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1. Israel Cannot Depend on UN Forces For Security
by Chana Ya'ar 
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Russia’s President Vladimir Putin over the weekend that Israel will hold its fire against Syria – as long as Syria holds its fire against Israel. In a statement at the opening of the government’s regular Sunday morning Cabinet meeting Netanyahu said he had discussed the situation with Putin in a phone conversation, warning him that “the situation is becoming daily more complex. “Only last week, we saw battles close to our border on the Golan Heights. Israel is not intervening in the Syrian civil war, as long as fire is not being directed at us,” the prime minister said. “The crumbling of the U.N. force on the Golan heights underscores the fact that Israel cannot depend on international forces for its security,” however, he pointed out. “They can be part of the arrangements. They cannot be the basic foundation of Israel’s security.” On another front, Netanyahu added that he would also discuss, once more, the need to jumpstart final status talks with the Palestinian Authority with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, saying that he has already spoken with him about the issue before, and will speak with him about it again. “Together we will try to advance a way to find an opening for negotiations with the Palestinians with the goal of reaching an agreement. This agreement will be based on a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish State, and on solid security arrangements based on the IDF. Netanyahu also noted that the government is changing the date for the conclusion of daylight savings time, and listed the accomplishments already reached thus far in the new coalition’s first few months, such as passing the budget and the ‘Open Skies’ agreement, both controversial pieces of legislation that sparked protests. “I would like to re-emphasize that the citizens of Israel chose us to focus on getting things done, not on petty politics,” he commented with some asperity, “and this we will do.”
Tags: PA ,Golan Heights ,Budget ,Daylight Savings time ,John Kerry ,Vladimir Putin ,Syrian civil war ,UN peacekeepers
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2. New Report Highlights Secretive EU Funding of Anti-Israel NGOs
by Rina Tzvi 
In a new report presented to members of the European Parliament, NGO Monitor details the damaging impact of highly secretive European Union funding for radical political advocacy Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). According to the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, EU funds are going to organizations involved in anti-Israel boycotts and violent demonstrations, which undermine the EU's efforts to secure peace in the Middle East. The report, Lack of Due Diligence and Transparency in European Union Funding for Radical NGOs, shows how EU-funded NGOs lead the campaigns to demonize Israel through the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) - actions that entirely contradict the EU's proclaimed objectives of supporting peace and democratic development. "The EU's grantees are centrally involved in the 2001 Durban NGO Forum's strategy of political warfare and demonization of Israel. The Coalition of Women for Peace (CWP) and its allies are driving Europe's double standards that single-out Israel through product labeling," stated Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. "The EU refusal to release any significant documents that shed light on funding decisions reflects a clear violation of transparency principles, and allows for highly irresponsible EC actions." "The study emphasizes the fundamental damage caused by extreme secrecy and the lack of due diligence in the European Commission's decision-making for funding radical NGOs," continued Steinberg. "The facts clearly demonstrate that either the officials involved were unaware of the groups chosen to receive taxpayer funds, or that they chose to promote NGOs that fuel the conflict and promote confrontation, under the facade of 'non-violence.'" The EU report follows an NGO Monitor report presented in Washington in May on U.S. Government funding for several Middle East political NGOs. On the basis of this publication, members of Congress and U.S. Government officials took action to insure transparency prevent the misallocation of such grants for counterproductive NGOs.
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3. Israel to Re-Engage with UN 'Human Rights' Body
by Rina Tzvi 
Israel has indicated that it is ready to re-engage with the United Nations Human Rights Council, an official said Friday. "The president (of the Human Rights Council) received a letter from Israel this week to express the desire to re-engage discussion to come back to the Human Rights Council," the UN body's spokesman Rolando Gomez told reporters, according to the AFP news agency. Israel's review was now likely to be scheduled for October 29, he added. The letter from Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Eviator Manor, was later released to the media by the council. In the document, dated June 3, Manor said that he intended to continue a "close and fruitful dialogue" with Poland's ambassador, Remigiusz Henczel, who is currently at the helm of the 47-nation rights council. "I wish to cooperate with you and pursue a diplomatic engagement with a view to positively resolve all outstanding issues in Israel's complex relationship with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms," Manor wrote, according to AFP. Israel is not part of the council but, like all 193 U.N. member states, it is required to undergo Universal Periodic Reviews (UPRs) of its human rights situation. However Israel decided to boycott the council last March after it announced that it would probe how Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria may be infringing on Arab rights. The recent incident was merely the latest in the council’s long history of blatant bias and anti-Israel inclinations. Israel has long accused the Human Rights Council of singling it out, noting that it is the only country to have a specific agenda item dedicated to it at every meeting of the council, and that the body has passed an inordinate number of resolutions against it.
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4. Israelis Debate Mandatory Arab Participation in National Service
by Chana Ya'ar 
Israeli lawmakers are continuing to debate the pros and cons of mandatory participation and integration of Israeli Arabs into the National Service program. Israeli Arab Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka (Balad party) for years has attended foreign Arab functions and on occasion represented the Palestinian Authority rather than Israel, whose taxpayers support his salary and whose government he serves. Zahalka recently called on his constituency to oppose any plan to legislate Israeli Arab integration into national service. Deputy Transportation Minister and MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), however, condemned Zahalka for his attitude, saying, “For years Israeli Arabs have been benefitting from state health support, education and social security without contributing to share the burden. “The time has come for them to realize there will be no more taking advantage of the citizens of Israel without participating in national responsibilities.” The issue is one that taps more than just the matter of “sharing the burden,” however. Israeli Arab legislators such as Zahalka have come under increasingly tight scrutiny in recent years as they escalate aggressive rhetoric against the nation in whose parliament they serve. A number have traveled outside the country to hostile enemy nations, in fact, and met with Arab leaders and terrorists committed to the destruction of the State of Israel. Several years ago, the head of Zahalka’s Balad party, Azmi Bishara, fled Israel just prior to being charged with aiding the enemy in wartime during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. As a Knesset member, Bishara had access to highly sensitive information about military and other strategic installations, and was suspected of selling secrets to the Lebanese Hizbullah terror organization. Another member of the Balad party, MK Hanin Zoabi, is also deeply committed to the destruction of the Jewish State. There is video evidence, in fact, showing that Zoabi knew in advance that Turkish men aboard the flotilla ship Mavi Marmara, which attempted to illegally force its way through the IDF naval blockade on the Hamas-run region of Gaza, were planning to attack soldiers. Zoabi was widely criticized for actively participating in that attempt to open the sea to Hamas imports, but she remained in Knesset. She has also met with senior Hamas terrorists and has said that Israel has “no right to a normal life.”
Tags: National service ,Hanin Zoabi ,Balad ,Jamal Zahalka ,Azmi Bishara ,"sharing the burden" "equal burden"
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5. Two Arab Fisherman Detained Off Gaza Coast
by Rina Tzvi 
Two Arab fishermen were detained by the Israeli navy off the coast of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, sources on both sides said on Friday. "The occupation navy boarded a fishing boat off Nuseirat (in central Gaza), arrested the two fishermen and took them to an unknown destination," a source in the Gaza Fishermen's Syndicate told the AFP news agency, referring to Israel. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military responded by saying that, "Two fishermen were outside the authorized fishing zone. They were detained for questioning in the night." Under the terms of a November truce with Hamas that ended eight days of deadly cross-border clashes, Israel agreed to ease its maritime blockade on Gaza to allow fishermen out to six nautical miles instead of the previous three. The navy occasionally temporarily restored the stricter fishing limit in retaliation for rocket fire into Israel from Gaza, in an effort to secure the national security of the Jewish state. According to the latest report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there are some 3,500 registered fishermen in Gaza.
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6. Leftists won't Apologize over Gay Murder Smear
by Gil Ronen 
For four years, leftists blamed the religious sector, and especially hareidim, for the 2009 double murder in Tel Aviv's Barnoar club, which caters to homosexual youths. A gunman opened fire on youths at the club, killing a young man and a young woman, and leaving others crippled. Now, police have arrested four people in connection with the attack. According to leaks, the police have solid evidence that the attack was carried out by a group of young men with criminal backgrounds in revenge for the alleged rape of their relative, a male youth, by the manager of the club. Leftists are in no hurry to apologize for laying the blame at then-Interior Minister Eli Yishai's doorstep, and for assuming that the perpetrators were religious people who hate homosexuals. Meretz head Zehava Galon said that she was “shocked” by allegations that the attack was not a a hate crime. She insisted that the murderers shot club-goers because of their sexual tendencies. She ignored the false accusations over the last four years. "Taking a weapon in your hand and shooting up a place is a hate crime,” she said. “The scene of the crime was an institute of the (gay) community.” MK Nitzan Horwitz also refused to retract the repeated accusations he has made over the years against hareidim regarding the murder, preferring to gloss over his off-the-mark attacks on specific populaiton groups, adding “If this is not a hate crime,” he said, “I do not know what a hate crime is. I do not know what passed through the murderer's mind, but the final result is a very grave hate crime against the gay community.”
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7. Distressed Rabbi: ‘What Have You Done to the Western Wall?’
by Chana Ya'ar 
Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz protested an egalitarian provocation by the Women of the Wall at the Kotel on Sunday morning, pointing to police protection of a women's group creating a provocation at the holy site, in the face of protests by observant worshipers. The site's plaza and its environs were closed off to the general public for a period of time to ensure that the Women of the Wall group would be able to pray undisturbed. But despite the heavy police presence, hundreds of women from the Women for the Wall grassroots group gathered at pray at the Kotel. A protest against the group's presence came in the form of call to leave and song and prayer by men organized by rabbonim over the weekend. A small group of men supporting Women of the Wall was also in attendance and were not allowed to go down to the Kotel, a witness told Arutz Sheva. As a result, the men were unable to read from the Torah, and so they read from their prayer books instead, which they interrupted to sing along with the ladies. "A lot of dialogue took place between supporters of both camps," said the witness, who asked not to be identified. The group was escorted under heavy police guard from the Western Wall Plaza on three Egged buses. Live Stream from the event was provided by Levaya Link - IsraelFuneral.com and powered by Midabrim Communications. Thousands of hareidi-religious men had been urged to respond to a call published in Jewish newspapers for mass prayer at the Western Wall at 6:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. The date falls on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tamuz, and the same time the female secularist worshipers hold their monthly Rosh Chodesh (head of the month) prayer at the holy site. The letter published by a wide range of hareidi-religious groups warned, however, that rabbinic leaders had ruled only married men would be allowed to participate in the rally. No young yeshiva students were to be permitted to attend, in an effort to avoid violence and other provocations. Nevertheless, Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz expressed his own dismay that the women’s group was maintaining its insistence on their right to pray with men's garments, such as talleisim (prayer shawls), tefillin (phylacteries) and yarmulkas (men's head coverings). The group has continued to insist on carrying out these practices and others that are, according to Jewish tradition, performed by men and thus not permitted to women at the holy site. “Why should police have to prevent observant worshipers from entering the Kotel Plaza?” he asked. “How are barricaded restrooms and ritualistic deviations from tradition contributing to the sanctity of this holy site?” Last week both of Israel’s Chief Rabbis – Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger and Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar – received threatening letters warning “If the Women of the Wall are not allowed to pray according to our ways and custom we will fight you with all measures and you will return home with 100 bodies of hareidi-religious Jews.” Included in the letter was a picture of a gun, captioned with, “We will no longer restrain ourselves. We will re-liberate the Western Wall.” Knesset Member Moshe Gafni (UTJ) and Western Wall Rabbi Rabinowitz each also received a similar threat letter. Rabbi Rabinowitz told reporters Sunday morning, “I trust all those involved will soon come to an acceptable compromise based on dialogue and common sense.” Several weeks ago, Jewish Agency director Natan Scharansky suggested a compromise whereby the women's group would be provided with space to carry out their observances in the Kotel area called Robinson's Arch, but following a Jerusalem District Court ruling last month that upheld their right to continue their practices in the women's section of the Kotel plaza, the group rejected the suggestion as "irrelevant."
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8. Netanyahu Denies Danon's Hint He's Bluffing on 2 States
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu denied Saturday that he is only pretending to seek a two-state solution, as Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon hinted broadly in a weekend interview. Danon’s comments “do not represent the position of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the government of Israel,” sources in the Prime Minister's Office told the Times of Israel in response to Danon’s interview, which the same news outlet published Thursday. The sources said that the prime minister “is interested in a resumption of negotiations without preconditions,” and that his positions regarding support for a two-state solution remain in force. “Look at the government: there was never a government discussion, resolution or vote about the two-state solution,” Danon had said. “If you will bring it to a vote in the government — nobody will bring it to a vote, it’s not smart to do it — but if you bring it to a vote, you will see the majority of Likud ministers, along with the Jewish Home [party], will be against it.” Danon said Netanyahu calls for peace talks despite his government’s opposition “because he knows Israel will never arrive at an agreement with the Palestinians,” the Times of Israel said (this phrase is not a quote from Danon, however, but from the reporter's account of what he said). “Today we’re not fighting it [Netanyahu’s declared goal of a Palestinian state],” Danon said, “but if there will be a move to promote a two-state solution, you will see forces blocking it within the party and the government.” The deputy minister said “there is no majority for a two-state solution” among the 31 lawmakers that make up the Likud-Yisrael Beytenu Knesset faction. The Likud party’s central committee passed a motion against the creation of a Palestinian state about 10 years ago, Danon added, and this means that the party legally was bound to oppose the idea of two states for two people. Comment on this story
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