From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Senior Russian rabbi: Putin ouster would endanger Jews
MOSCOW (JTA) — A senior Russian rabbi warned of grave danger to Jews if Russian President Vladimir Putin is swept from power.
Alexander Boroda, head of the Chabad-affiliated Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, made the warning Friday during a talk at Moscow’s 9th annual Jewish learning event organized by Limmud FSU.
“The Jews of Russia must realize the dangers inherent in the possible collapse of the Putin government, understand the rules of the game and be aware of the limitations,” Boroda said at a sessions, according to a translation provided by Limmud FSU.
The Moscow conference, which drew 1,400 participants, opened Friday at the state-owned Klyasma resort just outside the Russian capital.
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From Ynet News
Report: Alleged Israeli strike targeted Scud missiles
Arab media outlets claim long-range missile cache was target of attack attributed to Israel. The target of the alleged Israeli strike in the suburbs of Damascus was a shipment of long-range ground-to-ground missiles, likely of the Scud variety, according to reports in Arab media outlets.
The reports claimed the attack occurred in two waves and left a number of casualties. Al Jazeera reported on Saturday morning that Israeli warplanes bombed positions belonging to the Syrian army and Hezbollah in the al-Qalamoun region near the border between Syria and Lebanon.
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From The Times of Israel
Israel reportedly hits Hezbollah, Assad targets in Syria
Al-Arabiya: IAF jets struck missile depots on Wednesday, Syrian army military bases near Lebanon border on Saturday
Israel reportedly hit several targets belonging to Hezbollah and the Syrian army in a series of air attacks Saturday morning in the Kalamun area on the border between Syria and Lebanon.
According to a report in the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya, a first Israeli Air Force strike took place Wednesday, allegedly targeting two sites believed to have been Syrian army missile depots.
On Saturday, according to a report in al-Jazeera, the Syrian targets were divisions 155 and 65 of the Assad army, in charge of “strategic weapons.” Al-Arabiya reported that the targets were Scud missile depots housed in the military bases.
Several explosions were heard in the areas of Kteife, Yabrud and a village in Kalamun, according to al-Jazeera on Saturday.
The area is known as a Syrian military site housing weapons depots and installations.
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From The Times of Israel
After studying pre-state Jewish terrorists, author asks: Does terrorism work?
Bruce Hoffman says the struggle for Israel’s independence forms a blueprint for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today
LONDON — At 11:45 a.m. on July 22, 1946, a stolen vehicle holding four Jewish fighters from the Irgun paramilitary organization pulled up to the basement entrance of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The men unloaded seven large milk containers, each containing 100 pounds of deadly explosives.
At 12:37 the bombs detonated, ripping the entire building apart and killing 91 people, the majority of them civilians, including 17 Jews.
In Westminster, British prime minister Clement Atlee described the attack as “an insane act of terrorism” and labeled its mastermind Menachem Begin, a Jewish terrorist. (Begin later went on to form the Likud political party, and served as the sixth prime minister of Israel from 1977 to 1983.)
In his recently published book “Anonymous Soldiers: The Struggle For Israel 1917-1947,” author Bruce Hoffman — a terrorism analyst, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah speaks during a rare public appearance, in the suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon in November 2013. (file photo credit: AP/Bilal Hussein)who was once a scholar-in-residence for counterterrorism at the CIA — claims that the bombing of the King David Hotel, even 69 years later, remains one of the most infamous acts of terrorism the world has ever seen.
Hoffman says that even though the Irgun gave warnings regarding the impending explosion, this ultimately cannot absolve Begin and his organization from responsibility for the massive loss of life.
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From The Times of Israel
Will Hezbollah respond to alleged Israeli strike in Syria?
Terror group, Assad regime mum on reports IAF jets hit military missile depots near Lebanon border
Two central news outlets in the Arab world on Saturday were reporting on a series of Israeli attacks on weapons depots belonging to the Syrian army and to Hezbollah in an area on the Lebanon- Syria border. The aerial attacks, according to al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, began on Wednesday night when two targets believed to have been missile silos were struck. Overnight Friday-Saturday, several more airstrikes were reported in the Kalamun area in Syria, near the Lebanese border.
The area is known as one used by Hezbollah to transfer massive amounts of weapons into Lebanon. It is also known as a Syrian military site housing weapons depots and installations.
According to these reports, the targets weren’t moving convoys but military bases belonging to the Syrian army’s 65th and 155th divisions, both responsible for “strategic weapons”; in other words long-range Scud missiles. It’s hard to determine whether Israel decided to hit these targets for fear the missiles would be transferred to Hezbollah but it is certainly a possibility. Israel has in the past hit Syrian army targets, especially those that included weapons destined for the Lebanese terror group.
Strikes on fixed targets — if those were indeed the targets — prevent the possibility of an immediate escalation with Hezbollah. The weapons were not yet loaded for transportation and were not yet in Lebanese territory. The terror group, like the Assad regime, has also yet to respond to the reports of the attacks and it’s possible, given the bloody civil war in Syria, Hezbollah is not interested in an escalation with Israel at the moment.
From The Times of Israel
Minimizing rift, Biden plays up US commitment to Israel
At embassy’s Independence Day gala, vice president says Washington will provide F-35 fighters next year, defends Iranian nuclear deal
WASHINGTON — Downplaying the US rift with Israel, Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday staunchly defended President Barack Obama’s record of supporting the Jewish state, working to allay the concerns of many American Jews who have lined up against the budding nuclear deal with Iran.
In a speech marking Israel’s independence day, Biden also reaffirmed US support for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, drawing an implicit distinction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose comments disavowing Palestinian statehood ahead of Israel’s recent elections — later backtracked — were a factor in the ongoing deterioration of US-Israeli ties.
Biden, at a gala organized by Israel’s embassy to mark the holiday, said it was no secret that the Obama administration has had differences with Netanyahu’s government.
“It’s only natural for two democracies like ours,” Biden said. “We’re like family. We have a lot to say to one another. Sometimes we drive each other crazy, but we love each other — and we protect each other.”
Biden reiterated that the US would supply Israel with a raft of highly sought F-35 jet fighters next year.
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From The Times of Israel
Rattled by Nisman death, spy chief flees Argentina
Fearing for life, Antonio Stiusso refuses to testify on allegations he hid information about 1994 AMIA bombing, which he was helping slain prosecutor probe
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentina’s most famous spy master has fled the country due to threats on his life and is not complying with a summons ordering him to testify Thursday in connection with the investigation into a 1994 terror bombing, his lawyer said.
Antonio Stiusso fears for his safety, his lawyer, Santiago Blanco Bermudez, told The Associated Press during an interview Wednesday evening.
He said Stiusso contends the government is trying to sully his reputation following the mysterious death of a prosecutor who accused Argentine leaders of protecting the masterminds of the bombing,
“We believe [Stiusso] will continue to be a government target,” said Blanco Bermudez, who declined to specify the threats or disclose his client’s location.
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From The Times of Israel
Why Israel still refuses to recognize a century-old genocide
Many have urged the government to change its approach to Turkey’s killing of 1.5 million Armenians, but geopolitical considerations prevail
Addressing the United Nations in New York on International Holocaust Remembrance Day earlier this year, President Reuven Rivlin dedicated a large chunk of his speech to the fate of the Armenian people, who were killed by the hundreds of thousands between 1915 and 1923.
Rivlin spoke of “one hundred years of hesitation and denial” and stressed that at the time, no one in the Land of Israel denied the massacre that had taken place.
“The residents of Jerusalem, my parents and the members of my family, saw the Armenian refugees arriving by the thousands — starving, piteous survivors of calamity. In Jerusalem they found shelter and their descendants continue to live there to this day,” he said.
During his speech, he uttered the word “genocide” nine times — but never in the context of what had occurred to the Armenians. Or did he?
Speaking in his mother tongue, Rivlin referred to the retzah bnei ha’am ha’armeni, which means “the murder of the members of the Armenian nation,” but hints at the Hebrew term for genocide, retzah am.
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From The Times of Israel
Likely GOP contender Jeb Bush calls Iran deal ‘naive’
In talk at NY Jewish school, former Florida governor assails White House handling of Tehran, distances self from James Baker
Jeb Bush, a likely Republican presidential candidate, criticized the Iran nuclear framework agreement as “very naive” during a visit to a Manhattan Jewish day school.
Bush made the remark on Thursday in a closed-door question-and-answer session with high school students at the Ramaz Upper School, the Washington Free Beacon reported. He said the framework agreement signed last month between Iran and world powers would “create instability for a long, long while.”
“There’s some belief [in the Obama administration] that the ayatollahs will just go quietly into the night,” Bush said, according to the Free Beacon. “It’s hard for me to imagine that, because while we were negotiating, [the Iranian regime] continued with the ‘Death to America’ rallies every weekend.”
The former Florida governor spoke at the prestigious modern Orthodox school in honor of Israel Independence Day. The visit was part of a short New York City fundraising trip
