Pelosi: Boehner invite to Netanyahu inappropriate

‘Israel knew who was traveling in Syria convoy’

Kuwaiti paper A Rai reports that the assassination of Revolutionary Guards general Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was not unintended nor accidental but followed intense intelligence gathering and careful planning.

The paper reports Israel intended to kill Allahdadi on Syrian soil and also wanted to kill Muhammad Ahmed Issa, for his intention to establish fortified attack positions in the Syrian Golan.

Quoting unnamed sources, A Rai says that Israeli intelligence knew the identities of the people traveling in the convoy a full 90 minutes before the strike, and that their communications were electronically monitored. “Talk in Israel [denying the assassination] is an attempt to bury its head in the sand. Israel knew well who was in the car, having monitored communications.”

Officially Israel did not confirm any involvement in the attack, in which 11 people were killed beside Allahdadi.

Germany arrests 2 suspected IS members

German police arrest two suspected members of Islamic State who had returned from Syria and searches their homes, authorities say.

The two German nationals, identified as Mustafa C., 26, and 27-year-old Sebastian B., were detained on charges of having joined a foreign terror organization, the federal prosecutor’s office says.

It says there was no indication the two were involved in planning an attack in Germany.

— AFP

13 killed in attack by Assad forces in Homs

Thirteen people are killed by barrel bombs dropped from helicopters in Homs, Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

According to the NGO, the attack, by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, also kills two infants.

— AFP

US envoy to Iraq says 6,000 IS men killed

“More than half” of the leadership of Islamic State were killed in coalition airstrikes, US Ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones tells Al Arabiya network.

The airstrikes have a “devastating” effect and “have now killed more than 6,000 ISIS fighters in Syria and Iraq,” Jones says.

The US ambassador also tells the network that airstrikes have “destroyed more than a thousand of ISIS vehicles inside Iraq.”

Saudi Arabia to postpone blogger’s flogging

Rights group Amnesty International says that Saudi Arabia would postpone the flogging of blogger Raef Badawi, whose case has sparked international criticism, for a second week on medical grounds.

“The planned flogging of Raef Badawi will be suspended this Friday after a medical committee assessed that he should not undergo a second round of lashes on health grounds,” the London-based watchdog says in a statement.

He has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes for insulting Islam and is serving a 10-year jail sentence.

Badawi, 30, received the first 50 lashes of his sentence outside a mosque in the Red Sea city of Jeddah on January 9.

— AFP

’Israeli aircraft hovering in Lebanon’s sky’

Israeli intelligence aircraft have been hovering since the early morning hours in Lebanon’s sky, Israel Radio quotes Lebanese TV station Al Mustakbal as reporting.

An Al Arabiya reporter says the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL have been conducting joint patrols along the border with Israel. The LAF established new roadblocks near the border, mainly near Israel’s Metula and the northern village of Ghajar, the reporter says.

An Israeli army UAV landing in an airfield, in the Golan Heights, on January 20, 2015 (photo credit: Jack Guez/AFP)

Nisman did not kill himself, says Kirchner

Argentinean President Cristina Kirchner says prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead of a gunshot to the head in his home Sunday, did not commit suicide.

— AFP

People hold placards that read ‘Justice’ during a rally in front of the headquarters of the AMIA (Argentine Israelite Mutual Association), in Buenos Aires on January 21, 2015. (photo credit: Alejandro Pagni/AFP)

‘Zionist Camp’ is misleading term – Shoval

Former Im Tirzu leader and current Jewish Home candidate Ronen Shoval appeals to the head of the Central Election Committee, Judge Salim Jubran, seeking to prohibit the joint Labor-Hatnua list from using the name The Zionist Camp.

Shoval says in his appeal some comments by leaders Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni are anti-Zionist and therefore using the name violates an existing law that forbids parties from running under names that may mislead the public.

“If Hanin Zoabi runs under a slogan of ‘Supporting IDF soldiers’ this will be disqualified, and the same should be done for the list of Herzog, Tzipi [Livni], [Labor MKs] Merav Michaeli, Yossi Yona, Stav Shaffir and their colleagues. One must tell the public the truth and truth will prevail, that’s how it is in a democracy, even if it’s not always pleasant for the left to hear,” Shoval says.

Jewish Home candidate Ronen Shoval and his wife seen as they arrive to cast their vote during the party’s preliminary elections, in Jerusalem, on January 14, 2014. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Kirchner says Nisman didn’t kill himself

President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner writes on the death of AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman: “The suicide which – I am sure – was not a suicide.”

“Nisman’s report ‘was planted’ with false information,” writes Kirchner. His accusation “not only crumbles, but it becomes a real political and judicial scandal. Prosecutor Nisman did not know that the intelligence agents that he listed as such, were not [really intelligence agents].”

The “real move against the government was the prosecutor’s death,” writes the Argentinean president: “They used him while he was alive and then they needed him dead. It is that sad and terrible.”

Kirchner hints that former Intelligence chief Stiusso may be behind misleading Nisman in his investigation: “If Stiusso was the one feeding Nisman with all the information, it is more than evident that it was Stiusso himself who told him (or wrote to him?) that Bogado and Yrimia were Intelligence agents.”

Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner speaking on October 1, 2014. (screen capture: YouTube/AFP News Agency)

Well, it fell… so we glued it back on

The blue and gold braided beard on the burial mask of famed pharaoh Tutankhamun was hastily glued back on with epoxy, damaging the relic further after it was apparently knocked about during cleaning, conservators at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo said Wednesday.

The museum is one of the city’s main tourist sites, but in some areas, ancient wooden sarcophagi lie unprotected from the public, while pharaonic burial shrouds mounted on walls crumble behind open panels of glass. Tutankhamun’s mask, over 3,300 years old, and other contents of his tomb are its top exhibits.

Three of the museum’s conservators reached by telephone gave differing accounts of when the incident occurred last year, and whether the beard was knocked off by accident while the mask’s case was being cleaned, or was removed because it was loose.

— AP

Mask of Tutankhamun’s mummy at The Egyptian Museum. (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA Bjørn Christian Tørrissen)

Mossad denies it advised against more Iran sanctions

The Mossad takes the unusual step of making a public statement, saying it did not oppose levying further sanctions on Iran, Yedioth Ahronoth reports.

Earlier, Bloomberg reported that the Mossad opposes further American sanctions against Iran, seemingly in contradiction to the stance of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was expected to push the point in an address he would make at the US Congress after he was invited to speak there.

In his State of the Union address, US President Barack Obama said he would veto any further sanctions should Congress decide upon them.

“Mossad head Tamir Pardo met on January 19, 2015, with a delegation of US senators, at the request of the senators and following approval from the prime minister. Unlike what has been reported, the Mossad head emphasized during the meeting the extraordinary effectiveness of sanctions in bringing Iran to the negotiating table [regarding its nuclear program],” the Mossad statement reads.

‘Iran’s Shahab missiles can reach Israel’

The deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hussain Salami, says that his country’s Shahab missiles can reach Israel, and that Israel should expect “a forceful response” to killing the Iranian general on Sunday.

Official Israel did not confirm its involvement in the strike, in which six Hezbollah members and six Iranian soldiers were killed.

Army now openly increasing presence in north

The IDF is increasing its presence along the northern border of Israel. The military says residents of northern communities will see increased movement of military vehicles on roads and inside communities.

Some soldiers have been deployed inside or around communities, and are intended to intercept any enemy attempts at infiltrating the communities.

IDF forces blocking a road along the border with Lebanon, northern Israel on January 21, 2015. (photo credit: Basal Awidat/Flash90)

Hezbollah chief to address airstrike on Golan

The chief of Lebanon’s Shiite group Hezbollah is to speak next week to react to an Israeli air raid that killed six of his fighters in Syria, the group says.

Hassan Nasrallah, who rarely appears in public for fear of assassination by Israel, “will speak on Friday, January 30 to commemorate the martyrs of Quneitra,” the group’s Al-Manar channel says.

It adds that the comments would be at a “public ceremony,” without giving a venue or timing.

— AFP

PM to address Congress 2 weeks before elections

House Speaker John Boehner tweets that Netanyahu’s speech at Congress will take place on March 3, postponed from February 11, so that the PM can also speak to AIPAC. March 3 is a mere two weeks before Israel’s election

At his request, PM @Netanyahu of #Israel will now address joint mtg of Congress on March 3 so he can attend @AIPAC conference in DC.

— Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) January 22, 2015

NY State Assembly Speaker Silver arrested

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is arrested on corruption charges.

Silver, according to The New York Times, surrendered Thursday to FBI agents for allegedly receiving payments from a law firm, Goldberg & Iryami, without properly disclosing them. The arrest stems from an anti-corruption investigation begun by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2013.

Silver is a Democratic state assemblyman from Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and has earned a reputation as a powerful leader of New York’s Democrats during more than two decades serving as speaker of the Assembly.

Silver was reelected as speaker this month. He is able to serve while under arrest, but would have to resign if convicted.

Silver practices as an attorney outside of his duties as a politician. In 2013, according to the Times, Silver earned a total income of $650,000.

— JTA

Tintin museum cancels Hebdo tribute amid fears

A Belgian museum dedicated to the creator of comic book hero Tintin says that security concerns prompted it to cancel an exhibition honoring the murdered Charlie Hebdo magazine cartoonists.

The museum in Louvain-la-Neuve near Brussels says it took the decision after consulting Wednesday with police who foiled an Islamist plot in Belgium last week, which followed the jihadist attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

“The police presented us with the nature of the potential risks we need to be attentive to,” says Nick Rodwell, director of the museum dedicated to the memory and works of Herge.

— AFP

Is most recent IS video fake?

Experts who have examined the most recent Islamic State video say it is edited and potentially fake, Haaretz reports.

According to the experts, it appears the video was filmed not in sunlight but using spot lighting. Additionally, the wind is seen to move the garments of one of the hostages but not the other.

Indeed, in the still image below, despite the strong sunlight, it seems like the shadows cast by the hostages’ heads on their necks fall in opposite directions.

A capture from the latest IS video shows that the shadow cast by the head on the neck of each hostage falls in an opposite direction. (photo credit: Screen capture)

Ukrainian Jewish businessman found shot dead

A Ukrainian Jewish businessman was shot dead in Lviv.

The body of Felix Vrotslavsky, 56, was found Tuesday on Zelenoy Street, on the city’s southeastern edge. The murder is first reported by the news site zik.ua, citing an unnamed police source. A witness tells police that Vrotslavsky’s body was thrown out of a car at around 8 p.m. that day.

His funeral was scheduled to take place Friday at a local Jewish cemetery, Vrotslavsky’s friend, Meylakh Sheykhet, tells JTA.

Police do not have any suspects in custody. The assailants’ motive was not immediately clear, Sheykhet said.

— JTA

PM invite may hurt ties with US – J Street

J Street head Jeremy Ben Ami tells Channel 2 that Netanyahu’s agreement to speak before Congress “runs the risk” of deeply hurting US-Israel relations.

Asked in an interview whether US House Speaker John Boehner was mistaken to invite Netanyahu without first alerting the White House, and whether Netanyahu was wrong to accept the invitation, Ben Ami says “the strength [of US-Israel relations] has always been in its nonpartisan nature.”

He believes it would have been wiser for the House to invite the prime minister of Israel – whoever it may be – after the Israeli elections.

2 more IS suspects arrested in Germany

German prosecutors say two men who have been under investigation since last year have been arrested on suspicion of membership in the Islamic State group.

Prosecutors said 26-year-old Mustafa C., and 27-year-old Sebastian B., were arrested this morning in raids in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia. Their last names weren’t given in accordance with local privacy laws.

The two Germans are accused of traveling to Syria through Turkey in March and August 2013 where they joined a group known as the Muhajireen Brigade. By the end of 2013, they were suspected of joining IS, undergoing training and providing logistical support during battles.

— AP

Iraq army not ready to face IS – UK’s Hammond

Iraqi forces are not ready to dislodge Islamic State fighters from the country and the world must do more to starve the extremists of money and members, Britain’s foreign minister said Thursday ahead of an anti-IS coalition meeting.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says Iraqi forces are in a “state of disarray” and “it will be months yet before they are ready to start significant combat operations” against the extremists.

Hammond and US Secretary of State John Kerry are meeting officials from 22 countries in London for talks on defeating the militant group, which controls a swath of Iraq and Syria.

A US-led coalition has carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes since August against IS group positions and has sent hundreds of troops to train Iraqi soldiers, but has failed to deliver a decisive blow against the Islamic extremists.

— AP

‘Doomsday Clock’ hand moved 2 minutes forward

Climate change and the danger of nuclear war pose an ever-growing threat to civilization and are bringing the world closer to doomsday, a group of prominent scientists and Nobel laureates said Thursday.

“It is now three minutes to midnight,” said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, as the group moved its symbolic “Doomsday Clock” two minutes forward.

The Doomsday Clock was created in 1947. It has changed 18 times since then, ranging from two minutes to midnight in 1953 to 17 minutes before midnight in 1991.

— AP

Give Iran diplomacy a chance, Europeans urge Congress

Top European diplomats wade into the political fray in Washington over Iran, urging US lawmakers to hold off on new sanctions and pleading for time to allow nuclear talks to succeed.

“Maintaining pressure on Iran through our existing sanctions is essential,” four European foreign policy chiefs warn in a joint op-ed in the Washington Post.

“But introducing new hurdles at this critical stage of the negotiations, including through additional nuclear-related sanctions legislation on Iran, would jeopardize our efforts at a critical juncture.”

— AFP

Members of Congress listen to US President Barack Obama deliver his State of the Union address in the House chamber of the US Capitol January 20, 2015 in Washington, DC. (photo credit: Alex Wong/AFP)

Obama won’t meet Netanyahu in Washington

US President Barack Obama will not meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli leader travels to Washington in March.

Spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan says that in keeping with “long-standing practice and principle,” the president does not meet with heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections. Israel is scheduled to hold elections in mid-March.

Netanyahu will be in Washington in part for a March 3 address to a joint session of Congress. House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu to speak to Congress without consulting the Obama administration.

— AP

Kahlon’s brother involved in corruption probe

Kobi Kahlon, deputy mayor of Jerusalem and brother of Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon, is under an ongoing investigation over allegations of breach of trust.

Kahlon and several others are allegedly involved in an affair that casts a shadow on his time as chairman of the Municipal Committee on Planning and Construction. Allegedly, he helped entrepreneurs receive benefits which contradict the Municipal Construction Plan. The investigation has been ongoing for three years already.

Kulanu said in a statement responding to the publication of the investigation: “Two years ago Kobi was the victim of a blackmail attempt by a police officer, during the Ronel Fisher investigation. Since then Kobi has been serving as a main witness in a different affair regarding the conduct of that same corrupt officer. Kobi was notified that police has closed the case and now we are waiting for the state attorney for the formal closing of the case. Sadly, there are those with vested interests who try to make political use of this in order to hurt the Kulanu party.”

Pelosi: Invite to Netanyahu inappropriate

The leader of the House Democrats says that Republican Speaker John Boehner blundered when he invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress amid sensitive negotiations about Iran’s nuclear program and in the shadow of Israel’s elections.

Nancy Pelosi with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in May 2009 (photo credit: Moshe Milner/GPO/Flash90)

“If that’s the purpose of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s visit two weeks before his own election, right in the midst of our negotiations, I just don’t think it’s appropriate and helpful,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., tells reporters Thursday at her weekly press conference. The March 3 speech, Pelosi suggests, could give Netanyahu a political boost in elections a few weeks later and inflame international talks aimed at stopping Iran’s nuclear program.

“These negotiations have gone on for a long time,” Pelosi adds. “They’re delicate.”

— AP

Threats to female Haredi would-be politicians probed

The State Attorney’s office is examining whether comments by several ultra-Orthodox rabbis warning Haredi women against running for the Knesset in the coming election constitute criminal acts.

Deputy State Attorney Dina Silber asks Central Election Committee head Salim Jubran to pass to the attorney’s office information on such comments so that they can be examined.

Silber says threatening ultra-Orthodox women in an effort to prevent them from running for office is unacceptable, according to Israel Radio.

Jubran says that if an appeal is submitted to him describing incidents similar to what Silber describes in her letter to him, he will not hesitate to act on his authority as head of the committee.

Netanyahu vs. Bahloul: He’s no Zionist

Prime Minister Netanyahu attacks Zuheir Bahloul, a Labor Party candidate and radio and TV personality, over a character witness testimony he once gave praising the family of a man suspected of aiding Hezbollah.

In his testimony, Bahloul distanced himself from the actions of suspect Milad Hatib but said his family did much to increase Jewish-Arab coexistence.

Netanyahu, who usually avoids personal attacks on candidates – especially ones like Bahloul, who is a newcomer and was placed low on the list at number 17 – takes to social media and posts a video clip where he says Bahloul’s testimony was “another piece of evidence on the anti-Zionist nature of the left wing list headed by Tzipi [Livni] and Buji [Isaac Herzog].”

Livni and Herzog merged their respective parties, Hatnua and Labor, to form a new list, which they have dubbed the “Zionist Camp.” Consequently, right-wing attacks on the party in recent weeks have focused on discrediting its Zionist credentials.

The Haifa District Court sentenced Hatib to seven years in jail, after Hatib admitted to passing information on the location of rockets strikes to a Hezbollah agent, as well as on the schedule of a visit by then president Shimon Peres to the northern village of Majd al-Krum.

Bahloul, who testified in Match 2013, expressed his anguish and said: “I was more than shocked when I heard about the defendant. I don’t know if he strayed from the path or shuns his family, but this family is not the one that should have brought the defendant to where he is today. It is unbecoming of a family that brought together Jews and Arabs, really the salt of the Earth.”

Zuheir Bahloul, No. 17 on Labor’s list for the Knesset.
(photo credit: Gili Yaari / FLASH90)

UN holds special session on anti-Semitism

The UN’s General Assembly convenes for its first discussion of a rise in anti-Semitism around the world. Israel initiated the discussion and more than 50 states joined it.

Ambassador Ron Prosor laments that the Jews of Europe again “live in fear,” even after the world vowed “never again” and a mere 70 years after the Holocaust.

French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Levy speaks to the United Nations General Assembly at a meeting devoted to anti-Semitism on January 22, 2015 in New York City. (photo credit: Spencer Platt/AFP)

Prosor accuses some UN delegations of being anti-Semitic. Such delegations use the mask of humanitarian concern and in that guise make anti-Semitic statements, he says.

French man of letters Bernard-Henri Levy says at the discussion that “even if Israel was a country of angels and would already have given the Palestinians a state, the old hatred would not die.”

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power speaks of the fear that some Jews in European countries feel regarding the prospect of wear a kippa in the street, and of the need for soldiers to guard Jewish schools.