Jewish & World News

A global Shi’ite terrorism network made up of Iranian Quds Force operatives and Hezbollah continues to target Israelis overseas, the National Security Council’s counterterrorism bureau warned on Wednesday, ahead of the Passover vacation season. Twenty-seven countries have been designated by the bureau as being under a travel alert of varying severity.

President Obama isn't bluffing when he says he'll go to war to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, Vice President Biden told the nation's main pro-Israel lobby on Monday. “We have a shared strategic commitment,” Biden told the annual conference of the American Israel Public Action Committee (AIPAC). “Let me make clear what that commitment is: It is to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, period. End of discussion. Not contain. Prevent.”

Argentina's Congress approved an agreement with Iran to jointly investigate the 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires AMIA Jewish Community Center. The legislative body's Lower House early on Thursday approved the bill establishing the joint program  with 131 votes in favor and 113 against, after 13 hours of debate. The accord was approved last week in the Argentine Congress' Upper House. No single political representative of the main opposition parties voted for the bill, but the government party has its own majority in both chambers.

The Turkish Anatolia News Agency reported Tuesday that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah became ill a few days ago, was admitted to a private hospital in Beirut and later flown to Tehran, this after a number of Lebanese news outlets reported over the past 24 hours that Nasrallah was diagnosed with cancer and is being treated in Iran. The reports have not been confirmed. The Turkish news agency quoted "knowledgeable sources affiliated with Hezbollah" as saying that Nasrallah was flown to Iran after being released from a hospital in south Beirut. His flight left from the Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, they said.

The main purpose of US President Barack Obama's visit to Israel in the spring is to warn Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against attacking Iran, unnamed officials told Army Radio on Sunday. According to the officials, the urgency of the trip is because in his speech to the United Nations in September, Netanyahu had flagged the spring of 2013 as a significant time in the context of the Iranian nuclear threat.

The president of the AMIA Buenos Aires Jewish center said the truth commission agreed to by Argentina and Iran "will allow a third bombing in Argentina." “This pact is viewed by some people as a step forward. This may be a step to the precipice," Guillermo Borger said. "It will allow a very unfortunate third attack.”

Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah are building a network of militias inside Syria to protect their interests in the event that President Bashar regime collapses or is forced to withdraw from Damascus, the Washington Post reported, citing US and Middle Eastern officials. "It's a big operation," a senior Obama administration official was quoted as saying by the newspaper. "The immediate intention seems to be to support the Syrian regime. But it's important for Iran to have a force in Syria that is reliable and can be counted on."

High-ranking Israeli officials met with security officials in India and notified them that Israeli diplomats may be a target for Iranian terror operatives on February 13, the anniversary of the 2012 attack on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi, The Times of India reported Thursday. The meeting took place on the backdrop of reports about an alleged Israeli Air Force strike in Syria. Iran threatened before that it would view an attack on Syria as an attack on Tehran.

US President Barack Obama spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an hour Tuesday night and reaffirmed that they are united in their determination to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the White House said. The two leaders "discussed the cooperation on Iran and other security issues and agreed to continue their close consultations going forward," the statement said. 

Russia has starkly warned Israel and the United States against attacking Iran, saying Moscow sees no evidence that Tehran's nuclear program is aimed at developing weapons, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday. "We warn those who are no strangers to military solutions ... that this would be harmful, literally disastrous for regional stability," Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying.

The Iranian threat was combated Tuesday by hundreds of rabbis, Kabbalists and worshippers, who blew the shofar and recited prayers over the grave of a famous rabbi. Hundreds of worshippers flocked to the tomb of Rabbi Eliezer Papo , the leader of the Jewish community of Selestria in Bulgaria, famous for writing the "Pele Yoetz", a work of musar (ethical) literature which gives advice on how to behave as a Jew in many aspects of life.

In a rare and dramatic move, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday adjourned the second part of a security cabinet meeting that began Tuesday and dealt with Iran,  because of leaks to the press . Netanyahu, according to a statement issued by his office, said at the outset of the meeting that "something grave happened shortly after the conclusion of the meeting yesterday: leaks from the security cabinet meeting."

Iran could strike US bases in the Middle East in response to any Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities, the leader of Lebanon's Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah said on Monday. "A decision has been taken to respond and the response will be very great," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen television.

The United States has indirectly informed Iran, via two European nations, that it would not back an Israeli strike against the country's nuclear facilities, as long as Tehran refrains from attacking American interests in the Persian Gulf, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday. According to the report, Washington used covert back-channels in Europe to clarify that the US does not intend to back Israel in a strike that may spark a regional conflict.

Without naming Iran, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon denounced his hosts in Tehran on Thursday for threatening to destroy Israel and for denying the Holocaust. "I strongly reject threats by any member state to destroy another, or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust," Ban said in his speech to a Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in the Iranian capital.

Any Israeli attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities are unlikely to cause a Fukushima-scale disaster unless a Russian-built reactor is destroyed, experts say. They could, however, release toxic chemicals - rather than high levels of radiation - causing local contamination affecting health and the environment. That was also the case from US-led strikes on nuclear facilities in Iraq during the Gulf Wars.

The residents of southern Lebanon are worried. Should the brewing winds of war between Iran and Israel escalate to an actual conflict, they are likely to be caught in the middle – literally. Israel is investing in its home front readiness, but the residents of southern Lebanon have but a mere fraction of the civilian defenses available to Israelis.

A US think-tank published satellite imagery on Friday which it said showed "pink colored material" covering a building at a sensitive military site in Iran which UN nuclear inspectors want to visit. The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said the tarp - at the Parchin military complex - might be an attempt to conceal alleged clean-up work there at a time when Iran is under growing international pressure to open up its disputed nuclear program to scrutiny.

Former US Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk said that the United States "was convinced that Israel would attack" Iran's nuclear program during the spring months earlier this year, speaking in an interview with Army Radio on Thursday. After no Israeli strike took place, Indyk said that the US officials felt as though they had been duped by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak's ruse.

The Egyptian government-backed newspaper Al-Gomhuria reported Thursday that Hezbollah held an unprecedentedly large military-style exercise this week, which included over 10,000 of its operatives. According to the report, the drill was personally supervised by Hezbollah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.