From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Netanyahu, Putin meet to ‘avoid’ military mishaps over Syria
(JTA) — Amid tension between Israeli and Russian troops around Syria, Benjamin Netanyahu met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss ways to avoid friction.
Israel’s prime minister and Russia’s president met Thursday in Moscow to “tighten security coordination between Israel and Russia to avoid errors,†Netanyahu said in a statement. The commander of the Israel Air Force, Major General Amir Eshel and the prime minister’s military secretary, Eliezer Toledano, will have follow-up meetings with Russian top brass, the statement also said.
The meeting took place following several incidents involving Russian troops in Syria and Israeli military personnel, the Israeli daily Yedioth Achronoth reported. In one incident, a Russian fighter jet scrambled to meet and escorted an Israel Air Force plane carrying out intelligence missions over Syrian airspace, according to the report. A Kremlin spokesperson on Friday denied the reports, saying they were “far from the truth.”
Russia stepped up its military presence in Syria and made it public last year in a bid to bail out the Syrian government under Bashar Assad, who has lost control of large parts of the country in the course of a bloody civil war that erupted in 2011.
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From Russia Today
Abuse fears after child brides found living with older husbands in Scandinavian asylum centers
Published time: 22 Apr, 2016 18:43
© Alkis Konstantinidis / Reuters
Child brides are being allowed to stay with their older husbands in some Scandinavian asylum centers, it has emerged. Authorities defend the practice by saying husbands may be the only person brides know and trust, but others suspect possible child abuse.
In Norway, 31,000 asylum seekers arrived during 2015. Ten of those migrants were under the age of 16 and married, and four had kids, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), as cited by Reuters.
Some of them “live with their partners,” an email from the institution said.
“Minors seeking asylum are in a difficult situation where they have left their homeland, family and friends, and the partner they have traveled with can be the only person they know and trust in Norway,” said Heidi Vibeke Pedersen, a top UDI official.
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From Russia Today
‘EU must militarize chaotic immigration, identify states behind Middle East crisis’ – Zizek to RT
Published time: 22 Apr, 2016 03:56
© Marko Djurica / Reuters
Europe’s refugee policy is disastrous and chaotic, prominent philosopher Slavoj Žižek told RT, adding that the EU must control migrant flows and get to the root of the Middle East crisis by recognizing its key “componentsâ€: Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.
Žižek, who is known for frankly expressing his views on acute social subjects, is an author, a professor at the European Graduate School, a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Institute of Sociology, and the International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London’s Birkbeck College.
In an exclusive interview with RT, Žižek argued that one of the biggest problems with Europe’s immigration policy is that it is pursued from a neo-colonial perspective that focuses on so-called “white man’s burden” and “guilt.”
However, he added that it would be wrong to blame Europe for all of the problems in the Middle East and to assume that refugees are blind victims who bear no responsibility in the crisis.
Slavoj Zizek. © Matt Carr / Getty Images / AFP
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From The Independent
Finally, Israel and Palestine is a US election issue. The ‘last taboo’ is not broken, but it’s splintering
From The Independent
When hatred prevails: the Syrian uprising, foreign intervention and the destruction of a country
The capital that became a battleground: a car bomb explodes between the finance ministry and Central Bank in Damascus in 2013 Getty Images
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Cardin says Netanyahu’s declaration of Israeli claim to Golan not ‘timely’
Senator Ben Cardin, D-Md., speaking during a press conference with other leading Democratic senators at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Nov. 19, 2015. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said declaring Israeli ownership of the Golan Heights was not “timely†while Syria was mired in civil war.
He counseled Israel to focus more on peace with the Palestinians.
“Syria is in a state of war, the whole area is in flux,†Cardin, D-Md., said Thursday when he was asked about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration this week that “The Golan Heights will forever remain in Israel’s hands.â€
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Stanford student body passes resolution against anti-Semitism
(JTA) — After weeks of debate about Israel and anti-Semitism, a student body at Stanford University passed a resolution condemning bias against Jews.
The Undergraduate Senate of the Associated Students of Stanford University passed the “Resolution to Recognize and to Reaffirm the Fight against Anti-Semitism” on Tuesday in a unanimous vote, the Stanford daily reported.
Alongside classical manifestations of anti-Semitism such as stereotypical speech about Jews, the resolution also lists “demonization of Israel†and accusing it “of inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust†as examples of anti-Semitism.
These passages in the draft resolution, which several Jewish groups sponsored last month, prompted opposition by pro-Palestinian groups citing potential restrictions on student activism and academia, the Daily reported.
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From PressTV
Syria warplane crashes due to technical fault: Army
The Syrian army has cited technical fault after one of its warplanes crashed near the capital Damascus.
Syrian army officials ruled out speculation about a militant attack for the Friday crash, saying the plane had a record of undergoing repairs recently.
“… there was no attack from the ground. It crashed because of a technical fault,” Russia’s Interfax agency quoted a source, adding that the pilot had successfully bailed out.
Daesh, a Takfiri group operating mainly in east and north Syria, claimed earlier in the day that it had brought down a Syrian fighter jet near Damascus.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group advocating militants, also said said the plane crashed southwest of Damascus airport after flying over territory controlled by Daesh.
Daesh, along with al-Qaeda-linked Nusra front, are excluded from a truce deal which has been on hold in Syria since end of February.
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From PressTV
Damascus to resume talks with UN envoy on Monday
Syria’s chief negotiator in peace talks plans to resume talks with UN Special Envoy for Syria early next week.
Bashar al-Ja’afari, who also serves as Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, made the remarks at a news conference after the government delegation’s meeting with UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura on Friday.
“We agreed with the (UN) Special Envoy (Staffan de Mistura) that we meet once again on Monday at 11 o’clock, and devote the session to discuss our modifications on the paper submitted by the Special Envoy,” he said, adding that the two sides discussed humanitarian issues during Friday’s meeting.
Ja’afari also commented on the humanitarian situation in Syria after shipments of medical and food supplies were delivered to 120,000 people in and near the militant-held town of Rastan, located 25 kilometers (16 miles), north of Homs, on Thursday.
“90 percent of these 6.5 million (internally displaced people) now reside in government-controlled areas. They all receive humanitarian aid and 1.7 million have returned to the towns they originally lived in before being displaced,” he said.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Ja’afari once again accused Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia of supporting terrorism in Syria.
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From PressTV
Riyadh-Washington ties irrevocably changed: Ex-Saudi spy chief
Saudi ties with the US have changed forever and would not return to what it was before even under a new president, the kingdom’s former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal says.
“There is going to have to be, a recalibration of our relationship with America — how far we can go with our dependence on America. How much can we rely on steadfastness from American leadership. What is it that makes for our joint benefits to come together,” he told CNN.
“And I don’t think that we should expect any new president in America to go back to, as I said, the yesteryear days when things were different,” Faisal added.
Faisal further criticized recent remarks by US Senator Richard Blumenthal that low oil prices and high domestic output lessened Washington’s dependence on the kingdom.
Saudis “no longer have us in an energy straitjacket,” Blumenthal had told The New York Times.
Faisal said the remarks by the prominent senator were an insult to the Saudi monarchy.
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From Russia Today
ISIS captures Syrian pilot after fighter jet crash – reports
Published time: 23 Apr, 2016 04:46
A Syrian government forces MiG-23 fighter plane. © Amer Almohibany / AFP
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists reportedly captured a Syrian government pilot after he parachuted from his falling plane near Damascus, according to reports citing jihadist media. Militants claim to have downed his MiG jet.
The pilot was reportedly found alive after landing, IS-affiliated Amaq news agency claimed, according to Reuters.
A video posted by militants allegedly shows the burning MiG-23 Flogger fighter-bomber lying in the desert. Amid the wreckage, a two-starred Syrian government flag is reportedly visible.
IS fighters were reportedly seen picking up parts of the wreckage around the crash site, which is in an area said to be controlled by the terror group.
The authenticity of the video could not be verified.
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From Russia Today
US won’t object to foreign bank deals with Iran – Kerry
Published time: 23 Apr, 2016 03:59
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (R) and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. © Brendan McDermid / Reuters
The US will not stand in the way of foreign deals with Iran that are in line with the landmark nuclear deal, US Secretary of State John Kerry said to clear up some “confusion†before his meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Kerry and Zarif met for the second time this week on Friday at UN headquarters in New York.
“The United States is not standing in the way and will not stand in the way of business that is permitted with Iran since the [nuclear deal] took effect,” Kerry read from prepared text.
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From Russia Today
No room for NATO expansion in coming years – US envoy to alliance
Published time: 22 Apr, 2016 15:19
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (C) and Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko © Gleb Garanich / Reuters
There’s not much “additional room” for NATO expansion in the years to come, a US ambassador to the alliance has said, adding that Russia plays an important part in the strategic environment.
Saying that the military bloc is facing an upheaval equal to the times during the last years of the Cold War, it is now time to put “a brake” on NATO expansion, Douglas Lute said Friday.
“I think Russia plays an important part in the strategic environment and the strategic environment will put a brake on NATO expansion,” Lute told the Aspen Security Forum in London, as quoted by Reuters.
“In practical terms I don’t [think] there’s much additional room in the near term, the next several years perhaps or maybe even longer, for additional NATO expansion,” he said.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jerusalem police thwart Passover plot to sacrifice goats in Old City
A sheep being carried to a Passover sacrifice ‘practice’ ceremony at the right-wing Beit Orot yeshiva in East Jerusalem, on April 18, 2016. Concerned that Jewish activists might add to tensions in  Jerusalem’s Old City during Passover, police barred several groups from entering the area.  (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
(JTA) — Israeli police detained seven Jewish men suspected of planning to sacrifice goats in the Old City of Jerusalem in honor of Passover, the Times of Israel reported.
The arrests on Friday came amid a pre-holiday crackdown against right-wing activists whose visits to the contested Temple Mount have been at the center of months-long tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.
Authorities barred several groups from entering Jerusalem during the week-long Passover holiday, which begins Friday evening, citing information they intended to carry out sacrificial rituals on the Temple Mount.
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