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Tuesday, November 18, 2014
 
US secretary of state calls Netanyahu to offer condolences, blames Palestinian ‘days of rage’ ; UN official calls terror attack abhorrent
 
BY AP, AFP AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF November 18, 2014, 11:10 am | The Times of Israel| 
 
 
US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned a Jerusalem terror attack that left four people dead Tuesday morning, calling on Palestinian leaders to halt incitement.
 
Kerry telephoned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer condolences following the gruesome killing spree by Palestinian assailants at a Jerusalem synagogue, while other world leaders also expressed horror at the attack.
 
 
Kerry, in London for talks on Iran and the Middle East, called the assault an “act of pure terror and senseless brutality” and called on the Palestinian leadership to condemn it “in the most powerful terms.”
 
Police said two attackers from East Jerusalem entered the synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood shortly after 7 a.m. and began attacking worshipers at morning prayers with a gun, a meat cleaver, and an ax. Both terrorists were killed by police.
 
Kerry blamed the attack on Palestinian calls for “days of rage” and said Palestinian leaders must take serious steps to refrain from such incitement.
 
Netanyahu told Kerry that “this is a direct result of [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's] incitement. This is a despicable murder in a holy place.”
 
 
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders earlier pointed the finger at Abbas and the Palestinian leadership for the attacks.
 
The European Union’s envoy to Israel Lars Faaborg Andersen wrote on Twitter that he was “horrified by and utterly condemn the despicable terror attack on worshipers in Jlm synagogue that left 4 dead and 4 badly injured.”
 
The United Nation’s special envoy to the region, Robert Serry, said in a statement he “abhorred the attack this morning on a synagogue in West Jerusalem. There can be no justification whatsoever for these deliberate killings, which he strongly condemns.”
 
He called on all sides to work to calm tensions in the region.
 
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was in Israel on Sunday, lamented the attack, saying he hoped it would serve as “a loud wake-up call” that the current situation could quickly spiral out of control.
 
“That houses of worship are becoming scenes for deadly attack on innocent believers is a terrible crossing of a line in an already extremely tense situation,” he said in Kiev.
 
“I was in Jerusalem only a few days ago and could feel how tense the atmosphere there is,” Steimeier added. “What has now happened is a tragedy. I hope that this is now also a loud wake-up call. The tensions can quickly lead to a violent outburst. Mixing the many unresolved issues in this region with ‘religious confrontation’ gives this already serious conflict another dangerous dimension.”
 
Officials from Sweden, which recently officially recognized Palestine as a state, condemned the attack and called for an end to the violence.
 
 
Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad hailed the attack, saying it was in reaction to the death of a Palestinian bus driver. An Israeli autopsy had established Monday that the driver committed suicide, a finding rejected by his family.
 
“Hamas calls for more operations like it,” a spokesman for the group said in a statement.
 
 
 
 
Monday, November 17, 2014

 

BY AFP November 16, 2014, 5:46 pm | The Times of Israel| 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed support Sunday for the US fight against Islamic State militants, but cautioned against any softening toward Iran.

“We want them both to lose. The last thing we want is to have any one of them get weapons of mass destruction,” Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS’s Face the Nation.

His comments came shortly after IS claimed the beheading of another Western hostage, US aid worker Peter Kassig, along with that of 18 men described as Syrian soldiers.

In an undated video, a masked black-clad jihadist seen standing above a severed head says: “This is Peter Edward Kassig, a US citizen of your country.”

Netanyahu expressed support for US President Barack Obama’s leadership of a coalition against IS and said, “We’re with all the American people who understand the savagery that we’re all up against.”

IS “has to be defeated and it can be defeated,” he said.

But Netanyahu portrayed the situation as a “global conflict” against militant Islam, not just Sunni-based IS and al-Qaeda but also Shiite Iran-backed Hezbollah.

“We want them both to lose,” he said, insisting: “Iran is not your ally. Iran is not your friend. Iran is your enemy.”

The United States and other Western powers have been negotiating with Iran to limit its nuclear program, with a November 24 deadline for a deal fast approaching.

Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s opposition to any agreement that leaves Iran with a residual capacity to enrich uranium, and urged tougher sanctions on Tehran as an alternative to a deal.

“The alternative to a bad deal is not war. The alternative to a bad deal are more sanctions, tougher sanctions, that will make Iran dismantle its capacity to make nuclear bombs,” he said.

 

Friday, November 14, 2014
BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF AND AFP | November 13, 2014, 10:57 pm | The Times of Israel | 
 
 
The trilateral meeting in Amman between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and US Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the recent surge of violence in Jerusalem ended Thursday evening, with Kerry issuing a statement praising the sides for their commitment to reduce tensions surrounding the Temple Mount.
 
 
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah a-Sissi was updated on the meeting by phone, according to a report on Israel Radio.
 
 
The top US diplomat said Netanyahu had “strongly reaffirmed his commitment to uphold the status quo on Temple Mount,” while Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, with whom Kerry met earlier in the day, restated his “commitment to non-violence and to restoring calm” in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas did not attend a meeting among Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. Kerry said it was “not the right moment” for Abbas and Netanyahu to meet.
 
Kerry said Abbas told him would do “everything possible to prevent [further] violence.”
 
“We must create a climate where we can move forward in a positive and constructive way,” Kerry said at a press conference with the Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh following the summit.
 
“There is an urgent need to address these greatest tensions, and an imperative need to uphold the status quo at the Temple Mount,” he said, adding that the sides must take “take affirmative steps to prevent violence and incitement.”
 
However, Kerry said that it was not the right time for Israel and the Palestinians to come together to renew talks.
 
 
Kerry also praised the “enormously constructive role of Jordan in trying to resolve these challenges.”
 
He said Israel and Jordan, which has custodial rights at the Temple Mount, had also agreed to take steps to “de-escalate the situation” in Jerusalem and to “restore confidence”.
 
A senior Israeli government official told The Times of Israel that Netanyahu spoke about the urgent need to stop the incitement that was leading to the violence — incitement promoted by radical Islamists and by Palestinian Authority officials.
 
Netanyahu further told Kerry and Abdullah that a diplomatic process was important but did not go hand in hand with the irresponsible incitement against Israel, the source said.
 
The prime minister said the dissemination of false information about an alleged change to the status quo on the Temple Mount must be stopped, and that the Arab press was publishing reports that were out of touch with reality
 
Judeh said Kerry was “now attempting to repave the way for coming back to negotiations and to stop unilateral actions and measures” — a key point for Jordan which is interested in seeing a new process that would lead to the renewal of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, which broke down in April. Abdullah reportedly conveyed this message to Kerry during the meeting.
 
Jordan’s foreign minister also said that Amman would review its decision to recall its envoy to Israel based on Israel’s implementation of its commitments to restore calm, according to Haaretz.
 
The Temple Mount — the holiest site in Judaism, and the third-holiest in Islam — has been a source of increased tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, tensions which have led to a number of violent clashes between security forces and Palestinian demonstrators, four terror attacks and an attempted assassination of a Temple Mount activist in just under a month.
 
Jews are allowed to visit but forbidden from praying at the contested site, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, but where it allowed the Muslim Waqf authorities to remain in administrative charge.
 
The summit in Amman commenced at 7:00 p.m., only hours after fresh clashes broke out in East Jerusalem, where Israeli police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse Palestinian demonstrators, who hurled stones and other objects at security forces in the city.
 
Earlier Thursday, Kerry met with Abbas for talks aimed at calming tensions in the region.
 
Kerry and a somber-looking Abbas embraced and had a brief whispered exchange as they met at the Palestinian leader’s hillside home in Amman, where US and Palestinian flags hung in front of a large nighttime photo of Jerusalem’s flashpoint al-Aqsa Mosque, on the Temple Mount.
 
 
Ahead of Kerry’s arrival, Abdullah met Abbas in Amman for talks in which he expressed his “total rejection” of Israel’s “repeated aggressions and provocations in Jerusalem,” a palace statement said.
 
Much of the unrest in Jerusalem has been fueled by settlement activity in the city’s eastern sector and by religious tensions at the Temple Mount compound. Abbas on Tuesday warned that the Palestinians will not allow Israeli extremists to “contaminate” the Temple Mount, and said that allowing Jewish prayer at the site would risk a global religious war.
 
“Keep the settlers and the extremists away from Al-Aqsa and our holy places,” Abbas demanded. “We will not allow our holy places to be contaminated. Keep them away from us and we will stay away from them, but if they enter al-Aqsa, [we] will protect al-Aqsa and the church and the entire country,” he said. It was unclear what church Abbas was referring to.
 
Israeli security forces have chased rioters who fled into the al-Aqsa mosque on several occasions, but Israel denied a claim last week that troops went deep into the mosque. Israeli forces say the Palestinians store rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails inside the mosque for use in violent protests.
 
Israel closed the Temple Mount for one day two weeks ago following the attempted assassination of Rabbi Yehudah Glick and the killing of his shooter during an arrest operation, a move that drew sharp condemnation from Palestinians, the Jordanian government and others.
 
Since the site opened again to Jewish visitors, several right-wing MKs have visited the site, contending that it is their democratic right to do so, despite a plea from for calm and restraint.
 
Netanyahu has repeatedly pledged not to change the status quo and allow Jewish prayer at the site.
 
 
 
 
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Security officials say neither side wants escalation of hostilities around
Jerusalem
 
BY AVI ISSACHAROFF AND TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF November 12, 2014, 4:48 pm | The Time of Israel| 
 
Israel on Tuesday told the Palestinian Authority that it is not interested in an escalation of
hostilities with the Palestinians and that it intends to take steps to calm tensions.
The remarks were made during a meeting between high-ranking Israeli and Palestinian defense
officials amid weeks of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in and around
Jerusalem.
 
Central Command head Nitzan Alon and Civil Administration chief David Menahem met with
Palestinian officials, including West Bank preventative security chief Ziad al-Barih, intelligence
chief Majid Faraj, and Palestinian police chief Hazem Atallah.
The PA responded by sending Israel messages encouraging calm, but those present warned that
the PA would struggle to cope with the situation if Israel took steps to escalate the situation on the
ground, such as harm to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, confiscation of West Bank land for settlements or
settler harassment of Palestinians.
 
Israeli officials emphasized that Jerusalem has no intention of taking tough security steps, and
that its security forces will work to maintain quiet as much as possible. The Israeli officials also
reiterated statements by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the government has no intention
of changing the status quo on the Temple Mount.
After the meeting, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav
Mordechai spoke with Palestinian Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh.
 
A senior Palestinian official told The Times of Israel that the meeting was positive, and that it was
clear that the Israeli security establishment is interested in calming the situation. At the same time,
the Palestinian source said that he wasn’t sure that Israel’s political leaders shared this stance.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Thursday with US Secretary of State John Kerry in
Amman, Israel Radio reported. Abbas’s spokesman said that he would tell Kerry that Israel
crossed a red line, particularly on the Temple Mount and in Jerusalem, and that the Palestinians
are determined to pursue their plan to ask the United Nations Security Council next month to set a
date for the end of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank.
 
Abbas on Tuesday said that Jews have no right to “contaminate” the site, which is the third-holiest
in the Muslim faith — and the holiest in Judaism, as the site of two ancient Jewish temples — and
warned that a continuation of Israeli policies would lead to a “religious war.”
Kerry was set to arrive in Amman Wednesday to meet with King Abdullah II of Jordan. The two will
discuss the escalation of tensions in Jerusalem and the fight against the Islamic State group in
Syria and Iraq.
Kerry, fresh from nuclear talks with Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, is to spend two
days in Jordan before traveling on to the United Arab Emirates on November 14, the State
Department said in a statement late Tuesday.
 
Last week, heavy clashes raged at the Temple Mount compound as Israeli police faced off with
Palestinian stone-throwers, prompting Jordan to recall its ambassador in protest.
The US has issued repeated calls for calm in the region, with the State Department saying that all
sides need to do more to ease tensions.
Tensions over the Temple Mount have been simmering for much of the past several months, as
Palestinian Muslims have protested increased visits by Jews and calls by right-wing MKs to allow
Jewish prayer at the site, where it has been forbidden by Israel since 1967.
 
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
In address to Jewish leaders, PM says ‘alternative to a bad deal is not
war’ but stronger sanctions
 
BY REBECCA SHIMONI STOIL November 12, 2014, 1:45 am | The Times of Israel| 
 
WASHINGTON — Less than two weeks before the deadline for a nuclear deal with
Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned an American audience that the
US should not see Iran as a potential partner but rather as an “enemy of America.”
Speaking by video to the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly on Tuesday
afternoon, Netanyahu asserted that Iran should be “confronted as an enemy.”
“The Islamic State of Iran is not a partner of America. It’s an enemy of America. And it should be
confronted as an enemy,” Netanyahu told the audience who were gathered for the conference’s
final plenary, using a play on Iran’s official moniker — the Islamic Republic of Iran — and the
Islamic State terrorist group.
 
Over the past few months, both the US and Iran have worked toward the common goal of
reducing Islamic State’s influence in Iraq — but the Obama administration denies that it has any
intention of engaging in military cooperation with Tehran. “Some have suggested that Iran can help
solve the problems of the Middle East. But Iran is not the solution. It’s the problem,” Netanyahu
asserted.
 
Negotiations with Iran are limping into their final two weeks before the November 24 deadline to
reach a comprehensive agreement under the Joint Plan of Action. Earlier this week, US Secretary
of State John Kerry met with his Iranian counterpart in an effort to bridge a number of key gaps,
but on Sunday, US President Barack Obama acknowledged that the distance between Iran and
P5+1 member states’ negotiating positions remained large.
Israel has consistently pushed for negotiators to demand the dismantling of Iran’s nuclear facilities
that are capable of enriching uranium or plutonium that could be used to manufacture a nuclear
weapon. While negotiators have considered allowing Iran to maintain low-grade enrichment, the
fate of the plutonium facility at Arak remains one of the major sticking points.
 
“Our goal must be not merely to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons today. We must
also prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons tomorrow,” Netanyahu said. “Avoiding a bad
deal and maintaining strong pressure on Iran should be the policy of all responsible governments.”
“The worst thing that can happen is for the international community to agree to a deal that leaves
Iran as a threshold nuclear power,” he warned. “The alternative to a bad deal is not war. It means
giving sanctions, and even stronger ones, more time to work.”
Speaking a day earlier, one of Obama’s top Middle East policy advisers assured conference
attendees that the US would “only accept an agreement that blocks all of the potential paths to get
a nuclear weapon.”
 
Philip Gordon said that the US was still focused on reaching an agreement by the November 24
deadline, and that any deal made after that point would be less advantageous for Iran.
If no deal is reached by that late November date, and barring any further extension, the Joint Plan
of Action agreed upon in November 2013 will expire and the full force of US-led sanctions against
Iran will resume. Sanctions have been relaxed in concert with Iranian compliance with the terms of
the Joint Plan of Action, and recent months have seen a flowering of the once-stagnant Iranian
economy.
 
Both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill have warned that should no deal be reached,
Congress is likely to try to impose additional sanctions against Tehran in an effort to pressure Iran
to return, cowed, to the negotiating table.
Although Netanyahu pressed Tuesday for additional sanctions, Gordon said that he was
concerned that such steps could endanger the cohesiveness of the international sanctions regime
currently in place. Gordon argued that the US had sanctions in place against Iran for almost three
decades with little impact, until the international community joined in the effort to pressure Tehran
regarding its nuclear program.
 
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Ron Prosor chastises Security Council for silence on terror attacks,
slams EU countries for efforts to ‘prematurely’ recognize Palestine
 
BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF November 11, 2014, 1:08 am | The Times of Israel | 
 
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor issued a scathing critique on Monday
of the UN Security Council’s silence following multiple terror attacks against Israelis in the
past three weeks.
“Every day Israelis are coming under attack. Every day the crowds of violent Palestinian rioters
grow larger,” he said. “And yet, this institution has not uttered a word to denounce attacks against
Israelis. Ignoring incitement and terrorism is similar to supporting terrorism.”
 
On Monday, IDF soldier Almog Shiloni, 20, of Modi’in died of his wounds following hours of
attempts to stabilize his condition after a Palestinian terrorist stabbed him in Tel Aviv.
Hours later, Dalia Lemkus, 26, was killed in a separate terror attack near the West Bank
settlement of Alon Shvut. She was run over and then stabbed in the neck and died at the scene.
Two people remain hospitalized with light to moderate injuries.
Both Palestinian terrorists — Nablus resident Nur al-Din Abu Hashiyeh., 18, from the first
incident and Hebron resident Maher Hamdi al-Hashalmoun, 25, from the second incident — were
hospitalized with shot wounds sustained during attempts to apprehend them.
Prosor blamed the Palestinian Authority for the attacks.
“A person doesn’t just wake up one day and decide to stab someone or ram his car into a crowd
of people. These attacks are the results of years of anti-Israel indoctrination and the glorification of
so-called martyrs,” he said.
“The incitement is everywhere. In schools, mosques and media, the Palestinian Authority is
glorifying terrorists and celebrating attacks on Jews and Israelis.”
 
“The Palestinian leadership can head the academy for arsonists because they add fuel to the fire
on a daily basis,” he said.
Prosor also lashed out at EU nations who are threatening to recognize a Palestinian state in the
absence of peace talks, according to a recent report, in a move that would follow Sweden’s
unilateral recognition of Palestine last month.
“Unsurprisingly, we have also not heard anything constructive from some of my European
colleagues. To them, I say: Yes, continue to cosponsor one-sided resolutions. Yes, continue to
encourage unilateral actions. And yes, by all means, prematurely recognize a Palestinian State,”
said the Israeli envoy.
“This has clearly been a resounding success that has brought us that much closer to peace,” he
added sarcastically.
Prosor’s remarks came just a few days after he issued similar statements following a terror attack
in Jerusalem last week and two more before that last month.
“If recent events offer any indication, the Security Council will once again remain silent as Israel
buries yet another victim of Palestinian terrorism,” Prosor wrote last Wednesday in a sharply
worded letter to the world body’s most important organ.
 
“Shortly after the attack Hamas claimed responsibility, calling the perpetrator a ‘martyr’ and
describing the attack as ‘a heroic operation,’” he added.
Prosor referred to last Wednesday’s attack in which a Palestinian man with ties to Hamas plowed
his car into a crowd of people, killing an Israeli border policeman and a teenage yeshiva student
and injuring over a dozen other people near a Jerusalem light rail station.
 
While the United Nations and its secretary general released a statement condemning the attack
and calling for “deescalation,” the Security Council has yet to issue a formal condemnation of the
attack, or of a similar attack on October 23 that left two people dead, one of them an infant, or of
the October 30 attempted assassination of right-wing activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick.
The ambassador accused the Security Council of sitting quietly by as Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas incited violence by calling “on Palestinians to prevent Jews from
visiting the Temple Mount using ‘all means’ necessary.”
 
He concluded: “I write to you today with the full expectation that the Council will continue adhering
to its vow of silence. Should the Council revise its policy and deem it appropriate to condemn the
Palestinian leadership’s incitement and the violence that follows, I will be the first to commend the
Council for embracing sound judgment and upholding international peace and security.”
The Palestinians have accused Israel of provoking the violence by continuing settlement
construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians envision as the capital
of their future state, and by right-wing lawmakers’ calls for changing the five-decade status quo on
the Temple Mount
Monday, November 10, 2014
By PETER ENAV| Nov. 10, 2014 9:32 AM EST| Associated Press : http://bigstory.ap.org/

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister promised a harsh response to an ongoing wave of Arab violence on Monday, following a stabbing attack on a soldier at a crowded train station in Tel Aviv.

Speaking to members of his Likud Party, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he will use all means available to stop weeks of unrest that has shaken east Jerusalem, northern Israel and Tel Aviv.

He also said that he will pursue new measures, including demolishing the homes of instigators. And in a veiled threat toward Arab demonstrators in Israel and east Jerusalem, he said attackers should consider moving to the West Bank or Gaza Strip.

"Believe me, we will put no difficulties in your path," he said.

Netanyahu spoke shortly after the soldier was stabbed by a suspected Palestinian assailant in Tel Aviv. A hospital spokeswoman said the soldier was in grave condition.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the suspect was from the West Bank city of Nablus and was captured immediately after the stabbing.

"He is presently under interrogation," Rosenfeld said.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been extremely high in recent weeks, following last summer's war in the Gaza Strip and increasing frictions over a contested Jerusalem holy site.

The fatal shooting of an Israeli Arab by a policeman early Saturday in the northern Israeli Arab town of Kfar Kana gave new impetus to the tensions, following release of a video that appeared to show the man backing away from police when he was shot.

The police's internal investigations department is looking into the shooting to determine whether proper protocol was followed.

Arab citizens make up some 20 percent of Israel's population. They enjoy full citizenship but share the ethnicity and culture of the Palestinians in the occupied territories, and have long complained of discrimination. They often identify with Palestinian nationalism, rather than Israeli.

 

Friday, November 7, 2014

By YAAKOV LAPPIN \11/07/2014 04:35 | The Jerusalem Post| 

 
The commander of a US military force tasked with the mission of assisting Israel in a time of war, if asked to, affirmed his commitment and readiness for the mission during a visit to Israel this week.

Lt.-Gen. Darryl Roberson, commander of the JDF-I (Joint Defense Force-Israel), took command several months ago and arrived in Israel in recent days to meet counterparts in the Israel Air Force’s Active Defense Division (air defenses).

The JDF-I is primarily tasked with assisting in air defense missions, and would operate platforms such as Patriot surface-to-air missiles to help intercept incoming threats.

“We have a deep, uncompromising commitment to the security of the State of Israel, a commitment that is based on the special relationship between our countries.

The moment the State of Israel notifies us that it is in need of our assistance, we will come to help in defending it,” Roberson said on Wednesday, according to the IAF.

Roberson has spent recent days getting acquainted with the various units of the IAF’s Active Defense Division, which can deploy a range of air defense systems ranging from Iron Dome anti-rocket batteries to Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile interceptors.

Roberson and his counterparts discussed some of the lessons learned from the Juniper Cobra 14 joint drill, held in May, which was a computer-simulated bilateral air defense exercise.

“We work jointly during our routine so that, in times of war, we will be able to do our job as best as we can. We have to train together because the mission is a complex and a critical one,” the commander said.

“Naturally, I cannot discuss the numbers of troops [who can deploy to Israel] or describe all the weapon systems, but what is important is the fact that we will bring with us everything necessary to defend the State of Israel,” he said.

 

 

 

Thursday, November 6, 2014

By TOVAH LAZAROFF, LAHAV HARKOV \11/06/2014 17:21

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah jointly called for an end to violence and incitement on and with regard to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount on Thursday afternoon.

They issued their joint call after speaking on the telephone on Thursday afternoon. A Kuwaiti newspaperreported earlier this week that the two had secretly met on Saturday, but the Prime Minister’s Office did not confirm the report.

Netanyahu on Thursday assured King Abdullah that Israel did not intend to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, according to the Prime Minister’s Office. 

He also told King Abdullah that Israel respected the Jordanian monarchy's special role as custodian of the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem, including the Al-Aksa compound, the terms of which are set out in the 1994 peace agreement between the two countries, the PMO said.

Netanyahu said the same thing on Wednesday night during late emergency security consultations on the growing violence in Jerusalem.

Israel in the past day has sent diplomatic messages to governments around the world with this message.

“Anyone who says otherwise is representing his own opinion, not that of the government,” Netanyahu’s spokesman Mark Regev said on Thursday morning. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told Army Radio that Israeli politicians should not inflame the situation at the Temple Mount by calling for Jews to be able to pray there.

“If you have paid attention, neither I, nor members of my party have gone up to the Temple Mount. We have not issued calls for Israel to exercise sovereignty there,” Liberman said of his Yisrael Beytenu Party.

He spoke to Army Radio on Thursday morning after a number of Israeli right-wing politicians from the Bayit Yehudi and the Likud parties have made public visits to Al-Aksa Mosque compound in past weeks. They called for Israel to impose sovereignty there and to allow Jewish prayer at the site. “Our problem is that people who incite and who shout, are those who do not do. They only know how to light a flame and to exploit a situation for their own political gains,” Liberman said.

“I am in favor of wise policy. I am in favor of acting and not shouting,” Liberman said. “You have to act wisely in this region,” he said.

“What needs to happen now, is for calm to be restored [in Jerusalem],” said Liberman.

The Aksa Mosque compound is under the control of the Jerusalem Islamic Wakf. Under this arrangement, only Muslims can pray in the compound, but Jews and Christians can visit the area which is right on top of the Western Wall.

But the Palestinians, the Jordanians and others in the Arab world are concerned that Israel might make such changes. Jordan on Wednesday recalled its Ambassador Walid Obeidat to Amman to protest Israeli actions on the Temple Mount. “We are sorry that they took this step,” Liberman said. He charged that those with extremist Islamic views, who also pose a danger to Jordan, were spreading false stories about Israeli actions at the compound.

Liberman spoke after violence between Israeli Arabs and Jews has rocked the capital, particularly around the Old City and the Temple Mount. As a result there were two vehicular terror attacks on Wednesday, one in Jerusalem by the light rail in which a Border Policeman was killed and 13 others injured, including three seriously. The second attack occurred in Gush Etzion, in which three soldiers were injured.

Last Wednesday, an Israeli-Arab attempted to assassinate right wing activist Yehuda Glick who has long argued for Jewish sovereignty on the Temple Mount.

In response Israel closed the Aksa Mosque compound to Muslim worshipers for one day last Thursday and again for 15 minutes early Wednesday morning.

Liberman told Army Radio in order to restore calm to Jerusalem and to halt further terror attacks, Israel must start demolishing the homes of those terrorists.

MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), one of the most active MKs fighting for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, said that those who "point their finger at public representatives who follow the law and want to maintain Israeli sovereignty at the heart of its capital…are giving a prize to terrorism and guarantee its escalation." Feiglin said by this logic, first prime minister David Ben-Gurion was a pyromaniac for declaring the establishment of the State of Israel and bringing the War of Independence.

"Israeli society needs to decide if it is willing to pay the price for maintaining sovereignty over the Temple Mount and the entire land," he added. "The weakness being shown in dealing with the Temple Mount reflects on the whole country." Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely, who visited the Temple Mount this week, said Liberman does not understand that the Palestinians want to change the status quo on the holy site and forbid Jews from ever entering.

"It is not acceptable that representatives of the Jewish majority in Israel agree to losing Israeli sovereignty and discrimination in the holiest place for the Jewish People," she stated.

MK Merav Michaeli (Labor) told Israel Radio that "even Liberman understands that ministers and MKs ascending the Temple Mount is a stupid act that poisons the atmosphere. The Israeli government must understand this, take responsibility and do what is necessary to stop the violence in Jerusalem before it leaks out of Jerusalem and spreads to the rest of the country."

 

 

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

By JNS.ORG \ 

10/29/2014 12:59 | The Jerusalem Post| 

 

While anti-Semitism in Europe and anti-Zionism on US college campuses are on the upswing, how is American Christian support for Israel trending? Stronger than ever, says the founder of the country’s largest pro-Israel organization.

“I can assure you that the Evangelical Christians of America support Israel right now in a more aggressive mood than at any time in my lifetime,” Pastor John Hagee, national chairman of the 1.8-million member Christians United for Israel (CUFI), told JNS.org. 

Hagee’s assessment of the pulse of Christian Zionism came one day after 5,000 people attended the 33rd annual “A Night to Honor Israel” at Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. CUFI’s goal is to facilitate that same program in every major US city.

“We want to send the message to the world and to the Jewish people that Christians are standing up for the State of Israel and the Jewish people at home and abroad,” Hagee said. “It’s not conversation. It’s action.” 

At Sunday’s event in San Antonio, that action was the distribution of more than $2.8 million in donations to Israeli and Jewish charities by John Hagee Ministries. The causes included: Afikim Family Enrichment Association, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Avukat Or, Bikur V’Ezras Cholim, Forum for Christian Enlistment, Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, Heart of Benjamin, International Council of Young Israel, Israel Help and Education Center at Kiryat Gat, Jewish Agency for Israel, Just One Life, Kefar Tsevi Sitrin, Koby Mandell Foundation, Magen David Adom, Meir Panim, Nahal Haredi, Nefesh B’Nefesh, Netanya Academic College, Ohr Torah Stone, Or L’Doron, Save a Child’s Heart, Shurat Hadin, Western Galilee Hospital, Women’s International Zionist Organization, World ORT, and Yad Vashem.

The Western Galilee Hospital is a Jewish hospital run by an Arab Christian that treats Syrian refugees—covering “all the bases in one shot,” said Hagee, who sought to address public misconceptions that Hagee Ministries focuses on political rather than humanitarian philanthropy.

“There are people who themselves have political agendas that they’re trying to drive, and they’re trying to do and say anything they can to ridicule what we do so that they can prove their bias is the correct position,” he said. “But no one can look at the millions of dollars that we have given to Israel and call it anything but humanitarian. … You look at that list of donors [from Sunday’s event] and it’s hard to say, ‘That’s not humanitarian.’”

But while Hagee Ministries focuses on faith and philanthropy, CUFI’s mission is different: education and advocacy. Participants of the organization’s annual Washington Summit visit their local US Senate and House of Representatives members to urge the support of Israel. Hagee cited those lobbying efforts as an example of Christian pro-Israel advocacy that adds value to what the Jewish community is already bringing to the table, since members of Congress are “not accustomed to gentiles coming in their office, 75 or 80 of them from their district.” 

“Whenever those kinds of numbers come from your district and say, ‘We are here to express our support for Israel and we are watching what Congress does with regarding to this specific thing, because this is great concern to us’—when the numbers are enough it becomes of great concern to every person running for election,” Hagee said.

When it comes to current pro-Israel causes, addressing the Iranian nuclear threat is at the forefront of the evangelical Christian community’s thinking.

“We’re all sitting on pins and needles, before November 24th, waiting for the decision [in negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 powers] to come down on Iran’s nuclear bomb efforts, and we all have this deep concern that it’s going to be a negative decision as far as Israel is concerned,” said Hagee. “[We fear that] America will once again be very conciliatory to Iran, and let them go forward with their maniacal nuclear plans.”

Israeli Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer echoed Hagee’s sentiment on Iran during his remarks at Sunday night’s event in San Antonio.

“Folks, I don’t know if there will be a deal with Iran next month, but Israel is very concerned,” Dermer said. “We’re concerned because a year ago, some hoped that the tough sanctions regime on Iran would only be dismantled if Iran’s nuclear weapons program was dismantled. Today, the international community is prepared to make a deal that would suspend and ultimately lift the sanctions. But no one is talking about dismantling Iran’s nuclear weapons program anymore.”

Addressing the rise of the Islamic State terror group—a threat that he said “would pale in comparison” to Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon—Dermer noted the ongoing persecution of ancient Christian communities and other minority groups in the Middle East.

“Kurds and Yazidis are hunted down and sold into slavery in the 21st century,” he said. “Militant Sunni and militant Shi’ite [Muslims] massacre each other and even their own if their subjects don’t heed their unforgiving creed.”

Hagee told JNS.org that Christian Zionists see the Islamic State threat within the context of the historical persecution of Jews.

“ISIS (Islamic State) murdering Christians and decapitating children is one of the most extreme forms of terror that we have seen in our lifetime, but as far as Christians supporting Israel is concerned, we see it just as a continuum of the terrorist organizations that have been formed over the years that have a covenant to kill every Jewish person on the face of the earth,” he said, citing Hamas and Hezbollah as well as their state funder, Iran.

Popular radio talk show host and author Dennis Prager made a similar point on Sunday, telling the crowd at Cornerstone Church that no matter who is being persecuted, understanding the battle against evil is about “understanding the Jews’ role.” 

“How people regard Israel is a litmus test of their whole values system,” Prager said. “Do they resent that which works, that which is healthy, that which is productive?… Evil focuses on the Jews. Period. Jew-haters are the world’s evil group. There are no wonderful people who happen to hate Jews. Those who hate Jews are announcing, is if they wore a button, ‘Hello, I’m evil.’ That is the way it is. … The Jews carry the burden of God in history. Even Jewish atheists, even Jews who hate being Jews, even Jews who hate Israel—the anti-Semite doesn’t distinguish. Zionists went into gas chambers, anti-Zionists went into gas chambers, Orthodox Jews went into gas chambers, and atheist Jews went into gas chambers. They don’t care—it’s a Jew. The Jew is the embodiment and representation of God on this earth, whether they like it or not.”

Prager described a “civil war” within Christendom between left-wing groups like Presbyterian Church USA, which last July approved a boycott of Israel at its biennial general assembly, and right-wing elements whose replacement theology argues that Jews are no longer God’s chosen people. But CUFI is “the Christian center,” Prager told the crowd.

“There’s nothing wrong with being right-wing, but you’re not,” he said. “In Christendom, you are truly the center. Because there is a right wing that you are fighting just as much [as the left]. … this is Christians united not just for Israel, but for the integrity—‘I’ is for integrity—of Christianity. You are fighting a fight within and without, and God bless you for doing so, because we need you to win. If you lose, it’s over, for the U.S. and for much of the world.”