From PressTV
Report uncovers how Israel deceitfully managed to make atomic bombs
A new report has uncovered how Israel managed to hide its activities to make nukes back in 1960s under the cover of a textile factory.
The Israeli regime’s deception was highlighted in a report published on Monday by The Washington Post. In the 1960s, Tel Aviv managed to successfully hide its nuclear warfare programs, the report said.
According to the report, Israel began the clandestine construction of a reactor with the help of France in the Dimona facility which was described to the US embassy in June 1960 as “a textile plant” and later on as a “a metallurgical research installation,” said a March 1964 memo compiled for then-National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy.
The then-Israeli prime minister, David Ben-Gurion (pictured below), had announced to the Knesset in December 1960 that the construction of a 24-megawatt reactor, which was being carried out at Dimona in the Negev desert, would not be finished for four years.
From Russia Today
If Jews leave, Europe will face ‘economic disaster’, Jewish leader warns
European leaders should be quick in adopting real measures to counter anti-Semitism or witness Jews leave, taking away their money and businesses, says the President of the European Jewish Congress (ECJ).
The rise of xenophobia and anti-Semitism in Europe has led to many Jewish families pondering escape, ECJ’s Russian-born president Moshe Kantor said.
“This minority is going in case authorities are not delivering some real, real stuff,” Kantor told Reuters.“This minority is going to leave Europe, definitely because this question just now in every Jewish family in Europe: to leave or to stay.”
A Jewish organization which collects data on anti-Semitism, Community Security Trust (CST), reported last months that Britain’s Jewish community suffered its highest number of anti-Semitic incidents on record last year – 1,168 – primarily due to the conflict in Gaza.
From PressTV
Opposition edging Netanyahu party, poll shows
An Israeli opinion survey has revealed that opposition Zionist Union is edging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud party, which is heading into a make-or-break election.
With the March 17 election nearing, the Tuesday poll by Israeli research institute Panel Politics showed that Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union, which identifies itself as center-leftist, could earn 24 seats against Likud’s 21 projected seats in the Knesset (Israeli parliament).
It surveyed more than 1,000 Israelis and had a margin of error of three percentage points.
Chances, however, still exist for the Likud to form a coalition with about a dozen other parties to secure victory.
‘Worldwide anti-Likud effort’
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From PressTV
Shots fired at Israel soldiers in Golan, officer hurt
An Israeli officer has been injured in the occupied Golan Heights after shots were fired from the Syrian territory at one of the regime’s military units, Israeli media say.
Israeli media quoted a military source as saying that the officer was at the site as part of a military unit to evacuate a bulldozer stuck there when he sustained slight injuries by shrapnel from a bullet fired from Syria.
Tensions have been high in the occupied Golan Heights since an attack by Israel on a convoy of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement on January 17. The assault killed six Hezbollah members along with an Iranian general.
Hezbollah later announced that the attack had been coordinated between Tel Aviv and the al-Nusra terrorists.
In response, Hezbollah fighters also launched a rocket assault around the Shebaa Farms south of Lebanon later that month, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding scores of others.
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From Russia Today
6 NATO warships take part in Black Sea naval drills
The joint exercise saw six vessels take part, including the guided missile cruiser USS Vicksburg, while ships from Canada, Germany and Italy were also present. The operation was headed by US Rear Admiral Brad Williamson.
According to a Bulgarian navy spokesman, the training drills featured simulated anti-air and anti-submarine warfare exercises, as well as simulated small boat attacks and basic ship handling maneuvers.
“The training and exercises we will conduct with our Allies in the Black Sea prepares us to undertake any mission NATO might require to meet its obligations for collective defense,” Williamson was cited as saying by the alliance’s Maritime Command (MARCOM)’s website.
The drills in the Black Sea are likely to further antagonize already strained relations with Russia. The US and NATO are outraged by Crimea’s decision to cede from Ukraine and join Russia and have been increasing their military and naval presence in the region.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
State Department: No comment on Netanyahu and ‘two states’ until after vote
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration will wait out Israel’s elections before commenting on conflicting reports of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s retreat from advancing toward a two-state solution.
“Our commitment to achieving an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a two-state negotiated solution remains strong,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said Monday during the daily briefing.
“We count on having Israeli and Palestinian partners who are also committed to that goal,” she said. “A lot of things are said during election campaigns. We’ll wait to see the policies of the next Israeli government.”
Psaki was responding to a series of conflicting statements over the weekend over the status of Netanyahu’s views on the two-state solution.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach apologizes to Susan Rice for attack ad
NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbi Shmuley Boteach apologized to U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice for his organization’s full-page ad in The New York Times accusing Rice of turning a blind eye to the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
In an Op-Ed in the Washington Post titled “Dear Susan Rice, I’m Sorry,” Boteach said that the ad placed by This World was more of a personal attack than an opinion on policy.
“That was not our intent,” Boteach wrote. “We hoped to focus on policy, and we failed. I apologize fully and hope you will forgive me. It is the job of a communicator to communicate. Effectively. And having come up short, I will try again.”
The ad, which said “Susan Rice has a blind spot: Genocide,” noted Rice’s complaints about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech to Congress about the proposed Iran nuclear deal. It said Rice’s objections “could not be more wrong” and criticized her for refusing to use the word “genocide” in reference to Rwanda as a member of President Bill Clinton’s national security team.
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From PressTV
ISIL youngster shoots dead ‘Israeli spy’: Video
A video released by the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group apparently shows a young militant shooting and killing an Israeli man, claimed by the group to be a spy for Israel’s spy agency Mossad.
The group released the 13-minute footage on Tuesday. The victim is shown in the video identifying himself as 19-year-old Mohamed Said Ismail Musallam and alleging how he was recruited by Israeli intelligence.
The video bore the hallmarks of the group’s previous videos, including its dressing of the victims in orange jumpsuits.
It showed two militants, one a young boy, standing behind the Israeli. The older militant is seen saying in French that the prisoner was sent by Mossad to spy on the group.
The boy is seen walking around in front of the hostage and then shooting him in the forehead using a pistol.
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From PressTV
EU censures Israel for demolishing shelters in East al-Quds
The European Union has condemned the Israeli regime for demolishing EU-financed shelters in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
“We condemn today’s demolition of temporary shelters,” which had been put up on the outskirts of the Isawiya neighborhood of East Al-Quds, an EU statement said on Tuesday.
EU financial aid has helped to build some 200 temporary shelters in the West Bank, outside East al-Quds, where Bedouin communities inhabited.
A spokeswoman for the Jerusalem municipality said the Israel Nature and Parks Authority initiated bulldozing the buildings, which forced the residents to evacuate the area.
She added the structures were demolished as they were in a national park within the jurisdiction of the municipality.
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From PressTV
Israel destroys Palestinian house in West Bank
Israeli forces have razed to the ground a Palestinian house in a village in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli forces destroyed the house, which belonged to Palestinian Judge Kifah Abd al-Rahim Sholi, in the village of al-Jarushiyya in Tulkarem Governorate on Monday, Ma’an news agency reported.
According to local sources, the Israeli forces raided the village and destroyed the two-story building under the pretext that the house had been constructed without an Israeli permit.
“Security forces carried out the demolition of an illegal building which was constructed without the necessary permits,” Ma’an news agency quoted a statement by the Israeli Civil Administration as saying.
Over 560 Palestinian homes have been destroyed in the occupied West Bank so far this year.
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From Russia Today
Indonesian minister threatens Australia with ‘tsunami’ of asylum seekers over drug smugglers’ executions
An Indonesian minister has threatened to release a “human tsunami” of 10,000 asylum seekers to Australia amid tensions with PM Tony Abbott’s government over Canberra’s objections to the impending execution of two Aussie drug smugglers.
“If Canberra keeps doing things that displease Indonesia, Jakarta will surely let the illegal immigrants go to Australia,” Indonesia’s coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, told local TV on Tuesday.
Abbott’s Liberal-National coalition came to power in 2013 on an anti-illegal immigrant platform. Abbott has since introduced policies which see military ships patrolling Australia’s water for migrant boats.
Tedjo said that Indonesia has so far been partnering with Australia to keep migrants from illegally crossing the Timor Sea to Australia, but suggested that the cooperation may stop if Canberra continues to antagonize its neighbor in advocating for clemency for the two Australian nationals imprisoned by Jakarta since 2005 for heroin smuggling.
From Russia Today
Netanyahu claims ‘worldwide’ effort to ensure he loses Israeli elections
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes there is a “huge, worldwide effort” to make sure he does not get reelected in next week’s elections, which are expected to be extremely close.
The comments by Netanyahu to activists from his right-wing Likud party were broadcast by Army Radio on Tuesday.
“It is a very tight race,” Netanyahu said. “Nothing is guaranteed because there is a huge, worldwide effort to topple the Likud government.”
The radio interpreted the remarks as relating to advocacy groups funded from abroad pushing for a change of government.
From The Times of Israel
British university seminar to question Israel’s legitimacy
UK lawmaker slams ‘provocative’ conference that casts doubt on the legality of the Jewish state’s right to exist
A British university conference calling Israel’s existence into question has come under fire, with at least one lawmaker urging the institution to reconsider the event.
The University of Southampton will hold a three-day symposium in April with the stated goal of shifting the debate away from “Israeli actions in the 1967 Occupied Territories” and onto “themes of legitimacy… posed by Israel’s very nature.”
The forum will examine the manner in which “injustice in historic Palestine” was shaped by Israel’s creation, as well as constitutional bases in international law that may rectify the transgression inherent in the establishment of the Jewish state, according to the university’s website.
Mark Hoban, a member of Parliament and former British treasury minister, dubbed the conference “provocative and unhelpful” and called on the university’s leadership to cancel it.
“While I fully support the principles of freedom of speech and the right to question, I find it concerning that an institution as respected as the University of Southampton should host a hard-line, one-sided forum questioning and delegitimizing the existence of a democratic state,” Hoban said.
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From The Times of Israel
Biden: Lawmakers’ Iran letter ‘beneath dignity’ of Senate
Obama says Republicans aligning with Iranian hardliners after senators send missive to Khamenei warning nuke deal might not be honored
WASHINGTON – US Vice President Joe Biden lashed out at Republican lawmakers for their “highly misleading” letter Monday to Iran’s leaders cautioning against a nuclear deal with the United States, a letter he described as “false as it is dangerous.”
“The letter sent on March 9th by 47 Republican Senators to the Islamic Republic of Iran, expressly designed to undercut a sitting president in the midst of sensitive international negotiations, is beneath the dignity of an institution I revere,” Biden said in a statement.
Forty-seven Republicans, including Senate leaders and several potential 2016 presidential candidates, wrote an open letter to Iran’s leader, warning any deal with Obama might not be honored in future. In the letter, Republicans said that without congressional approval, any deal between Iran and the US would be merely an agreement between Obama and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The letter, wrote Biden, “ignores two centuries of precedent and threatens to undermine the ability of any future American President, whether Democrat or Republican, to negotiate with other nations on behalf of the United States.”
Biden went on to warn that the letter and its implications undercut America’s interests by “sends a highly misleading signal to friend and foe alike that that our Commander-in-Chief cannot deliver on America’s commitments.”
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From The Times of Israel
Likud panelist calls Obama an anti-Semite, later apologizes
Ruling party member says Netanyahu’s Bar-Ilan speech in 2009 was ‘genius’ way of getting US off his back; Likud slams remarks
A Likud activist said Monday that US President Barack Obama was an anti-Semite and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s famous Bar-Ilan speech in 2009, in which he called for the creation of a demilitarized Palestinian states, was a “genius way of leading Obama on.”
Speaking at an elections event at the Lev Academic Center in Jerusalem, the activist, Moshe Ifergan, later backtracked on the loaded remark, saying he wished to “take back the word anti-Semite,” according to Haaretz.
But Obama does give off a bad vibe, he said.
The Likud party released a statement saying it “condemns these grave, inappropriate remarks which do not represent the stance of the party or the prime minister.”
When later contacted by Haaretz to clarify the comment, Ifergan said that Obama’s statement following the terror attack at the kosher supermarket in Paris last month “raised suspicions of anti-Semitism.”
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