Zio-Watch News Round-up

Marine Le Pen’s National Front gains blockbuster victory in regional vote: Zio-Watch, December 7, 2015

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From Russia Today

Future president? Marine Le Pen’s National Front gains blockbuster victory in regional vote

Published time: 7 Dec, 2015 15:52

French National Front political party leader and candidate Marine Le Pen reacts as she delivers her speech after the announcement of the results during the first round of the regional elections in Henin-Beaumont, France, December 6, 2015. © Pascal Rossignol French National Front political party leader and candidate Marine Le Pen reacts as she delivers her speech after the announcement of the results during the first round of the regional elections in Henin-Beaumont, France, December 6, 2015. © Pascal Rossignol / Reuters

Marine Le Pen can break out a bottle of champagne to celebrate after her far-right National Front (FN) earned an unprecedented victory in the first round of French regional elections on Sunday.

The FN secured 28 percent of the vote nationally, the Interior Ministry estimated, the highest ever for the anti-EU, anti-immigration party, which came first in six regions out of 13.

Le Pen attracted over 41 percent of the votes in the northern Nord-Pas-de-Calais-Picardie region and in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur in the southeast in a huge blow to French President Francois Hollande’s ruling Socialists.

FN supporters hope the latest victory will help catapult Le Pen into the Elysees Palace as president in 2017.

“This is a historic, extraordinary result,” FN lawmaker Marion Marechal-Le Pen (granddaughter of party founder Jean-Marie Le Pen and niece of party leader Marine) told France’s TF1. “The old system died tonight.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Report: U.S. nonprofits gave $220M to settlements over 5 years

TEL AVIV (JTA) — American nonprofits donated more than $220 million to Israeli West Bank settlements from 2009 to 2013, according to a Haaretz investigation.

The investigation, published Monday, found that some 50 American organizations gave tax-deductible donations by private individuals to the settlements. The payments went to property purchase, home amenities and, in some cases, support to families of convicted Jewish terrorists.

The organizations named by Haaretz include the Central Fund of Israel, which supports settlement institutions; Honenu, which provided support to the terrorists’ families; and the Hebron Fund, which finances projects in the settler enclave in Hebron.

Donations to the NGOs are tax-deductible even though the United States government considers the settlements illegal.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Happy Hanukkah from all but one of the GOP candidates

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., presumably is missing because he had to opt out last minute from last week’s RJC’s presidential forum due to voting on the Senate floor. (The video was filmed at the forum.)

Most of the candidates ace the “Happy Hanukkah” thing, but there are several notes of interest:

Ben Carson uptalks
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jewish groups blast Trump for call to block entry of Muslims

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jewish groups blasted Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for his proposal to block all Muslims from entering the United States.

“A plan that singles out Muslims and denies them entry to the U.S. based on their religion is deeply offensive and runs contrary to our nation’s deepest values,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement Monday evening, hours after Trump, a real estate billionaire and reality TV star, issued his call.

“In the Jewish community, we know all too well what can happen when a particular religious group is singled out for stereotyping and scapegoating,” Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL’s CEO said. “We also know that this country must not give into fear by turning its back on its fundamental values, even at a time of great crisis.”

The American Jewish Committee’s director of policy, Jason Isaacson, noted the timing of Trump’s statement, which called for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United Statee,” coincident with the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Trump calls for ‘total and complete shutdown’ of Muslims entering US

A statement released by Trump’s campaign Monday said, “Donald Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on,” according to Business Insider.

The New York Times, which also reported the statement, confirmed its authenticity with a campaign spokeswoman.
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From PressTV

Tue Dec 8, 2015 5:43AM
Turkish soldiers (file photo)
Turkish soldiers (file photo)

An Ankara official says the contingent of Turkish forces deployed to northern Iraq last week will likely stay in the war-battered country despite vociferous objections by Baghdad.

The 300-strong contingent, which is backed by 20 tanks, has been stationed on the outskirts of the city of Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s Nineveh Province. Ankara has described the deployment as a “routine rotation” in a training program for Iraqi forces and “reinforcement against security risks,” but Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has called the move “an incursion,” demanding immediate withdrawal of the troops.

“We expect them to remain,” the unnamed official told a group of foreign media representatives in Istanbul, AFP reported on Monday.

“It will depend on discussions but obviously our forces, as we know from the officers on the ground, from the demands of different groups over there, from what we are discussing with the central government and from what we have discussed with the KRG (the Kurdistan Regional Government), they will stay,” he said.

Baghdad has threatened to use “all available options,” including recourse to the UN Security Council, to have the Turkish forces removed from Iraqi territory. The Iraqi government also gave Turkey 48 hours on Sunday to withdraw the forces. On Monday, 24 hours before the deadline would expire, Abadi visited the country’s air force headquarters, where he said, “We must be prepared and ready to defend Iraq and its sovereignty.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (Photo by AFP)

Earlier on Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Ankara had a “duty” to protect those forces against potential threats that other countries had influenced Iraq in its response to the deployment.

Turkish media have, meanwhile, reported that Ankara was setting up a base in the area, which is to house 600 soldiers.
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From Russia Today

Syria slams US-led coalition deadly strike against troops as ‘act of aggression’

Published time: 7 Dec, 2015 06:50

© Reuters © Reuters Damascus has labelled as an “act of aggression” the US-led coalition’s missile strike which killed three Syrian soldiers at an army base in the Deir ez Zor province.

On top of the fatalities, 13 personnel were injured and a number of military vehicles were destroyed when warplanes fired nine missiles at the Saeqa military camp.

The incident is the first of its kind since the coalition started to bomb Syrian territory more than a year ago, though the US-led alliance continues to deny it carried out the airstrike.

READ MORE: ‘Everyone knows what’s going on’: Istanbul residents on Turkey-ISIS oil trade
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From Russia Today

‘Time of looking away over’: Germany warns Saudi Arabia to stop funding radical Islamists

Published time: 7 Dec, 2015 01:58

German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel © Stefanie Loos German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel © Stefanie Loos / Reuters

Germany has publicly warned Saudi Arabia against further financing religious radicals globally. German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel’s demand to cut money flowing to the Wahhabis comes as some lawmakers are growing weary of Saudi-funded radical mosques.

Gabriel stressed that the Saudi regime has been funding mosques known for radicalizing the Muslim population, including in various communities in Europe.

“We have to make clear to the Saudis that the time of looking away is over,” Mr Gabriel, Merkel’s deputy and the head of the Social Democrats (SPD), told Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “Wahhabi mosques all over the world are financed by Saudi Arabia. Many Islamists who are a threat to public safety come from these communities in Germany.”
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From The Times of Israel

Trump demands ‘complete shutdown’ on Muslims entering US

GOP presidential hopeful proposes immigration ban until lawmakers ‘can figure out what is going on’ with radical Islam; White House says it’s ‘totally contrary’ to US values

December 8, 2015, 12:22 am

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, speaks during a rally at Patriots Point aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., Monday, December 7, 2015. (AP/Mic Smith)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, speaks during a rally at Patriots Point aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., Monday, December 7, 2015. (AP/Mic Smith)

 

NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump called Monday for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” an idea that prompted one of his rivals to call him “unhinged.”

The proposed ban would apply to immigrants and visitors alike, a sweeping prohibition affecting all adherents of Islam who want to come to the U.S. The idea also raised immediate questions about whether it could pass muster under constitutional protections of the free exercise of religion.

Trump’s campaign said in a statement that such a ban should stand “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” The statement added that the Republican front-runner’s proposal comes in response to a level of hatred among “large segments of the Muslim population” toward Americans.

“Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life,” Trump said in the statement.

He added on Twitter: “Just put out a very important policy statement on the extraordinary influx of hatred & danger coming into our country. We must be vigilant!”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Vassar student gov’t approves J Street U funds after Zionism-is-racism concern

(JTA) — Vassar College’s student council delayed approval of a funding request from J Street U, a left-wing pro-Israel group, over concerns that it would be supporting a racist ideology.

The student council unanimously approved the request on Sunday.

The funds will allow students to attend HaaretzQ, a conference focused on Israeli-Palestinian relations and hosted by the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz and the dovish New Israel Fund.

The Vassar student council finance committee delayed the funding last week, according to a J Street U Vassar Facebook post, because it did not want to contradict the council’s anti-racist policy. The request was put to a full student council vote, which J Street U portrayed as a rare step.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

In Oval Office speech, Obama pledges to destroy Islamic State

“It is clear the two of them had gone down the dark path of radicalization,” Obama said Sunday, referring to the couple who carried out the attack at a social services center in the Southern California city. “This was an act of terrorism.”

Obama cast the San Bernardino attack, which killed 14 people, as part of a string of deadly attacks by radical Muslims — including in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas, at the Boston Marathon in 2013 and in Chattanooga, Tennessee, earlier this year — as the clearest signal yet that there is a homegrown threat from radicalized Muslims.
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From PressTV

Tue Dec 8, 2015 6:10AM
This photo provided by the Arabic-language Ma’an news agency on December 7, 2015 shows slain Palestinian youth Malik Shahin.
This photo provided by the Arabic-language Ma’an news agency on December 7, 2015 shows slain Palestinian youth Malik Shahin.

Israeli military forces have shot and killed two more young Palestinian men during separate incidents in the West Bank amid unabated tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Palestinian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israeli military jeeps rolled into the Dheisheh refugee camp, located just south of Bethlehem, on Monday.

Violence broke out when a group of Palestinian youths clashed with the Israeli forces, who fired tear gas canisters and live rounds to disperse the crowd.

A young Palestinian man, identified as Malik Shahin, was critically injured and later succumbed to his gunshot wounds. Several other Palestinians were also wounded in the melee.

Israeli troops reportedly prevented the movement of residents inside the camp and sealed the roads leading out of the site. They also did not allow ambulances and medical staff to enter the Dheisheh camp.

Earlier on Monday, a young Palestinian man was shot dead after he allegedly stabbed and wounded an Israeli man near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of al-Khalil (Hebron), located 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of al-Quds (Jerusalem).

This photo provided by the Arabic-language Ma’an news agency shows injured Palestinian man Ihab Fathi Miswadi on the ground in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) on December 7, 2015.

Locals identified the Palestinian as 21-year-old Ihab Fathi Miswadi. They said Israeli forces prevented Palestinian emergency services from reaching the wounded man, and did not provide any medical care themselves before he died of his injuries.
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From The Times of Israel

Time readers choose Bernie Sanders as Person of the Year

Magazine’s decision to be announced Wednesday; no presidential candidate has won the distinction before winning election

December 7, 2015, 7:01 pm

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking at a campaign fundraising reception at the Avalon Hollywood nightclub in Los Angeles, October 14, 2015. (David McNew/Getty Images/via JTA)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders speaking at a campaign fundraising reception at the Avalon Hollywood nightclub in Los Angeles, October 14, 2015. (David McNew/Getty Images/via JTA)

 

Readers of Time magazine chose Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders as Person of the Year.

Sanders, a Vermont senator who is Jewish, self-identifies as a Democratic socialist and is challenging former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Sanders’s polling numbers have exceeded expectations, but he still trails Clinton by a wide margin.

Sanders easily outpaced his rivals in the Time poll, receiving more than 10 percent of the vote, with the runner-up, Pakistani girls’ education activist Malala Yousafzai, at 5.2 percent. US President Barack Obama, Pope Francis and talk-show host Stephen Colbert rounded out the top five vote-getters. Francis won the honor in 2013.

A presidential candidate has never earned the distinction prior to winning the election. In the poll, Clinton and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump each received less than 2 percent of the vote. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received 1 percent.

Time will formally reveal its Person of the Year on Wednesday.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Fleeing recession and violence, Brazilian Jews moving to Israel in record numbers

The Teitelbaum family is welcomed to Israel by by Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky in 2010. (Teitelbaum family)

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) – For four years, llana Lerner Kalmanovich rode a hot and crowded bus three hours each day to reach the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where she was pursuing degrees in physical education and nutrition.

Police raids into nearby slums, or favelas, often blocked the freeway, and stray bullets from gun battles with criminals were a constant threat. Even on the Federal University campus, the oldest and among the most prestigious in Brazil, Kalmanovich felt unsafe. Robberies were commonplace and, every now then, corpses were found in the nearby woods.

So in 2007, Kalmanovich moved to Israel. She had spent a whole year there a decade earlier on a youth movement program and fallen in love with the country. And though she holds German citizenship and could have built a new life for herself in Europe, there was never any doubt she would make her home in the Jewish state.

“Israel is the place where I feel at home, happy, among my people,” Kalmanovich told JTA. “We say ‘Shabbat shalom’ to the bus driver, to the garbage man, to the sales clerk. Everyone shares mostly the same social and economic level. We all celebrate the same national holidays. It’s like living in a huge kibbutz of 8 million people. Here I am the rule, not the exception.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

British-American Jewish academic under investigation for Jewish Nazi comment

(JTA) — The British-American Jewish academic who told a 13-year-old Israeli girl that she would not answer her questions for a school project until there is peace in Palestine is under police investigation.

The Cambridgeshire Constabulary confirmed on Friday to the London-based Jewish Chronicle that it was investigating a complaint about a comment by archaeozoologist Marsha Levine, a former academic at the University of Cambridge, who told the Jewish Chronicle in response to an interview about the girl’s request that “the Jews have become the Nazis.”

The Jewish Chronicle’s reporting of the email exchange between Levine and Shachar Rabinovitch of Zichron Yaakov, and later comments reportedly triggered a complaint to the police from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism. The police are investigating the comments as a possible hate crime, according to the Chronicle.

Shachar Rabinovitch had sent an email to Levine last month asking for her help to learn about the early history of the horse and the use of horses by humans in ancient times, as part of a school assignment.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Could Donald Trump happen in Israel?

Months ahead of Israel’s elections, a rich celebrity who’s never held elected office announces he will run for prime minister. He attacks the current leadership as weak and ineffective. He vows to wield a stronger hand against terror, to shut out Israel’s enemies and to realize the country’s untapped potential.

His poll numbers shoot up, shocking the political establishment. Thousands mass to cheer for his charismatic speeches, and he’s adept at social media. Critics lambast his campaign as one of image, not substance. They predict he’ll fade as fast as he’s risen.

Sound familiar? It should. Something similar happened in 2012, when two political neophytes — Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid — shook up Israel’s politics in a raucous election campaign. Lapid, a popular news anchor and author, founded a new party claiming to represent Israel’s political center. Bennett, a high-tech mogul, became chair of the religious Zionist Jewish Home party and attracted throngs of new supporters, focusing on hawkish politics and housing reform.

If Donald  Trump were to run for office in Israel, he’d probably follow in their footsteps.
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From PressTV

Tue Dec 8, 2015 11:17AM
This file photo shows Palestinian prisoners at the Megiddo Prison in Israel.
This file photo shows Palestinian prisoners at the Megiddo Prison in Israel.

Israel is holding some 520 Palestinians under the so-called administrative detention, which has given Tel Aviv’s officials the right to keep Palestinians behind bars without charge or trial for months or even years.

Head of the Palestinian Authority’s Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqe said five children and two members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) are among the administrative detainees.

He identified the Palestinian legislators as Muhammad Jamal al-Natshah and Hassan Yousef.

Israeli authorities have imprisoned Yousef on multiple occasions in the past. The last time he was released from the Israeli custody was in June after he spent a year without trial or charge.

Qaraqe termed the practice of administrative detention an “illegal and unfair policy” that violates the international law.

Addressing the Security Council on August 19, UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman said the United Nations has consistently opposed the “use of prolonged administrative detention.”
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From Russia Today

Singapore greenlights US spy plane deployment amid South China Sea tensions

Published time: 7 Dec, 2015 23:51

A U.S. Navy Boeing Poseidon P8 aircraft. © Edgar Su A U.S. Navy Boeing Poseidon P8 aircraft. © Edgar Su / Reuters

Singapore has permitted a US spy aircraft to conduct surveillance operations from its territory to support “maritime security efforts” while keeping a close watch on Beijing’s activities amid the South China Sea tensions.

Under the agreement reached by Washington and Singapore, an American P-8 Poseidon military aircraft will be deployed to Singapore later this month for stepping up maritime security in the South China Sea region, a joint statement said on Monday, according to Reuters.

Both US Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Singapore’s defense minister, Ng Eng Hen has expressed satisfaction with the results of their meeting also mentioning that further deployments in Singapore could be expected.

“The aircraft’s deployment would promote greater interoperability with regional militaries through participation in bilateral and multilateral exercises, while providing timely support for regional HADR and maritime security efforts,” says the statement published on the US Department of Defense official website.

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From The Times of Israel

NYC mayor urges Syrian Jews to empathize with refugees

Bill de Blasio says members of Brooklyn congregation can identify with pain of families forced to leave homeland

December 6, 2015, 7:49 pm

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a press conference in New York City on November 22, 2015. (Michael Graae/Getty Images/AFP)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a press conference in New York City on November 22, 2015. (Michael Graae/Getty Images/AFP)

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio in a Sabbath address to a Syrian Jewish synagogue called on congregants to empathize with Muslim refugees from their shared homeland.

The Shabbat worshipers at the Orthodox Congregation Shaare Zion in Brooklyn appeared to disapprove with the mayor’s address, the New York Post reported Sunday, noting that the congregants murmured uncomfortably as he compared Syrian refugees fleeing their country’s civil war with Jews fleeing the Nazis.

“I know this community understands deeply the pain of any family that must leave a homeland they love because they were forced away by violence and discrimination,” said de Blasio, calling on people to “look at history.”

There is disagreement among elected officials and the public over the resettlement of Muslim refugees in US cities.

The congregants reportedly only applauded when de Blasio vowed to protect the city’s Jews in the wake of recent targeted terror attacks in Jerusalem and Paris.
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From The Times of Israel

San Bernardino shooter’s dad: He was ‘obsessed’ with Israel

In interview with Italian paper, father Syed Farook says his son ‘supported the creation of the Islamic State’

December 6, 2015, 3:15 pm

Syed Farook, left, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in a shooting attack at a center for the disabled in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015. (Photos from California Department of Motor Vehicles and FBI via AP)

Syed Farook, left, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in a shooting attack at a center for the disabled in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015. (Photos from California Department of Motor Vehicles and FBI via AP)

 

Syed Farook, father of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook, has described his son as negatively “obsessed” with Israel.

In an interview with Italian daily La Stampa, Farook said that he once tried to console his son by promising him that Israel would not exist in another two years because “China, Russia and America will bring the Jews back to Ukraine.”

In Sunday’s La Stampa (link in Italian) report, Farook said, “My son said that he shared [IS leader Abu Bakr] Al Baghdadi’s ideology and supported the creation of the Islamic State. He was also obsessed with Israel.”

“I told him he had to stay calm and be patient because in two years Israel will not exist any more. Geopolitics is changing: Russia, China and America don’t want Jews there any more. They are going to bring the Jews back to Ukraine. What is the point of fighting? We have already done it and we lost. Israel is not to be fought with weapons, but with politics. But he did not listen to me, he was obsessed,” Farook explained to US correspondent Paolo Mastrolilli.

Farook’s son is suspected of carrying out a mass shooting that killed 14 people in San Bernardino. The father was interviewed in Corona, California, where he lives with his older son, Syed Raheel Farook, a US Navy veteran.