From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Lawmakers introduce bill to stymie Israel boycotts
(JTA) — Two Republican congressmen introduced legislation to prevent boycotts of Israel.
Under the Boycott Our Enemies, Not Israel Act introduced Wednesday by Reps. Doug Lamborn of Colorado and Ron DeSantis of Florida, prospective contractors with the U.S. government would be required to certify that they are not participating in any boycotts against Israel. The bill also includes penalties for false certification, including permanently banning a company from doing business with the government.
“Our government business practices should not play any role in harming our greatest ally in the Middle East,” Lamborn said in a statement, adding that the bill was introduced to “thwart efforts by Palestinian organizations to pressure different corporations, companies and educational institutions to boycott, divest, and sanction Israel.”
“The BDS movement represents a disgraceful attempt to single out Israel for punitive treatment,” he said.
From PressTV
Israel killed highest number of Palestinians in 2014: UN
A United Nations report says Israeli wars and aggression claimed the lives of more Palestinian civilians in 2014 than any other year since 1967.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in the Thursday report that Israeli forces continue to violate the Palestinians’ inalienable rights to life and liberty.
“Palestinian civilians continue to be subject to threats to their life, physical safety and liberty,” with 2014 witnessing the “highest civilian death toll since 1967,” OCHA said in the report on the humanitarian situation across the occupied territories.
During its latest war on the besieged Gaza Strip last summer, Israel killed a large number of Palestinians.
According to the UN, a vast majority of the Palestinian fatalities were civilians, including over 500 children.
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From Russia Today
Iran, Russia demand immediate halt to Saudi-led intervention in Yemen
Iran and Russia have called on Saudi Arabia to halt airstrikes on Yemen as supporters of Yemen’s ruling Houthi militants stage demonstrations throughout the country, protesting against the Saudi-led military intervention.
Speaking to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Russia’s Vladimir Putin called for an “immediate cessation of military activities” in Yemen and increased efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis, the Kremlin said in a statement on Thursday.
From the Jewish Daily Forward
The Dilemma
Editorial
This is likely not an issue for those who unequivocally support Netanyahu’s aggressive, nationalistic stance and cheer the fact that he won by dismissing the two pillars of American Middle East policy: the creation of a two-state solution with the Palestinians and the pursuance of a nuclear deal with Iran. Many Jews here eagerly accepted his apology for his disparaging words about the Arab vote and quickly nodded in agreement when he qualified his dismissal of a Palestinian state.
Trouble is, it’s impossible to know whether Netanyahu the candidate or Netanyahu the prime minister was expressing his truth. For many of us, his statements won’t easily be forgotten or excused, no matter what he now says. And even though Netanyahu has voiced a serious, valid critique of a potential deal with Iran, the manner in which he used the U.S. Congress to defy a sitting president has left a lingering resentment.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Spain’s lower parliament passes Sephardic return bill
(JTA) — Legislation in Spain that would naturalize Sephardic Jews was approved by the country’s lower parliament.
The legislation approved Wednesday goes to the country’s Senate for a vote. It is expected to go into effect in May.
The draft bill was introduced in February 2014 by Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon, who told JTA at the time that it was meant to “repair a historical error” — a reference to the Spanish Inquisition that began in 1492. The Inquisition forced hundreds of thousands of Jews to flee the Iberian Peninsula or convert to Christianity in an attempt to escape religious persecution led by the Catholic Church and the Spanish royal house.
Under current Spanish legislation dating back to 1924, Jews may apply for citizenship if they reside in Spain for more than two years and can prove family ties to expelled Spaniards. Each request is evaluated individually and approved or rejected by a senior Interior Ministry official.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Harvey Weinstein urges Jews to ‘kick ass’ in anti-Semitism fight
LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein urged Jews in the fight against anti-Semitism to “stand up and kick these guys in the ass.”
On Tuesday night, the famously combative Weinstein made his remarks at a gala dinner given by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, where he was presented with the organization’s Humanitarian Award.
Jews, he told the audience, “better stand up and kick these guys in the ass,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Weinstein, who has produced a litany of hit films, including the Holocaust action movie “Inglorious Basterds” and “Pulp Fiction,” reportedly urged “understanding of our Arab brothers and our Islamic brothers,” but also warned, “We can’t allow the bad guys to win. So as they say in “The Godfather,” ‘back to the mattresses,’ and back to the idea that we will not ever forget what happened to us.”
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From Russia Today
Assad: ‘US, UK, France want to weaken Russia by turning Ukraine & Syria into puppet states’
The West is using the same tactic in Syria as it is in Ukraine, aiming to weaken Russia by creating puppet states around it, Syrian President Bashar Assad has said. He added that Syria is open to hosting a Russian naval base on its territory.
“There is a connection between the Syrian crisis and what is happening in Ukraine. Firstly, because both countries are important for Russia. Secondly, because there is a goal in both cases to weaken Russia and create puppet states,” Assad told Russian reporters in an interview scheduled to be published on Friday, as quoted by RIA Novosti.
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From Ynet News
Iran’s Rouhani intervenes as deadline for nuclear deal approaches
Iranian president reiterates Tehran’s principal demand to lift ‘all unjust sanctions against Iranian nation’, as US and Iran take opposing stands on Yemen air strikes.
Iran’s president spoke with the leaders of France, Britain, China and Russia on Thursday in an apparent effort to break an impasse to a nuclear deal between Tehran and major world powers.
He also raised the Saudi-led military operation against Iranian-backed Houthi fighters in Yemen, as did US Secretary of State John Kerry ahead of nuclear negotiations in Switzerland with Tehran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
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From The Independent
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Amnesty Int’l: Gaza rocket attacks by Palestinians are war crimes
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Several rocket attacks launched at Israel from inside the Gaza Strip amount to war crimes, Amnesty International said.
In a report released Wednesday, the human rights group also found that Palestinian rocket fire during the Hamas-Israel conflict last summer killed more civilians inside the Gaza Strip than inside Israel due to the use of unguided projectiles that cannot be accurately aimed at specific targets. In many cases, the rockets landed inside Gaza rather than the intended targets in Israel.
Using unguided weapons is prohibited under international law and their use constitutes a war crime.
“Palestinian armed groups, including the armed wing of Hamas, repeatedly launched unlawful attacks during the conflict killing and injuring civilians,” said Philip Luther, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International, in a statement. “In launching these attacks, they displayed a flagrant disregard for international humanitarian law and for the consequences of their violations on civilians in both Israel and the Gaza Strip.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
N.Y. teen charged with hate crime for anti-Semitic graffiti in Arabic
(JTA) — A 15-year-old from Staten Island was charged with a hate crime for writing “death for Jewish religion” in Arabic at a school in the New York borough.
The teen was charged on Tuesday with criminal mischief as a hate crime and for making graffiti, and will be tried as a juvenile, WABC-Ch. 7 reported.
The student allegedly wrote the message in Arabic, using blue ink, on a poster at Dreyfus Intermediate School, a junior high also known as I.S. 49, where it was noticed by a school safety agent who could read Arabic.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Start mending U.S. rift by firing ambassador, Zionist Union lawmaker urges Netanyahu
JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli lawmaker called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fire the country’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer.
Firing Dermer would be a first step to repairing the U.S.-Israel relationship, Erel Margalit of the Zionist Union party said in a letter sent to Netanyahu on Wednesday.
Dermer played a key role in organizing and preparing Netanyahu’s controversial speech to a joint meeting of Congress earlier this month. Neither the White House nor congressional Democrats were informed of the address warning against a nuclear agreement with Iran, bucking President Barack Obama’s policy of diplomacy.
“The loss of trust between the U.S. leadership and Israel’s leadership is dangerous for the country,” Margalit said in his letter, urging Netanyahu to “rehabilitate” the relationship.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
From the Archive: When Jewish candy stores battled Upper East Side Nazis
Among the neighborhood’s 10,000 businesses accounted for in an examination by the East Side Chamber of Commerce were 516 “candy and soda” stores – meaning that one out of every 20 shops on the Lower East Side in 1930 were candy stores, mostly Jewish-owned. (The only category larger than “candy and soda” was butcher shops, of which there were 556.)
Despite their business clout and the 4,000 miles separating them from Germany, a number of New York’s Jewish sweets shop owners had bitter experiences with Nazis when they tried to protest Hitler’s rise to power.
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From Russia Today
Russia warns NATO drills a ‘problem’ as US attack planes buzz Poland
The A-10 aircraft are based in western Poland, at an airbase in Powidz, where they will be involved in a series of training missions until Friday, Polish army spokesman Artur Golawski said, as cited by Reuters.
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From Russia Today
Security agencies get access to 2 yrs of Australians’ phone, internet records
Despite privacy-based objections from minor Australian parties, the right-wing Coalition government teamed up with the centrist opposition Labor Party to get the bill through the Senate – a week after the bill passed in the House of Representatives. The legislation passed with 43 votes for and 16 against, despite last minute lobbying by the Green Party to make amendments to the law. The bill now only has to be given royal assent, which is a formality.
Labor announced last week that it would vote with the Coalition to make sure the law, which will force phone and internet companies to hold on to data for two years, was passed after the two parties agreed to make a number of amendments, including providing extra protection to journalists. This was enabled in order to protect whistleblowers and anonymous sources.
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From Russia Today
US launches Tikrit airstrikes as Iraqi offensive stalls
The US announced Thursday that coalition forces had carried out 17 airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Tikrit ahead of an assault on the city by the Iraqi army and Shia militiamen from the Popular Mobilization units, now under way.
The airstrikes targeted checkpoints, two bridges, two ISIS staging areas and a command and control facility.
The order to send in the warplanes came after a request from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, after a ground offensive to take the city stalled.
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From Ynet News
IDF shores up Egyptian border
To protect Israel from tumultuous regional threats, IDF strengthens defense against terrorists, smugglers from Sinai, with engineering obstacles, tunnel to prevent infiltration of cars, and additional combat outposts.
The IDF has been taking steps recently to strengthen the security of Pitchat Nitzana, a block of communities located in the western Negev, in response to evolving terrorist threats from the Sinai Peninsula and the growing frequency of violent smuggling incidents.
An incident that occurred last October, in which two IDF soldiers from the Caracal Battalion were wounded when militants from Sinai fired rifles and an anti-tank missile at an IDF jeep, only emphasized the necessity of setting up a tighter security ring around the area. The main threat comes from Sinai, namely from the terror group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, an al-Qaeda-linked Salafist group, which has recently announced that it had joined the Islamic State terror group.
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From The Times of Israel
Congress seeks funding for US-Israel energy and water development
Bipartisan effort to support program which provides grants to private sector innovators
WASHINGTON (JTA) – A bipartisan group of US lawmakers requested $2 million in funding for a US-Israel energy and water development program.
Led by Rep. Brad Sherman (D-California), 106 members of Congress joined in the request last week for the United States-Israel Energy Cooperation Program, which began in 2006. The funds would be added to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill.
The program, which deals with energy security and independence, leverages small grants for private sector innovation. Ongoing projects include funding for research and development in energy technologies and efficiency in the American and Israeli private sectors.
The projects involve hydroelectric energy production, the lowering of energy consumption for water treatment, wind energy storage, reduction of fuel consumption and noise control.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
Jewish Fraternity Shut Down At University of Michigan
Sigma Alpha Mu President Facing Misdemeanor Charges
By JTA
The Ann Arbor chapter’s president, Joshua Kaplan, and Zachary Levin, both 19, are facing misdemeanor charges for allowing drug and alcohol use by minors at a weekend party in January at a Michigan ski area. The wilding at Treetops Resort left 45 hotel rooms trashed and $430,000 worth of damage and legal fees, according to CBS Detroit. A third fraternity member was charged with a felony, malicious destruction of a building, according to the report.
Sigma Alpha Mu’s international board voted last week to shut down the chapter, and the University of Michigan called the students’ behavior “reprehensible.” A lawyer for Kaplan and Levin told CBS that his clients were involved only in planning the weekend, not committing the vandalism themselves. The students have been ordered to pay restitution to the hotel and the city in which it is located, Gaylord.
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