Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday September 5, 2008

Shorts: Mideast

Report: Israel drafting plan to attack Iran

Israel has put plans for a unilateral military strike against Iran into high gear, Israel’s daily Ma’ariv recently reported.

A government committee is preparing a contingency plan to attack Iran, should diplomatic efforts to derail Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program fail, the paper reported.

Ephraim Sneh, a Labor Party politician, has sent an eight-point document to both U.S. presidential candidates, saying, “There is no government in Jerusalem that would ever reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran. When it is clear Iran is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, an Israeli military strike to prevent this will be seriously considered.” — jta

Terrorist: Abbas wanted to meet

Recently released Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar said he met Mahmoud Abbas at the Palestinian Authority president’s request.

Kuntar said in a statement Sept. 2 that Abbas requested the meeting, for which Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rebuked Abbas when the two leaders met Sunday.

Kuntar, who was responsible for the murder of three members of one Israeli family and an Israeli police officer in a 1979 attack, was released from an Israeli prison in July as part of a prisoner swap that repatriated the bodies of two Israeli soldiers. Abbas told Olmert that Kuntar initiated the unplanned meeting. — jta

Aliyah groups agree to collaborate

The Jewish Agency has agreed to an official collaboration on North American aliyah with Nefesh B’Nefesh.

The organizations announced Aug. 31 that Nefesh B’Nefesh will have primary responsibility for marketing and promotion, while the Jewish Agency will remain responsible for determining aliyah eligibility with other authorities in Israel and also will pay the airfare for each new immigrant.

The organizations have been in competition with each other for several years. Future immigrants from the United States and Canada can apply for both Nefesh B’Nefesh services and the Jewish Agency aliyah eligibility process using one application through Nefesh B’Nefesh. — jta

Hamas, Fatah duel over time

Hamas is ending daylight-saving time at midnight Sept. 11 in the Gaza Strip, which it controls — while the West Bank, run by the rival Fatah faction, is waiting until midnight Sept. 14.

The Palestinians have traditionally changed their clocks at different times from Israel in a gesture of independence. Now for the first time, they’re directing the gesture at each other, reflecting the rival claims for power. — ap

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.