IDF to fly Romania victims home
By YAAKOV KATZ JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
07/29/2010 00:26
Army sources: Accident was likely due to human error.
BOBOC, Romania - IDF search and rescue teams succeeded on Wednesday in retrieving the bodies of the six Israel Air Force servicemen killed in the helicopter crash this week in central Romania.
IDF sources said that based on the evidence at the site, the crash was likely the result of human error and that the heavy fog and poor weather on Monday caused the helicopter to fly into a cliff.
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The IDF delegation, which set up a forensics lab at a Romanian Air Force base here, worked throughout Wednesday to identify the body parts and was preparing to hold a ceremony on Thursday before lifting off for Israel.
The delegation consists of forensic experts and officers from the Chaplains Corps who are equipped with files on the fallen servicemen, including fingerprints, dental records and other markings that can be used in confirming the identities of the bodies.
Three IAF helicopters carrying about 60 soldiers from the air force's search-and-rescue unit 669, officers and dogs from the Oketz canine unit, and Medical Corps representatives flew early on Tuesday morning to the Carpathian Mountains. Due to the tough terrain, the soldiers landed on a mountain 3 km. from the crash site and went the rest of the way on foot.
"The wreckage is scattered over a large area," a senior IDF officer told The Jerusalem Post.
"The teams at the site worked to collect the remains and pieces of the wreckage that are required for the air force's investigation into what caused the crash."
On Thursday, following a short ceremony at the air force base here, the IDF will load thecoffins of the servicemen onto a Hercules transport aircraft and fly them back to Israel for burial.
IAF commander Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan said on Wednesday that the Israeli pilots who crashed had been on their first flight in the area as part of the Blue Sky 2010 joint training exercise with the Romanian Air Force.
Three pairs of helicopters participated in that particular exercise.
The aircraft that crashed was the leader of the first pair. Shortly before the accident, the pilots on both helicopters noticed that they were approaching a cloud and, in line with procedures, began moving away from one another. The second helicopter succeeded in getting away from the cloud, but the lead helicopter hit the cliff.
Nehushtan defended the IAF's safety regulations and said there were about 1.5 accidents per every 1,000 flight hours, on par with the most advanced air forces in the world. The IAF succeeded in maintaining the ratio despite the dramatic increase in operations and training flights in recent years, he said.
"The helicopter fleet does things that cannot be spoken about, in places far away, at night and without knowing what weather they will encounter," Nehushtan said.
"The only thing that pilots have is confidence in their capabilities, which are based on experience and expertise. A pilot is like a surgeon.
If he hasn't trained in two years, his experience is irrelevant."
Also on Wednesday, President Shimon Peres asked hundreds of people at Beit Hanassi to stand in memory of the IAF crash victims.
Speaking at the annual awards ceremony for the Council for a Beautiful Israel, the president said, "We have lost six of our finest sons, six of the most beautiful of our people. Israel is not beautiful without the beauty of the Israelis themselves. The army is the most treasured asset of the Jewish people, and our sons who fought and fell are the greatest treasures of the army and of us all. Our hearts are with the families, with the parents who have lost beloved sons, with the grieving wives, one of whom is pregnant, and with the young children who have been orphaned."
One of Peres's sons served in the air force.
The president conveyed Israel's condolences to those mourning Romanian airman Capt. Stefan Dragnea, who was also killed in the crash.
"Every pilot who gets into a helicopter is aware of both the mission and the risk," Peres said.
"There are nations that have not known war, but we, a stubborn people, have fought seven wars, and we were able to withstand them, to maintain our traditions and honor our sons."
Greer Fay Cashman contributed to this report.
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Synagogue in Maryland Vandalized
by Elad Benari
A synagogue in Olney, Maryland was vandalized earlier this week.
Parents who arrived to drop off their children at B'Nai Shalom Synagogue's summer day camp on Monday morning discovered that anti-Semitic words and symbols, including swastikas and the words "Arbeit Macht Frei" (work will set you free, the same words that were on the sign above the Auschwitz concentration camp) and "Juden raus" (Jews out), were spray-painted along the building.
A pile of coins was left at the door of the synagogue, possibly to indicate that Jews are money hungry .Two homes in the vicinity were also spray-painted with swastikas.
Synagogue Rabbi Ari Sunshine said during an interview with NBC News that he did not immediately have the graffiti painted over so that his congregants could see what had happened: "If we just cover over the words and the symbols and get rid of it in the next hour or two hours, without a chance for people to come together and work at that and symbolically stand together as we remove these words, then a great teaching opportunity will have been lost."
Community President Debbie Kovalsky said during an interview with community publication ‘Gazette.net' that the damage is "heart wrenching to see. The fact that someone out there is knowledgeable about this kind of hate, this is more upsetting than some teenager with spray-paint… We will heal, but this should not be tolerated in any community."
The vandals have not yet been caught. Montgomery County police are investigating the attack as a hate crime.
This is the second crime against a synagogue in the past week. On Friday, an explosion hit the Jewish synagogue in Malmo, Sweden, shattering three window panes but causing no injuries. This followed another explosion in the same synagogue two weeks earlier, again without injuries.
The number of anti-Semitic incidents around the world has risen over the last year to troubling numbers. According to a report published in April by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University, 2009 was the worst in terms of anti-Semitism. In the United States 116 anti-Semitic incidents were recorded, up from 98 in 2008.
In Sweden, 79 anti-Semitic crimes were reported in 2009 in Malmo alone. The continued anti-Semitic acts have caused many Jews to flee the town.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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House Republicans Giving Green Light for Israeli Strike on Iran
by Gil Ronen
Nearly one third of the Republican congressmen in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a resolution that would support Israel's right to use "all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran", including military force.
The resolution was introduced by Rep. Louie Gohmert [R-Texas] and 46 co-sponsors.
House Resolution 1553 "condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its threats of ‘annihilating' the United States and the State of Israel, for its continued support of international terrorism, and for its incitement of genocide of the Israeli people."
It "supports using all means of persuading the Government of Iran to stop building and acquiring nuclear weapons" and pledges that the U.S. will ensure that Israel "continues to receive critical economic and military assistance, including missile defense capabilities, needed to address the threat of Iran."
In addition, it "expresses support for Israel's right to use all means necessary to confront and eliminate nuclear threats posed by Iran, defend Israeli sovereignty, and protect the lives and safety of the Israeli people, including the use of military force if no other peaceful solution can be found within a reasonable time."
Iran lobby alarmed
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a pro-Iranian lobby group, is up in arms over the proposed resolution.
"Obviously we are reaching silly season in Washington with the elections in November," NIAC's founder-president Trita Parsi told RN, a news venue that focuses on Russian issues. He added that "there have already been some signs that Israel is going to be a major element that some Republicans will use to get both voters as well as finance, donations to campaigns, away from the Democrats."
However, Parsi said, "even silly season has real repercussions on the real world." The resolution would send "a dangerous signal" to Israel, that some in congress would welcome military action by it against Iran, while the White House and U.S. military oppose such a strike, he argued.
NIAC's website warned that the "game plan" behind HR 1553 was spelled out earlier this month by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton in the Wall Street Journal, when he wrote: "Having visible congressional support in place at the outset will reassure the Israeli government, which is legitimately concerned about Mr. Obama's likely negative reaction to such an attack."
"The Obama Administration quietly resisted Congressional efforts to pass unilateral economic sanctions for over a year, before ultimately giving in to Congressional pressure," NIAC wrote. "Now that 'crippling' sanctions have been put in place, the far-right wing and Iran-hawks have begun openly advocating for what has always been their ultimate objective: war with Iran."
NIAC warned that an attack on Iran would ignite a regional war that would put the lives of "innocent Americans, Iranians, and Israelis" in harm's way, as well as risking the pro-democracy movement in Iran, U.S. national security and the stability of Iraq and Afghanistan and the global economy, which relies on oil from the Persian Gulf.
NIAC denies allegations that it is used as a tool by the Iranian regime, citing its condemnations of human rights abuses in Iran.
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Waqf Bulldozers on Temple Mount May Be Destroying Jewish History
by Eli Stutz
Jewish residents report that Waqf works at the Dome of the Rock have restarted 'under cover', likely destroying Jewish archaeological artifacts.
Arnon Segal, a resident on the Beit Hoshen neighborhood on the Mount of Olives, told Arutz-7 that there have been changes in the area recently. "We are seven families who have lived here for four and a half years, and we have the privilege to watch over the Temple Mount from a unique angle. Unfortunately, the sights we have seen in the past two weeks have caused us great frustration."
Segal said that Waqf attempts to conceal the work but that it is not hard to see what is happening these days on the Temple Mount. "The Waqf works are constant, we see tractors going to and fro carrying earth. The work is taking place near the Dome of the Rock, exactly in the place between where our Holy Temple's courtyard and the Altar used to stand. The Waqf claims they are doing pavement work there, or so they advertise in the news sites, but in practice they surrounded themselves in white burlap and we see there is scaffolding. I suppose that for paving works there should be no need for scaffolding."
Segal expressed concern that the truth behind the work is a continuation of the Islamic movement's effort to destroy and erase the Jewish history of the Temple Mount. "There's probably something much more invasive here. You must understand that when you do pavement work in such a place near the Dome of the Rock, at the elevation where our Holy Temple once stood, you don't have to dig too deep to reach the ancient artifacts that have not been touched for years. They want to destroy the ancient evidence of Jewish history there, and this has already been done in the past. Many times archaeological remains were discovered in garbage piles and no one was arrested."
(IsraelNationalNews.com)
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Israel's first female Arab combat soldier
Cpl. Elinor Joseph, a young Christian Arab woman from northern Israel, has won herself a place in a respected infantry unit, making her Israel's first ever female Arab combat soldier.
Joseph will serve as a combat medic in the Karakal Battalion, after more than a year of battling misconceptions that she was too weak for such a position.
Joseph originally did not plan to enlist in the IDF. Arab citizens of Israel are not required to enlist due to the societal difficulties that serving in the Jewish state's army can cause. But some choose to enlist anyway. Joseph's father was one of them, and she remembered the great sense of pride and accomplishment that his years as an Israeli paratrooper had given him and the whole family.
So, despite the fierce objections of her friends and many others in her local community, Joseph decided to enlist. "I believe in what I am doing," she told the IDF Spokesman's Unit. "My parents also are very proud of me, maybe a little bit too much."
Although she had always intended to be a combat soldier, the recruitment officer she first met with told Joseph she was too small and frail to be in such a unit. Upset, but not discouraged, Joseph aced a medic's course and was then deployed to one of the many checkpoints between Samaria (the so-called "West Bank") and Israel proper.
While there, Joseph earned the respect of her Jewish comrades. She also rebuffed international accusations that Palestinian Arabs are routinely abused at such checkpoints, noting that the treatment of Palestinians by the soldiers she was stationed with was "always full of respect."
After a year of proving herself at the checkpoint, Joseph applied to join Karakal and was accepted.
She said it can be surreal serving in such an intense position as an Arab in the army of the Jewish state, especially during training and briefings that so heavily emphasize Jewish morals and methods.
"I know I am part of the Jewish State's army, and therefore, when we speak about that, I listen and learn. I got used to it and I respect it, although I do not delve too much into the country's identity. I have my own identity and I will respect that of the country."
That attitude has been mutual. Despite being "different" than most of the soldiers around her, Joseph says she has "always been respected - not just me, but also my customs and my religion."
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Israel Denies Claims Jordan River is Polluted
Video
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/July/Israel-Denies-Claims-Jordan-River-is-Polluted/
Israel is rejecting charges that part of the Jordan River is polluted and unsafe for baptisms.
Each year, nearly 100,000 Christians visit the baptism site known as Qasr el-Yahud.
But now, the environmental group, Friends of the Earth-Middle East, claims the site where Jesus is said to have baptized John the Baptist has been polluted by sewage from Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.
On Tuesday, the Israeli government said the pollution levels are less than a tenth of the accepted standard, meaning the river is perfectly safe.
Meanwhile, Israel is building sewage treatment plants to end the flow of Israeli waste into the river. They're expected to be ready by next year.
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Italian Legislators to EU: Add IHH to Terror List
JERUSALEM, Israel - A group of Italian legislators want the European Union to add IHH, the Turkish humanitarian aid organization, to its list of terrorist groups.
"The Islamic fundamental nature of IHH has been documented by numerous declarations praising martyrdom and Israel's destruction," Italian legislator Flamma Nirenstein, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
"Several investigations and reports testify to the involvement of IHH in global terrorism," Nirenstein said.
"And many videos and documents attest to its jihadist attitude," which fit the EU's criteria for "participation in the activities of a terrorist group, including by funding its activities or supplying material resources," she said.
In the legislators' petition to parliament, they cite IHH's links to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, vis-Ã -vis the Union of Good, which the U.S. Treasury lists as a terror-funding group.
"The Turkish organization IHH one of the promoters of the Mavi Marmara and responsible for its violent implications," Nirenstein said.
The IHH recruited around 40 Islamists to travel on board the Turkish-owned vessel, which sought to breech Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip at the end of May.
When Israeli Navy commandos attempted to board the ship, the Islamists attacked them with stun grenades, metal pipes, chains and knives. In the end, the soldiers were given permission to use their handguns in self-defense. Nine pro-Palestinian activists were killed in the fracas.
A group of U.S. senators has also recommended adding IHH to America's list of terrorist organizations, and Germany recently banned the group.
Nirenstein, a member of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, serves as vice president of the National Affairs Committee in the Chamber of Deputies, where she heads a subcommittee that tracks anti-Semitic incidents.
The Jerusalem Post contributed to this report.
