Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 17, 2019

From Ian:JCPA: Has the Body of Israeli Hero Eli Cohen Been Recovered?The Syrian opposition issued reports that the remains of the Israeli spy Eli Cohen had been delivered to the Russians, and they also gave details about the remains of Israelis buried in Syria, in general.

There has been no clear Israeli denial of these reports. If Cohens remains have indeed been transferred, they will have to undergo Israeli identification. Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition also issued new information on how Syrian intelligence has been guarding the remains of Israelis in Syria at President Bashar Assads bidding.

Israeli intelligence agent Eli Cohen

The Syrian opposition reported on the remains of Israelis and how the Syrian regime has been tending to them.

The first report was issued on Twitter on April 14, 2019, by someone in the Syrian opposition, and it concerned the remains of the Israeli spy Eli Cohen.

The tweet stated:There are unverified leaks within Damascus itself about a coffin that was transferred with the Russian delegation that left Syria. The leaks say the coffin may contain the remains of the Israeli spy Eli Cohen. We are awaiting verification.

No other source has verified this tweet, which was first publicized in Israel by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. It, too, however, has not been denied clearly by Israel.

Subsequently, the Syrian-opposition website Orient Net posted a detailed report on the remains of Israelis buried in Syria.

The legendary our man in Damascus, Cohen spied on the Syrian military establishment for four years after befriending top-level Syrian officials and celebrities under the alias Kamel Amin Thaabet. After being discovered, he was tortured by the Syrians before being executed on May 18, 1965.

In Israel, his name became synonymous with self-sacrifice and heroism, the information he provided having been fundamental to Israels decisive victory in the Six Day War.

Israeli officials have kept silent regarding the reports, which came in just two weeks after Sgt. 1st Class Zachary Baumel was buried on Mount Herzl, 37 years after he went missing during a battle of in Operation Peace for the Galilee.

Baumel was also exhumed by Russia and his personal effects were honored in a special ceremony in Moscow attended by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Since Cohens execution, widow Nadia Cohen has been working to bring his remains home but to no avail. In 2008, a former bureau chief of former Syrian leader Hafez Assad said no one knew where Cohen was buried, because the grave had been relocated when officials became concerned that Israel would find it.

Last year, Nadia was presented with her late husbands wristwatch by the Mossad intelligence agency, an article which had been retrieved in a special operation.

This creative new Palestinian victimhood category announced by the PA comes in response to the American position expressed recently by Secretary of State Pompeo: "Let me go on record: Anti-Zionism IS Antisemitism."

According to the PA's new announcement, anti-Zionism cannot be Antisemitism because Zionism itself, by hurting Palestinians, is Antisemitism.

The following is an excerpt from the article in the official PA daily:"The [PA] Ministry of Foreign Affairs... said that... American Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo has voiced a series of false positions... Pompeo has allowed himself to remove the Palestinians and the Arabs from the Semitic race by stating that 'Anti-Zionism or objection to Israel's existence as the homeland of the Jewish people, is a type of Antisemitism that is escalating (see note below -Ed.).'

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized that hostility towards the Palestinian people is Antisemitism, and that the ugly, recurring, and deliberate Antisemitism that [US President] Trump's administration is committing against Semitic Palestine is also Antisemitism. In addition, the American administration has no right to ignore the fact that Semitism is not exclusive to the original Jews, but also includes the Arab Palestinians, and therefore any manifestation of hostility towards Palestinians is an explicit manifestation of Antisemitism. Moreover, since Zionism is hostile to Palestine, its people, and the establishment of a national homeland for the Palestinian people on the land of its homeland, this makes Zionism itself antisemitic."[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 29, 2019]

'Deal of the Century' will not include Palestinian statehood - report

The deal is expected to be published soon, following more than two years in which it was formulated by a small group of special envoys of US President Donald Trumps, including special representative Jason Greenblatt and senior advisor Jared Kushner.

According to the Post report, comments from Kushner and other US officials suggest that "the plan does away with statehood as the starting premise of peace efforts" as it has been over the last 20 years or so.

The report goes on to quote several people who have spoken to Kushner's team as saying that "Kushner and other US officials have linked peace and economic development to Arab recognition of Israel and acceptance of a version of the status quo on Palestinian 'autonomy,' as opposed to 'sovereignty.'"

What weve tried to do is figure out what is a realistic and what is a fair solution to the issues here in 2019 that can enable people to live better lives, Kushner said in a rare interview with Sky News Arabia, as he sought Arab support on a visit to the region in February.

We believe we have a plan that is fair, realistic and implementable that will enable people to live better lives, a senior White House official said Friday. We looked at past efforts and solicited ideas from both sides and partners in the region, with the recognition that what has been tried in the past has not worked. Thus, we have taken an unconventional approach founded on not hiding from reality, but instead speaking truth.

Although Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said that the US is biased, one of his chief advisers reportedly said they would not reject Trump's plan outright.

Merkels office said she insisted, in a phone conversation Monday, on the continued relevance of a two-state solution, saying that should be the goal of international efforts.

Merkel also expressed her willingness to work closely and trustingly with the incoming Israeli government.

During the final stretch of his election campaign, Netanyahu pledged for the first time to annex parts of Judea and Samaria in a bid to rally his right-wing base. Netanyahu has reneged on election eve promises before but should he follow through on this one, it would mark a dramatic development and potentially wipe out the already diminishing hope for Palestinian statehood.

The letter, published in the UKs Guardian newspaper, comes with the White House expected to soon publish its long-awaited plan and following an election promise made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to effectively annex West Bank settlements.

The letter, signed by several former prime ministers and foreign ministers, said the EU must continue to insist on a Palestinian state alongside Israel on borders based on the pre-1967 lines with mutually agreed, minimal and equal land swaps; with Jerusalem as the capital for both states; with security arrangements that address legitimate concerns and respect the sovereignty of each side and with an agreed, fair solution to the question of Palestine refugees.

The officials said that Europe should reject any plan that does not meet this standard.

Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are sliding into a one-state reality of unequal rights. This cannot continue. For the Israelis, for the Palestinians or for us in Europe, the letter warned, adding that, Failing to seize this opportunity, at a point in time when this order is unprecedentedly challenged, would have far-reaching negative consequences.

Among the 37 ex-officials who signed the letter were former French prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, former Swedish prime minister Carl Bildt, former Italian prime minister Massimo dAlema, former EU foreign minister Javier Solana and two former British foreign secretaries, Jack Straw and David Miliband.

How Much of a Difference Do Individual Leaders Make in Middle Eastern History?

Faisals aim was to forge Iraqits Arabs and Kurds, its Sunnis and Shiitesinto a nation. By 1932, he still had plenty to do. . . . Did Faisals premature demise change the course of history? Some might say not. After all, the Iraqi monarchy survived for another 25 years, until the 1958 revolution. [His son and successor] Ghazi lacked his fathers moderation, but he died in a car crash in 1939. The next in line was a child, so Iraq was then ruled by a regent, in partnership with Faisals own faithful lieutenants. . . . But one thing is certain: Faisal departed the scene in the middle of his own arc. He had done much, but more remained to be done, and he was still in a position to do it.

This is the crucial question that must be posed. If a leader were to disappear, where would he be in the arc of his life, his career, his vocation? If he is a leader, presumably he has a record of achievement. Is he in the middle of his lifes work, still attending to it? Is he bringing it to a conclusion? Or is it behind him? (As we shall see, this doesnt directly correlate with age. Sometimes leaders launch early; others do so late.)

Let me now give a contrary example, of an unexpected death that came too late to have a huge effect. Gamal Abdul Nasser and his Free Officers overthrew the Egyptian monarchy in 1952. He soon emerged as the first among equals, then as the unquestioned ruler of Egypt. His biography became identical to Egypts history: the Soviet alliance, the Suez war, the Nasserist wave of 1958, the makeup and breakup of union with Syria, the stumble of the Yemen war, and the disaster of the 1967 war with Israel. . . . In [a sense], he was finished before he was dead; he was already at the end of his arc. . . .

Netanyahu: ICC Decision Not to Probe U.S. Troops Bodes Well for IsraelPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israeli Cabinet on Sunday:

David Horovitz: The people have spoken. They want to live in Netanyahus Israel

They knew that Benjamin Netanyahu was facing criminal charges in three cases, unless he could persuade the attorney general of his innocence. They knew that he had castigated the opposition, the media, the cops and the state prosecutors for purportedly seeking to frame him as part of a political vendetta to oust him. They knew that, if reelected, he might try to use existing or new legislation to avoid being prosecuted, and would likely seek to stay on as prime minister even if he were to be prosecuted. And that, if reelected, he would make the case that the public had given him a mandate to offset the state prosecutors recommendations that he be put on trial.

They knew. And 26.45% of the voting Israeli public chose Likud a vast number, by Israeli standards, 1,139,079 out of the 4,306,520 legitimate ballots cast nationwide.

The people have spoken. Not all the people. But more than enough of them.

They knew that they had a clear alternative to four more years of a Netanyahu-led Israel, embodied in a party led by three former IDF chiefs of staff an unprecedented assemblage of security expertise, in a country where security concerns always figure at the very top of voting considerations. They saw Netanyahu portray that party, Benny Gantzs Blue and White, as a group of weak leftists. Even though it included Netanyahus own former Likud defense minister Moshe Yaalon, whose public positions are more hawkish than those of Netanyahu, and even though Netanyahu in 2013 extended Gantzs term as IDF chief by an additional year in the most overt illustration possible of the confidence he then had in Gantzs security leadership capabilities.

The storied Labor party, which led Israel at its founding in 1948 and for the next 30 years, and was for decades the mainstay of the Israeli center-left, won 4.45% of the vote, garnering just six seats in last weeks election.

Meretz won 3.63% of the vote not far above the 3.25% Knesset threshold gaining four seats and narrowly missing a fifth, according to official figures.

The two parties fate is widely seen as a sign of voters deepening disaffection over the moribund peace process with the Palestinians, with which the two parties are most closely identified. In 1992, the year of Meretzs founding, Labor won 44 seats and Meretz 12, forming the foundation of Israels 25th government under Yitzhak Rabin, which would launch the Oslo peace process.

Current Meretz chair Tamar Zandberg urged a merger of the two parties before the April 9 race, but was rebuffed by Labor, which feared its hawkish wing would defect to the centrist Blue and White party, whose attraction for center-left voters was seen as a major threat.

Yes, Yariv Oppenheimer had to be the proverbial kid who got beat up after school every day, no doubt about it. Imagine, a nation that followed the exciting attempt of a small team of homegrown scientists to do something only seven countries had attempted and only three have done, then this individual says the one thing Israelis from across the nation have followed breathlessly for months and some for years shows what a bunch of power-hungry creatures they are.

Remember, this is the guy who, in his leadership capacity at Peace Now, employed spies to track every change in the Jewish settlements, any porch closure without a license, any development that merited involving the authorities. He turned snitching into a profession, paid for by the haters of Israel in Western Europe and elsewhere. He then collected funds to sue and evict Israeli settlers from their homes, turning them into refugees in their own country.

Top Ten Excuses for Israels MoonCrash (Satire)

The "Palestinian Prisoners' Information Ministry" said that as part of the agreement, prisoners would receive public phones in their cells to circumvent the phone-jamming devices, which prevents them from using private cell phones in their cells.

This will allow security officials to supervise the prisoners' phone calls with the outside world.

The prisoners held in Israeli prisons several times postponed planned hunger strikes over the last week, which they announced in protest to the jamming devices in a number of prisons.

Twenty-three-year-old Mohammed Abdel Fattah threw three rocks at Israeli-plated cars on the morning of April 3, 2019, near Hawara, a village in the northern West Bank, Btselem said.

After one of the rocks hit a settlers vehicle, shots were apparently fired from inside it, the report said. The settler, Yehoshua Sherman, then exited his car, approached Abdel Fattah, who was crouching near dumpsters, and opened fire on him, it added.

Another settler then exited his truck and approached Sherman, a right-wing political activist, and together, the two fired several more rounds at Abdel Fattah, who was lying wounded on the ground, the report said. Military jeeps subsequently arrived on the scene and used stun grenades to disperse crowds of Palestinians that started to form in the area, it added.

Abdel Fattah was later transferred to the Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, where he was pronounced dead, according to a statement from the hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces said in an emailed statement that Abdel Fattah was shot by civilians and neutralized after hurling stones at Israeli cars. The army added the Abdel Fattah later approached one of the cars and attempted to carry out a stabbing attack.

It said the incident was under investigation.

Sherman said in a statement on April 3 that he was driving in his car with daughter when Abdel Fattah jumped at my car and tried to open the door and harm him and his daughter. He said Abdel Fattah had a knife in his hand.

Btselems report made no reference to an attempted stabbing. The groups spokesman Amit Gilutz said that Btselem had not learned of any stabbing attempt in its investigation of the incident earlier this month.

Superintendent Micky Rosenfeld, Israel Police foreign press spokesman, told The Jerusalem Post that tens of thousands of people are expect to ascend on Jerusalem for the first day of the holiday, and another more than 100,000 on the second day for the High Priest prayer service, which will be held at the Western Wall.

This mass priestly blessing only takes place twice a year in Israel, once during Sukkot and again on Passover. Attendees receive the historic blessing from hundreds of Jews of priestly lineage as they face the congregation, hands stretched forward, chanting in one voice.

The superintendent said that the increase in security, which includes a mix of Border Police, undercover officers and members of special patrol units, are necessary due to a history of increased security risk during the holiday period.

In 2017, for example, the head of the Shin Bet security service, Nadav Argaman, warned that terror groups may try to carry out attacks during Passover.

SpaceIL has been working for eight years to promote scientific and technological education in Israel and to encourage Israeli innovation, the committee responsible for choosing the honorees noted in a statement.

This years Independence Day theme is The Israeli Spirit.

Following the Israeli spacecraft Beresheets failure to land safely on the moon last week, Kahn on Saturday announced he was launching project Beresheet 2, effective immediately, adding: We started something and we need to finish it. Well put our flag on the moon.

The small spacecraft, the worlds first privately funded moon lander, crashed into the lunar surface Thursday night during an attempted landing, apparently due to a technical glitch that caused its main engine to stop mid-landing.

While usually an individual is honored, Iris Yifrach, Bat Galim Shear and Raheli Fraenkel were asked to jointly light the torch due to the volunteer work they did together after suffering the death of their sons. Regev said that the mothers are the heroes of our spirit who chose, facing heart-piercing grief to open a gate of the love of Israel to honor their loved ones.

The 2014 kidnapping and murder of the three teenagers led to Israel embarking on Operation Brothers Keepers (Tzouk Eitan), culminating in the arrest of 350 Palestinians. The IDF then launched Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

After a massive manhunt, the bodies of the three victims were found near Hebron at the end of June. Hamas was seen as the responsible party, despite official group leaders claiming they were unaware of the kidnapping.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Gaza father: PA sanctions forcing me to sell my home

As part of the sanctions, which are seen in the context of the PAs ongoing dispute with Hamas, payments to thousands of civil servants and needy families have also been halted.

On Sunday, the father of a Palestinian man who was killed by the IDF in 2012 offered his house for sale.

The father, Suheil Ibrahim al-Kafarneh, is from the town of Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip. He published a post on Facebook in which he said: Because of the cutting of the stipend for my son, martyr Tareq Suheil Ibrahim al-Kafarneh, and due to the accumulation of debts, I announce the sale of my house.

The son, Tareq, was 22 years old when he was reportedly killed by IDF gunfire near the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Two other Palestinians were killed in the incident: Akram Sami al_Zaaneen and Ehab Sami al-Zaaneen.

After he was wounded, al-Kafarneh managed to phone a local hospital to ask for help. He died before medics arrived at the scene, Palestinian sources said.

The father told the Palestinian news agency Safa that he was no longer able to pay the bank the monthly installment of $340 for the loan he took to purchase the house. He said the monthly stipend he once receive from the PA was suspended three months ago.

PreOccupiedTerritory: NGO To Shield Rockets That Entered Israeli Airspace Illegally From Gaza (satire)

New organization Students United In Compassion for Illegal Destitute Explosives (SUICIDE), based at Tel Aviv University, launched a program this week to identify, locate, contact, and protect the rockets and other explosive projectiles that Hamas and allied terrorist groups fire into Israel. The group urges Israelis to contact them instead of the police or IDF upon discovering such projectiles, or parts of them, via its SUICIDE Hotline. A representative of the organization told journalists that these refugees from miserable Gaza deserve a welcome embrace, not further violence at the hands of sappers.

We want these poor rockets and artillery shells, but more importantly, Israelis, to know SUICIDE is an option, insisted Vic Timblamer, a Gender Studies major at TAU. Shooting at these refugees from Gaza, which is what they are, with Iron Dome or whatever, is just wrong. We are working to get Tel Aviv, and I guess other places in the country, maybe some communities down south, to declare themselves sanctuary cities for rockets from Gaza, where enforcement or military authorities cant touch them.

Breaking its silence on the case on Sunday, the independent aid agency identified the three as Louisa Akavi, a nurse from New Zealand, and Syrian drivers Alaa Rajab and Nabil Bakdounes.

Our latest credible information indicates that Louisa was alive in late 2018, it said.

US-backed forces proclaimed the capture of Islamic States last territory in Syria last month, eliminating its rule over a caliphate it had proclaimed in Iraq and Syria in 2014.

ICRC officials said Akavi might have been swept up among some 70,000 women and children who fled to al-Hol camp after the fall of Islamic State, many of them jihadist sympathizers.

ICRC President Peter Maurer raised her case during a visit to the camp, run by Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in March, they added.

The grave, found in the desert about 170 km (106 miles) west of the city of Samawa, contained the remains of dozens of Kurds made to disappear by Saddams forces, Salihs office said.

They were among up to 180,000 people who may have been killed during Saddams Anfal campaign that targeted Iraqi Kurds in the late 1980s when chemical gas was used, villages were razed, and thousands of Kurds were forced into camps.

He killed them because they did not accept the continuation of this regime, because they wanted to live a free and dignified life, Salih, a Kurd, told a news conference at the grave site.

If the EU does not change its position and continues its support of Iranian leaders and the nuclear deal, Tehran's aggressive policies in the Middle East will persist, and Tehran will keep on pursuing its subversive agenda of attacking Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States via Yemen, Israel through Syria and Lebanon, and the US via Venezuela.

While President Donald Trump may have his critics, his hard-line sanctions are the only kind of political message the Iranian leaders can understand.

The main industrial structures were completely destroyed, including the main hangar and the adjacent three production hangers and buildings. The rest of the structures were affected and damaged by the blast, ISI said, adding that they assess that all the elements and/or equip-ment which were inside are completely destroyed as well.

According to ISI, if the bombed site was indeed a missile factory, it could allow for the produc-tion and assembly of different SSM [surface-to-surface missile] elements or for improving the accuracy of missiles.

The factory, ISI said, is located in the vicinity of other facilities likely linked to Irans SSM project in Syria, which have previously been struck in alleged Israeli strikes carried out over the past two years.

The factory was built in the western compound of the base between 2014 and 2016, and was surrounded by a wall to separate it from the rest of the military base. The entrance to the fac-tory passes through the base.

There is no prohibition on the enrichment of uranium by Iran, Zarif tweeted.

His comments were addressed to France, Germany and Britain, signatories to the landmark 2015 accord with Tehran under which uranium enrichment is curtailed but not banned.

Zarifs remark follows Frances ambassador to Washington declaring: Its false to say that at the expiration of the JCPOA (nuclear deal), Iran will be allowed to enriching uranium.

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04/15 Links Pt1: Has the Body of Israeli Hero Eli Cohen Been ...

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