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| Wednesday, Apr 24 '13, Iyar 14, 5773 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1. MK Seeks New ‘Open Fire’ Laws in Judea, Samaria
by Maayana Miskin  MK Orit Struk of the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) faction has called to end the wave of property crimes targeting Jewish in Judea and Samaria (Shomron) by giving Israeli farmers in the region leave to open fire on intruders. Elsewhere in Israel farmers are allowed to fire on potentially dangerous intruders under the Dromi Law, named for Negev farmer Shai Dromi. According to Haaretz, Struk is asking that the Dromi Law go into effect in Judea and Samaria as well. The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee reportedly plans to discuss the proposed change in the near future. Struk is also campaigning to apply laws protecting women’s rights in the workplace to Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. In theory, the Dromi Law should apply to Judea and Samaria automatically, due to the fact that it – unlike the law regarding women’s rights in the workplace – is part of the criminal, not civil, legal code. However, in practice, the IDF implies its own restrictive rules regarding opening fire in an attempt to avoid conflict between Israelis and Palestinian Authority resident Arabs. IDF regulations say a gun may be fired in self-defense only in case of an imminent attack with a deadly weapon. The would-be attacker must be actually holding the weapon in order to justify gunfire. Struk was quoted by Haaretz as saying, “The IDF’s open-fire orders say it is permissible to shoot only in case of a definite threat to life. The Dromi Law, on the other hand, determines that a person may drive off – using gunfire – someone who is causing harm to their body or property.” Struk reportedly said that she asked the IDF’s top prosecutor why Israelis and Judea and Samaria are prohibited to use gunfire in cases where Israeli law allows it. “He said that the military commander has the right to forbid what is allowed by law,” she said.
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2. Lapid’s Deputy Slams Hareidi ‘Leeches,’ Apologizes
by Maayana Miskin  Deputy Finance Minister Mickey Levy, of the Yesh Atid party, termed hareidi-religious Jews “leeches” during a radio interview Wednesday morning. While Levy apologized shortly after, he continued to assert that hareidi Jews “live off taxpayers.” Levy made his statement in a live radio interview for the Shmoneh Ad Esser (Eight to Ten) program on the hareidi-religious Kol B’Rama station. Levy called on hareidi Jews to “carry the burden [of IDF service] together, join the workforce, you can’t be leeches on Israeli society, it cannot continue.” Radio host Motti Lavi immediately called Levy out for the insult. “How can you see something like that during a broadcast, aren’t you ashamed?” he asked. Levy said, “I apologize for the word. I’m just saying that you cannot live off of the Israeli taxpayer, off of those who go to the army, who serve the country. You are citizens with equal rights, so let’s have equal obligations.” Lavie continued to express disappointment in Levy’s statements. “I’ve known you for many years. I knew a different Mickey Levy, one who had a talent for understanding hareidi Jews and working with them… You did amazing things in Jerusalem, you know better than I do… You are not the same man!” Levy responded, “My friend, I will explain. I have not changed. My best friends are still members of the Eda Hareidit, I still visit rabbinic leaders and give them my respect. I respect the culture, the tradition. I am from a religious home; I respect this community.” “I’m only saying one thing, ‘Come, join the workforce, because the economy cannot bear this burden anymore.’ The dialogue with this [hareidi] community will continue to be one of friendship,” he concluded.
Tags: Finance Ministry ,anti-hareidi ,Kol Berama ,Yesh Atid ,hareidi-religious community ,Mickey Levy
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3. Report: Boston Suspects’ Mosque has Terror Ties
by Maayana Miskin  The mosque attended by the two suspects in the Boston marathon bombings “has a curriculum that radicalizes people,” according to the interfaith group Americans for Peace and Tolerance. The mosque has reportedly been associated with other suspected terrorists and is affiliated with the controversial Muslim American Society, APT says. Among the former attendees of the mosque, the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Massachusetts, are Aafia Siddiqui, who was arrested for planning a chemical attack on New York City and Tarek Mehanna, who conspired to aid al-Qaeda. The mosque’s first president, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, was jailed in 2004 for his role in a Libyan assassination plot against then-crown prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. APT reports that the Cambridge mosque’s sister mosque in Boston, the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, has hosted speakers who have defended terrorism. A former mosque trustee was seen on video calling on Allah to kill Zionists and Jews, the group says. APT head Charles Jacobs says both mosques teach an anti-Western brand of Islam that includes mistrust of law enforcement and opposition to the American style of government. APT’s director of research, Ilya Feoktistov, said funding for the Boston mosque came primarily from Saudi sources. Yusufi Vali, executive director of the Boston mosque, rejected APT’s accusations. Speaking to USA Today, Vali accused APT of spreading “lies and half-truths in order to attack and marginalize much of the local Muslim community and many of its institutions.” A statement from the Cambridge mosque confirmed that the Boston bombing suspects, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, were “occasional visitors” but said neither expressed radical Islamic views. “They never exhibited any violent sentiments or behaviors. Otherwise, they would have been reported,” said manager Nichole Mossalam. Board of trustees member Anwar Kazmi told USA Today that the mosque condemns the marathon bombings. “This kind of violence, terrorism, it’s just completely contrary to the spirit of Islam,” he said. Comment on this story
4. Eli Weisel at Yiddish Paper’s ‘100 Influential Jews’ Event
 The Yiddish weekly Algemeiner celebrated 40 years in business this week. The paper held an event in New York celebrating its anniversary and its announcement of the “top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life.” Among the figures present at the event was Nobel Prize winner Eli Weisel, who recalled how he assisted in creating the paper decades earlier. Weisel spoke at the event, focusing on the power of words. Weisel spoke to Arutz Sheva, as did Julius Berman, Chairman of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and former Cairman at RIETS, Yeshiva University, and author and television personality Rabbi Shmuely Boteach. The paper’s Top 100 list included millionaire Warren Buffet, musician Matisyahu Miller, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky of Chabad, Chief Rabbi of Russia Rabbi Berel Lazar, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
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5. Iranian Minister: Sanctions Are 'Causing a Lot of Trouble'
by Elad Benari  Iran's Finance Minister, Shamseddin Hosseini, said Tuesday that international sanctions against his country had pushed inflation above 30% and were causing "a lot of trouble", AFP reported. At the same time he stressed that Iran's nuclear drive would not be halted, the report said. Lashing out at measures by the United Nations, United States and European Union, Hosseini said the Iranian economy was increasingly gearing up to produce at home the goods that it cannot import. "We work harder, we work more, we strive much more, we find new ways; we even change trading partners," he told a group of reporters at the Iranian UN mission in New York. The UN Security Council has ordered four rounds of sanctions to back demands that Iran halt its uranium enrichment. Measures by the United States and EU also target Iran's oil exports and central bank activities. Western nations say Iran is hiding efforts to make a nuclear bomb. Iran denies the charge, but refuses to disclose key details to the UN atomic watchdog. "We never have and we never will stop behind the obstacles they create on our path," Hosseini declared, according to AFP. The minister said the sanctions were "quite vast, all-encompassing and political most of all." They cause "quite a lot of trouble, quite a lot of hard work," he added. The minister said Iran's inflation rate was now above 30%, up from an official rate of 21% a year ago. Analysts say the figure is much higher. He said unemployment had fallen from 12.3% a year ago to 12.2%. "The waves of inflation in the last calendar year, we see these being born out of sanctions," Hosseini said. Sanctions on the oil industry and the central bank had produced a "currency shock" and an "overwhelming" increase in prices of imported goods, he said. According to the minister, non-oil exports, including mining, agricultural and industrial products, rose by 20% in 2012 and that imports declined by 14%. "We strive to make up for the decrease in oil exports and trade in general," he said, adding that the government had "no doubt" that the economy had grown in the past year. He said fewer Iranians were travelling abroad. "There is no reason for us to keep throwing outside of Iranian borders the hard earned petro-dollars." Hosseini said that the government had given an extra $2.7 billion dollars worth of cash handouts to needy families at the end of 2012 in a bid to overcome hardships caused by sanctions. Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a rare acknowledgment several months ago of the economic challenges his country is facing. “This was a very difficult year for our economy,” Ahmadinejad said, accusing the United States of using its vast economic might to exert unfair pressure on the much smaller Iranian economy. Ahmadinejad had steadfastly denied that the sanctions are hurting the economy, until Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi broke ranks and admitted that the sanctions have sliced oil exports by 45 percent. A recent report to Congress indicated that Western sanctions on Iran have contributed to a drop in the Islamic Republic's access to global sources of capital last year.
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6. Columbia Professors Against Israel
by Maayana Miskin  Roughly 100 professors and lecturers at Columbia University in New York are demanding that their pension funds not be invested with companies that also do business with the IDF or with civilian security providers in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria (Shomron) or eastern Jerusalem. Professor Katherine Franke of Columbia’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law explained the group’s stance. Franke is also affiliated with the Center for Palestine Studies. The faculty members calling for divestment are seeking to end pension fund involvement with the following companies: Elbit Systems, which sells UAVs to Israel that the boycotters argue are used for “extrajudicial assassinations.” Motorola, which has an Israeli daughter company that develops sensors which are used by Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria to prevent terrorist infiltrations. Veolia transportation, which is involved in building the Jerusalem Light Rail train “which connects the western part of the city to the illegal settlement in eastern Jerusalem,” according to the pro-divestmetn staff. Hewlett-Packard, which operates a system used by the IDF “to limit Palestinian freedom of movement.” Northrop Grumman, which sells airplane and helicopter parts to the IDF. The pro-divestment staff said the parts were used in planes “that Israel used in the Cast Lead operation, which took the lives of more than 1,000 Palestinian civilians.” They are apparently using Hamas’ initial claims regarding the operation’s civilian death toll; the group has since admitted that most of those killed were Hamas fighters. Supporters of the boycott campaign say they are continuing “a rich tradition of protest at Columbia University against racial segregation in the United States and against the apartheid regime in South Africa.” The Columbia University divestment call follows similar actions at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Oxford University. Italian journalist and Arutz Sheva contributor Giulio Meotti wrote last year about the growing wave of anti-Israel boycotts at Western universities.
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7. Soldiers: Hareidi Jews Will be Pleasantly Surprised by IDF
by Maayana Miskin  Ministers on the Committee for Equality in the Burden of Service, a ministerial committee tasked with resolving the complex issue of hareidi-religious army enlistment, met Tuesday with hareidi soldiers. The ministers sat down for an intimate meeting with combat soldiers in the Netzach Yehuda (Nahal Hareidi) and Shachar Kachol brigades. The soldiers discussed their experience as hareidi men in a largely non-hareidi military. There are difficulties, they said. “The sudden, extreme change from our normal lives before the army is a tough transition,” they related. “We came from a background with very clear, firm rules.” Another difficulty is the hareidi-religious community’s stance on military service, particularly now that it has become a front-page issue, they said. “Most of us take off our uniforms before entering our neighborhoods, or hometowns,” one explained. However, soldiers in the Netzach Yehuda brigade said they believe military life is far more friendly to the hareidi-religious lifestyle than most in the hareidi community believe. “It will be hard to convince them [to enlist], but as soon as they are here they will be pleasantly surprised, and they will become ambassadors,” they told the ministers. Committee head Yaakov Perry, the Minister of Science and Technology, said afterward, “I have to admit, I was excited by the conversation with the soldiers from the Netzach Yehuda battalion. They epitomize the connection that we’re aiming for.” “We have a difficult mission, but this is doubtless a historic decision,” Perry added. “Countless people and countless committees have debated this over the past 20 years – the time has come to make a decision.” “I am certain that we will need to get things going, and we will, gradually, while maintaining the value of Torah,” he said. Minister of Culture and Sport Limor Livnat said, “Equal share in the burden [of military service] is a very important principle and goal. Our job is to bring it about without bringing one sector of society to attack the other.”
Tags: Netzach Yehuda Brigade ,hareidi army recruitment ,Equal Burden of Service ,hareidi-religious soldiers ,Yaakov Perry ,Perry Committee
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8. Arab Media Outcry as MKs Weigh Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount
by Maayana Miskin  For years Jews have been allowed to visit the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth according to the Jewish religion, but have not been allowed to pray there. In late 2012 police issued draconian instructions under which Jewish visitors could be arrested for merely appearing to pray. All that may change with MK Miri Regev’s appointment to head the Knesset’s Internal Affairs Committee. Regev (Likud) is planning a trip to the Temple Mount in order to weigh the option of permitting Jewish prayer at the site. In announcing her plans, Regev quoted from the Biblical prophecies of Isaiah, “Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be acceptable upon Mine altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” . Regev’s announcement has caused anger in the Arab media, where several outlets have mistakenly reported that she is planning a visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, located on the Temple Mount, and is planning to allow non-Muslim prayer inside the mosque. One paper cited MK Taleb Abu-Arar of the Ra’am Ta’al party as saying that Regev “is planning a tour for committee members in the Al Aqsa mosque.” Muslim groups in Israel have frequently accused Israel of planning to divide the Temple Mount or torebuild the Temple. The Al-Aqsa Institute previously accused MK Moshe Feiglin of “defiling” the Al Aqsa mosque during a visit to the Temple Mount. Regev has issued a clarification that she is not planning to visit the mosque or to seek to permit Jewish prayer within the mosque. She noted the difference between the Jewish approach of “a house of prayer for all peoples” and the Muslim approach, as described by MK Abu-Arar, prohibiting non-Muslims from praying in the mosque – a difference she termed “interesting.”
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