Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
Latest news briefs from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Wednesday, September 1, 2004
(JTA) - Israel blames Syria
Israel implicated Syria in Tuesday's double suicide bombing in Beersheba. Syria has continued to offer logistical and financial backing to terrorist organizations operating out of Damascus, a senior military official told Ha'aretz. At least 16 people died in the bombings, the first time Palestinians have succeeded in carrying out such an attack in six months, despite repeated attempts. Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip celebrated the attacks, The Associated Press reported.
Hebron under siege
Israeli troops imposed a closure on the West Bank city of Hebron. The city was home to the two suicide bombers who carried out Tuesday's bus bombings in Beersheba. The army destroyed the home of Ahmed Kawasma, one of the two bombers, and Israeli forces arrested 12 Palestinians in Hebron in connection with the attack, along with several others from the Nablus and Bethlehem areas. The two bombers, both from prominent Hebron families, knew each other for years and reportedly planned the attacks together. Kawasma owned an aluminum products store and Nisim Jabri was a construction worker. The army is likely to focus retaliatory action on Hebron and the Gaza Strip, officials told the Israeli media. Israel also was expected to increase security along the area between the Hebron hills and the Negev, the route the suicide bombers apparently used to reach Beersheba.
(JTA) - Report: Security fence to be cut short
Plans to build the West Bank security barrier to the Dead Sea area appear to have been canceled. Ha'aretz reported that there were no plans for building the fence between the Yatir forest north of Arad and the Dead Sea, despite assessments by defense officials that terrorism would move southward once the fence was completed in central and northern Israel. Mayors and local council heads in the south have written defense officials pleading for the fence to be built in the area.
(JTA) - Jewish students in FSU start school
Thousands of Jewish students started their school year Wednesday in more than 100 Jewish day schools in the former Soviet Union. Two new schools opened this year, one in Poltava, Ukraine, and one in Togliatti, Russia, according to Ohr Avner, a Chabad foundation that runs about two-thirds of all Jewish schools in the region. Fifteen new Chabad-affiliated kindergartens also opened their doors this week. Security was beefed up at many of the Jewish schools in the wake of this week's suicide bombing near a Moscow metro station and a hostage crisis at a school near Chechnya, where armed attackers are holding over 200 pupils hostage.
(JTA) - Israel envoy thanks Uzbek Jews
Israel's new ambassador to Uzbekistan met recently with members of the Jewish community in Tashkent. Ami Mel thanked the Jewish community for the warm welcome he received upon arriving in Uzbekistan. The Israeli Embassy in this Central Asian nation was among the targets hit by Islamist suicide bombers July 30. Four policeman were killed in the triple suicide bombing.
(JTA) - Court: Prisoners must be allowed to meet lawyers
Israel's High Court ruled that preventing security prisoners from meeting with their lawyers is illegal. The ruling, given Wednesday, said prison officials had overstepped their mandate by preventing such meetings. A petition on the matter had been presented to the court by human rights groups.
(JTA) - Home alone
Ariel Sharon's security entourage inadvertently left the prime minister home alone Tuesday, leaving for the Knesset without him. The Israeli prime minister, who had stopped by his official residence in Jerusalem on his way back from his farm in the south of Israel, was left with only one personal bodyguard. It was only when his entourage reached the Knesset that they realized they had left Sharon behind, army radio reported. Security officials told the radio that had the incident taken place anywhere but the official residence, which is heavily fortified with security, a serious breach of security would have occurred.
(JTA) - Soccer date to stay
An international soccer official said an Israeli match scheduled for Rosh Hashanah would not be changed. "We cannot accept when everyone starts using national, religious or political holidays as an argument for rescheduling matches," a UEFA official was quoted as saying. "So now the people in Israel have to decide between synagogue and football." Earlier, Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, had said he would try to change the Sept. 15 date. Maccabi Tel Aviv said it had asked UEFA to change the date, but UEFA said the club had missed a deadline for filing a change request. Maccabi denied that it had missed the deadline.
(JTA) - Strikes disrupt Israeli schools
A strike by teacher assistants and administrative and custodial workers disrupted the first day of school in Israel. The strike especially hurt kindergartens and special needs schools where teacher assistants play a major role. Both kindergartens and special needs schools opened Wednesday, but operated on a partial basis. Parents and volunteers came in to help out in the classrooms.
(JTA) - Gadhafi offers compensation
Muammar Gadhafi promised to compensate Jews who were forced out of Libya. "Any Jew whose home had been taken away has to be compensated or given his home back on the condition that he had not taken away the home of a Palestinian in Palestine," Reuters reported Gadhafi as saying. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced to leave their homes in Arab countries in the wake of Israel's War of Independence in 1948. Arab leaders have never responded to Jewish demands for compensation for lost property and assets. Gadhafi did not specify how much compensation former Libyan Jews could expect. His action seems to be part of recent attempts to consolidate diplomatic gains Gadhafi made since his announcement last December that Libya was abandoning its nuclear weapons programs.
(JTA) - U.S., E.U. condemn attack
The United States and the European Union condemned Tuesday's bus bombings in Beersheba that killed 16 people. "We condemn these kinds of terrorist attacks in the strongest possible terms," said Scott McClellan, President Bush's spokesman. "There is simply no justification for the killing of innocent civilians." The E.U.'s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the attack "seriously undermines all efforts to find a solution to the Middle East conflict." Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom placed the blame on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. P.A. officials condemned the bombing.
(JTA) - GOP platform backs Israeli security
The Republican Party Platform dedicates over 500 words to support for Israel. The platform commits the party to maintaining Israel's "qualitative edge in defensive technology over any potential adversaries" and reiterates President Bush's rejection of a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and his endorsement of some Israeli claims in the West Bank. It also praises Bush's condemnations of anti-Semitism. Elsewhere, the platform calls for bans on partial birth abortion and expanded stem cell research and supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
(JTA) - Hanegbi resigns, temporarily
Israel's minister of internal security quit his post until a criminal probe against him is over. Tzachi Hanegbi's temporary resignation came Tuesday after Attorney General Menachem Mazuz elected to investigate allegations that Hanegbi made illegal political appointments while he was environment minister from 2001 to 2003. Mazuz has also decided to investigate other senior civil servants in connection with the appointments. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accepted the resignation of Hanegbi, who will serve as minister without portfolio during the investigation.
(JTA) - IBM wants to block Gypsies' lawsuit
IBM asked a Swiss court to block a lawsuit claiming the country's punch-card machine helped the Nazis murder Gypsies. The lawsuit, filed by a Gypsy group, follows a 2001 book by Edwin Black arguing that the punch cards helped the Nazis make their killing operation more efficient. IBM says its German subsidiary was taken over by the Nazis before World War II and that it had no control over how IBM machines were used by the Nazis.
(JTA) - Iranian athlete gets paid for boycott
Iranian officials reportedly awarded $120,000 to an athlete who refused to compete against an Israeli in the Olympics. The amount given over the weekend to Arash Miresmaeli was equal to what he would have received for winning a gold medal. "Miresmaeli's act was extremely valuable, and therefore we are awarding him the gold medalist award," Mohsen Mehralizadeh was quoted as saying in the Iranian media. Miresmaeli officially failed to make weight for his judo bout against Ehud Vaks at the Athens Games, but most observers believe that was just a cover.
(JTA) - Europeans celebrate Jewish culture
Lectures, exhibitions and performances in two dozen countries will mark the fifth annual European Day of Jewish Culture on Sunday. The theme of this year's observance is Judaism and Education. B'nai B'rith Europe, the European Council of Jewish Communities and the Spanish Route of Judaism are coordinating the day. Locally, Jewish associations as well as history groups, tourist boards, municipalities, museums and individuals have mobilized more than 10,000 volunteers and staff members to organize events. Last year some 120,000 visitors attended. JTA END
(JTA) - Israel blames Syria
Israel implicated Syria in Tuesday's double suicide bombing in Beersheba. Syria has continued to offer logistical and financial backing to terrorist organizations operating out of Damascus, a senior military official told Ha'aretz. At least 16 people died in the bombings, the first time Palestinians have succeeded in carrying out such an attack in six months, despite repeated attempts. Thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip celebrated the attacks, The Associated Press reported.
Hebron under siege
Israeli troops imposed a closure on the West Bank city of Hebron. The city was home to the two suicide bombers who carried out Tuesday's bus bombings in Beersheba. The army destroyed the home of Ahmed Kawasma, one of the two bombers, and Israeli forces arrested 12 Palestinians in Hebron in connection with the attack, along with several others from the Nablus and Bethlehem areas. The two bombers, both from prominent Hebron families, knew each other for years and reportedly planned the attacks together. Kawasma owned an aluminum products store and Nisim Jabri was a construction worker. The army is likely to focus retaliatory action on Hebron and the Gaza Strip, officials told the Israeli media. Israel also was expected to increase security along the area between the Hebron hills and the Negev, the route the suicide bombers apparently used to reach Beersheba.
(JTA) - Report: Security fence to be cut short
Plans to build the West Bank security barrier to the Dead Sea area appear to have been canceled. Ha'aretz reported that there were no plans for building the fence between the Yatir forest north of Arad and the Dead Sea, despite assessments by defense officials that terrorism would move southward once the fence was completed in central and northern Israel. Mayors and local council heads in the south have written defense officials pleading for the fence to be built in the area.
(JTA) - Jewish students in FSU start school
Thousands of Jewish students started their school year Wednesday in more than 100 Jewish day schools in the former Soviet Union. Two new schools opened this year, one in Poltava, Ukraine, and one in Togliatti, Russia, according to Ohr Avner, a Chabad foundation that runs about two-thirds of all Jewish schools in the region. Fifteen new Chabad-affiliated kindergartens also opened their doors this week. Security was beefed up at many of the Jewish schools in the wake of this week's suicide bombing near a Moscow metro station and a hostage crisis at a school near Chechnya, where armed attackers are holding over 200 pupils hostage.
(JTA) - Israel envoy thanks Uzbek Jews
Israel's new ambassador to Uzbekistan met recently with members of the Jewish community in Tashkent. Ami Mel thanked the Jewish community for the warm welcome he received upon arriving in Uzbekistan. The Israeli Embassy in this Central Asian nation was among the targets hit by Islamist suicide bombers July 30. Four policeman were killed in the triple suicide bombing.
(JTA) - Court: Prisoners must be allowed to meet lawyers
Israel's High Court ruled that preventing security prisoners from meeting with their lawyers is illegal. The ruling, given Wednesday, said prison officials had overstepped their mandate by preventing such meetings. A petition on the matter had been presented to the court by human rights groups.
(JTA) - Home alone
Ariel Sharon's security entourage inadvertently left the prime minister home alone Tuesday, leaving for the Knesset without him. The Israeli prime minister, who had stopped by his official residence in Jerusalem on his way back from his farm in the south of Israel, was left with only one personal bodyguard. It was only when his entourage reached the Knesset that they realized they had left Sharon behind, army radio reported. Security officials told the radio that had the incident taken place anywhere but the official residence, which is heavily fortified with security, a serious breach of security would have occurred.
(JTA) - Soccer date to stay
An international soccer official said an Israeli match scheduled for Rosh Hashanah would not be changed. "We cannot accept when everyone starts using national, religious or political holidays as an argument for rescheduling matches," a UEFA official was quoted as saying. "So now the people in Israel have to decide between synagogue and football." Earlier, Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, had said he would try to change the Sept. 15 date. Maccabi Tel Aviv said it had asked UEFA to change the date, but UEFA said the club had missed a deadline for filing a change request. Maccabi denied that it had missed the deadline.
(JTA) - Strikes disrupt Israeli schools
A strike by teacher assistants and administrative and custodial workers disrupted the first day of school in Israel. The strike especially hurt kindergartens and special needs schools where teacher assistants play a major role. Both kindergartens and special needs schools opened Wednesday, but operated on a partial basis. Parents and volunteers came in to help out in the classrooms.
(JTA) - Gadhafi offers compensation
Muammar Gadhafi promised to compensate Jews who were forced out of Libya. "Any Jew whose home had been taken away has to be compensated or given his home back on the condition that he had not taken away the home of a Palestinian in Palestine," Reuters reported Gadhafi as saying. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced to leave their homes in Arab countries in the wake of Israel's War of Independence in 1948. Arab leaders have never responded to Jewish demands for compensation for lost property and assets. Gadhafi did not specify how much compensation former Libyan Jews could expect. His action seems to be part of recent attempts to consolidate diplomatic gains Gadhafi made since his announcement last December that Libya was abandoning its nuclear weapons programs.
(JTA) - U.S., E.U. condemn attack
The United States and the European Union condemned Tuesday's bus bombings in Beersheba that killed 16 people. "We condemn these kinds of terrorist attacks in the strongest possible terms," said Scott McClellan, President Bush's spokesman. "There is simply no justification for the killing of innocent civilians." The E.U.'s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the attack "seriously undermines all efforts to find a solution to the Middle East conflict." Hamas claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom placed the blame on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. P.A. officials condemned the bombing.
(JTA) - GOP platform backs Israeli security
The Republican Party Platform dedicates over 500 words to support for Israel. The platform commits the party to maintaining Israel's "qualitative edge in defensive technology over any potential adversaries" and reiterates President Bush's rejection of a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees and his endorsement of some Israeli claims in the West Bank. It also praises Bush's condemnations of anti-Semitism. Elsewhere, the platform calls for bans on partial birth abortion and expanded stem cell research and supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
(JTA) - Hanegbi resigns, temporarily
Israel's minister of internal security quit his post until a criminal probe against him is over. Tzachi Hanegbi's temporary resignation came Tuesday after Attorney General Menachem Mazuz elected to investigate allegations that Hanegbi made illegal political appointments while he was environment minister from 2001 to 2003. Mazuz has also decided to investigate other senior civil servants in connection with the appointments. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accepted the resignation of Hanegbi, who will serve as minister without portfolio during the investigation.
(JTA) - IBM wants to block Gypsies' lawsuit
IBM asked a Swiss court to block a lawsuit claiming the country's punch-card machine helped the Nazis murder Gypsies. The lawsuit, filed by a Gypsy group, follows a 2001 book by Edwin Black arguing that the punch cards helped the Nazis make their killing operation more efficient. IBM says its German subsidiary was taken over by the Nazis before World War II and that it had no control over how IBM machines were used by the Nazis.
(JTA) - Iranian athlete gets paid for boycott
Iranian officials reportedly awarded $120,000 to an athlete who refused to compete against an Israeli in the Olympics. The amount given over the weekend to Arash Miresmaeli was equal to what he would have received for winning a gold medal. "Miresmaeli's act was extremely valuable, and therefore we are awarding him the gold medalist award," Mohsen Mehralizadeh was quoted as saying in the Iranian media. Miresmaeli officially failed to make weight for his judo bout against Ehud Vaks at the Athens Games, but most observers believe that was just a cover.
(JTA) - Europeans celebrate Jewish culture
Lectures, exhibitions and performances in two dozen countries will mark the fifth annual European Day of Jewish Culture on Sunday. The theme of this year's observance is Judaism and Education. B'nai B'rith Europe, the European Council of Jewish Communities and the Spanish Route of Judaism are coordinating the day. Locally, Jewish associations as well as history groups, tourist boards, municipalities, museums and individuals have mobilized more than 10,000 volunteers and staff members to organize events. Last year some 120,000 visitors attended. JTA END
 |
||
| Jews helping to rebuild after Hurricane Charley |
Article Rating
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of clevelandjewishnews.com.
You must register with a valid email to post comments. Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments. Registration is free.
Registered users sign in here: |
Become a Registered User |
