From Russia Today
‘Maidan snipers trained in Poland’: Polish MP alleges special op in Ukraine to provoke riot
Snipers who are thought to have operated in Kiev’s Independence Square amidst events that led to a coup in February 2014 were trained in Poland and sent to Ukraine to “do a favor” for the US, a Polish Euro-MP claimed in an interview.
On February 20, 2014, riot police trying to restrain anti-government demonstrators on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev suddenly retreated up the street from whence they had come. As the protesters rushed forward, gunfire suddenly broke out, with many witnesses saying it was a sniper attack. In some two hours, 46 people were killed.
A year after the tragedy that provoked a huge backlash from the Ukrainians, ultimately leading to the rapid toppling of then-President Viktor Yanukovich, the events on the square are still pending investigation. Several Berkut riot police officers have been detained [ http://rt.com/news/berkut-snipers-detained-ukraine-037/ ], but not much progress has been made, while murky details and speculation have been emerging in the press.
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From The Times of Israel
Driver in West Bank hit-and-run identified as Jewish settler
Four Palestinians lightly to moderately wounded in Tuesday incident east of Qalqilya; driver claims he was afraid to stop
The driver of a vehicle that hit four Palestinian pedestrians in a hit-and-run Tuesday has been identified. A Jewish resident of the West Bank settlement of Ginot Shomron called the police Tuesday night and confessed to driving the car.
The pedestrians were hurt Tuesday evening when a car plowed into a group walking by the side of Road 55 near the entrance to the West Bank village of Nabi Elias, east of Qalqilya.
The vehicle continued traveling east on Road 55 toward the village of Azun, witnesses said. According to police, the driver later explained he was scared to stop outside the Palestinian village.
Police said from the start that they were treating the incident as a hit-and-run offense. Initial reports speculated the incident may have been a retaliatory attack by Jews over a spate of recent deadly Palestinian car-ramming terror attacks in Jerusalem and the West Bank, but investigators said no evidence has yet been found that the accident was a deliberate attack.
Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances evacuated the wounded, who were in light to moderate condition, to a local hospital.
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From The Times of Israel
US: Navy ship on Yemen coast to protect navigation
White House claims aircraft carrier sent to only secure Yemeni transit routes, but may also serve secondary role
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Tuesday played down the role of the US aircraft carrier steaming toward the waters off Yemen, saying the USS Theodore Roosevelt will primarily be there to protect freedom of navigation.
The massive carrier will join eight other US Navy ships in the waters around Yemen amid reports that nine Iranian ships are heading that way, possibly carrying arms for the Shiite Houthi rebels. Such shipments would be in violation of a UN Security Council resolution, and several of the other Navy ships contain teams designed to board naval vessels if there are concerns the ships are carrying illegal or improper cargo.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Roosevelt’s primary purpose is to ensure goods can transit safely through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
But he also said “a specific arms shipment from the Iranians, intended for the Houthis, would be a pretty clear violation of the United Nations Security Council embargo,” Earnest said. “No doubt about that.”
Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Roosevelt is there to assure the waterways are open. But, he added: “They have moved to that area in response to the deteriorating security situation in Yemen. Many have asked me whether or not they are there because of the Iranian ship convoy or flotilla that is also in the area. That is certainly one of the factors.”
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From The Times of Israel
Iran’s foreign minister calls for urgent assistance to Yemen
‘Positive developments in Yemen should be followed by urgent humanitarian assistance,’ Zarif tweets. ‘Ready to help’
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called for “urgent humanitarian assistance” to Yemen following four weeks of Saudi air strikes against Houthi rebels, the BBC reported.
“Positive developments in Yemen should be followed by urgent humanitarian assistance, intra-Yemeni dialogue and a broad-based govt. Ready to help,” Zarif tweeted after Saudi Arabia announced the end of Operation Decisive Storm.
Iran has denied Saudi and Western allegations that it has been supporting the Houthi rebels in Yemen, which has been wracked by civil war that led to the flight of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi to Saudi Arabia last month.
Saudi defense officials said that while efforts would be made to find a political solution to the crisis, force would still be used if it proved necessary.
Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Asiri, spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition, said Tuesday that a new phase entitled “Operation Restoring Hope” would begin in order to stop Houthi rebels from “targeting civilians or changing realities on the ground,” according to the BBC.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Survey: Jews, Buddhists are biggest U.S. supporters of gay marriage
NEW YORK (JTA) – Jews are overwhelmingly supportive of same-sex marriage, according to a new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute.
Of the 724 Jews surveyed, 47 percent said they strongly favor allowing same-sex couples to marry legally and 30 percent said they favor it. Nine percent of respondents said they oppose gay marriage, and the same percentage said they strongly oppose it.
The survey, which had its results released on Wednesday, drew on 40,000 interviews among a random sample of Americans from April 2014 to early January 2015.
After Buddhists, Jews were more likely than any other religious group to support gay marriage. Among the survey respondents, 84 percent of Buddhists favored gay marriage, followed by Jews and the religiously unaffiliated, 77 percent; mainline Protestants (Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Unitarians), 62 percent; and Catholics, 61 percent.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israel critic Cornel West to speak at UCLA Heschel forum, despite protests
(JTA) — Academic and author Cornel West, an outspoken critic of Israel, will remain as a speaker at a UCLA conference honoring the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, despite protests from the campus Jewish community.
The May 3 conference, titled “Moral Grandeur & Spiritual Audacity,” is organized by the UCLA Jewish studies department. Among the other speakers and panelists are David Myers, a UCLA professor; Heschel’s daughter, Susannah Heschel, a professor at Dartmouth College; and Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum.
West’s participation was first reported by the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles.
“It is with dismay that we have been confronted by the outrageous pronouncements of Cornel West, a keynote speaker at the Heschel Conference,” the leadership of Hillel at UCLA said in a statement released Tuesday. The statement called West’s recent statements concerning Israel “an affront to Rabbi Heschel’s pursuit of truth.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish groups to protest pro-Palestinian gathering in Berlin
BERLIN (JTA) — A coalition of Jewish and pro-Israel groups is planning to protest a pro-Palestinian event in Berlin that is alleged to have ties to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.
Fearing a resurgence of the hate speech and violence that marked last summer’s anti-Israel protests in Germany, the coalition named Berlin Against Hamas will protest on Saturday outside the Berlin Arena, where the 13th Conference of Palestinians in Europe is to be held. More than 3,000 people are expected at the conference, which is co-organized by the Palestinian Community of Germany and the British-based Palestinian Return Center.
Politicians from all parties represented in the Berlin legislature have added their support, the Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee said in a statement.
According to the Berlin Department for Constitutional Protection, the conference has become “the most important activity of Hamas supporters” in the city.
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From Russia Today
US uses Ukraine crisis to derail Russia-Germany partnership – Lavrov
Washington’s strategy is to sow discord throughout the world to keep itself in the loop in every region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Russian media. The Ukrainian crisis was initiated to prevent an alliance between Russia and Germany.
“Strategically [the US] don’t want to allow a situation in which important regions of the world live and prosper without them, without the Americans. That is why it is important for them to keep people dependent of them,” he said.
The assessment was voiced by Lavrov during a two-hour marathon Q&A session with three Russian radio stations: Echo of Moscow, Moscow Speaks and Sputnik Radio. They were represented by their respective chiefs, Aleksey Venedictov, Sergey Dorenko and Margarita Simonyan, who also heads RT.
The Ukrainian crisis is used by the US to derail Russia’s partnership with the EU and particularly Germany, Lavrov stressed.
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From The Times of Israel
Hungary says FBI chief insensitive, superficial on Holocaust
US official appeared to equate the roles of Poles and Hungarians in the Holocaust with that of Germans
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary has joined Poland in denouncing remarks by FBI director James Comey which seemed to equate Poland’s and Hungary’s roles in the Holocaust with that of Germany.
Hungary’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Comey’s remarks delivered last week at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and then published in The Washington Post were defamatory of Hungarians. The ministry said it has sent a written complaint to the US Embassy in Budapest.
“The words of the FBI director bear witness to astounding insensitivity and impermissible superficiality,” the ministry said in a statement. “We do not accept from anyone the formulation of such a generalization and defamation.”
Comey, arguing for the importance of Holocaust education, said: “In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland, and Hungary … didn’t do something evil.”
“They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do,” Comey said in the speech which was also posted without any clarification on the FBI’s website. “That should truly frighten us.”
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