From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Netanyahu: No Palestinian state on my watch
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview that as long as he is Israel’s prime minister, a Palestinian state will not be established.
The interview was published Monday on the Israeli news website NRG, a day before Israelis head to the polls, as Netanyahu attempts to shore up right-wing support.
“I think anyone who is going to establish a Palestinian state and to evacuate territory is giving radical Islam a staging ground against the State of Israel,” Netanyahu told NRG. “This is the reality that has been created here in recent years. Anyone who ignores it has his head in the sand.”
When the interviewer asked again in the article, presented in a Q&A format, “If you are a prime minister, there will be no Palestinian state?” Netanyahu responded, “Indeed.”
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From PressTV
Netanyahu vows to continue settlement construction in case of reelection
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he will press ahead with settlement construction in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) if he wins the upcoming general election.
“We will continue to build in [East al-Quds] Jerusalem, we will add thousands of housing units … in the face of all the pressure,” Netanyahu said during his electoral campaign in Jabal Abu Ghneim settlement in East al-Quds on Monday.
The Israeli premier said Palestinians would never be allowed to establish their capital in the city in case of his reelection, adding, “I won’t let that happen. My friends and I in Likud will preserve the unity of [East al-Quds] Jerusalem.”
From PressTV
Israel detains 4 Palestinian girls at al-Aqsa Mosque
Israeli forces have arrested four Palestinian girls inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied West Bank as the regime continues to restrict Palestinians’ access to the religious site.
Witnesses said that Ayah Abu Nab, 16, was detained at the al-Aqsa compound’s Chain Gate as she was trying to enter the site, while 12-year-old Ayah al-Zaghal and Anhar al-Ajlouni as well as Randas Abu Sneina, whose age is unclear, were arrested as they were leaving by the same gate on Sunday, according to Palestinian news agency Ma’an.
The four girls were taken to a nearby police station.
In a separate incident, Hadil al-Rajabi, a 10-year-old Palestinian girl, was physically assaulted by Israeli police inside the al-Aqsa compound on the same day.
Sources inside the Palestinian Ministry of Endowment’s al-Quds (Jerusalem) office, which is based inside the compound, said that Israeli forces also attacked a Palestinian security guard, Abd al-Rahman al-Sharif, who intervened to defend the girl.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Livni says she’ll forgo being prime minister should Zionist Union win
(JTA) — Israeli politician Tzipi Livni said she will forgo the opportunity to take the prime minister position in two years should her Zionist Union slate prevail in the elections.
Livni made the announcement on Monday night, less than a day before Israelis vote for a new national government.
In December, when her Hatnuah party merged with the Labor Party to form the center-left Zionist Union, it was with the understanding that its two leaders would share the premiership in rotating shifts should the combined slate win in the elections. Labor’s Isaac Herzog was to take the first two-year shift.
Livni reportedly made the announcement in order to ease the way for Herzog to form a government coalition, as well as to strengthen support for the Zionist Union in the last hours before Israelis go to the polls.
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From PressTV
Israeli voters casting ballots in parliamentary poll
Israeli voters head to the polls in a general election that will determine the fate of the next cabinet.
Polling stations opened at 7:00 am local time (5:00 GMT) on Tuesday, where eligible voters are electing a new 120-seat Israeli Knesset (parliament).
No single party in Israel has ever managed to win an outright majority in the Knesset. Therefore, the party leader with the best chance of establishing a coalition would form the next cabinet.
Latest opinion polls indicate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party is behind the center-left Zionist Union coalition, an alliance of the Labor party, led by Isaac Herzog, and former Minister for Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party.
A recent poll by the Yediot Aharonot newspaper showed Netanyahu’s party trailing the Zionist Union by four seats.
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From PressTV
Israeli PM tells supporters of potential loss in elections
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he may lose his post as the results of upcoming parliamentary elections may be to the favor of a party other than his.
In an address to a gathering of his supporters in Tel Aviv’s main square on Sunday, he said that his right-wing cabinet could lose in the elections.
According to the latest polls, Netanyahu’s Likud party is behind the center-left Zionist Union, which is led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, by four seats.
“This is a fateful struggle, a close struggle. We must close this gap. We can close this gap,” he added.
No single party in Israel has ever managed to win an outright majority in the 120-seat Israeli Knesset. Therefore, the party leader with the best chance of establishing a coalition would lead the new cabinet.
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From Russia Today
UN Security Council: ISIS replacing Taliban in Afghanistan
The presence of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) fighters in the country has been confirmed by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
The UN envoy to Afghanistan acknowledged that the IS could potentially unite minor Islamist groups in the country under a new command.
“It is UNAMA’s assessment that the group’s presence is of concern, but that ISIL’s significance is not so much a function of its intrinsic capacities in the area but of its potential to offer an alternative flagpole to which otherwise isolated insurgent splinter groups can rally,” Nicholas Haysom announced at the UN Security Council, as cited by the Associated Press. Still, the IS has not established “firm roots” in the Afghanistan, he noted.
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From Russia Today
Syrian president waits ‘actions’ from US to back declarations of potential dialogue
Syrian president Bashar Assad has stated that he is awaiting concrete indications that the US really wants to begin dialogue aimed at resolving the Syrian conflict, after Secretary of State John Kerry declared US readiness for such talks.
“We are still listening to the comments, and we have to wait for the actions, and then we’ll decide,” Assad told Syrian television on Monday. He welcomed any change of stance that would stop “logistical, financial and military support to terrorists” from third parties.
“Any international changes that come about within that framework are something positive, if they are honest and have an effect on the ground,” he said.
However, any talks “on the future of the Syrian president… [are] for the Syrian people and all the declarations from outside do not concern us,”Assad added.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
McGill students reject Israel divestment motion
MONTREAL (JTA) — McGill University students rejected a divestment motion against Israel.
Sunday’s vote of the Students’ Society was 276 against the nonbinding motion and 212 in favor. McGill has some 23,000 full-time undergraduate students.
The motion called on the Montreal university’s administration to stop doing business with companies “contributing to the continuation and profitability of the illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories.”
The motion was put forward by the campus group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, or SPHR.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Chuck Norris endorses Netanyahu
Could Chuck Norris come to Benjamin Netanyahu’s rescue in tomorrow’s election?
Probably not. But that didn’t stop the 75-year-old action hero-turned-Internet-meme icon from endorsing the Israeli prime minister on his official Facebook page. You can watch Norris’ video endorsement below:
Norris shilling for Netanyahu is far from surprising. The actor has endorsed the center-right politician in the past and once said that while “you might think I’m a tough guy from my films … Israel has its own tough guy and his name is Bibi Netanyahu.”
Over the past three decades, Norris has also donated over $30,000 to Republican politicians, including Mike Huckabee, whom he endorsed for president in 2007. In 2012, he warned the public that reelecting President Barack Obama would bring on “1000 years of darkness.”
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From Russia Today
Supersonic strategic bombers heading to Crimea for drills – military source
Russia’s Air Force is deploying an unspecified number of strategic nuclear-capable supersonic bombers to Crimea, according to a source. The major drills also include deployment of tactical Iskander ballistic missiles to the Kaliningrad exclave in Europe.
Several Tu-22M3 (NATO designation ‘Backfire’) variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike rocket aircraft are due to arrive to Crimea as part of global training exercises for the Russian military in the European part of the country.
“In the course of snap combat readiness drills of the armed forces strategic rocket Tu-22M3 aircraft are going to be deployed to Crimea,” a source in Defense Ministry told TASS.
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From Russia Today
Anti-terror censorship: France blocks 5 sites without court order
“I do not want to see sites that could lead people to take up arms on the Internet,” French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said at a public meeting Monday.
“I make a distinction between freedom of expression and the spread of messages that serve to glorify terrorism. These hate messages are a crime,” he added. Internet service providers were given 24 hours to comply.
Among the sites that are being restricted is al-Hayat Media Center, accused of possible links with Islamic State militants, according to Cazeneuve. The ministry also says it plans to target “dozens” of other similar websites.
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From Ynet News
On eve of election, Herzog vows: I will be Israel’s next prime minster
Herzog, Netanyahu attempt to shore up support day before vote: Zionist Union takes aim at centrist Yair Lapid, while Likud hopes to steal votes from other rightists day after Tel Aviv rally.
“I promise: I will be a prime minister to everyone. For right and left, for settlers, Haredim, Druze, Arabs, Circassians. I will be prime minister for the center and for the periphery, for students and senior citizens,” Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said Monday, on the eve of the elections to Israel’s 20th Knesset.
His promise came as election candidates made their final appeals to voters on Monday, the eve of an election that will determine whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can secure another term in office. The latest polls have shown Netanyahu’s Likud party trailing the centrist Zionist Union by about four seats.
From The Times of Israel
Monthly rallies to be held in Buenos Aires for slain prosecutor
‘Memoria Nisman’ gatherings to be held on the 18th of the month until Alberto Nisman case resolved
BUENOS AIRES — Monthly rallies calling for justice for the late AMIA Jewish center prosecutor Alberto Nisman will be held in Buenos Aires.
The gatherings, set to begin on Wednesday, called “Memoria Nisman,” or Nisman Memory, will take place at 9 a.m. in front of the Palace for Justice of Buenos Aires, on the 18th of every month. Nisman was found dead on January 18.
The first meeting will be led by philosopher Santiago Kovadloff, who also spoke at Nisman’s funeral, journalist Nelson Castro, and Sergio Bergman, a rabbi and lawmaker.
Bergman launched the invitation to participate in the rally during his Shabbat address three weeks ago, one week after a rally was held on February 18 organized by Argentinian prosecutors.
“Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught us in his rallies walking side by side with Martin Luther King that when you march for fair causes you are praying with your feet,” Bergman said at the NCI temple, located in Belgrano, a northern neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
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From The Times of Israel
Demand for Jewish guards spikes after France, Denmark attacks
As anti-Semitism surges in Europe, renowned British defense firm CST is inundated with volunteers and requests for its services
LONDON (JTA) — On a nondescript street in the London suburbs, guards with earpieces stand watch outside a brown building with blast-resistant doors and windows.
The building does not advertise the identity of its occupants, and the guards do not appreciate loitering by individuals curious to find out.
Though it resembles a secret government facility or money vault, the building is actually the headquarters of the Community Security Trust, widely considered the best-organized Jewish defense force in Europe and one of British Jewry’s most admired institutions. With an annual budget of $7.5 million, the CST has served for 20 years as the Jewish community’s shield, research service and anti-Semitism watchdog.
In the United Kingdom, the CST has become the natural address for record numbers of volunteers who have inundated the group with applications following the slaying of five Jews in two Islamist attacks earlier this year in Paris and Copenhagen. Within weeks of the attacks, the group had dispensed the entirety of its annual budget of matching funds for community security upgrades.
Outside Britain, Jewish groups from across Western Europe have sought CST’s assistance in developing the sort of skills in crisis management, training and outreach honed by the group over the years.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
Jon Voight: ‘President Obama Doesn’t Love Israel’
By Anne Cohen
Jon Voight wants you to know that, unlike Barack Obama, he REALLY loves Israel.
In a video released to the masses on Sunday night, the actor claims that the President is an enemy of the Jewish state (in a “friends of my enemies” kind of way), and that Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents are pulling a Neville Chamberlain.
“I want to see Israel survive and not be overtaken by the madmen of this world,” Voight says. “President Obama does not love Israel. His whole agenda is to control Israel. And this way he can be friends with all of Israel’s enemies…America has not been the same since his presidency.”
“Those like Yitzhak Herzog who believe that dealmaking is the solution to what Israel faces are as wrong as Neville Chamberlain believing he made a peace deal with Hitler,” Voight adds, referring to Bibi’s main opposition. “We must learn from history where the true danger lies.”
Using appeasement to make your case. That’s original.
