”

Bar-Lev added that he would expect a country with so many successes to be able to make diplomatic progress, and that there should be “no excuses, just action.”

“We are strong! We need brave leadership that is determined and takes initiative, and will lead us to our goal: a Jewish and democratic state,” said the MK. “[Netanyahu] has the historic privilege of being that leader.”
Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz, who was Yoni Netanyahu’s deputy in the Entebbe raid, said the operation helped Israel stand tall.

“We need to have a reason to stand tall today, in every issue with which we deal. The tests of leadership and action stand today, too,” said Mofaz. He recalled Yoni Netanyahu as “strong as a rock” and having a decisive say in the decision to start the operation.

Several other lawmakers spoke about the Entebbe raid, including MKs Ya’acov Margi (Shas); Shimon Solomon (Yesh Atid); Yoni Chetboun (Bayit Yehudi), who was named after Yoni Netanyahu.
MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud Beytenu) said the country cannot give in to terror and called into question the wisdom of releasing terrorists from prison in exchange for captives.

 http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Netanyahu-There-is-no-place-Israels-long-arm-cant-reach-318459

Australia’s New Deputy PM ‘Very Critical’ of Israel’s Policies

Australia’s new deputy prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said he is “very critical of a lot of Israel’s policies” and is a founding member of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group.

Albanese, a longstanding member of the left faction of the Labor Party, was sworn in by Australia’s governor-general, Quentin Bryce, on Monday as part of Kevin Rudd’s new Cabinet.

Last week, Rudd returned for his second stint as prime minister after Julia Gillard called a leadership ballot amid plunging polls and rising support for Rudd.

Albanese describes himself as “a strong advocate of justice for Palestinians.” And while he has said he is critical of Israel’s policies, Albanese also has been at the forefront of the fight against those promoting a boycott of Israeli goods, blasting the campaign as “clumsy and counterproductive.”

Michael Danby, a pro-Israel Jewish legislator inside the Labor government, said although Albanese “doesn’t have my views on the Middle East,” he does support a two-state solution.

Danby also pointed to pro-Israel supporters appointed by Rudd in the Cabinet, including Mark Dreyfus, Mike Kelly and Bill Shorten.

Rudd also promoted to his Cabinet Melissa Parke, who worked in Gaza for two years as part of  UNWRA’s legal team, as well as Ed Husic, the first Muslim ever appointed to an Australian Cabinet.
Rudd, who served as prime minister from 2007 to 2010, said the day after he was re-elected that he doubted he would stick to the federal election date selected by Gillard of Sept. 14, which is Yom Kippur, because of the “massive inconvenience” to Australia’s 110,000-plus Jews.

Rudd’s re-election as party leader sparked a bounce in the polls, but Labor still trails the conservative Liberal Party led by Tony Abbott. The election must be held by Nov. 30.

http://www.jta.org/2013/07/02/news-opinion/world/australias-new-deputy-pm-is-advocate-for-palestinians?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Argentina sold Israel yellowcake uranium in 1960s

Foreign Policy reports Buenos Aires aided Israel's nuclear program; US reportedly objected sale but was unable to stop it.

Argentina may have sold Israel material necessary for making a nuclear bomb in the 1960s, Foreign Policy reported on Monday, citing newly-published American archival documents.

Israel has never clearly admitted to having a nuclear weapons program in the country, although it is has been estimated that the Jewish State has dozens of nuclear warheads.

According to the report in Foreign Policy, Argentina sold Israel 80-100 tons of "yellowcake" uranium in 1964. Yellowcake, a concentrated uranium powder produced in countries in which uranium ore is mined, can be further processed to make weapons-grade uranium which can be used to make nuclear bombs.

Washington was concerned with the weaponization of Israel's nuclear program at the time, and was concerned over the sale of the yellowcake by Argentina to Israel, but was unable to prevent the sale, according to the report.

The archival documents show the efforts to which Israel went to cultivate relations with nuclear suppliers and the concern that the US, as well as Canada and Britain had regarding Israel's nuclear program.

According to the report, the US was concerned that Israeli possession of nuclear weapons would destabilize the Middle East and hurt worldwide efforts to limit proliferation. Israel had said publicly that their nuclear program was for peaceful purposes only and US representatives secretly visited the Dimona core in 1963 to verify this. A US team arrived to inspect the facility in January 1964, but Israel hid the true nature of the project, according to the report.

In addition to the yellowcake sale by Argentina, the US also investigated in 1965 reports that the French uranium company in the African nation of Gabon may have sold uranium to Israel. They were unable to determine if a sale had taken place.

The US attempted to gain more information about the yellowcake purchases from then-Israeli foreign minister Abba Eben, but he evaded the line of questioning according to Foreign Policy. However, the US took no further action to counter the Israeli evasions, monitoring nuclear developments only through visits to the core in Dimona.

http://www.jpost.com/International/Report-Argentina-sold-Israel-yellowcake-uranium-in-the-1960s-318432

Chaos in Middle East Grows as the U.S. Focuses on Israel

In Damascus, the Syrian government’s forces are digging in against rebels in a bloody civil war that is swiftly approaching the grim  milestone of 100,000 dead. In Cairo, an angry tide of protesters again threatens an Egyptian president.

 At the same time, in tranquil Tel Aviv, Secretary of State John Kerry wrapped up a busy round of shuttle diplomacy, laboring to revive a three-decade-old attempt at peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. He insisted on Sunday that he had made “real progress.”

The new secretary of state’s exertions — reminiscent of predecessors like Henry A. Kissinger and James A. Baker III — have been met with the usual mix of hope and skepticism. But with so much of the Middle East still convulsing from the effects of the Arab Spring, Mr. Kerry’s efforts raise questions about the Obama administration’s priorities at a time of renewed regional unrest.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, once a stark symbol and source of grievance in the Arab world, is now almost a sideshow in a Middle East consumed by sectarian strife, economic misery and, in Egypt, a democratically elected leader fighting for legitimacy with many of his people.

“The moment for this kind of diplomacy has passed,” said Robert Blecher, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa Program of the International Crisis Group. “He’s working with actors who have acted in this movie before, and the script is built around the same elements. But the theater is new; the region is a completely different place today.”

Administration officials no longer argue, as they did early in President Obama’s first term, that ending the Israeli occupation and creating a Palestinian state is the key to improving the standing of the United States in the Middle East. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is now just one headache among a multitude.

And yet Mr. Kerry, backed by Mr. Obama, still believes that tackling the problem is worth the effort: five visits to the region in the last three months. The most recent trip involved nearly 20 hours of talks, stretching almost until dawn, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.

Former administration officials defend that conviction. Mr. Kerry’s focus, they say, makes sense precisely because of the chaos elsewhere. With little leverage over Egypt and deep reluctance about intervening in Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one place that the United States can still exert influence, and perhaps even produce a breakthrough.

“You don’t have instability between the Israelis and Palestinians right now,” said Dennis B. Ross, a former senior adviser to Mr. Obama on the Middle East. “But if you don’t act, there’s a risk that the Palestinian Authority will collapse, leaving a vacuum. And if we know one thing about vacuums in the Middle East, they are never filled with good things.”

Resuscitating the peace process, he said, is also vital to Jordan, which is reeling from the wave of refugees from Syria and can ill afford a new wave of Palestinian unrest in the neighboring West Bank.

What is less clear is whether the Arab upheaval has made a peace accord between the Israelis and Palestinian any less elusive. Some analysts say the instability has made Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas eager to resolve their dispute, while others assert that both can use it as a pretext to avoid making the hard choices needed for a deal.

“I think both sides look at what’s happening in the region right now and think, ‘Maybe we’re better off putting ourselves in a more stable situation with each other,’ ” said a senior Western diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his involvement in what Mr. Kerry has demanded be confidential discussions.

But several Israeli analysts said the reverse was true: the unrest has made Israel more concerned about security than about taking risks to advance the peace process. Sallai Meridor, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, said most Israelis would rank Syria, Iran, Egypt and Jordan above the Palestinians in terms of “importance and urgency.”

A day after Mr. Kerry concluded 13 hours of talks with Mr. Netanyahu, Israeli newspapers were dominated by images of the vast protests in Egypt. Five of the six major daily papers did not even carry front-page reports on Mr. Kerry’s diplomacy.

“Were you to ask people in the leadership of both Israel and the Palestinians whether they thought resolving the conflict now, given the developments in the region, is feasible, most people would tell you it’s quite unlikely,” Mr. Meridor said.

As for the Palestinians, some analysts said Mr. Abbas felt as vulnerable as ever about protracted negotiations with Mr. Netanyahu, particularly without preconditions. A preoccupied Egypt would leave the Palestinian Authority without crucial political support.

“Abbas would say that to reach a deal, you need Arab support from Saudi Arabia and Egypt,” said Ghaith al-Omari, the executive director of the American Task Force on Palestine. “With all the chaos, you might not get that.”

Mr. Kerry has made efforts to enlist the Arab world in his campaign. He brought Arab foreign ministers to Washington in April and won their support for an update to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative.

Before his latest round of shuttle diplomacy with Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas, Mr. Kerry huddled with his counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Analysts say he has avoided the trap of pushing for direct talks without laying the necessary groundwork.

“There is a reason Kerry has gotten as far as he has,” said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel and Egypt.

While resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not the magic bullet for the region that some once thought, it still resonates widely, whether among the crowds in Tahrir Square or the militants of Hezbollah, who cite Israel in rallying around President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

A recent survey of 20,000 people in 14 countries by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha found that Israel and the United States were seen as the top security threats.

Mr. Kerry has made it clear that he will not give up his peacemaking quest. But analysts said that the gravity of the crisis in Egypt would force him and other senior officials to shift their attention to Cairo, where American policy, some say, has failed to keep up with events.

“It’s good that Kerry is focusing on the peace process,” said Brian Katulis, an expert on Egypt at the Center for American Progress, “but the biggest thing they haven’t done is pursue a strategic review on Egypt.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/world/middleeast/mideast-chaos-grows-as-us-focuses-on-israel.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

German paper publishes 'anti-Semitic' cartoon attacking Israel

Leaders decry illustration after 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' publishes Israel as wild, hungry beast devouring German military weapons.

The largest German daily broadsheet --the Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung-- ­ published a photo of a cartoon on Tuesday depicting Israel as a wild, hungry, ill beast devouring German military weapons. The cartoon sparked criticism from Jewish organizations in Germany and the US.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post by email on Tuesday that his organization "decries the illustration depicting Israel as a monster in a leading German newspaper." He said the cartoon was "grotesquely beyond the pale of legitimate criticism and invokes one of the classic anti-Semitic tools: Animalization is a classic and effective tool in dehumanizing an enemy, something Nazi and Soviet propaganda deployed over and over again."

The cartoon was the work of Ernst Kahl, who told the Jewish newspaper Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung that had he been asked, he would have rejected the paper's use of his cartoon in conjunction with two book reviews about Israel; one of which covered American Jewish author Peter Beinart's book The Crisis of Zionism.

Under the cartoon, the Süddeutsche wrote, "Germany is serving. Israel has been given weapons for decades ­ and partly free of charge. Israel's enemies think it is a ravenous Moloch.

Peter Beinart deplores that it has come to this." The headline on the book review pages reads, "The downfall of liberal Zionism." Cooper declared that "the characterization of the Jewish state as a 'ravenous Moloch' is a canard. The attempt to deploy a Jewish critic [Beinart] as a fig leaf does not cover up the hate." He urged the newspaper's editors to "apologize to its readers, the Jewish community and the State of Israel," and he expressed hope that "the main protests against this illustration and captions are forthcoming from German NGOs and personalities."

In an interview with Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung, Dr. Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, termed the cartoon "almost on the level of Stürmer" - ­ a reference to the anti-Semitic Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer.

He expressed shock that "anti-Semitic associations" were allowed in the paper.

The Süddeutsche employee responsible for the placement of the cartoon was Franziska Augstein ­ the sister of Jakob Augstein, whom the Wiesenthal Center cited in its list of last year's top 10 anti-Semitic and anti-Jewish statements. He writes a column for Der Spiegel.

Alex Feuerherdt, a journalist who has written extensively about modern German anti-Semitism, told the Post that this was not the first time the Süddeutsche had published "incitement articles against Israel." He cited a December 2012 article with the headline "Netanyahu against the entire world," which claimed that Israel was working against the entire international community. Feuerherdt said the article reinforced anti-Semitic stereotypes that Jews were egotistical and only concerned with narrow self-interest.

In 2012, the paper published Günter Grass's poem "What Must Be Said," which attacks Israel for wanting to wipe out the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The Süddeutsche issued a statement on its website Tuesday, under the title, "Is a Horned Monster Anti-Semitic?" The paper wrote that the cartoon had "nothing to do with anti-Semitic clichés," but added that as "the photo led to misunderstandings, it would have been better to have chosen a different photo."

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/German-paper-publishes-anti-Semitic-cartoon-attacking-Israel-318473

Israel seeks $5B in U.S. loans to buy arms

Israel is reported to be seeking U.S. loan guarantees of $5 billion to finance the purchase of the advanced weapons systems the U.S. administration has offered the Jewish state under a $10 billion packages for its Middle East allies.

 Israel is reported to be seeking U.S. loan guarantees of $5 billion to finance the purchase of the advanced weapons systems the U.S. administration has offered the Jewish state under a $10 billion package for its Middle East allies.

These include AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missiles made by the Raytheon Corp., that can knock out air-defense radar systems and Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers that will greatly extend the reach of Israel's strike jets.

In the long term, the procurement of the U.S. arms package will be financed by U.S. military aid which in fiscal 2013 will total $3.1 billion, the highest total for any U.S. ally.

The bridging loans, the U.S. journal Defense News reported, would be arranged with U.S. commercial banks to cover the intermediary period. The weekly said both Israelis and U.S. sources expect a response concerning the loans request by this summer.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon pressed U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on this when he visited Washington in mid-June, Israeli sources say.

The unprecedented upgrade of U.S. 0Israel security cooperation followed the July 17, 2012, passing of U.S. President Barack Obama's United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act.

It was widely supported by Republicans and Democrats and extended until the end of 2014 the funding provided by the U.S. government placing emergency U.S. arms stockpiles on Israeli soil in case of war.

The Israel segment of the military aid package, which also includes weapons systems for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, covers advanced radars for the Israeli air force's F-15I aircraft and up to eight V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft manufactured by Bell Boeing.

All these systems would significantly enhance Israel's capability to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran's nuclear infrastructure, which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to unleash.

The reasoning behind offering Israel such a cornucopia of advanced weapons systems and long-range capabilities would seem to be to reassure Israel that the United States stands behind the Jewish state, but does not want it to launch any attack on Iran while the diplomatic efforts and an international sanctions regime are in play.

The AGM-88 missile, first used in combat in March 1986 by U.S. jets against a Libyan SA-5 surface-to-air missile site in the Gulf of Sidra, would be a substantial upgrade of Israel's current AGM-78 anti-radiation missiles.

The advanced radars for Israel's 25 F-15I Ra'ams and the Ospreys, aircraft which can land like a helicopter and each carry two dozen fully equipped Special Forces soldiers over long distances at aircraft speeds, also would provide greater offensive capabilities for any operation against Iran.

The Osprey "is the ideal platform for sending Israeli Special Forces into Iran" observed Kenneth Pollack, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst who is currently at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy.

The unique tilt-rotor aircraft would give Israel the capability of inserting special ground forces to either attack Iranian facilities such as the new uranium enrichment plant buried deep inside a mountain at Fordow, outside the holy city of Qom south of Tehran, that may be resistant to even the heaviest U.S.-made bunker-buster bombs designed to penetrate hardened underground facilities, or to "paint" targets with lasers for the attacking aircraft.

Jonathan Schanzer, executive director of the Foundation for the Defense of the Democracies in Washington, said the U.S. package conformed to an Israeli wish-list presented to the Pentagon that included some items that were not discussed publicly, presumably because they were intended for an assault on Iran.

Details of the arms package have yet to be revealed. It's not known how many weapons and aircraft will be sent to the three countries, nor are delivery dates.

"The timeline of delivery will dictate when Israel can use these weapons," observed the U.S. global security consultancy Stratfor.

Although it's not clear how many KC-135 tankers Israel will get, it's expected to be enough to sustain a major air strike that would most likely involve all of the air force's 25 F-15Is and 100 F-16I Sufas, its entire strategic strike force, and its seven KC-707 and four KC-130H tankers.

The current tanker force would not be able to support a force of that size receiving at least two mid-air refuelings during the 1,000-mile flights to and from the targets.


http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2013/07/01/Israel-seeks-5B-in-US-loans-to-buy-arms/UPI-49641372706630/

Jewish-American Judge Accused Of Setting War Criminals Free

After a string of acquittals by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, some accuse Judge Theodor Meron, a Polish-born American citizen, of having a political agenda.

 Is the authority of international justice going wobbly?

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), the body responsible for trying those accused of the most atrocious crimes committed in the 1990s, has delivered several judgments recently that surprised some of its closest observers.

Over the course of a few months, six senior civil and military officials were set free, in apparent total disregard of the current legislation. Now criticism is starting to boil over, with one person is the center of attention: the ICTY presiding judge, Theodor Meron,  who previously had served as Israel's ambassador to Canada and to the United Nations offices in Geneva, before emigrating to the United States, where he became a citizen and eventually a top legal advisor to the State Department.

A few days ago, Danish ICTY judge Frederik Harhoff dropped a bombshell. Following recent decisions to acquit Croatian generals, one commander and a few former Serbian intelligence chiefs, Harhoff expressed concern in what was supposed to be a confidential letter that direct pressure was being applied on the court by top Israeli and US military staff.

The recent verdicts had something in common: they absolve representatives and officers as long as they did not show “direct intent” in the crimes they committed. The Tribunal used to insist on the notion of “joint criminal enterprise” so as to take into account the people of the highest ranks. Now it appears to be focusing on simple underlings.

Meron applied the same “philosophy” in the Rwandan Tribunal in which he is the presiding judge in the appeals process. In February, two former Rwandan ministers were let go on appeal, after having been previously sentenced to 30 years of jail for participating in the carrying out of the Tutsi genocide.
According to multiple sources, Meron, 84, doesn’t hesitate to highlight the fact that he is American in order to convince some colleagues looking, for instance, to get reappointed.
Other judges had previously noted their discomfort with Meron's approach, with one calling his juridical reasoning “grotesque.”

This is not the first time that Meron has been directly accused of actively mixing politics with his role as judge. A document recently unveiled by Wikileaks describes a conversation in 2003 between the judge and an American ambassador: Pierre-Richard Prosper. At the time, Swiss magistrate Carla Del Ponte was presiding at the ICTY. Meron, who didn’t like the way she worked, relied on the ambassador to make sure Carla Del Ponte was not renewed at the ICTY.

It is clearly specified in the tribunal statutes that it must act independently. Reaching for political support is contrary to the most elementary principles that make the system work. This is an “absolutely unacceptable” method, claims specialist Jon Heller on the legal website Opinio Juris.

Human rights activists have penned a letter of outrage addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Within this tribunal, created by the UN Security Council, there is no legislation to indict Theodor Meron. “In the right historical context, we would have eliminated this blind spot of immunity. But now we’re trying to make that change,” says Florence Hartmann, former spokeswoman for Carla Del Ponte.

Hartmann says the surprising acquittals in the Balkans undermine any chance of reconciliation.  But it is also a blow for the overall standing of international law itself: “If it’s impossible to sentence the people responsible in the hierarchy, we sabotage the Geneva Conventions,” she says.

http://www.letemps.ch/Home

Attacked Neturei Karta Member: I'm Not a Zionist

Neturei Karta man who was attacked in Amsterdam reportedly seeking to meet his attacker so that he can explain his dislike for Zionism.

The Neturei Karta member who was attacked this week in Amsterdam is seeking to clarify that he is no Zionist.

The man, 50-year-old Rabbi Yosef Antebi was hospitalized this week after he was confronted by a Muslim man as he was walking down a street in Amsterdam. A friend of his said that the Muslim ran after Antebi and then proceeded to kick him in the stomach.

According to reports on Friday, however, Antebi is now seeking to meet with the attacker in order to explain the ideological system in which he believes, and explain his dislike towards Zionism and the State of Israel.

"Rabbi Antebi said that is willing to give up everything just so he can talk with the gentile and explain the difference between Judaism and Zionism and to say that there is nothing in his heart against Arabs," Neturei Karta said, according to an email correspondence seen by Arutz Sheva.

Neturei Karta oppose the establishment of the State of Israel. They often win international headlines despite their tiny percentage of world Jewry. Members of the group have in the past met with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who publicly called to wipe Israel off the map.

Earlier this week, the group attributed the attack to the “Zionist evil, which causes anti-Semitism all around the world, until even those who are truly observant and faithful Jews are liable to fall victim, and pay a high price for the Zionists' sins.”

 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169412#.UdChZKxiKHt

Israel's Disgraced Haredi-Controlled Chief Rabbinate Causes More Shame

The Jews in Israel have two spiritual leaders - one is under house arrest and the other, in voluntary exile.

Ever since taking up his post four months ago, the head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop Justin Welby, had been looking forward to meeting Israel’s two chief rabbis.…

The visit was scheduled, with due pomp and circumstance, at the offices of the Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem on Thursday. But a few days ago, when it emerged that Israel's Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger had become embroiled in a criminal investigation [into his alleged fraud, breach of public trust, money laundering and embezzlement], and was placed under house arrest, the plans changed.

Explanations were given, schedules were reshuffled, and the Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar was set to meet Welby without Metzger. But with all due respect to interreligious dialogue, Rabbi Amar suddenly found he had to extend his visit to Spain, one of his many visits abroad.

The official reason given to the archbishop was that a change in the schedule of King Juan Carlos I of Spain forced Amar to stay out of the country. However, according to an associate of Amar’s, the chief rabbi has become so key to the election of Israel's next chief rabbis that the family of [the Sefardi haredi] Shas [Party's founder and] spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, which is losing control of the body that elects the chief rabbis, is hounding him, and “he wants peace and quiet.”…

[T]he archbishop…may have learned an important lesson about the faith with which he wants to dialogue: The Jews in Israel have two spiritual leaders - one is under house arrest and the other, in voluntary exile. …


http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-chief-rabbis-snub-leader-of-anglican-church.premium-1.532452

London Chabad Molester Gets 3-Year Sentence

A Golders Green man who repeatedly sexually assaulted a girl over a period of six years has today been jailed for three years.

Menachem Levy, 41, of Princes Park Avenue, was found guilty in May of indecent assault of a female under the age of 16 following a trial at Wood Green Crown Court.

Levy first targeted the victim, who was 14 when the abuse began, when he visited her family home in Hendon in December 1999.

He then subjected her to a series of sexual assaults at other locations, including Levy’s home address, until December 2005.

Throughout the ordeal, Levy constantly told the girl that she was to blame for the abuse and that if she told anyone she would get into trouble.

Both Levy and the victim are members of the Orthodox Jewish community.

In September 2010 the victim wrote Levy a letter asking him to openly admit and apologise to her in front of a Rabbi and her family but Levy refused to do so.

The victim found the courage to report the crimes to police in May 2011 and detectives from the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation.

Levy was arrested at his home in July 2011 and was charged in April the following year.

Det Con Alistair Woods, from the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command, said: “The victim has shown a tremendous amount of courage to come forward and give a detailed account of the abuse she suffered by Levy.

“No one should suffer in silence - I would urge anyone who is a victim to come and speak to us and let us help you.

“Specially trained officers will support you, and thoroughly investigate your claims.
“Menachem Levy abused his victim on numerous occasions - he also abused the trust of a close-knit community.

“This sentencing demonstrates that the courts will prosecute those who prey on vulnerable people, irrespective of their background or status.

“I hope today’s sentencing can offer some kind of closure to the victim and her family.”

 http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/court-crime/golders_green_orthodox_jewish_man_jailed_for_repeated_sexual_assault_of_girl_aged_14_1_2254777#none