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Tuesday, Jun. 21 '16, Sivan 15, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. TURKEY, ISRAEL TO AGREE NORMALIZATION DEAL JUNE 26
2. URANIUM DISCOVERED AT PARCHIN COMPLEX TIED TO PAST NUCLEAR WORK
3. DEMANDS FOR NEW INVESTIGATION INTO YITZHAK HERZOG
4. 'WATCH OUT FOR YOUR MOTHERS' AS MISSIONARIES BECOME MORE BOLD
5. ISRAELIS STILL ACCUSE GOV OF CORRUPTION OVER YEMENITE CHILDREN
6. TERRORIST SHOT DEAD FOLLOWING ROCK ATTACK ON ROUTE 443
7. DEAD PALESTINIAN MAY HAVE BEEN 'UNINVOLVED BYSTANDER'
8. PAYING TRIBUTE TO 'THE DOCTOR WHO SAVED THE LIFE OF JERUSALEM'
1. TURKEY, ISRAEL TO AGREE NORMALIZATION DEAL JUNE 26
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Turkey and Israel will this weekend announce a deal on normalizing ties, ending a six-year diplomatic crisis sparked by a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in which 10 Turkish nationals died, a report said Tuesday.
The Hurriyet daily said the two sides would make the announcement during final talks on June 26 after intensive diplomacy resulted in a compromise agreement on the partial lifting of Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Previously tight relations between Israel and key NATO member Turkey were significantly downgraded after Turkish "peace activists" tried to break through the blockade around Gaza and then used weapons stowed on board to attack IDF soldiers attempting to stop their ships.
Nine Islamist activists on board the Turkish-owned Mavi Marmara ferry were killed, with a tenth person later dying of his wounds, sparking a bitter diplomatic crisis.
Two of Turkey's key conditions for normalization - an apology and compensation - were largely met, leaving its third demand, that Israel lift its blockade on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, as the main obstacle.
Under terms of the deal, Israel will allow the completion of a much-needed hospital in Gaza, as well as the construction of a new power station and a sea water distillation plant for drinking water.
Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza in June 2006 after Palestinian terrorists there snatched an Israeli soldier. The restrictions were tightened a year later when Hamas took control of the enclave, but eased significantly following a wave of international outrage over the flotilla carnage.
Meanwhile, Turkey will send aid to Gaza but channel it via the Israeli port of Ashdod rather than sending it directly to Gaza, the paper said.
Ambassadors to return
The announcement would be made after talks between top Turkish Foreign Ministry official Feridun Sinirlioglu and Israel's pointman on Turkish relations, Joseph Ciechanover, it added.
It did not say where the talks would be held.
The two diplomats would then meet again in July to formally sign the agreement after which ambassadors would return to the respective embassies and full ties would be restored.
Haaretz said Israeli and Turkish negotiating teams are to meet in a European capital on June 26 for a decisive round of talks on the reconciliation agreement.
Analysts have said Turkey may pursue a more conciliatory foreign policy following the departure of former prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who spearheaded an aggressive and interventionist strategy.
His successor Binali Yildirim last week said he wanted no permanent tensions with Black Sea and Mediterranean neighbors after serious ruptures not just with Israel but also with Egypt and Russia.
AFP contributed to this report
2. URANIUM DISCOVERED AT PARCHIN COMPLEX TIED TO PAST NUCLEAR WORK
by Ben Ariel
The Obama administration has concluded that uranium particles discovered last year at a secretive Iranian military base likely were tied to the country's past, covert nuclear weapons program, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The findings contradict Tehran's longstanding denials that it was pursuing a nuclear bomb.
Traces of man-made uranium were found at the Parchin facility, southeast of Tehran, by investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, as part of an investigation tied to the landmark nuclear deal reached last July between Iran and global powers, according to WSJ.
The Iranians have claimed that the site was used for developing and testing conventional weapons. The particles were the first physical evidence—on top of satellite imagery and documents from defectors—to support the charge that Iran had been pursuing a bomb there.
The Obama administration did not comment about the uranium in December when the IAEA released its report. In fact the finding got only one brief mention in the 16 pages. But in recent interviews, current and former U.S. officials asked about the uranium finding said the working assumption now is that it is tied to nuclear weapons development that Iran is believed to have pursued more than a decade ago.
"The existence of two particles of uranium there would be consistent with our understanding of the involvement of Parchin in a past weapons program, but by themselves don't definitively prove anything," a senior administration official briefed on the evidence told WSJ.
Other possible explanations—that it was brought in by someone from the outside during the IAEA test, or that it was linked to depleted uranium used in conventional weapons—were plausible but unlikely, U.S. officials said.
Despite Iran's claims that Parchin is unrelated to its nuclear program, it did admit at one point to using Parchin to test exploding bridge wires, used as nuclear detonators.
The IAEA said recently that satellite imagery had shown the presence of vehicles, equipment and probable construction materials at the Parchin site, which American media reported as being suspicious and possible evidence of efforts to disguise past illicit activity.
Iran's UN mission called the reports "baseless", adding that construction work at the military complex, which also includes offices and residential buildings, is "quite normal".
Administration officials said on Monday that the discovery hasn't altered the assessment by U.S. intelligence that Tehran suspended its bomb-making efforts in 2003.
An Iranian government spokesman on Saturday denied uranium had been found at Parchin and said a 2005 report put out by the IAEA found no "unusual activities" at the base. The spokesman didn't comment on the December report, noted WSJ.
The IAEA report came three months after the White House had blocked Republican efforts in Congress to scrap the nuclear deal signed between Iran and Western powers, which rolls back key parts of Iran's nuclear program for a decade or more in exchange for the lifting of most international sanctions.
Critics on Capitol Hill believe the Obama administration played down the extent of Tehran's nuclear work to advance President Barack Obama's signature foreign policy initiative.
They and some U.S. allies, particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia, fear that Tehran could quickly resume nuclear weapons work when the deal expires, or do it covertly.
IAEA officials quoted by WSJ said in interviews that during its investigation, conducted from July through December, Iran didn't allow the agency to interview top nuclear scientists believed to have overseen nuclear weapons development. Iran also claimed that most of the documents amassed by the agency were fakes.
Iran did allow IAEA inspectors to collect soil samples from Parchin in October that were tested for the presence of nuclear materials. The agency found two particles of man-made uranium, despite what the IAEA said was a years long effort by Iran to sanitize Parchin by removing soil and infrastructure, according to UN and U.S. officials briefed on the investigation.
The man-made uranium found at Parchin, which has only low-levels of fissionable isotopes, can be used as a substitute for weapons-grade materials in developing atomic bombs, nuclear experts told WSJ. It can also be used as component in a neutron initiator, a triggering device for a nuclear weapon.
Normally, the IAEA requires additional samples to be taken when there are irregularities found in their tests, such as the presence of man-made uranium, according to former agency officials and other nuclear experts. But under last year's nuclear agreement, Tehran was only required to allow the IAEA's inspectors to visit the Parchin facility once.
The IAEA declined to comment on any efforts to try to visit Parchin again, while the administration has argued that it is more important to put in place a more intrusive IAEA inspections regime under last year's nuclear agreement than to get Iran to confess to its past activities.
"We already know what they did there," said the senior U.S. official. "Going there again would unlikely reveal much else that's new. What's important now is that they can't do it again."
Meanwhile, according to WSJ, the Institute for Science and International Security, a Washington think tank, obtained commercial satellite images of Parchin last month that showed new construction in an area where the explosives testing is believed to have taken place.
David Albright, head of the institute, said the construction would likely "further complicate" efforts to investigate the presence of uranium at the military base.
Obama administration officials confirmed the U.S. government has also seen the new construction at Parchin, but doesn't believe it is related to nuclear work.
3. DEMANDS FOR NEW INVESTIGATION INTO YITZHAK HERZOG
by Shlomo Piotrokovsky
Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, the head of the Otzma Yehudit party, has called on Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to open an investigation into opposition head Yitzhak Herzog (Zionist Union) and his associates.
The demand is based on recent reports of secret negotiations Herzog conducted with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
In his letter, Dr. Ben-Ari wrote, "In the past day it was announced that several people, under the leadership of MK Yitzhak Herzog, Mr. Ephraim Sneh and others, carried out negotiations with Abu Mazen (another name for Abbas). As part of the talks, Mr. Herzog and his companions plotted to give the enemy sections of our homeland, including areas in Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty.
"With this act, Herzog and his associated negotiated with a foreign entity about handing over parts of our homeland and creating a separate country on parts of the State of Israel, all of which is illegal. Criminal law declares that anyone who performs such an act, with the intention of taking land away from Israeli sovereignty or giving land to a foreign country, is liable to the death penalty or life in prison."
Ben-Ari emphasized that "we should not underestimate or dismiss the plot by ascribing it to 'good faith' or a 'political action.' The actions were carried out secretly, without authority and without a political platform to legitimately present it to the public. Ignoring this treacherous crime will make the aforementioned law meaningless and will encourage similar acts of treason."
Earlier on Tuesday, Dr. Ben-Ari said: "We have seen how efficient the Attorney General and investigating bodies are when they are questioning right-wing activists who suggested creating a 'Kingdom of Israel.' We expect that now, when there is a much more serious issue and real action to support our enemy, the Attorney General will act at least as seriously.
"The legislature was designed precisely for incidents such as this and we must apply the law in order to stop the harm to the country," he added.
4. 'WATCH OUT FOR YOUR MOTHERS' AS MISSIONARIES BECOME MORE BOLD
by Eliran Aharon
Bentzi Gopstein, the head of the anti-assimilation organization Lehava, successfully stopped Christian missionaries from holding a mass conversion ceremony in Rishon Leziyon on Saturday.
"My family and I, together with 50 Lehava activists from across the country, spent Shabbat in Rishon Leziyon. We walked about 40 minutes to the cultural center where one of the worst missionary cults was holding its ceremony," he told Arutz Sheva.
"We set up for prayers at 8:30 a.m. with all of the city's official rabbis and Yad L'achim," he said, referring to the Jewish counter-missionary organization. "More than a thousand people were there. But we didn't settle for prayers alone - that is to say, if we hadn't come there would have been prayers on one side and the missionaries on the other. We came to ensure that the event would not take place.
"We entered the hall, the police kicked us out, and we entered again. At the same time, we closed off all the entrances so that no one could get in. In response, the district police commander decided to close the event. That's how the ceremony was canceled."
According to Gopstein, "The interesting, sad and dangerous thing is that during the activities we met six women who came with their Filipino caretakers in order to convert to Christianity. One caretaker promised her charge medicine in exchange, one elderly woman was told that it was an event with Tzipi Livni. This needs to be investigated. How can these caretakers take Jewish women for Christian baptisms?"
So what can be done? Gopstein says that people need to think carefully. "There are missionaries with lots of money and tools that they may be providing for the caretakers. My wife wrote a post on Facebook called "Watch Out for Your Mothers." Up till now, we thought that we only need to watch out for our daughters - now you need to be careful about who is treating your mother, to make sure that she doesn't do anything except provide medical care."
5. ISRAELIS STILL ACCUSE GOV OF CORRUPTION OVER YEMENITE CHILDREN
by Shlomo Piotrokovsky
Sixty percent of the Israeli public believes that the current political establishment is purposefully concealing the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Yemenite children.
The data comes from a new survey by the Midgam Institute, conducted by Dr. Mina Tzemach and the Knesset Channel.
Between 1948 and 1954 hundreds of babies and toddlers of Yemenite parents disappeared. Most cases occurred in hospitals, when new parents were told that their baby had died but were not given any more information. Advocates for the Yemenite community insist that the government gave or sold the children to Ashkenazi families, as part of a secret campaign to forcibly assimilate the fiercely traditional, religious Yemenite Jews into secular Israeli society.
However, government officials insist the reason for the disappearances is less sinister. They claim the babies in question either died at birth or were stillborn, and the rudimentary conditions of the Israeli health system, overwhelmed by an influx of immigrants, simply neglected to inform the parents of their babies' deaths.
According to the study, only 16 percent of Israelis do not believe that the government is hiding information. The remaining 24 percent gave no answer.
Following the decision to keep the protocol dealing with the Yemenite children classified, 90 percent of the public wants to compel the government to release the protocol.
Only five percent of respondees believed the level of secrecy was justified and should be left in place.
6. TERRORIST SHOT DEAD FOLLOWING ROCK ATTACK ON ROUTE 443
by Ben Ariel
Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian Arab and seriously wounded two others near the village of Beit Ur overnight Monday, Palestinian security officials told AFP.
They said the dead man was Mahmoud Badran, 20, and added Israeli liaison officials told them soldiers opened fire at the three as they hurled rocks at traffic on a nearby Israeli highway.
The army said it was looking into the incident, which could be related to a rock throwing incident on Route 443 earlier.
Several vehicles were damaged and two drivers were lightly injured by glass from shattered windscreens as Palestinians threw bottles and rocks at traffic on the busy highway.
Route 443 has been continuously targeted by terrorists, particularly during the latest terror wave which began before Rosh Hashanah.
Police presence along the highway and the surrounding area was heightened last year to counter the growing terror threat along the road, which integrates Israeli and Palestinian drivers despite being in a critical area of Israel, between Modi'in and Jerusalem.
7. DEAD PALESTINIAN MAY HAVE BEEN 'UNINVOLVED BYSTANDER'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
A group of Palestinians shot overnight, one of them fatally, after throwing rocks, may have been "uninvolved bystanders," the IDF said Tuesday.
"From initial inquiry, it appears uninvolved bystanders were mistakenly hit during the pursuit," an army spokeswoman said.
Asked by AFP whether that included the person killed, she said yes, as well as those wounded. The spokeswoman said the circumstances were being investigated.
Official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the person killed was Mahmoud Rafat Badran, 15.
The Israeli army had earlier said that troops shot two men "after a number of Palestinians hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at moving vehicles near the village of Beit Sira on route 443".
It also said that two suspects had been arrested.
Israeli media reported that several vehicles had been damaged and two drivers lightly injured by glass from shattered windscreens when Palestinians threw bottles and stones at traffic.
AFP contributed to this report
8. PAYING TRIBUTE TO 'THE DOCTOR WHO SAVED THE LIFE OF JERUSALEM'
by Yoni Kempinski and Ari Soffer
[youtube:2016374]
Among the countless human rights causes supported by Jewish philanthropist Dr. Irving Moskowitz, Jerusalem always figured high on his agenda.
Determined to return lands and properties seized from Jews by Arabs in the eternal Jewish capital, Moskowitz was a key donor to organizations who do just that.
During his funeral Monday, Jerusalem activists lauded his immense contributions to the cause of Jerusalem.
Among them were Mati Dan and Daniel Luria, the Director and Executive Director of the Ateret Cohanim organization.
In his eulogy in Hebrew and English, Dan recounted how Dr. Moskowitz first came to support the Jewish revival in Jerusalem.
[youtube:2016378]
"You told me 'I was head of the JNF United States - nobody told me we can redeem the Old City!' And from that time I had the privilege... of working with you.
"You told me; 'My dream is to redeem the whole Old City.'"
Speaking to Arutz Sheva during the funeral procession, Luria emphasized Moskowitz's lasting legacy in the Israeli capital.
[youtube:2016379]
"He's not gone. What will give all of us comfort is the knowledge that someone with passion and drive and determination - and maybe some money - can change the face of Jerusalem.
"He was not just a person with some money... some people refer to him as the prince of Jerusalem... Every stone, every building, every old yeshiva was part of his fiber."
Western Wall Heritage Foundation Director Mordechai (Suli) Eliav, echoed those feelings in his eulogy, describing "a special man."
[youtube:2016384]
"He was a man of vision with a big heart. He loved the Jewish people with every bone in his body, and he loved Jerusalem with all of his heart. I really feel luck to have known him."
David (Davidele) Be'eri, Chairman of the City of David Foundation, hailed Dr. Moskowitz as "the only doctor that saved the life of Jerusalem."
[youtube:2016382]
He credited Moskowitz with saving the project to rebuild the ancient heart of Jerusalem, hailing him as someone combined idealism, faith and vision.
Jerusalem councilman Arieh King, who heads the Israel Land Fund, described the elderly philanthropist as his adoptive grandfather, who nurtured his project to save Jewish lands in Jerusalem and throughout Israel.
"Any time I knew I could call you to talk about anything - and especially about Jerusalem."
[youtube:2016381]
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