News Digest — 7/17/19
Iran Supreme Leader: Breaking Our Nuclear Commitments Is Just getting Started
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said on Tuesday (16th) in Tehran that Iran continues to reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement and decried the European signatories as “arrogant” for criticizing Iran when they haven’t fulfilled their commitments under the accord.
According to the Iran news site Press TV, Khamenei criticized the Europeans’ “arrogant” approach to the 2015 nuclear deal.
“When it comes to the issues between us and the Europeans, the source of the lingering problems is their arrogance,” Khamenei said.
The Iranian leader said that the UK, France and Germany hadn’t fulfilled any of their 11 commitments under the accord and that Tehran had complied.
“Now that we have begun reducing our commitments, they move forward,” he said. “You cheeky ones! You have not fulfilled your 11 commitments. In response, we have only begun reducing our commitments and this procedure will definitely go on.”
Khamenei also referred to the fact that Iran announced in March that it was going to break a limit set by the accord on the amount of enriched uranium it could hold, a key ingredient in the manufacture of a nuclear bomb. Iran broke the limit in July, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed.
The move was widely seen as an attempt to pressure the Europeans into finding a way around US sanctions against Iran to keep the deal in place. However the EU has struggled to satisfy Iran.
Khamenei also condemned Britain’s seizure of an Iranian supertanker, calling it an act of “piracy” that will not go unanswered.
(presstv.com)
Israeli Teen Injured As Baby By Gaza Rocket Joins Top IDF Commando Unit
A teenager who as a baby was seriously wounded in a rocket strike from Gaza has been accepted to the Israeli army’s counterpart of the Navy Seal unit.
The recruit to Shayetet 13 overcame a crippling disability as a result of sustaining 147 shrapnel injuries to his body at the age of 16 month in 2002, when a Qassam rocket from Gaza exploded in his backyard in Sderot. News reports from that time identify him as Shilo Na’amat.
One of the oldest and most prestigious units in the Israel Defense Forces, Shayetet 13 is considered one of the best special forces outfits in the world. In 2017, it held joint training with the Navy Seals.
Shayetet 13 has participated in some of the Israeli army’s most daring operations, including the transport of Ethiopian Jews from Sudan in the 1980s. It is often employed against Hamas in Gaza.
The handful of recruits accepted each year to Shayetet 13 are subjected to a series of grueling selection camps that most applicants do not pass.
“I simply decided I can do it,” Na’amat said of his road to recovery and decision to join Shayetet 13. “I hope to inspire youth from Sderot, to show that despite what we’ve experienced, we can grow and make dreams come true,” Ynet quoted him as saying Tuesday (16th). He often has indistinct nightmares about sirens, but remembers nothing from the injury.
His parents found Na’amat bloodied with shrapnel pieces in his body in his backyard following the rocket explosion. He still has 60 scars throughout his body from his injuries.
(israelnn.com; ynetnews.com)
Palestinian Authority Honors ‘Martyr’ Who Murdered Father Of 12 And Young Soldier
When Fatah official Abbas Zaki arrived last week at the home of Omar Abu Laila, who murdered two Israelis, he came to convey official recognition for the terrorist as a “heroic martyr.”
In March 2019, Abu Laila fatally shot Rabbi Achiad Ettinger, father of 12, in addition to stabbing to death Israel soldier Gal Keidan.
Abu Laila was subsequently eliminated during a shootout with Israeli soldiers attempting to arrest him.
Since the terrorist’s death the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Fatah have named a street, a square, and a mosque after him, Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported. The PA has also referred to Abu Laila as “more honorable than the rest of us,” deeming him a “perfect human being.”
During Zaki’s visit to the Abu Laila family home last week, he reiterated the PA’s commitment to provide “all forms of aid to the families of the martyrs, the wounded, and the prisoners,” affirming his government’s official policy of furnishing salaries to the perpetrators of terror-related crimes and the families of those who die committing such acts.
Zaki posed for photos with the Abu Laila family holding a poster of the murderer at the site of the new home being built for them after demolition of the previous structure by the IDF, which is standard protocol after attacks such as the one Abu Laila committed.
Under orders from PA Leader Mahmoud Abbas, the PA has rebuilt the houses of other murderers, PMW reported.
(palwatch.org)
French Court Rules Jewish Woman’s Muslim Murderer Not Criminally Liable As He Smoked Pot
On Friday (12th), a judge of inquiry in France ruled that Kobili Traore, 27, is probably not criminally responsible for the brutal murder of his neighbor Dr. Sarah Attal-Halimi, 65, because he had smoked marijuana beforehand.
In the French justice system, a judge of inquiry decides whether indicted defendants should stand trial.
Francis Khalifat, President of Conseil Representatif des Institutions juives de France (CRIF), an umbrella group of French Jewish communities, called the ruling “unsurprising but hardly justifiable,” reported JTA.
CRIF also claimed that the French authorities were hiding the anti-Semitic nature of the murder as part of a “coverup.”
The murder occurred April 4, 2017. Traore, a Muslim, entered the Jewish Halimi’s apartment, beat her and hurled her out the third-floor window.
It was reported that terrified neighbors heard Traore shouting “Allahu Akhbar” and “Shaitan” (Arabic for Satan), along with Halimi’s cries for help.
Relatives of the victim told police that she was scared of Traore as he had previously called her daughter “dirty Jewess.”
In June, Algemeiner reported, “Despite having a previous criminal record and no documented episodes of mental illness, two of the three psychiatric reports on Traore commissioned by the Paris investigative magistrate concluded that he could not be held criminally responsible for Halimi’s death, on the grounds of impaired judgement caused by his chronic consumption of marijuana.”
CRIF and others will appeal the ruling.
France’s Interior Minister Christophe Castaner earlier this year reported a 74% increase in anti-Semitic incidents in 2018 over 2017.
(jta.org; algemeiner.com)
New Oregon Law Makes Holocaust Education Mandatory
The State of Oregon will now require all public school students to study the Holocaust and other acts of genocide, following the signing into law a bill first introduced by a teenager who learned about the Holocaust from a 92-year-old survivor.
On Monday (15th), Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed the bill into law, AP reported, after it passed the state legislature unanimously.
Starting with the 2020-2021 school year, Oregon public schools will be required to include Holocaust education and studies of other genocides in their curricula.
According to the language of the newly-signed law, Oregon public schools must “prepare students to confront the immorality of the Holocaust, genocide, and other acts of mass violence, and to reflect on the causes of related historical events.”
“Today more than ever, we need the learning opportunities that a bill like this will bring to our schools,” said Brown at the signing ceremony Monday (15th).
Oregon is now the12th state in the nation which mandates Holocaust education.
(ap.com; israelnn.com)
