Be’ersheva home destroyed by powerful Gaza rocket, family miraculously saved
The mother woke the children and evacuated them to the home’s bomb shelter just seconds before the medium-range grad rocket smashed the house deep inside Israeli territory.
(October 17, 2018 / JNS) A medium-range grad rocket fired by Hamas destroyed a home in Be’ersheva, Israel’s third largest city, deep inside Israeli territory.
The Red Alert warning system was activated at 3:39am in Be’ersheva and the surrounding Negev communities, with residents throughout the area scrambling for shelter. A 39-year-old mother and her three children ages 9, 10, and 12 were treated for shock after the rocket scored a direct hit on their family home. After hearing the warning siren, the mother woke the children and evacuated them to the home’s bomb shelter just seconds before the rocket smashed the house. The family was extracted by police and firefighters were called to the scene, where they started to disconnect power sources and neutralize other risks.
Israeli Air Force fighter jets smashed 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror targets in response, including underground and undersea terror tunnels, rocket manufacturing sites, and Hamas military bases. The IDF also fired on a terror cell which was in the process of launching additional rockets at Israel. Three Gazans were reported wounded.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Manelis said the retaliatory attacks will continue. He noted that the Iron Done missile-defense system failed to stop the medium-range rocket in this case.
The Be’ersheva municipality and the Sdot Negev Regional Council ordered schools closed for the day.
An Egyptian delegation arrived in Gaza on Tuesday to attempt to negotiate a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, with Egypt’s head of intelligence expected in Israel on Thursday. Following the attack, a Security Cabinet meeting on the topic of the ceasefire was postponed.
Hamas and Islamic Jihad released a joint statement saying they “oppose rocket fire that hurts the efforts to lift the siege,” but did not deny taking part in Wednesday’s launch.
In the wake of the attack, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot cut short a trip to the United States and Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the closure of the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings, and shortened Gaza’s fishing zone to three nautical miles.
Mike Pompeo Meets Saudi King Over Khashoggi’s Disappearance
Istanbul – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met on Tuesday with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman over the disappearance and alleged slaying of Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who vanished two weeks ago during a visit to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Pompeo’s arrival came hours after a Turkish forensics team finished a search inside the consulate. Police planned a second search, this one of the Saudi consul’s home in Istanbul, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official said.
Turkish officials say they fear Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the Istanbul consulate. Saudi officials previously have called the allegations “baseless,” but reports in U.S. media on Tuesday suggested the kingdom may acknowledge the writer was killed there.
Pompeo landed in Riyadh on Tuesday morning and was welcomed by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir on landing. He didn’t make any remarks to the media.
Soon after, Pompeo arrived at a royal palace, where King Salman greeted him. America’s top diplomat thanked the king “for accepting my visit on behalf of President (Donald) Trump” before going into a closed-door meeting.
Trump had dispatched Pompeo to speak to the monarch of the world’s top oil exporter over Khashoggi’s disappearance. Trump, after speaking on Monday with King Salman, said without offering evidence that the slaying could have been carried out by “rogue killers.” That potentially offers the U.S.-allied kingdom a possible path out of a global diplomatic firestorm.
“The king firmly denied any knowledge of it,” Trump told reporters Monday. “It sounded to me like maybe these could have been rogue killers. I mean, who knows? We’re going to try getting to the bottom of it very soon, but his was a flat denial.”
However, left unsaid was the fact that any decision in the ultraconservative kingdom rests solely with the ruling Al Saud family. Pompeo also was to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whom Khashoggi wrote critically about for The Washington Post and whose rise to power prompted the writer to go into a self-imposed exile in the United States.
“The effort behind the scenes is focused on avoiding a diplomatic crisis between the two countries and has succeeded in finding a pathway to deescalate tensions,” said Ayham Kamel, the head of the Eurasia Group’s Mideast and North African practice. “Riyadh will have to provide some explanation of the journalist’s disappearance, but in a manner that distances the leadership from any claim that a decision was made at senior levels to assassinate the prominent journalist.”
CNN reported that the Saudis were going to admit the killing happened but deny the king or crown prince had ordered it — which does not match what analysts and experts know about the kingdom’s inner workings.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 16, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis/Pool
The New York Times reported that the Saudi royal court would suggest that an official within the kingdom’s intelligence services — a friend of Prince Mohammed — had carried out the killing. According to that reported claim, the crown prince had approved an interrogation or rendition of Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia, but the intelligence official was tragically incompetent as he eagerly sought to prove himself. Both reports cited anonymous people said to be familiar with the Saudi plans.
Saudi officials have not answered repeated requests for comment over recent days from The Associated Press.
Saudi officials have been in and out of the building since Khashoggi’s disappearance Oct. 2 without being stopped. Under the Vienna Convention, diplomatic posts are technically foreign soil that must be protected and respected by host countries.
Turkey has wanted to search the consulate for days. Permission apparently came after a late Sunday night call between King Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In statements after the call, both praised the creation of a joint Saudi-Turkish probe.
The Turkish inspection team included a prosecutor, a deputy prosecutor, anti-terror police and forensic experts, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Certain areas of the consulate were to remain off-limits, although officials would be able to inspect surveillance cameras, Turkish media reported.
What evidence Turkish officials gathered at the consulate remains unknown, though Erdogan told journalists on Tuesday that police sought traces of “toxic materials,” without elaborating. Turkey’s private DHA news agency said the Saudi consul’s office was among the rooms searched.
On Tuesday, a Turkish Foreign Ministry official acknowledged police want to search the Saudi consul’s home as well. Surveillance footage previously leaked in Turkish media shows vehicles moving between the consulate and the consul’s home immediately after Khashoggi’s disappearance.
The Foreign Ministry official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations.
Khashoggi has written extensively for the Post about Saudi Arabia, criticizing its war in Yemen, its recent diplomatic spat with Canada and its arrest of women’s rights activists after the lifting of a driving ban for women. Those policies are all seen as initiatives of Prince Mohammed, the son of King Salman, who is next in line to the throne.
Prince Mohammed has aggressively pitched the kingdom as a destination for foreign investment. But Khashoggi’s disappearance has led several business leaders and media outlets to back out of the upcoming investment conference in Riyadh, called the Future Investment Initiative.
They include the CEO of Uber, a company in which Saudi Arabia has invested billions of dollars; billionaire Richard Branson; JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon; and Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford.
Trump previously warned of “severe punishment” for the kingdom if it was found to be involved in Khashoggi’s disappearance, which has spooked investors in Saudi Arabia and SoftBank, a Japanese firm that manages tens of billions of dollars for the kingdom.
Trump’s warning drew an angry response Sunday from Saudi Arabia and its state-linked media, including a suggestion that Riyadh could wield its oil production as a weapon. The U.S. president has been after King Salman and OPEC to boost production for weeks to drive down high crude oil prices, caused in part by the coming re-imposition of oil sanctions on Iran after the U.S. withdrawal from that’s country’s nuclear deal with world powers.
YERUSHALAYIM – Israeli forces on Tuesday morning hit a group of Gaza Arab terrorists who were about to send off terror balloons at Israeli farms and forests in the south of the country. This was the third time in three days that Israel targeted terror balloon gangs. Israeli planes hit the area where the gangs were operating, causing them to run away. Gaza sources said that there were no injuries in the incident.
Despite that attack, several terror balloons were found in areas near the Gaza border fence Tuesday morning. Bomb squad workers defused the explosives that were attached to the balloons before they could explode.
On Monday night, Israeli planes hit a Hamas outpost near the Gaza border fence after two terrorists approached the fence, with the apparent intent of breaching it. The terrorists planted a bomb at the fence, which exploded, damaging the fence. The incident came in the wake of major riots, with thousands of Gaza Arabs massing along the fence, throwing rocks and firebombs at Israeli forces, who responded with anti-riot measures. Gaza sources said that 19 people were injured in the rioting.
On Monday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that he saw “no chance” for a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. “In my opinion as Defense Minister, we must impose the hardest blow we are able to against Hamas, even if it means all-out war,” Liberman said. “We have to hit them and make them hurt.” With that, Yediot Acharonot reported, the Security Cabinet decided to hold off on any increased action against Gaza for the next several days, to give UN and Egyptian negotiators a chance to revive the ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas.
Several months ago, third-party sponsored talks were going on between Israel and Hamas about the possibility of a long-term ceasefire. Under the deal, Israel would relax its sanctions on Hamas and allow more goods into Gaza, as well as more freedom of movement for Gaza residents. In return, Hamas would halt its Gaza border riots, end its campaign of balloon and kite terror attacks, and enter into serious talks that would result in the return home of Israelis held by the terror group.
Those indirect talks were sponsored by Egypt and U.N. officials, and had been conducted in earnest until before Rosh Hashanah. They were halted for a week for a Muslim festival but have not restarted, mostly due to opposition to the impending deal by Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority. Since the talks, Hamas has increased its aggression against Israel.
Michigan lecture comparing Netanyahu to Hitler included odious anti-Semitic image
“These images come from the playbook of Hitler and Goebbels. They invoke the most classical—and most genocidal—anti-Semitic conspiracy theories,” said University of Michigan student Alexa Smith.
(October 16, 2018 / JNS) A lecture at the University of Michigan several weeks ago that consisted of a slide comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler included another anti-Semitic image, JNS has learned.
Student Alexa Smith captured the images from the slideshow, given by former Black Panther leader Emory Douglas, and posted them on social media.
“Israel was not singled out here as imagery critical of many other political leaders was also a part of the talk,” he continued. “This was the point of the talk itself—that imagery can be a powerful component of movements aimed at social justice.”
Schlissel response evoked a strong reaction from Smith.
“It is perverse and profoundly offensive for President Schlissel to play down the seriousness of our community’s concerns by declaring that the slide equating the Prime Minister of Israel to Hitler was ‘one of nearly 200 slides’ as if, in context, this was ‘no big deal,’ ” said Smith.
“President Schlissel is not recognizing the unequivocally anti-Semitic content of this entire lecture, or the effect it had and continues to have on U-M’s Jewish students, some of whom were REQUIRED [emphasis hers] to sit through it in order to obtain our degrees,” continued Smith.
“President Schlissel said the ‘point of the talk itself’ was ‘that imagery can be a powerful component of movements aimed at social justice,’ ” she added. “Perhaps he has forgotten that imagery can also be a powerful component of mass genocide. The lecture dehumanized an entire people and, in the context of other incidents happening on this campus, it must be considered one of many examples of a hostile and unsafe environment for my classmates and me.”
Israel has exhausted its options in trying to reach a deal with Hamas and a military strike against the terror organization is required in order to put a stop to months of violence, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Tuesday during a tour of the Gaza Belt with senior IDF commanders.
“Everyone understands that the situation today cannot continue. We cannot accept violence week after week. The Defense Ministry used kiddy gloves before the violence began, including with international organizations,” said Liberman, “We have exhausted all of our options,” he added.
According to Liberman, he became convinced of the futility of trying to reach a deal with Hamas after it responded violently to a humanitarian gesture by Israel last week, when it allowed trucks of Qatari funded fuel to enter the Gaza strip, and Hamas’ political leader stated that they won’t stop the riots.
“The change came last Friday. We allowed tanks of diesel to enter Gaza and, in return, we are facing the kind of violence that we have not seen in a long time,” he said. “We also saw Haniyeh saying: ‘Diesel and salaries are not going to stop the violence until the blockade is lifted.”
Heartfelt donation brings a cutting-edge cardiac center to Jerusalem
With some of the most advanced medical technology, the Irma and Paul Milstein Heart Center is dedicated at Hadassah Ein Kerem
By TOI STAFF Today, 7:54 pm
A $10 million heart center at Hadassah’s Ein Kerem medical campus is doubling the Jerusalem hospital’s capacity to treat cardiac patients.
Inaugurated on October 12, the Irma and Paul Milstein Heart Center occupies the entire third floor of the Sarah Wetsman Davidson Hospital Tower, and will add 11 intensive-care private rooms, along with dozens of additional beds in the cardiac ward.
The center is a boon for the capital city, whose population has grown by over 100,000 in the last decade alone.
According to Prof. Chaim Lotan, director of the Heart Institute at Hadassah Medical Organization, the new facilities “catapult us 50 years ahead.”
“Several decades ago we established the most advanced cardiac intensive care unit in Israel. This new heart center covers more than four times the space of our previous department,” said Lotan.
The 4,500 square meter (roughly 48,500 square feet) center includes “four of the most advanced catheterization labs in the world – and another two are planned. An additional catheterization lab will operate at Hadassah Mount Scopus to prevent the need to transfer patients to Ein Kerem,” Lotan said.
The Irma and Paul Milstein Heart Center also boasts a direct passageway that conveys heart attack victims directly to the catheterization labs without stopping for processing in the emergency room.
Hadassah Hospital’s general director Prof. Zeev Rotstein said the comprehensive heart center at Hadassah “provides a full response to all types of heart disease, whether it is invasive, minimally invasive, and complex heart surgery.”
“The innovative center and its experts make Hadassah a world leader in treating such an important organ as the heart. I would like to thank the generous donors, the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization and all those who helped us reach this point,” Rotstein said.
Dedicating the new heart center to his parents, American entrepreneur and real estate developer Howard Milstein praised Hadassah for uniting people across the racial, cultural, and religious spectrum.
“My father, Paul, may he rest in peace, and my mother, Irma, saw Hadassah’s mission statement as the highest expression of the founding ideals of the State of Israel — to forge ‘links between patients of all nationalities, races and religions who come to its doors for healing,’” Milstein said in front of an audience that included Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman and national president of Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America Ellen Hershkin.
“Here at Hadassah, all patients — Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Druse, secular and religious — get dignified care from a top flight team of equally diverse medical workers. As such, Hadassah is also a bridge to peace. If you need proof of that, look no further than the Syrian children who, in the midst of a horrific humanitarian crisis, have been brought to Hadassah for treatment of congenital heart defects,” Milstein said.
Milstein attended the dedication ceremony with his wife, Abby Milstein, along with a large delegation of American Hadassah supporters and Israeli leaders in the health field.
The Milstein family are no strangers to Hadassah.
“Irma Milstein, a dedicated member of Hadassah Women, personally chose to support and advance cardiology,” said Hadassah president Ellen Hershkin. “Irma knows that by improving the medical methods and facilities, the excellent physicians at Hadassah will continue to improve research and treatment in the field.”
The Milstein family has long been a patron of the fields of health and medicine. Its $10 million contribution through the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America enabled the establishment of the center. In addition, the family supports education, the arts and scientific research, including the Milstein Building at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
In his speech, Howard Milstein noted that most of the family’s support went towards US-based institutions. Hadassah Medical Center, he said, was an exception due to “Hadassah’s own dedication to patient-centered care and high impact medical research.”
“Hadassah research has yielded world-renowned, riveting breakthroughs, which we admire from afar, in New York,” Milstein said. “Immunotherapy for advanced melanoma; gene therapy to replace failing heart cells; regenerative medicine. Cutting edge treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and other chronic illnesses.”
On Friday, the family took an in-depth tour of the center.
“It contains some of the most modern equipment on the planet,” Milstein said. “They don’t even have these machines in New York yet – or anywhere else – and the directors had to sign non-disclosure agreements when they looked at them with the manufacturer.”
The center houses giant high resolution screens connected to imaging equipment which display all of the patient’s vital data at once. Additionally, the catheterization labs include a room that operates a bi-plane system that uses two cameras simultaneously to provide three-dimensional imaging of the heart.“
Our experts use these imagines in real time for maximum accuracy,” said Lotan. “In a hybrid room, we can switch from catheterization to open heart surgery if necessary without moving the patient and losing valuable time. The 2019 dual-camera system is among the first installed in the world. There are inner-aortal cameras and numerous other technological advances that were considered science fiction not long ago.”
1,000 passengers, crew narrowly escaped death after Air Canada flight came within feet of crashing into taxiway in 2017, report says.
Arutz Sheva Staff, 15/10/18 09:38
The crew of an Air Canada flight which attempted to land at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) last year narrowly avoided what could have been the worst aviation crash in history, a new report by American air safety officials claims.
On the night of July 7th, 2017, an Air Canada flight which had been cleared to land on an SFO runway missed the runway designated by the air control tower, before the crew attempted to land on a jet taxi lane they mistook for the runway.
According to a newly-released report by the American National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Air Canada flight was about to land on the taxiway, and came within just 59 feet (18 meters) of the ground before the pilots realized their mistake and pulled up.
Had the crew not pulled up when they did, the report says, it would have likely resulted in the worst aviation disaster in history.
Four planes carrying crew members and passengers were sitting on the taxiway at the time of the near miss, investigators said, and the Air Canada flight barely managed to pull up in time to miss the planes on the taxiway.
“Only a few feet of separation prevented this from possibly becoming the worst aviation accident in history,” said NTSB vice-chairman Bruce Landsberg.
Russian Jewish leader, assistant hospitalized when package bomb explodes in office.
JTA, 15/10/18 16:52
A Russian Jewish leader and his assistant were hospitalized after a package sent by mail exploded in his office.
The package exploded early Monday morning in the office of Mikhail Skoblionok in Kazan in Russia’s Tatarsan region, Radio Free Europe reported.
Skoblionok is president of the Jewish Cultural Autonomy, a local organization he has led since 2008.
He and his assistant were hospitalized with burns and eye injuries, according to the report. It is not yet clear whether the attack was criminally motivated, or a hate crime. It is being investigated as an attempted murder, the regional branch of the Investigative Committee said.
Skoblionok also goes by the last name Abramovich, according to a statement from the World Jewish Congress.
“I was shocked and horrified to hear about today’s explosion targeting the head of the Jewish community in Kazan, Russia. I wish to extend my best wishes to Mr. Abramovich and his family and hope for a speedy recovery,” WJC CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer said in a statement. “I have known Mr. Abramovich for more than 25 years, and have seen that the rebirth and well-being of his community was, and is, in large extent due to his personal involvement. We fully trust that the local authorities are doing all in their power to investigate and ensure that the perpetrators behind this evil and sickening act are brought to justice as soon as possible.”
Famous Nazi hunter couple receives top French honors
Beate Kuenzel, the daughter of a former German soldier, met Serge, a Romanian-born Jew, and together decided to bring fugitive Nazis to justice; Serge received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, while his wife Beate received the National Order of Merit.
France’s most famous Nazi hunters, Serge Klarsfeld and his German wife Beate, received top honors in a ceremony led by French President Emmanuel Macron this week.
Serge Klarsfeld, 83, received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award, while the 79-year-old Beate Klarsfeld received the National Order of Merit, having already been decorated with the Legion of Honor in 2014, with the rank of Grand Officer.
Born September 17, 1935, in the Romanian capital Bucharest, Serge Klarsfeld escaped the Holocaust after his family moved to France but saw his father taken away to die in the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp.
He was naturalized in 1950, and 10 years later, while studying at the prestigious Science-Po university in Paris, Klarsfled met Beate Kuenzel, the daughter of a former German soldier, on a metro platform.
The two, who married three years later, decided to bring fugitive Nazis to justice, a mission they pursued for more than half a century.
The Chief Rabbi of France, Haim Korsia, was among those who attended the ceremony at the Elysee Palace limited to family and close friends and associates.
n one of their most high-profile cases, the Klarsfelds found the notorious Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, a former Gestapo officer known as the “Butcher of Lyon” for his wartime torture of prisoners, who had escaped to South America.
The couple in 1979; Famous for locating the notorious Nazi criminal Klaus Barbie
In 1971, the Klarsfelds revealed that Barbie was living in Bolivia, and in 1983 he was extradited to France. Four years later he was convicted in a trial, and later died behind bars.
They also pursued members of France’s collaborationist Vichy regime, including Rene Bouquet, Jean Leguay and Marice Papon—despite obstruction from president Francois Mitterrand.
Mitterrand’s successor Jacques Chirac finally recognized France’s role in the deportations, a declaration Serge Klarsfeld said owed much to his and Beate’s campaigning. “Neither could have succeeded without the other,” their daughter Lida once said.
Greg Joseph has just arrived in Cleveland, and already things have gotten off on the right foot.
BY MORDECHAI LIGHTSTONE
(October 14, 2018 / Chabad.org/News)
Greg Joseph has just arrived in Cleveland, and already things have gotten off on the right foot. The new placekicker for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns scored his a first career game-winning field goal last week with just two seconds left in overtime against the Baltimore Ravens.
Earlier that day, he had made plans to put up a mezuzah at his new home with Chabad Rabbi Yossi Freedman after the game, and the two posed for a picture after it was affixed. Freedman later shared it on Facebook with the caption “A win is a win is a … mezuzah! Congrats to the #Browns and Greg on their win—welcome to Cleveland!”
The mezuzah isn’t Joseph’s first Jewish deed since signing with the Browns on Sept. 18. He was sure to join Rabbi Yossi and Chaya Freedman at Chabad of Downtown Cleveland for Kol Nidre on Yom Kippur. Chabad of Downtown Cleveland was started in 2011 to serve the needs of Cleveland’s growing community of young professionals.
Joseph’s faith has “absolutely” guided him during his life and career, and he can’t wait to get out into the Cleveland community and give back as much as he can, he told the Cleveland Jewish News. “It’s a virtue close to my heart, since my mom kind of instilled that in me from a young age,” he said.
Joseph got in contact with the Freedmans soon after moving to Cleveland, after Rabbi Yossi Denburg of Chabad of Boca Raton, Fla., put them in touch. The rookie player isn’t the only member of his family to enjoy a warm relationship with Chabad emissaries. His parents, Glen and Ilana Joseph, attended the Sydenham Shul, led by Rabbi Yossy Goldman in Johannesburg, South Africa, and connected with the Denburgs in Boca when they moved to Florida 17 years ago. Joseph’s two other brothers attend Chabad at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
In the meantime, Joseph’s mitzvah has already inspired other young Jews in the area. Freedman has received a spate of requests for mezuzahs since posting the picture on Facebook.
As Freedman puts it: “You never know how many people you can impact by helping someone else do a single mitzvah.”
