Zio-Watch News Round-up

Former PM Barak says Netanyahu was ready to bomb Iran in 2010, 2011: Zio-Watch, August 22, 2015

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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Barak: Netanyahu was ready to bomb Iran in 2010, 2011

(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Ehud Barak both wanted to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities in 2010 and 2011, but other Israeli leaders blocked the move, Barak said.

The retired Labor politician, who was prime minister from 1999 to 2001, revealed the formerly classified information in recordings that aired on Israel’s Channel 2 Friday night, the Times of Israel reported.

Barak attempted to prevent the broadcast of the recordings, which are apparently related to a forthcoming biography of him, but Israel’s military censors approved their release.

In the recordings, Barak said he and Netanyahu wanted to order an Israel Air Force attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, but Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi stopped them in 2010, saying the Israel Defense Forces was not prepared. Later, Barak said, Moshe Yaalon, now the defense minister, and Yuval Steinitz, then finance minister and now the minister of energy, objected.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Report: Israel was set to strike Iran in 2012, but joint drill with U.S. interfered

An Israel Air Force F-15 fighter jet lands at the Hatzerim air base, on March 30, 2009, in Hatzerim, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Israel was reportedly set to bomb Iran nuclear facilities in 2012, but aborted the operation because it coincided with a joint military exercise with the United States.

The attack was being readied for January of that year, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported on Friday, until it became clear that a long planned Israeli-American training drill in Israel would happen at that time, according to The Times of Israel.

The Channel 2 report — based on tape recordings of then-Defense Minister Ehud Barack and other unnamed foreign reports — indicated that Israel was prepared to go ahead with the strike on Iran even though the U.S. opposed it. But Israel did not want to go as far as defying the U.S. while American troops were training with the Israel Defense Forces in Israel.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

In letter to P5+1, Israel blames Iran for rockets from Syria

(JTA) — Israel submitted a formal diplomatic complaint to world powers about a recent rocket attack from Syria — blaming a specific Iranian general and warning of increased regional aggression by the Islamic Republic in the wake of the nuclear deal.

The demarche was sent Friday to the P5+1 — the six world powers, including the United States, that negotiated the nuclear agreement with Iran — a day after a barrage of four rockets hit Israel from Syria.

Sent by Jeremy Issacharoff, the vice director general of Israel Foreign Affairs Ministry, the document said Israel has “credible information” that Thursday’s rocket attack was ordered by “Iranian Operative Saeed Izaadhi” and carried out by the Palestinian branch of militant group Islamic Jihad.

The document called the attack “an indiscriminate and premeditated terrorist attack against Israeli territory without any provocation from the Israeli side.” Further, it said the attack was “another clear and blatant demonstration of Iran’s continued and unabating support and involvement in terrorist attacks” and “a clear indication of how Iran intends to continue to pursue its destabilizing actions and policies as the international sanctions regime is withdrawn in the near future.”

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From PressTV

Khaled Meshaal, the political bureau chief of Palestinian resistance movement Hamas (Photo by AFP)

The political bureau chief of Hamas says an infinite extension of a truce reached with the Israeli regime last year is possible provided that Tel Aviv meets five conditions set by the Palestinian resistance movement.

In an interview with al-Araby al-Jadid daily, which was published on Saturday, Khaled Meshaal said the Tel Aviv regime will have to meet five conditions if it seeks a permanent extension of the truce that was reached at the end of the latest Israeli war on the Palestinian enclave in 2014.

He said the demands comprise the reconstruction of the besieged Gaza Strip in the wake of the war last year; ending the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory; addressing the employment issues of some 50,000 individuals in Gaza; the construction of sea and air ports in the Strip; and addressing the problems of Gazan infrastructure, including water and electricity supplies, and the road and sewage systems.

A picture taken on August 3, 2014 shows a Palestinian man standing at the morgue of a hospital in Rafah over the bodies of some of the nine members of the same family killed in an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip. (Photo by AFP)

 

He said, however, that the potential extension of the truce between Hamas and the Israeli regime will have no impact on the state of resistance in the West Bank, where resistance will continue to be a necessity in the face of such Israeli practices as jailing Palestinian activists, the Judaization of Palestinian lands and violations of al-Aqsa Mosque.

Gaza has been struggling to recover from the 50-day war Israel launched against the strip in early July last year. The offensive ended on August 26 with a truce that took effect after indirect negotiations in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
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From Ynet News

Obama reveals compensation to Israel over Iran nuclear deal

US president says Washington will increase military aid to Israel for development of anti-missile systems and tunnel detection technologies; in letter to Congressman, Obama insists he will respond firmly if Iran fails to meet commitments.

US President Barack Obama has committed in writing to increase American military aid to Israel for the development of anti-missile systems, as well as to accelerate cooperation on the development of tunnel detection technologies.

“Our governments should identify ways to accelerate the ongoing collaborative research and development for tunnel detection and mapping technologies to provide Israel new capabilities to detect and destroy tunnels because they could be used to threaten Israeli civilians,” Obama said in a letter dated August 19, published in full by the New York Times on Friday, to Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat in the House of Representatives who announced that he will vote to approve the accord.
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From Ynet News

Study: Holocaust trauma can be genetically transmitted

Researchers at Mount Sinai hospital in New York find the same hormonal abnormalities in both Holocaust survivors and their children.

08.22.15

Genetic changes stemming from the trauma suffered by Holocaust survivors could be passed on to their children, a research conducted by a team at New York’s Mount Sinai hospital has found.

Researchers said this is the first demonstration of how psychological trauma endured by a person can have intergenerational effects on his offspring.
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From The Times of Israel

Republican barbs spark doubts in Iran on future of nuke deal

With US presidential election just 15 months away, opponents of deal who are vying to replace Obama are vowing to reject it

August 22, 2015, 9:45 am

Republican presidential candidates (from left) Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Ben Carson talk during a break during the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Republican presidential candidates (from left) Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Ben Carson talk during a break during the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Fierce criticism of the Iran nuclear agreement by Republicans seeking the US presidency has raised a big question in Tehran — will future American leaders keep their side of the bargain?

Despite tension and continuing mutual mistrust, Iran’s government and President Barack Obama’s White House are partners in the same fight, telling their domestic audiences that the July 14 deal is as good as it gets.

But with the US presidential election only 15 months away, opponents of last month’s historic pact — particularly those who are lining up to replace Obama — pour scorn on it.

No leading Republican contender has pledged to stand by the agreement between Iran, the United States and five other world powers. Several have promised to rip it up if they are elected.

On Wednesday, Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush called the deal a “farce,” saying rules for inspecting Iran’s nuclear sites were unclear.
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From The Independent

Ukraine crisis: Soldiers accuse commanders of lying as both warring sides make repeated claims of victories and broken ceasefires

As the death toll for the conflict nears 7,000, it is only civilians who are providing anything approaching balance

STAROHNATIVKA

Rebels and government soldiers in Ukraine have both accused their respective commanders of lying about one of the most significant battles to erupt on the front line in months.

As violence continues to escalate in the country’s restive east and the war’s official death toll surges towards 7,000, Kiev said that hundreds of pro-Russian fighters, supported by tanks and heavy artillery, launched a pre-dawn attack near the small town of Starohnativka last week. Ukraine’s defence ministry claimed its own forces launched a counter attack and seized strategic rebel positions – purportedly the first territorial gains made by the government since the ceasefire was signed in February. Rebel authorities in Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR)  denied that rebels had attacked in the area, just 20 miles from the Russian border. They accused Ukraine of making up the story and insisted the separatist army had not broken the ceasefire.

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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

British artist posts quenelle, questions gas chambers to spite ‘Zionists’

(JTA) — British police received a criminal complaint for incitement against a musician who performed the quasi-Nazi quenelle salute to spite Zionists and suggested that Nazi gas chambers did not really exist.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism group reported on Wednesday that an unnamed party filed a complaint this week against Alison Chabloz, a performer at the Edinburgh Festival — one of the Scottish city’s main cultural events — after she posted to Twitter a photo of herself performing the quenelle.

She also published on her blog an essay by Robert Faurisson disputing the use of gas chambers by the Nazis and another paper entitled “Did six million really die?”

As blogs and local publications reported on the actions of Chabloz — a singer-songwriter who has lived in Egypt, among other countries — she published another blog post, explaining that her gesture was a “massive up yours” as a reaction to being “hounded online by a small group of hardline Zionists.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Crimea Reform Jewish leader thanks Putin in post-annexation meet

KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — During a meeting with Vladimir Putin, a leader of Reform Jews in Crimea said his community’s situation has improved since Russia annexed the peninsula from Ukraine.

Anatoly Gendin, chairman of the Ner Tamid Reform Synagogue in the Crimean capital of Simferopol, thanked the Russian president Monday for what Gendin described as Russian authorities’ attentiveness to the requests of Crimean Jews on restitution and other matters, and the rule of law in the disputed territory.

“After years of fruitless appeals to Ukraine, this year saw the resolution of the issues of returning to us Simferopol’s Talmud-Torah, the former religious school for boys,” Gendin told Putin. The get-together took place in Yalta, at a roundtable meeting between the president and leaders of minority communities. Gendin added that a framework agreement for restitution was reached with Russian authorities, including for a former synagogue in Yevpatoria.

Russia invaded Ukraine last year and annexed the Crimean Peninsula following a referendum of residents that showed majority support for the move. Ukrainian Jewish leaders, including Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Ya’akov Dov Bleich, have condemned the annexation, which prompted the former rabbi of Ner Tamid, Misha Kapustin, to leave in protest to Slovakia.

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From Russia Today

Kiev ordered deployment of ‘illegal & inhumane’ anti-personnel mines – ex-Ukrainian officer

© Gleb Garanich
Kiev has been deploying anti-personnel mines in Donbass in breach of Ukraine’s own laws as well as international treaties, claims a former high-ranking Ukrainian officer and chief of the engineering service, who refused to obey the “illegal” and “inhumane” order.

In February 2014 Vadim Yatsulyak served as chief of the engineering service of the Interior Ministry of Ukraine, before being appointed as a commander of the Army Corps of Engineers of the National Guard. According to him, one of the first orders he was given in his new role was to receive a supply of anti-personnel mines from military warehouses, that would be later deployed throughout the territory of the so-called “anti-terrorist operation” to reinforce Ukrainian army positions.

“I was given, to put it mildly, inhumane or in legal terms unlawful orders by my superiors,” Yatsulyak told Russian tabloid Komsomolskya Pravda (KP) daily. “The deployment of anti-personnel mines in particular.”

Yatsulyak explained he was basically told by phone to accept the delivery of OZM-72 and MON-50 munitions and sign for it, while superiors would “stay aside assuming no responsibility.”
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From The Times of Israel

UN culture chief: IS systematically destroying heritage sites

UNESCO head says jihadist group’s ‘brutal’ campaign to demolish antiquities unparalleled since World War II

August 22, 2015, 5:50 am

An Islamic State militant destroys ancient artifacts in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, Syria on July 2, 2015. (screen capture: Channel 4)

An Islamic State militant destroys ancient artifacts in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, Syria on July 2, 2015. (screen capture: Channel 4)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq are engaged in the “most brutal, systematic” destruction of ancient sites since World War II, the head of the UN cultural agency said Friday — a stark warning that came hours after militants demolished a monastery with ancient foundations in central Syria.

The world’s only recourse is to try to prevent the sale of looted artifacts, thus cutting off a lucrative stream of income for the militants, UNESCO chief Irina Bokova told The Associated Press.

Recent attacks have stoked fears that IS is accelerating its campaign to demolish and loot heritage sites.

On Friday, witnesses said the militants bulldozed St. Elian Monastery which houses a 5th century tomb and served as a major pilgrimage site. Days earlier, IS beheaded an 81-year-old antiquities scholar who had dedicated his life to overseeing the ruins of Palmyra in Syria, one of the Middle East’s most spectacular archaeological sites.

Since capturing about a third of Syria and Iraq last year, IS fighters have destroyed mosques, churches and archaeological sites, causing extensive damage to the ancient cities of Nimrud, Hatra and Dura Europos in Iraq. In May, they seized Palmyra, the Roman-era city on the edge of a modern town of the same name.
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From The Times of Israel

Decision nearing, Biden mulls mechanics of presidential run

Veep could announce bid for Democratic nomination in September, but would be behind Clinton and Sanders on the campaign trail

August 22, 2015, 5:39 am

In this May 26, 2015 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden listens to remarks to the media during a meeting between President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

In this May 26, 2015 file photo, Vice President Joe Biden listens to remarks to the media during a meeting between President Barack Obama and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tucked away at his family home in Delaware, Vice President Joe Biden has been huddling with longtime aides and family members, evaluating what it would take to launch a viable presidential campaign against well-funded Democratic opponents with a huge head start.

Although Biden has yet to make a decision, his advisers say the vice president and his associates have started gaming out mechanics like fundraising, ballot deadlines and an early primary state strategy. Also under consideration are the personal consequences for Biden and his family, who are still mourning the death of the vice president’s son, Beau Biden, a few months ago.

Much of the deliberation has taken place this week at the Bidens’ house in a secluded, wooded suburb of Wilmington, said several Biden aides, who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the meetings publicly. In recent days, longtime Biden confidantes Mike Donilon and former Sen. Ted Kaufman have spent time there, along with Biden’s surviving son, Hunter Biden, and his sister, Valerie Owens Biden, who has played a top role in all his previous campaigns.

A look at the deliberations:

Timing

Biden’s team has settled on a one-month window from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1 in which he could potentially announce plans to run.
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