From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Israel destroys Gaza cement factory in retaliation for rocket attack
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel destroyed what the military said was a cement factory in Gaza following thefiring of a rocket from Gaza that damaged agricultural fields in a southern Israeli kibbutz.
The Israeli Air Force destroyed the factory on Saturday in response to the rocket fired on Friday.
Speaking at a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cement factory “served to rebuild the tunnels that we hit in Operation Protective Edge.” Netanyahu said Israel would not ignore the firing of even one rocket from Gaza on Israel.
“Hamas bears the responsibility for any escalation,” Netanyahu said. “We will safeguard Israel’s security.”
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Obama signs law strengthening U.S.-Israel alliance
(JTA) — President Obama signed a law that strengthens the U.S.-Israel alliance.
The 2014 United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act, which unanimously passed both the House of Representatives earlier this month and the Senate in September, declares Israel a “major strategic partner” of the United States and expands the value of American weapons stockpiled in Israel and upgrades Israel’s trade status to expedite export licensing.
President Obama signed the legislation on Friday in Washington.
The law also encourages the inclusion of Israel in the United States’ visa waiver program if it meets program requirements. Cooperation between the two countries in the fields of energy, water, homeland security, agriculture and alternative fuel technologies also is included in the legislation.
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From PressTV
Syria downs Israeli drone in Golan Heights: Reports
An Israeli reconnaissance drone has been downed over the southwestern Syrian city of al-Quneitra reportedly by the Syrian army.
Citing military sources, media reports said the Skylark unmanned aerial vehicle “was brought down” on Sunday when it was doing reconnaissance over Quneitra in the Golan Heights.
Quneitra is located in the demilitarized zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied side of the Golan Heights monitored by the UN peacekeepers since 1974.
No further details have been given yet. There has been no comment from the Israeli officials so far.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
ADL: Killing of N.Y. police officers ‘heinous, senseless, shocking’
(JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League called the killing of two New York Police Department officers a “heinous, senseless and shocking assault.”
The officers, Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, were shot in the head through the window of their patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon.
Shortly before the killings, the gunman, identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, threatened to shoot two “pigs” in retaliation for death of Eric Garner at the hands of police officers in July. “I’m putting Wings on Pigs Today,” Brinsley wrote on Instagram minutes before the attack.
Brinsley had traveled to New York from Baltimore, where he shot and wounded his girlfriend. Brinley killed himself after shooting the officers.
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From PressTV
Israel police arrest 8 members of Lehava group
Israeli police have detained at least eight members of a racist anti-Arab group allegedly involved in an attack on a bilingual school in Jerusalem al-Quds.
“Eight suspects who belong to Lehava were arrested and detained for questioning on suspicion of offenses involving incitement to carry out acts of violence and terror for racist motives,” Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said on Sunday.
The suspects were detained in the cities of Herzliya and Rishon LeZion Netivot, as well as in East Jerusalem al-Quds and illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
On December 16, Israeli police detained 10 members of the racist group. The leader of the anti-Arab group, Bentzi Gopstein, was also among the detainees.
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From PressTV
US-led coalition hits areas in Syria’s Aleppo
The US-led coalition allegedly fighting against ISIL militants has reportedly carried out airstrikes against areas north of the Syrian city of Aleppo for the first time.
The Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that the US-led coalition targeted the Madajen area, where ISIL militants have been battling al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and its allies.
“At least 12 coalition strikes hit positions and weapons depots in areas that had never been targeted before,” the group’s director, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.
Madajen is located between ISIL-controlled Dabiq and Marea, which is held by the Takfiri militants’ rivals.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Obama signs ‘No Social Security for Nazis’ act
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama signed into law a bill that ends Social Security payments to former Nazis.
The “No Social Security for Nazis Act” Obama signed Thursday was passed unanimously by both chambers in Congress earlier this month.
The measure closes a loophole that had allowed ex-Nazis who lied about their past when immigrating to the United States — and had been identified and deported by the Justice Department — to continue receiving Social Security and other government benefits.
News of the continued benefits was uncovered in October when The Associated Press published an expose.
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From PressTV
Israeli MPs okay funding to build tourist center in West Bank
The Israeli parliament (Knesset) has approved a 3.3-million-dollar funding to build a tourist center at an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank.
According to a Sunday statement by the Knesset, the money will be injected into the project at the Barkan settlement in the north of the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli opposition lawmakers condemned the ratification of the funds by the Knesset’s financial committee as “electoral corruption.”
They accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to “please the settler lobby” before the March 17 general elections.
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From PressTV
Israel rejects UN demand to compensate Lebanon for 2006 war
The Israeli regime has rejected a UN resolution that calls for Tel Aviv to compensate Lebanon for the “environmental disaster” caused by an airstrike during the 2006 war.
“It’s the sort of UN decision that we’re used to, mixing alternative history, manipulation, politicization and self-interested narrow-mindedness,” the Israeli mission to the UN claimed in a late Friday statement.
This came after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly passed the resolution, which calls on Israel to pay Beirut more than USD 850 million in damages.
It says the destruction of the oil storage tanks resulted in extensive pollution across the entire Lebanese coastline.
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From PressTV
14 Americans, one Spanish fund Netanyahu’s Likud campaign: Report
A report says 14 Americans and one Spanish national have funded a campaign by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to retain his position at the head of the Likud party.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Saturday that Netanyahu has raised nearly 539,000 shekels (over USD 137,000) during the campaign.
“The sum came from 15 donors, all of whom are from overseas. Fourteen are from the United States, while one is from Spain,” it said.
The donors included four members of the Miami-based Falic family and Kenneth Abramowitz, who heads the American Friends of Likud.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
Jew or No Jew: Christmas Song Edition
By Anne Cohen
Rudolph the blue-nosed reindeer? // by Lior Zaltzman
Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, The Ronettes, Nat King Cole — their voices fill the air come Christmastime, injecting some holiday warmth into our Grinch-sized winter hearts.
But as you’ve probably heard, behind (almost) every merry and bright hit, there’s a Jewish writer..
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