Howard Schultz speaking at a Starbucks annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, March 18, 2015. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Starbucks’ founder and executive chairman Howard Schultz is stepping down.
Schultz, who previously served as the coffee giant’s CEO, is leaving his position at the end of June, The New York Times reported on Monday.
In an interview with The Times, Schultz, a Democrat who has publicly criticized President Donald Trump, did not deny speculation that he was considering a political career.
Israeli jets fly over Hudaydah amid Saudi push to seize city: Houthi chief
Sun Jun 3, 2018 07:48AM
Workers inspect damage at the site of a Saudi airstrike on the maintenance hub in Hudaydah, Yemen, May 27, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)
Leader of Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi has revealed that Israeli warplanes have been detected flying over the key port city of Hudaydah.
Houthi said Israeli jets have been seen in Hudaydah’s skies over the past few days amid a push by Saudi mercenaries to seize the city, Arabic-language al-Masirah television network reported.
“Yemen is actually fighting against a Saudi-Zionist coalition,” he said, referring to a military campaign which Riyadh has been carrying out against Yemen since 2015.
Several Western countries, the US and the UK in particular, are widely known to be helping Saudi Arabia in the aggression, but this is the first time claims of Israeli complicity have been made.
Referring to close ties between Israel and terrorist groups in Syria, Houthi noted that the Takfiri elements in Yemen are also the “mercenaries and servants” of Tel Aviv and Washington.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have no diplomatic relations, but latest reports say the two regimes are working behind the scenes to establish formal contact. Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Israeli fighter jets target multiple positions throughout Gaza Strip
Sun Jun 3, 2018 12:06AM
An explosion is seen in Gaza city after an airstrike by Israeli forces on June 2, 2018. (Photo by AFP)
Israeli fighter planes have carried out multiple airstrikes on a series of locations spread out through the Gaza Strip.
Late on Saturday, Israeli warplanes launched attacks on central, southern and eastern parts of the besieged enclave.
Earlier in the day, Israeli tanks also fired upon the coastal area.
The Israeli army has confirmed the attacks, claiming they were launched in response to rockets fired at the occupied territories.
The airstrikes come just a few days after two sides agreed on a ceasefire following heavy Israeli airstrikes.
Amid the flare-up in the Gaza Strip, Hamas said Palestinian resistance groups have agreed to a ceasefire in the blockaded coastal sliver as long as Israel abides by a truce.
NATO chief says alliance won’t defend Israel in case of Iran attack
Sat Jun 2, 2018 03:29PM
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gives a speech during the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Spring Session on May 28, 2018 in the Polish capital, Warsaw. (Photo by AFP)
NATO’s secretary-general says the Western military alliance would not come to Israel’s defense in case of any possible attack by Iran against the occupying regime.
Israel has repeatedly threatened Iran with military action and Iranian officials have pledged a “crushing” response to any act of aggression against the country.
Jens Stoltenberg told the German Der Spiegel magazine in comments published Saturday that Israel is a partner, but not a member and that NATO’s “security guarantee” does not apply to the regime.
Stoltenberg said NATO was involved neither in peace efforts nor in conflicts in the Middle East.
Israel, which has a long history of waging wars and occupying sovereign states, has been trying to portray Iran, which has not attacked any nation for hundreds of years, as a threat to world peace.
Over the past years, the regime has been intensely lobbying with its American and European allies to dissuade them from engaging in diplomacy with Iran over its nuclear program and support instead a military action against the Islamic Republic.
President Assad: US losing cards in Syria, must leave our soil
Thu May 31, 2018 09:48AM
The photo shows Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad speaking during an interview with Russia’s RT on May 31, 2018.
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad says the United States “is losing its cards” as the militant groups it supports have lost significant ground on the battlefield against the army, emphasizing that the Americans “should leave” Syrian soil.
In an interview with Russia’s RT television network on Thursday, Assad said that following the liberation of the cities of Aleppo, Dayr la-Zawr, Homs, and Damascus, the US is actually “losing its cards.”
“The main card was al-Nusra that was called ‘moderate.’ But when the scandal started leaking, that they are not moderate, they are al-Qaeda …, they (the Americans) looked for another card. This card is the SDF now,” he said, referring to the Washington-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-dominated alliance of militants operating near the Turkish border.
Assad further said his government has two options in dealing with the SDF issue.
“The first one: we started now opening doors for negotiations. Because the majority of them are Syrians, supposedly they like their country, they don’t like to be puppets to any foreigners,” he said in English.
“If not, we’re going to resort… to liberating those areas by force,” Assad said.
Female Gazan medic killed while caring for protesters at border fence
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thousands attended the funeral of a female Palestinian volunteer medic who was killed during protests near the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Razan Najjar, 21, was killed as evening fell on Friday as thousands of Palestinians converged in five places along the border. In addition to throwing rocks and burning tires, protesters sent explosive kites over the fence, burning hundreds of acres of fields in southern Israel. Protesters also fired on an Israeli military vehicle and planted explosives along the fence meant to detonate on Israeli soldiers, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The IDF said in a statement that it responded with “riot dispersal means” and operated “in accordance with the rules of engagement.” It said it would investigate Najjar’s death.
Ibrahim al-Najjar, 30, a relative of the killed medic, told the New York Times that Raza Najjar ran close to the fence care for a protester who had been hit in the head by a tear-gas canister, and was shot as she cared for him. She was wearing a white medical coat. Click here for the full story
From PressTV
Israel ‘selling nuclear information’ to Saudi: Israeli expert
Thu May 31, 2018 08:54PM
This combo photo shows Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman (L) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Israel is selling Saudi Arabia information that would allow the kingdom to develop nuclear weapons, a senior Israeli nuclear expert has revealed.
Ami Dor-On, a senior nuclear commentator with the Israeli military organization iHLS, said the cooperation has been made possible in the wake of the widening ties between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and is indicative of an emerging nuclear arms race in the region.
“This information should shock us as we see the world is changing for the worse, following the race for the possession of nuclear weapons that pass right over our heads in the Middle East,” the Middle East Monitor quoted the expert as saying on Thursday, citing a report by Arabi21.
According to the Israeli writer, the Tel Aviv regime is aware that Saudis would eventually make the move for developing nuclear weapons and want to make sure they would not go to other regional players such as Pakistan to obtain the know-how.
“It can be assumed that Israel may take the initiative to develop Saudi Arabia’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons and not leave it solely to Pakistan, given the growing Saudi-Israeli relations,” the expert added.
Dor-On claimed that Pakistan has already signaled its willingness to transfer the expertise to Saudi Arabia “within a month” should the arms race intensify.
The besieged Gaza Strip is facing an “epic” crisis after Israeli forces killed and injured hundreds of Palestinians during recent protests, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned.
Robert Mardini, who heads the ICRC’s Near and Middle East operations, told reporters in Geneva on Thursday that the recent demonstrations and a violent Israeli response along the Gaza fence “have triggered a health crisis of unprecedented magnitude.”
Of the thousands wounded, some 1,350 people have complex injuries and will require between three and five surgeries each, Mardini said.
There is need for “a total of more than 4,000 surgeries, half of which will be carried out by ICRC teams,” he said. “I think such a caseload would overwhelm any health system in the world,” he added.
Mardini said the whole Gaza is “a sinking ship.” He said while health workers are focused squarely on “saving lives and limbs,” other health services, for instance during child birth or to respond to a heart attack, are suffering.
“This epic health crisis took place against the backdrop of multiple, protracted, chronic crises affecting all sectors of life in Gaza.”
Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian, who was killed during a protest at the fence between the Gaza Strip and occupied territories, during his funeral in the central Gaza Strip on May 16, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)
In anticipation of the construction of a new synagogue in Nabagoye, Uganda, the women and children there were given the honor of transferring the Torahs from the old synagogue to a temporary home. (Courtesy of Be’chol Lashon)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The head of the Conservative movement’s rabbinical organization sharply criticized Israel for reportedly deciding not to recognize Uganda’s Jewish community, whose members converted under Conservative auspices.
Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, who leads the Rabbinical Assembly, said the Conservative movement was “shocked and extremely outraged” at the decision, which she called “unlawful.”
“This is completely inconsistent with more than two decades of Israeli practice of Conservative converts — who are by the way halakhically converted to Judaism under our auspices — who had been recognized as Jewish for the purposes of the Law of Return,” she told JTA on Friday, using a phrase meaning that something was done in accordance with Jewish law, or halakhah. Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Ugandan rabbi: ‘We as a Jewish community need to be treated like any other Jewish community’
Members of the Ugandan Jewish community praying in synagogue. (Courtesy of Be’chol Lashon)
(JTA) — A Ugandan rabbi called on Israel to recognize his community after the government ruled against allowing members to move to the Jewish state.
Rabbi Gershom Sizomu confirmed a report in Haaretz last week that the Israeli Interior Ministry had denied a community member’s immigration application. The Interior Ministry, according to Sizomu, said the decision represented its stance on the Ugandan Jewish community, not just the applicant, Kibita Yosef.
Sizomu, who leads the community of approximately 2,000 people, urged Israel to give Ugandan Jews the same rights afforded to Jews worldwide. Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
For second day, incendiary kites flown from Gaza spark large fires in southern Israel
Israeli firefighters extinguish a fire in a wheat field caused from kites flown by Palestinian protesters, near the border with the Gaza Strip, May 30, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Large fires broke out in kibbutz fields on the border with Gaza, ignited by an incendiary kite flown across the border by Gazan Palestinians.
The fires on Sunday come a day after a burning kite, or a balloon filled with chemicals dripped flames in the area, burning hundreds of acres of agricultural fields as well as part of a nature reserve next to Kibbutz Carmia.
Saturday’s fires, which claimed more than 740 acres, was the worst since the new terror tactic took root about two months ago. Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Why New Jersey’s Orthodox stalled a bill banning child marriages
A New Jersey bill seeks to outlaw marriage for teenagers under 18. (Justin Oberman/Creative Commons)
(JTA) — A bill that would ban teenagers under 18 from getting married in New Jersey has been stalled because of opposition from the state’s haredi Orthodox community.
Agudath Israel of America, the national haredi organization, says it supports the bill but that its provisions are too strict. Citing child marriages that take place in observant Jewish communities, it wants to see an exemption made for older teenagers who want to wed.
“[Saying] any marriage under the age of 18 is illegal seems a bit extreme” said Rabbi Avi Schnall, the group’s New Jersey director. “It’s a cultural thing, mostly in the Sephardic community, culturally they tend to get married younger. It’s not a Biblical obligation — most of our girls don’t get married under 18 — it’s a cultural thing. It’s part of their heritage.”
Jewish activists are driving both sides of the debate. The main group lobbying for the bill is Unchained at Last, a nonprofit that opposes underage marriage. The group’s founder, Fraidy Reiss, who grew up haredi, says child marriage, primarily of girls to older men, is an abusive practice that can damage children emotionally and physically. Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Roseanne sobbed and apologized about racist tweet in unaired interview with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
Roseanne Barr at a SiriusXM Town Hall interview in New York, March 27, 2018. (Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for SiriusXM)
(JTA) — Roseanne Barr reportedly cried and apologized for her racist tweet in a podcast interview with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
Barr “was sobbing and very apologetic about the whole thing,” according to the Hollywood Reporter, which cited an unnamed source. Boteach did not air the interview.
The call in to the podcast came two days after ABC canceled her show last week over the tweet mocking Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama and an African-American. The tweet said the “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” Click here for the full story
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Wisconsin high school senior hails ‘Final Solution’ in yearbook quote
(JTA) — A high school in suburban Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stopped distributing yearbooks after finding that they contained an anti-Semitic quote by one of the seniors.
“There will always be one true Final Solution,” read the quote in the New Berlin West High School yearbook, WTMJ Milwaukee reported.
In an email sent to school parents to inform them of the offensive quote, principal Michael Fesenmaier called it “inappropriate and offensive.”
“The quote, unfortunately, went undetected during the yearbook vetting process and was published in the yearbook,” the emails said. “We are embarrassed by this oversight, and we apologize that this offensive quote was not detected sooner.” Click here for the full story
From PressTV
‘Any third party’ call on Israel, US for war with Iran dangerous: Qatar
Sun Jun 3, 2018 10:25AM
Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah speaks at the fourth plenary session during the 17th Asian Security Summit of the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on June 3, 2018. (Photo by AFP)
Qatar has warned that “any third party” call on the US and Israel to go to war with Iran is “dangerous,” stressing that Doha would never be part of such a confrontation.
Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah told an international security conference in Singapore on Sunday that his country has “a lot of differences” with Iran, but it does not mean “we go and fuel a war.”
“Is it wise to call the United States and to call Israel to go and fight Iran? … Whether any third party is trying to push the region or some country in the region to start a war in Iran, this will be very dangerous,” he said, apparently referring to Saudi Arabia.
Attiyah also urged dialogue with Iran to resolve issues, saying, “Iran is next door. We should call Iran, put all the files on the table and start to discuss to bring peace rather than war.”
Asked about the possibility of Qatar’s air bases being used in possible airstrikes on Iran, he noted that Doha was not a “fan of war” and rather supported engagement.
