Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Swiss probing Israel-linked computer virus that spied on Iran talks
(JTA) — Switzerland has opened an investigation into a computer virus linked to Israel that allegedly was used to spy on European hotels hosting the Iran nuclear talks.
There is an open investigation into “political espionage in Switzerland,” Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber said Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Swiss authorities have searched hotels in relation to the investigation, Reuters reported, citing an aide to Lauber. Three hotels in Switzerland have served as venues for the talks between Iran and six world powers.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week on the Duqu virus, which has been linked to Israel. Each of the unnamed hotels in the Journal report was targeted by a version of the Duqu virus about two weeks before hosting the negotiations.
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From PressTV
Abbas tells PM Hamdallah to form new Palestinian govt.
The Palestinian national unity government formed last year to heal a split between President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party and the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has resigned, officials say.
Senior Palestinian officials say President Abbas has now tasked Premier Rami Hamdallah to form a new government.
Nimr Hammad, an adviser to Abbas said Wednesday that discussions to form a new government would include consultations with the various Palestinian political parties and factions. “Hamdallah handed his resignation to Abbas and Abbas ordered him to form a new government,” media outlets quoted Hammad as saying.
Amin Maqbul, the secretary general of the Revolutionary Council, which serves as Fatah’s legislative body, had earlier noted that the first Palestinian unity government was stepping down due to its inability to exert authority in the besieged and war-torn Gaza Strip. “The government will resign in the next 24 hours because this one is weak and there is no chance that Hamas will allow it to work in Gaza.”
Reacting to remarks by senior Fatah officials, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri has strongly rejected the decision by Ramallah-based Fatah political party to unilaterally dissolve the government.
“Hamas rejects any one-sided change in the government without the agreement of all parties,” Zuhri said on early Wednesday, adding, “No one told us anything about any decision to change and no one consulted with us about any change in the unity government. Fatah acted on its own in all regards.”
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From PressTV
Hamas dismisses unilateral dissolution of Palestinian gov’t
The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, has rejected an earlier decision by Ramallah-based Fatah political faction to unilaterally dissolve the Palestinian unity government within the next 24 hours.
“Hamas rejects any one-sided change in the government without the agreement of all parties,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said on Wednesday.
He added, “No one told us anything about any decision to change and no one consulted with us about any change in the unity government. Fatah acted on its own in all regards.”
On Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that his government will be dissolved within 24 hours.
“The government will resign in the next 24 hours because this one is weak and there is no chance that Hamas will allow it to work in Gaza,” Amin Maqbul, the secretary general of the Revolutionary Council, which serves as Fatah’s legislative body, told AFP.
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From The Times of Israel
US defense chief: Assad regime could still fall
Kahlon sorry for former envoy’s Obama critique; scandal-ridden MK Oren Hazan booted from Knesset hall amid suspension calls
The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
Rebels surround Druze village in Syria
Rebels surrounded a government-held Druze village on the Syrian side of the ceasefire line on the Golan Heights on Wednesday after heavy fighting, a monitoring group says.
The advance came a day after Israel, which has a significant Druze population, said it was preparing for the possibility that refugees fleeing fighting in the area might seek to cross to the Israeli side of the strategic plateau. The IDF chief of staff on Tuesday maintained Israel would act to prevent the slaughter of Syrian refugees near the Israeli border.
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From The Times of Israel
Justice minister said gearing up to sue Israel boycotters
Ayelet Shaked bolsters ministry’s international department in preparation for counter-BDS lawsuits worldwide, report says
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is reportedly going on the offensive against international initiatives to boycott Israel and is preparing to file lawsuits against activists who call for blacklisting the Jewish state.
The tactic came after a review by the international department of the Justice Ministry found that although boycott activists have appealed to many courts in Western countries for sanctions against Israel, they have never succeed in a obtaining a ruling in their favor, the Hebrew-language NRG news site reported on Wednesday.
Ministry officials believe that legal circumstances present the option of suing activists with civil and criminal law suits for damaging Israeli trade, for discrimination and racism, based on the laws in various countries, the report said.
Shaked was said to be putting together a plan of action and has already instructed that the number of positions in the international department be doubled so that it can push ahead with the program as soon as possible.
The legal campaign is to be integrated with a wider plan to combat the “delegitimization” of Israel being put together by Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who also serves as Information Minister.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Kulanu party head apologizes for Oren’s Obama critique
(JTA) —The head of Israel’s Kulanu party has apologized to the Obama administration for party member Michael Oren’s public criticism of the U.S. president.
In a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, Moshe Kahlon wrote, “I distance myself from the statements made by Michael Oren. President Obama has greatly contributed to Israel’s security,” Israel’s Channel 2 reported Wednesday.
The letter reportedly noted that Oren’s comments, made in a Wall Street Journal Op-Ed published Monday, were “only his personal opinion” and did not represent the Kulanu party.
In his Op-Ed, Oren, the American-born former Israeli ambassador to Washington, accused Obama of abandoning the two core principles that undergird the U.S.-Israel relationship: no public disagreements and no surprises.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israeli religious affairs chief: Reform Jews ‘a disaster’
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s religious services minister reportedly called Reform Jews “a disaster for the people of Israel.”
David Azoulay of the Sephardic Orthodox Shas party made the comments during a meeting to discuss the Women of the Wall group, Israel Hayom daily newspaper reported Wednesday. The meeting reportedly took place on Tuesday between Azoulay and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the right-wing Jewish Home party.
Azoulay is trying to clamp down on non-Orthodox practices at the Western Wall. His predecessor, Naftali Bennett, the head of Jewish Home, had agreed to a plan to establish an egalitarian section in an area adjacent to the Western Wall plaza known as Robinson’s Arch. The plan was formulated by Cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit and Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky to resolve religious conflict at the wall.
But Azoulay appears to be walking back the compromise.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Sirens send Israelis on Golan to bomb shelters
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rocket alert sirens sounded on the Golan Heights, sending residents of several communities on the border with Syria into bomb shelters.
No rockets landed on the Israeli side of the Golan following the sirens late Wednesday morning.
The sirens corresponded to the launch of a major offensive by Syrian rebels against the Syrian army in the Quneitra province in the Syrian Golan Heights near the border with Israel, according to reports. It is believed that the rockets that triggered the sirens were fired by one side in the Syria warfare.
Errant fire from the fighting between Syria’s army and rebels as part of the country’s 4-year-old civil war have struck the Israeli Golan in the past.
From Russia Today
Israeli soldiers who beat handcuffed Palestinian get suspended sentences
Edited time: June 18, 2015 09:00
The IDF soldiers implicated in beating and shouting obscenities at a Palestinian man lying face down were reprimanded and handed suspended sentences of a month each. The family of the man by the IDF is yet to hear anything about his health or wellbeing.
The confrontation took place in the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah, in the West Bank. The camps are a site of regular visits by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, camp officials say.
The IDF soldiers allege they were being attacked and had stones thrown at them by the camp’s inhabitants, who numbered about 70 and staged a violent demonstration lasting “several hours,” as cited by AFP. The man who was beaten was said to have grabbed at one of the soldiers’ rifles, leading to the beating.
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From Ynet News
Netanyahu seeks to shut down Palestine 48 TV station
Prime minister instructs Communications Ministry to use all means available in order to shut down PA-funded TV station; Nazareth-based station aims to give voice to Israeli Arabs. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also holds the position of communications minister, instructed the director-general of the Communications Ministry to work to shut down a new TV station called “Palestine ’48,” only hours before the Palestinian Authority-funded station is to go online on Thursday.
Palestinian Communications Minister Riad Hassan said in response: “Neither Netanyahu or his radical right-wing government can shut down the station.”
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From Ynet News
Hamas denies reaching long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel
Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk says so far there’s ‘no written plans to discuss with other Palestinian factions’ while Salah Bardawil says ‘no vision or timetable for the implementation of the truce has crystallized’. Hamas denied on Wednesday that it reached a long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel, with a senior Hamas official saying that “so far, we have no written plans to discuss with the Palestinian factions.”
Hamas sources said Tuesday that Israel and the Gaza rulers have been holding an indirect “exchange about ideas” for cementing a long-term ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
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From Ynet News
French immigration to Israel surges in summer of 2015
FIve months after Paris terror attack targeting Jews, 25% more French Jews moved to Israel in early 2015 than in the same period in 2014
The number of French Jews who have made, or are making aliyah to Israel between January and August 2015, is 25% higher than that same period.
The number of immigrants from France rose from 4,000 in 2014 to 5,100 in same period in 2015. The numbers where submitted to Immigrant Absorption minister Ze’ev Elkin by the Heads of French Jewish organizations.
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From The Times of Israel
Iran nuke talks impeded by disagreement on all main elements
With progress in discussions slowing down, deadline could be extended to July 8, diplomats say
VIENNA (AP) — Iran and six powers are still apart on all main elements of a nuclear deal with less than two weeks to go to their June 30 target date and will likely have to extend their negotiations, two diplomats tell The Associated Press.
Their comments support concerns that obstacles to a pact remain beyond the public debate on how far Iran must open its nuclear program to outside review under any deal.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has for weeks rebuffed US demands that UN nuclear monitors have access to military sites and nuclear scientists as they monitor Tehran’s commitments under a deal and probe allegations of past work on atomic arms.
Negotiators are concerned about a lack of headway on all issues. Russian chief delegate Sergey Ryabkov said Friday the “the rate of progress … is progressively slowing down.”
Negotiators have been meeting five days a week in Vienna over the past few weeks. The two diplomats are familiar with the progress of the talks and spoke shortly before a planned five-day round reconvened Wednesday. They demanded anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the confidential negotiations.
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From The Times of Israel
US military leaders to defend Obama’s Middle East policies
Defense secretary and chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff to address administration’s regional strategy before a House committee
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two of America’s top military leaders will be asked to defend President Barack Obama’s handling of the tinderbox of violence and struggle in the Middle East.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is finishing a four-year stint as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are to appear Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee.
“There is a sense that we are at a particularly perilous time and that U.S. policy and strategy are inadequate,” said Rep. Mac Thornberry, the committee chairman.
“When one factors in the turmoil in Yemen and Syria, the uncertainty about the future direction of Turkey, the doubts about us from traditional allies such as Egypt and the Gulf nations, as well as the continuing threats to our ally Israel, the plain hard facts show that the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated substantially in the last six years,” said Thornberry, R-Texas. “What’s worse, there seems to be nothing coming from the White House to change the trajectory.”
Thornberry said he planned to ask Carter and Dempsey questions about the military component of U.S. strategy to reverse the downward spiral in the Middle East and protect American interests.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Fake bomb discovered near Israeli Embassy in Uruguayan capital
(JTA) — A fake bomb was discovered near the Israeli Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay.
The device was found Wednesday housed in a sardine can at the World Trade Center, the site of the embassy in the Uruguayan capital, The Associated Press reported. It had wires, a battery and a detonator but no explosives.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon confirmed the report of the false explosive device to the Israeli daily Haaretz.
It was the second time in the past six months that the Israeli Embassy in Montevideo was targeted with a false bomb. In January, a device with explosives but no starter was discovered in the same area.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
House launches move to condemn academic boycotts against Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) – The U.S. House of Representatives introduced a resolution condemning academic boycotts against Israeli scholars and institutions on American campuses.
The resolution, introduced Tuesday by Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), condemns any restrictions on interaction between American and Israeli academic institutions as part of the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
“Efforts to uniquely isolate Israeli institutions and scholars undermine academic freedom and, moreover, does not advance the cause of peace,” Richard Foltin, the American Jewish Committee’s director of national and legislative affairs, said in a statement praising the resolution.
The resolution also praises Israel’s role in many fields, urging American universities to “enhance and accelerate their engagement in academic exchanges with counterpart Israeli institutions.”
From Russia Today
ISIS claims deadly Yemeni capital bombing spree
Some 50 people have been either killed or injured in Yemen’s capital Sanaa after five car bombs went off near Shia mosques and the headquarters of the Houthi rebels. Islamic State has claimed responsibility, calling the attack a “revenge.”
The explosions targeted three Sanaa mosques, the Hashush mosque, the Kibsi mosque, and the al-Qubah al-Khadra mosque, as well as the headquarters of the Ansarullah movement of the Houthis, Reuters reported.
The fifth explosion took place at the Al-Tayssir mosque, AFP added, saying that the blasts went off simultaneously. The agency said that the bomb which struck the Hashush mosque also hit the house of a Houthi leader Taha al-Mutawakel.
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From Russia Today
Assange calls Swedish prosecutors ‘reckless’ after Ecuador embassy interview falls through
Questioning of Julian Assange by Swedish prosecutors over rape allegations has again been delayed, after investigators failed to submit a timely request for an interview at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the whistleblower has been since 2012.
“This afternoon, the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny cancelled a prospective appointment to take my statement today. We proposed the dates and Ny accepted them,” said a statement issued by Assange, an Australian citizen, late on Wednesday.
“Prosecutor Ny led my lawyers to believe that the appointment was proceeding. My lawyers had booked tickets and I have been put to considerable expense. Today, I learned that the Swedish legal application to Ecuador, which is likely to take weeks, was only sent to Ecuador two days ago,” he added.
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From Russia Today
‘True friend of Ukraine’ Tony Blair tapped by Poroshenko to join Kiev advisory council
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has invited former British PM Tony Blair to “share his experience of public administration” on an international council of European public figures advising Kiev on government reforms.
After meeting with Poroshenko in Kiev, the former UK leader told reporters that Ukraine faced “great challenges” from “Russian aggression” and “corruption.” Blair, who was prime minister from 1997 to 2007, also called on Ukrainian leaders to follow “not self-interest but values” such as “freedom, democracy and a desire to serve the people.”
Обговорив з Тоні Блером досвід реформ та держ. управління.Незважаючи на війну, ми маємо можливість проводити реформи! pic.twitter.com/aAUfgNDaOt
— Петро Порошенко (@poroshenko) June 17, 2015
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From The Times of Israel
Blaming Obama, ex-envoy Oren says aspects of US-Israel ties ‘in tatters’
Publishing a ‘cri de coeur’ book on collapse of alliance during his four years as ambassador in DC, freshman Kulanu MK says Israel now alone facing ‘broad spectrum of monumental threats’
June 17, 2015, 4:54 pm
US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben Gurion Airport, Wednesday, March 20, 2013, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
In a memoir to be published next week tracing his four years as Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren warns that aspects of US-Israeli relations are now “in tatters,” details how Washington has worked relentlessly to quash Israel’s military option on Iran, and accuses the Obama administration of handing Hamas its “greatest-ever strategic victory” by briefly barring US airlines from flying to Israel after a rocket fired from Gaza landed a mile from Ben-Gurion airport during last summer’s war.
Interviewed by The Times of Israel this week, Oren said that the book, “Ally,” represents an unprecedented case of a top Israeli diplomat publishing details of his term so soon after its completion — he was ambassador from 2009 to 2013 — and confirmed that it was carefully reviewed before its release by various Israeli authorities, including the Mossad, and some passages excised.
He said he urged his publishers to release it this month — “they wanted to bring it out much later” — because “we’re at a crucial juncture now with the Iran issue, and it’s very important to set certain records straight as we go into what could be a fateful period for the State of Israel.”
“Ally” is peppered with revelations that go to the heart of US-Israel ties, and also relate to peace efforts with the Palestinians, other regional developments, and sensitive discussions between Oren and various Israeli and American officials.
From The Times of Israel
Louvre denies claims of anti-Israel discrimination
Museum says Tel Aviv U. prof who was turned away only to be approved when he used European and Arab names was refused over lack of space
June 17, 2015, 4:53 pm
French soldiers as they patrol near the Louvre Museum in Paris, January 10, 2015. (photo credit: AP/Laurent Cipriani, File)
The Louvre in Paris has denied accusations that it discriminated against a group of Israeli students who wished to visit, saying it was simply a case of bad timing.
Last month, Prof. Sefy Hendler from Tel Aviv University tried to make a group reservation for 12 art history students at the Louvre and the Sainte-Chapelle chapel and was denied.
According to media reports, he was quickly turned away by both for lack of room, despite trying to make a booking on three separate dates.
Surprised, he contacted the Louvre and Sainte-Chapelle again, and attempted to make reservations using false names of educational institutions from Italy and Abu Dhabi, on the same dates he had requested originally. Both institutions responded to Hendler that space was available on his requested dates.
From The Times of Israel
US envoy to Israel calls Oren’s Obama claims ‘imaginary’
Dan Shapiro says Jerusalem’s former US ambassador is trying to sell books by making up story about US abandoning Israel
June 17, 2015, 4:52 pm
US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro speaks at the United Jewish Communities General Assembly in Jerusalem on November 11, 2013. (photo credit: Flash90)
Washington’s ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro hit back at former Israeli envoy Michael Oren Wednesday for what he said were “imaginary” claims that US President Barack Obama had purposefully left Israel in the lurch.
On Monday, Oren, a current Knesset member with the Kulanu party who previously served as Israel’s ambassador in Washington during Obama’s first term in office, wrote an op-ed claiming that Obama had “abandoned” the Jewish state by “deliberately” deviating from several crucial, long-held traditions in the countries’ relationship.
“His account does not reflect the truth. It’s imaginary,” Shapiro told Israel’s Army Radio Wednesday.
“Oren is now in a different position; he is a politician and a writer who wants to sell books,” Shapiro said, referring to the upcoming publication of Oren’s book about US-Israeli bilateral ties.
From The Times of Israel
Israel braces for refugees as Syrian rebels surround Druze town
Insurgents make headway near Golan Heights; tit-for-tat shelling in Damascus leaves 33 people dead
June 17, 2015, 4:23 pm
An explosion on the Syrian Golan Heights on June 16, 2015, as the Al-Nusra Front fights against Assad’s troops near the Syrian Druze village of Hader. (Photo by Basel Awidat/Flash90)
BEIRUT — Syrian rebels launched a wide-ranging offensive against government positions near the Israeli side of the Golan Heights on Wednesday, surrounding a Druze village and raising concerns that refugees would flood toward the border with Israel.
The advance came a day after Israel, which has a significant Druze population, said it was preparing for the possibility that refugees fleeing fighting in the area might seek to cross to the Israeli side of the strategic plateau.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory said rebels, including Islamist fighters, surrounded the village of Hader on Wednesday.
“Hader is now totally surrounded by rebels, who just took a strategic hilltop north of the village,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Insurgents have been on the offensive in southern Syria for the past three months, capturing military bases, villages and a border crossing point with Jordan.
From The Times of Israel
Livni dodges war crimes arrest in London
Opposition MK said to schedule meetings with UK politicians as a loophole to gain immunity from prosecution
Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni was forced to use a legal loophole in order to avoid possible arrest over alleged Israeli war crimes when she attended the Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit this week in London.
Anti-Israeli activists applied to have an arrest warrant issued for Livni, who was foreign minister during the 2008-2009 war in the Gaza Strip.
In 2009, ahead of a planned visit by Livni, a British court issued a warrant for Livni over alleged war crimes committed by the IDF during the three-week conflict. In the end Livni did not go through with the trip, and the threat of an arrest kept her out of the UK until authorities in 2011 granted automatic immunity to all Israelis on official visits to Britain.
However, Livni’s attendance at the recent women’s summit could have been considered a personal visit, leaving her vulnerable to arrest. To preempt the problem Livni, whose party leads Israel’s opposition, arranged to meet with senior UK government officials, enabling the Knesset speaker to approve her travel as an official visit, the Hebrew-language daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Wednesday.
As a result the UK courts rejected a request for a new arrest warrant, citing Livni’s immunity.
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