From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Marco Rubio, pro-Israel GOP hawk, declares run for presidency
WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a hawk on pro-Israel issues, declared his bid for the 2016 Republican presidential candidacy.
Rubio, 43, made a formal announcement Monday evening in Miami. He spoke that day with donors, according to media reports, and said his campaign would emphasize his biography as a child of refugees from the Cuban dictatorship who made good in America.
Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida and a one-time mentor to Rubio, also is exploring a presidential run, which would split the state’s influential Republican Jewish community between two viable candidates. Bush has said he will make a decision before the summer.
Rubio already has the backing of one of the state’s most important Jewish GOP funders, Norman Braman, a car dealership magnate who owned the Philadelphia Eagles for nearly a decade before moving to Florida.
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From PressTV
Germany funded Israeli nuke program: Report
West Germany secretly helped and funded Israel with its development of nuclear weapons in the 1960s, a report says.
The government of former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer clandestinely channeled hundreds of millions of dollars into Israel’s nuclear program, said a report published in the German daily Die Welt on Tuesday.
According to the report, the informal deal was made when former Israeli President Shimon Peres was in charge of the regime’s nuclear weapons project.
On May 14, 1960, Adenauer met with the then-Israeli prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, in New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel, where it was agreed that a total of 500 million dollars be given to Israel under the guise of a 10-year loan for the development of the Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev desert.
The US recently released documentation from its 1987 assessment of Israel’s nuclear weapons capabilities, following a Freedom of Information Act request.
The declassified documents paralleled Israel’s nuclear research laboratories to US nuclear facilities known to carry out weapons research.
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From The Times of Israel
Senate committee to challenge Obama on Iran deal
Vote due Tuesday as Republicans and Democrats work together to gain influence over final nuclear agreement with Iran
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a direct challenge to the White House, a Senate committee plans to vote on a bill that would give Congress a chance to weigh in on any final nuclear agreement that can be reached with Iran.
Despite a veto threat from President Barack Obama, there is strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for Congress to have a say in any deal that the US and five other nations are able to negotiate to keep Iran from being able to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for easing sanctions crippling the economy of the influential Middle East nation.
The White House doesn’t want Congress to take any action that could upset the delicate negotiations that are supposed to wrap up with a final agreement by the end of June.
Sen. Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said a vote is likely on Tuesday, possibly on a new version still being crafted Monday night.
“There have been some tweaks,” said Corker. “I’m hopeful that we’re going to be successful tomorrow.”
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From The Times of Israel
Almost half of Israelis say another Holocaust is possible
Report finds continuing poverty and loneliness among Israel’s 189,000 survivors
Nearly half of Israelis believe another Holocaust is possible, according to a report released Monday by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel.
The annual study, released ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins on the evening of April 15 this year, found that 46 percent of Israelis believe a second Holocaust can happen, five percentage points higher than last year. And a similar number of Israel’s 189,000 Holocaust survivors, or 47%, agree.
Some 46% of survivors also say that future generations will not remember the Holocaust after they are gone, a spike of nine percentage points from last year’s study. A lower 31% of the general public has the same worry, while half of Israelis under 30, the study found, never knowingly met a Holocaust survivor.
The foundation works to help survivors obtain their benefits from the various bureaucracies charged with aiding them. Just 31% of survivors took full advantage of the benefits available to them under law in 2015, according to the foundation’s figures.
While 189,000 survivors still live in Israel, 40 are dying each day, according to the report. Some 45,000, or nearly a quarter, live in poverty with an income below NIS 3,000 per month, according to National Insurance Institute figures quoted by the foundation.
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From The Times of Israel
Children of Holocaust survivors inherit the role of witness
‘Second-generation’ course aims to usher in a new stage of commemoration in a rapidly approaching post-survivor era
AP — When David Hershkoviz was a child, he used to wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of his mother screaming in her sleep, knowing that she was reliving the horrors of the Holocaust.
In time, he learned of the traumatic wartime experience that haunted her most — being torn away from her own mother at the Auschwitz concentration camp’s selection line, where at 21 she was forced into work and her mother dispatched to death.
“That separation never left her,” said Hershkoviz, 54, his voice quivering as he choked back tears. “She said, ‘I think my mother is angry at me because I left her. … My mother never comes to me in my dreams. I haven’t dreamed about her since we parted. How is that possible?’”
When his mother, Mindel, died two years ago, he wanted to carry on her legacy by bearing witness to the Holocaust. He found help in a first-of-its-kind course teaching the children of Holocaust survivors how to ensure their parents’ stories live on.
Hershkoviz is one of 18 graduates of the Shem Olam Institute’s inaugural four-month “second-generation” course, where children of survivors study the history of the horrors their parents endured and how best to pass it on. The program aims to usher in a new stage of Holocaust commemoration in a post-survivor era.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
Wendy Sherman Tells Israel To Expect Iran Deal
Negotiator Believes ‘Good Deal’ Will Be Cut by June
By JTA
A diplomatic negotiated solution is the best option to slow Iran’s nuclear program, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman said during a briefing Monday with Israel’s diplomatic reporters. She said a military strike by Israel or the United States would only set back Iran’s nuclear program by two years.
“You can’t bomb their nuclear know-how, and they will rebuild everything,” Sherman said in the conference call. “We think we are headed for a good deal. Is it a perfect deal? No. There is no such thing as a perfect deal.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Ex-N.Y. Assembly speaker’s son-in-law arrested for allegedly running Ponzi scheme
(JTA) — The son-in-law of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver was arrested for allegedly running a $7 million Ponzi scheme.
Marcello Trebitsch, 37, was arrested on Monday by federal agents and indicted in Manhattan federal court on charges of wire fraud and securities fraud. He was released on $500,000 bail.
Trebitsch, who is married to Silver’s daughter Michelle, could face up to 40 years in jail and $5.25 million in fines.
In the five-year scheme, which collapsed in December, Trebitsch allegedly promised up to 16 percent returns with very minimal risk for the investors who put their money in low cap stocks. He allegedly invested only a portion of the money and used the rest for personal benefit and to repay other investors, the complaint said.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
ADL slams RFK Jr. for vaccines-Holocaust analogy
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Robert Kennedy Jr. apologized for using the word holocaust to describe the effects of mandatory vaccines.
“I want to apologize to all whom I offended by my use of the word ‘holocaust’ to describe the autism epidemic,” Kennedy, an environmental activist who has joined the opposition to mandatory vaccines, said Monday.
The likening of vaccines to a holocaust was “inappropriate and insensitive,” the Anti-Defamation League said.
Kennedy, the son of the assassinated liberal icon Robert Kennedy and the nephew of slain President John Kennedy, linked vaccines to autism and likened the practice to a holocaust while campaigning in California earlier this month against legislation that would mandate vaccinations for children.
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From Russia Today
S-300 in Iran ‘no threat to Israel’: Putin briefs Netanyahu on defensive weapons concept
According to a statement released by the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin “gave a detailed explanation of the logic behind Russia’s decision…emphasizing the fact that the tactical and technical specifications of the S-300 system make it a purely defensive weapon; therefore, it would not pose any threat to the security of Israel or other countries in the Middle East.”
The assurances do not appear to have had the desired effect. In a statement released by his office, the Israeli PM expressed “grave concerns regarding the decision,” and told Russia’s president that this step “will only encourage Iranian aggression in the region and further undermine the stability of the Middle East.”
From Russia Today
Russia’s seat in G8 ‘hinges’ on resolution of Ukraine conflict – German FM
Despite intense diplomatic efforts on the part of Moscow to find a political solution to the Ukraine crisis, G7 leaders are not yet ready to welcome Russia back at the discussion table, German FM said, insisting on further steps to deescalate the crisis.
“I wish for Russia to return to the G8 nations but the way to get there hinges on its assistance and effort to put an end to the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said as the G7 (former G8) foreign ministers began to arrive in Lubeck.
Speaking at an event with German students, Steinmeier said Russia’s participation is vital for solving a variety of international problems. Making it clear that Germany does not wish Russia to be excluded indefinitely, the minister also warned against further isolating Russia.
“I have no interest in Russia being permanently isolated – we know from history that someone who is isolated can develop more dangerously than someone who is not,” he said.
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From The Times of Israel
Israel ranks third for Hollywood imports
Only Britain and Holland beat the Jewish state as a source for American television content
Israel’s entertainment industry, like every other Israeli industry, understands the limitations of its size.
That’s why it has concentrated on producing concepts, also called “formats,” for television shows rather than attempting to produce expensive shows indigenously.
These formats are then sold to larger, wealthier countries’ entertainment industries for production.
That’s how, as Forbes reports, Israel has become the third-largest source of American television content, after Britain and Holland.
Three firms “dominate the format business,” the magazine reports: Keshet Media Group, Dori Media and Armoza Formats.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Poll: American Jewish support for Obama dropping
Poll: American Jewish support for Obama dropping
(JTA) — Job approval ratings for President Obama have dropped among American Jews from 61 percent to 50 percent since the start of 2015, a new Gallup poll found.
The American Jews interviewed for the poll released this week gave Obama a 50 percent approval rating in March, dropping from 52 percent in February and 61 percent in January.
The poll results were based on interviews with 1,022 Americans who identified themselves as Jewish and conducted as part of daily tracking from January through the end of March. The Jewish segment of the survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
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