Pro-Israel News

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a television interview that a recent White House rebuke of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is "against American values," but he praised President Obama's decision to attack ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

"It's against the American values. And it doesn't bode well for peace," Netanyahu said in an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Israel maintains that east Jerusalem is part of its capital but the United States does not recognize it as part of Israel's territories.

"The idea that we'd have this ethnic purification as a condition for peace, I think it's anti-peace," Netanyahu added, explaining that Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem should be allowed to buy property wherever they want.

A Jerusalem city official approved last week construction of a new housing development in east Jerusalem, according to The Associated Press.

The Obama administration warned that the new project would affect Israel's relations with "even its closest allies" and reflect badly on its commitment to seeking peace with Palestinians. The Israeli prime minister said he was "baffled" by the criticism.

However, Netanyahu said his relationship with Obama is good.

"I don't want to say like an old married couple, but the president said that we had — he's had more meetings with me than with any other foreign leader," he said. "And I think you get to a point of mutual respect. You cut to the chase very quickly. You talk about the real things openly, as befitting real allies."

Netanyahu also praised Obama for the military fight through an international coalition against Islamic State, or ISIS.

"ISIS has got to be defeated because it's doing what all these militant Islamists are trying to do," he said. "They all want to first dominate their part of the Middle East, and then go on for their twisted idea of world domination. The difference between ISIS and Hamas and ISIS and Iran and so on is they all agree that the world should be an Islamist hill, but ... each of them wants to be the king of the hill."

ISIS, also known as ISIL, wants to form an Islamic emirate in the Levant region through "jihad." According to the CIA, it has about 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria.

ISIS, an al-Qaida offshoot, has gained control of large swathes of territories in Iraq and Syria.

In Iraq, ISIS men have killed hundreds of civilians. Numerous members of the Christian and Yazidi minorities have also been killed, and tens of thousands of them have fled their homes.

The terror group is believed to have hundreds of foreign fighters, including those from the United States and Europe.

By BEN HARTMAN,DANIEL K. EISENBUD|10/03/2014 | The Jerusalem Post| 

Around 2,000 officers from special police units and the Border Police will patrol across Israel this weekend, in particular in mixed Arab-Jewish cities, to prevent violent clashes as Jews commemorate Yom Kippur and Muslims celebrate the holiday of Eid al-Adha.

A spokesperson for the National Operations Branch of the Israel Police said they did not have any specific warnings about planned disturbances, but that they suspect that with the holiest day of the Jewish calendar overlapping this year with the Muslim holiday – a holiday of feasting and celebration – there is ample potential for violent clashes.

In recent days police have held meetings with local Arab leaders and their Jewish counterparts in a number of mixed cities and Arab localities, in an effort to reach understanding and to prevent a repeat of the Yom Kippur riots six years ago in Acre. Those riots were believed to have been sparked after an Arab man drove through a Jewish neighborhood in the city during the Yom Kippur fast.

As the two holidays coincide for the first time in decades, hundreds of Jews and Muslims – including the Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis and a number of Muslim leaders - met at an auditorium in Lod on Wednesday for a discussion about the upcoming holidays. The fears of Jewish-Muslim violence follow violent riots that broke out across the Arab sector in July, after Shuafat teen Muhammed Abu Khadeir was found murdered in a Jerusalem forest. Jewish extremists were later arrested for the murder, described as a racially-motivated “revenge killing”.

Police from the Judea and Samaria district said Thursday that a curfew would go into effect for the West Bank beginning at midnight Thursday. The decision to put Palestinians areas on curfew was made by the Defense Ministry, police said. 

In terms of security in Jerusalem, police said hundreds of extra Border Police, undercover and patrol officers will be on hand, with a special emphasis on mixed Arab and Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem and the Old City.

“There will be an increased police presence in East Jerusalem, Damascus Gate and Jaffa Gate, where thousands of people will be making their way for Yom Kippur,” said Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

“Police units will respond if necessary to any incidents, with other backup units on standby,” he added.

Asked about enhanced security provisions for the Temple Mount, a known flashpoint for Arab violence, Rosenfeld said that for the time being no age restrictions will be imposed to limit Muslims under the age of 50. However, he noted that that may change depending on intelligence police received about possible violence or rioting.  

“If necessary, we’ll adjust security assessments throughout Yom Kippur to ensure the safety of all visitors,” he said.

By HERB KEINON | The Jerusalem Post| 
10/02/2014

WASHINGTON-- Prime Minster Binyamin Netanyahu’s address to the UN this week was long on talk of regional threats and dangers, and short on words of hope. His short statement alongside US President Barack Obama on Wednesday was reversed: Long on hope and short on talks of threats and fears.

The prime minister knows his audience.

“I remain committed to a vision of peace of two states for two peoples, based on mutual recognition and rock-solid security arrangements on the ground,” Netanyahu said. “And I believe we should make use of the new opportunities, think outside the box, see how we can recruit the Arab countries to advance this very hopeful agenda.”

There it was, the word Obama loves, and what Netanyahu’s critics said was conspicuously absent from the prime minister’s UN address: Hope.

Obama and Netanyahu met in the Oval Office on Wednesday under dramatically different conditions than their last meeting, in March.

At that meeting the talks with the Palestinians were still on, though expiring: The Gaza military operation was some four months away; and the term Islamic State referred to Iran, not to an organization that instills fear throughout the world through mass murder and beheadings.

But despite the changes, despite the dramatic developments of the last half-year, Obama made clear in his short statement that when he meets with Netanyahu, peace with the Palestinians remains foremost in his mind.

“We’ll discuss extensively both the situation of rebuilding Gaza but also how can we find a more sustainable peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” Obama said.

And Netanyahu fitted his words to what the president wanted to hear. He spoke only briefly about Iran, made no mention of Hamas or how it and Islamic State are “different branches of the same poisonous tree.”

Rather, he did something that many found missing from his UN speech: He reaffirmed his commitment to a two-state solution.

“I think that there are opportunities, and the opportunities, as you just expressed, is something that is changing in the Middle East, because out of the new situation there emerges a commonality of interest between Israel and leading Arab states, and I think that we should work very hard together to seize on those common interests and build a positive program to advance a more secure, a more prosperous and a more peaceful Middle East,” Netanyahu said.

Obama, as was evident in his address to the UN General Assembly last week, likes to stress the positive, even if so much around looks negative.

Netanyahu, at least during his public statement alongside the president, gave the president what he wanted to hear.

The situation behind the closed doors, however, was probably a bit different.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday before the United Nations in New York that those who support the fight against ISIS but not Palestinian group Hamas don't understand how similar the two Islamic militant groups really are. He also said that Iran and its nuclear capabilities are even more dangerous than ISIS.

"Last week, many of the countries represented here rightly applauded President Obama for leading the effort to confront ISIS, and yet weeks before, some of these same countries, the same countries that now support confronting ISIS, opposed Israel for confronting Hamas. They evidently don't understand that ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree," Netanyahu asserted.

The Israeli PM talked about his country's recent war with Hamas over the Gaza strip, which left over 2,000 people dead.

"ISIS and Hamas share a fanatical creed, which they both seek to impose well beyond the territory under their control," he said.

"As Hamas' charter makes clear, Hamas' immediate goal is to destroy Israel, but Hamas has a broader objective. They also want a caliphate. Hamas shares the global ambitions of its fellow militant Islamists, and that's why its supporters wildly cheered in the streets of Gaza as thousands of Americans were murdered in 9/11, and that's why its leaders condemn the United States for killing Osama bin Laden whom they praised as a holy warrior."

In his detailed speech he made reference to Iran leaders, including General Mohammad Ali Jafari, calling for an Islamic world government, even if Iran has declared itself opposed to ISIS' attacks in Iraq and Syria.

"Make no mistake: ISIS must be defeated. But to defeat ISIS and leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power is to win the battle and lose the war," Netanyahu proclaimed.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has criticized both ISIS and the American response, telling NBC News earlier in September that ISIS militants "want to kill humanity."

"And from the viewpoint of the Islamic tenets and culture, killing an innocent people equals the killing of the whole humanity. And therefore, the killing and beheading of innocent people, in fact, is a matter of shame for them and it's the matter of concern and sorrow for all the human and all the mankind," Rouahani said.

The Iranian leader criticized President Barack Obama's plan not to send ground troops into the region, however.

"Are Americans afraid of giving casualties on the ground in Iraq? Are they afraid of their soldiers being killed in the fight they claim is against terrorism?" Rouhani asked.

Netanyahu said that he does not find Rouhani's stance against ISIS genuine, however.

"Iran's President Rohani stood here last week and shed crocodile tears over what he called the globalization of terrorism. Maybe he should spare us those phony tears and have a word instead with the commanders of Iran's revolutionary guards," he continued.

"He could ask them to call off Iran's global terror campaign, which has included attacks in two dozen countries on five continents since 2011 alone."

The Israeli PM insisted that militant Islamic authorities share a global vision of domination, which he compared to that of Nazi Germany.

"Militant Islam's ambition to dominate the world seems mad, but so too did the global ambitions of another fanatic ideology that swept into power eight decades ago. The Nazis believed in a master race," Netanyahu said.

"The militant Islamists believe in a master faith. They just disagree who among them will be the master of the master faith. That's what they truly disagree about. And therefore, the question before us is whether militant Islam will have the power to realize its unbridled ambitions."

The full transcript of Netanyahu's address to the U.N. is available onHaaretz.

Sep. 28, 2014 5:12 PM EDT |Associated Press| 

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Israel on Sunday en route to the United Nations in New York, saying he will refute "all of the lies directed at us" with regard to Israel's recently concluded war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu's comments come after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas charged that Israel had committed "a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world" during an address to the General Assembly on Friday.

"In this year, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Israel has chosen to make it a year of a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people," he said.

With memories of the Nazi Holocaust still fresh in Israel, use of the word "genocide" is regarded as particularly provocative both to Netanyahu and Israelis in general.

An angry Netanyahu promised an appropriate response when he himself addresses the General Assembly on Monday.

"In my address to the UN General Assembly, I will refute all of the lies being directed at us and I will tell the truth about our state and about the heroic soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, the most moral army in the world," Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu was to have a private meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday evening in New York, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said.

During the 50-day Gaza war, which ended Aug. 26, Israel launched thousands of airstrikes against what it said were Hamas-linked targets in the densely populated coastal territory, while Gaza militants fired several thousand rockets at Israel. More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, the vast majority civilians, and some 18,000 homes were destroyed, according to U.N. figures. Sixty-six soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side.

The devastating war weakened Abbas domestically, with his Hamas rivals enjoying a surge of popularity among Palestinians for fighting Israel.

He is under pressure at home to come up with a new political strategy after his repeated but failed attempts to establish a Palestinian state through U.S.-mediated negotiations with Israel.

But his remarks at the UN appear to have alienated many mainstream Israelis, beyond just Netanyahu and members of his rightwing government.

"Genocide is a term that shouldn't be bandied about frivolously," wrote Nahum Barnea in the mass circulation Yediot Ahronot daily. "In diplomatic and legal terms, it is on par with a declaration of war."

Israelis ushered in the year 5775 as they celebrated the Jewish New Year on Wednesday still shaken from this summer's 50-day war against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, distressed by turmoil along their borders, and anticipating a difficult year ahead.

Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown, is celebrated not with fireworks and champagne but with family meals and introspection. The devout believe one's destiny is set for the coming year during the two-day holiday, and that in the 10 days of soul-searching that follow -- leading up to the fast day of Yom Kippur -- prayer, charity and repentance can ensure a good year.

On the Jewish calendar, it will be 5,775 years since the creation of the world, according to tradition.

Some Israelis are already pessimistic about the new year. A public opinion survey published in Israel's most widely read newspaper, the Israel Hayom freebie, said 70 percent of Israelis polled believe the coming year will bring another round of fighting, and 60 percent doubt peace negotiations will progress. One in three Israelis surveyed said life in Israel isn't good.

The poll, conducted by the New Wave Research Polling Institute, surveyed 500 Jewish Israelis. The margin of error was 4.4 percentage points.

Israel's economy is slowing, the government's statistics bureau said this week. Tourism to the country plummeted due to the Israel-Hamas war, and Israel's National Security Council said Israeli tourists traveling abroad for the Jewish holiday season face an "increasing potential threat" of attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets, especially in Western Europe by jihadists returning to their home countries from fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Hundreds of families in Israel's rocket-battered south are still recovering after spending much of the summer away from their homes.

"We are going into Rosh Hashanah with a heavy sentiment from the summer, but a lot of hope for the coming year," said Maya Tapiro, 28, a university student, at a cafe in Jerusalem.

The past few months saw a rapid succession of events that led to war.

There was the collapse of U.S.-led Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in April, followed by a unity deal between the Western-backed Palestinian president in the West Bank and the Hamas militant group in Gaza.

In June Hamas militants kidnapped and killed three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. The deadly attack sparked an Israeli crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank, the revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem by Israeli extremists, and rocket and mortar fire from Gaza that led to a 50-day war. More than 2,100 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, were killed, while 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side.

But in the hours leading up to the holiday, many Israelis were reflecting on things other than war and peace.

A television talk show was debating the merits of two rival holiday fish dishes: the European Jewish gefilte fish, a ground carp patty, and the North African Jewish chreime, fish cooked in a spicy red sauce.

Israelis were cooking for large holiday meals, and markets were packed with last-minute shoppers buying traditional holiday foods: apples to be dipped in honey to symbolize a sweet new year, and braided challah bread shaped in a circle to symbolize continuity.

WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama will welcome Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on October 1, a US official said in a statement Monday.

National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden announced the meeting, which is likely to address US-Israeli divisions on negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, the threat posed by the Islamic State terror group, and the aftermath of Operation Protective Edge, among other issues.

The prime minister is set to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sunday, and will make his way to Washington for the Wednesday meeting. Netanyahu and Obama last met in early March this year, in the midst of a last-ditch effort by the Obama administration to keep the then-ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks viable.

In that meeting, Obama attempted to reassure Netanyahu of his “absolute commitment” to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran.

The visit was, however, overshadowed by tensions between the two leaders. An interview with Obama seen as containing a veiled threat to Netanyahu was published on the eve of Netanyahu’s arrival. During their three-hour meeting, Obama pushed the prime minister to make the “tough decisions” necessary to revive the slumping attempt at reaching a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

Netanyahu, for his part, told Obama that “the Israeli people expect me to stand strong against criticism and pressure” while arguing that “Israel has been doing its part, and I regret to say that the Palestinians haven’t.”

Obama is also set to meet with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi next week.

Netanyahu in recent days criticized a reported tentative arrangement by which the West may consider easing sanctions on Iran in exchange for its help fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

He said that “respected commentators in the West” were counseling a softer approach to enlist Tehran in an alliance against the terrorists.

The prime minister’s comments followed reports earlier this week that Iranian officials had indicated that Iran would be willing to back US efforts to combat the Islamic State in return for easing the restrictions on its contested nuclear program.

On Monday, the US said no such arrangement is in the works.

The US has been working on building an international coalition to battle the terror group which has seized large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and driven thousands to flee.

On Friday, the State Department named 55 countries as partners in the international coalition against the Islamic State and as contributors in some form or another in the fight against the extremist group.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has also indicated there was a role for Iran in the fight, even as both Washington and Tehran have publicly ruled out direct cooperation.

Nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers, including the US, restarted late last week, with the sides hoping to come to a long-term agreement before the November 24 deadline.

Iran has refused US demands that it gut its uranium-enrichment program, but the two sides are now discussing a new proposal that would leave much of Tehran’s enriching machines in place but disconnected from feeds of uranium, diplomats told The Associated Press Saturday.

The talks have been stalled for months over Iran’s opposition to sharply reducing the size and output of centrifuges that can enrich uranium to levels needed for reactor fuel or weapons-grade material used in the core of nuclear warheads. Iran says its enrichment program is only for peaceful purposes, but Washington fears it could be used to make a bomb.

Israel fiercely opposed an interim deal which world powers struck with Tehran last November, paving the way for talks on a comprehensive agreement on Iran’s future nuclear activities.

AP and AFP contributed to this report

By YAAKOV LAPPIN 

09/22/2014 16:38 | The Jerusalem Post|

The Israel Navy will operate off any "enemy coast" to safeguard Israel, navy chief Adm. Ram Rothberg vowed on Monday, during a memorial ceremony held at sea by sailors from the newest submarine, the INS Tanin, for the personnel of the INS Dakar, which sank 270 miles off the coast of Haifa in 1968. 

"We will guard, protect, and act in any enemy coast, and fight bravely for the navy and the state of Israel," Rothberg said. 

The ceremony, held over the spot where the INS Dakar sunk to the bottom of the sea, was also attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz. "Here, in the heart of the Mediterranean, we lower the anchor and stop to meet a new naval power on its way to its home port on the Israeli coast," Gantz said, referring to the INS Tanin. 

"Without a doubt, this power, operationally and strategically, is very important for Israel, the IDF and the navy," he added. "More than four decades passed since INS Dakar's last voyage... Although the threats have changed, and today you have the most modern equipment, the most advanced technologies, and the most quality means, the mission remains the same mission that the INS Dakar personnel were sent on,  and the responsibility is the same. To protect the Israeli coast, sea waters, and working with all of the IDF's branches to achieve the relevant goals."

Verses from the Book of Psalms were also read at the memorial. 

Israel’s fourth submarine, the INS Tanin, is en route to the navy’s Haifa base after leaving its German shipyard earlier this month. 

The first of the navy's second generation Dolphin class submarine, the INS uses air independent propulsion technology to stay submerged for longer than older Dolphin-class vessels.

“Despite being conventional, its propulsion system allows the INS Tanin to stay underwater for many days, making it more covert,” a naval source said in September. “The fuel cells on board this submarine significantly extend its ability to be underwater without the need to resurface.”

A fifth submarine, the INS Rahav, is expected to arrive at Haifa Port in six to seven months, and a sixth submarine will join the fleet by the end of the current decade, the officer said.

There are some 50 submarine personnel on board the INS Tanin, which left Germany to embark on a voyage spanning more than 7,500 kilometers, most of which it spent underwater. 

The INS Tanin is set to arrive at a specialized dock built by the navy at Haifa, which allows for the advanced submarines to be kept separately, secretly and in a convenient manner. The dock allows for flexibility, and enables the submarines to be on call 24 hours a day.
The new submarines will bring with them many unique capabilities, such as lengthy intelligence gathering.

Lt.-Cmdr. Y., who was commander of the navy’s submarine school until his retirement last week, told The Jerusalem Post earlier this month, “Submarines bring a level of intelligence to Israel that cannot be achieved by other units.”

“Drones that fly in the air can be shot down,” he said. “But a submarine can stay in enemy territory for weeks, and no one knows it’s there. It can lurk off coastal regions without any problem at all. The level of intelligence this brings is not heard about by the public. All of our operations build on past operations.”