Obama: Israel is the only country opposing Iran nuclear deal

August 6, 2015 By administrator

US President Barack Obama has signalled out Israel as the only country in the world to oppose Iran’s nuclear deal.

In a speech at the American University in Washington on Wednesday, Obama warned that rejecting the nuclear deal between the world’s major powers and Iran will lead to only one option, which is another war in the Middle East.

Obama further pointed out that Congress’s opposition of the deal with Iran would mean an inevitable war.

“Let’s not mince words. The choice we face is ultimately between diplomacy or some form of war. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not three months from now, but soon,” the US president stressed.

Obama outlined the ability of the deal to “hold Iran accountable if it practices deception in the nuclear file,” further stressing the necessity of such diplomatic measure and the potential benefits for the international community.

The US president described the Iranian regime as “dangerous and oppressive” and added that there might be a possibility that some of the unfrozen Iranian assets would be used to finance “terrorist activities”; but he stressed that this alone should not be a reason to pull out of the deal as even a flawed agreement is better than full-out war.

Armenian Jewish community calls on Israeli Knesset to recognize Armenian Genocide

July 23, 2015 By administrator

Chairwoman of the Jewish community in Armenia Rima Varzhapetyan has addressed a message to the Israeli Knesset over an upcoming discussion on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The message reads:

Dear Mr. Edelstein!

Dear Members of Knesset!

The members of the Jewish community in Armenia with great excitement and hope learned about the upcoming discussion on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide in the Knesset session.

The Knesset embodies a collection of wise and morally upright people in the eyes of the Jewish Diaspora.

We lay high hopes on the Israeli Parliamentarians on their positive decision on the recognition of the tragedy of the Armenian people as Genocide.

If we want to build a future, we should honor the past and thereby set an example for the new generation.

From the appearance of the Genesis up to the creation of the State of Israel and up till now, our people, at the cost of enormous sacrifices, passed the highest moral test to meet the main requirements of the Almighty – the principle of Justice.

Realizing this, the people of the world, the Governments and the Parliaments of many countries closely monitor the position of the State of Israel and the Jewish Diaspora on this thorny issue – the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

We, the Jews, make a historic choice by recognizing our moral principles as common and universal or relative and conditional, to please current political situation and the delusive “expediency”.

Looking straight in the eyes of the Armenians, undergoing immense sufferings, we, the Jews, see, as in the mirror, the sufferings of our people. The hearts of most Jews and Armenians are waiting with trepidation for the most important decision for the future of both peoples.

Israel: Knesset speaker expects coalition and opposition to unite on Armenian Genocide

July 15, 2015 By administrator

Speaker of Israel’s Knesset Yuli Edelstein expects that coalition and opposition will come together to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

He is hopeful that the Knesset will do it officially soon, The Jerusalem Post reported.

At the same time Edelstein added that the decision has nothing to do with flexing muscles at Turkey, while the move is not coordinated with the Israeli government.

“The Armenians are not our greatest friends. They n ever vote with us in the UN. I don’t expect anything in return; this is not a political decision,” he explained.

Azerbaijan bought spyware for citizens’ surveillance via company linked to Israeli intelligence

July 13, 2015 By administrator

A massive leak of the Italian cyber-surveillance firm Hacking Team’s data showed that one of its key corporate partners is Nice Systems, a company with close links to Israeli military and intelligence agencies. The leaked documents showed that Nice Systems has been closing deals for its Italian partner all over the world including Azerbaijan and Thailand, according to Boingboing.net.
Boingboing.net points that a number of the published materials reveal that Hacking Team sold spying products to Azerbaijan — a notorious human-rights abuser. Mexico, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Vietnam, Russia, Honduras, Ethiopia and Egypt were among the Hacking Team’s customers.

Speaking to International Business Times UK, spokesman of the company, Eric Rabe, said that they were not hiding their activities and that there was no evidence in that 400GB of data that they had violated any law.

ABC.net writes that according to leaked documents, Australian law enforcement and intelligence services have been in secret talks with an Italian-based surveillance company notorious for helping repressive states like Sudan. Earlier this year, UK-based organization Privacy International wrote a briefing to the Italian government, outlining their concerns about Hacking Team’s operations.

“There were 46 countries altogether that have purchased Hacking Team’s products. That goes to Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia — which we had never known about before — Azerbaijan and Sudan,” Matthew Rice from Privacy International said.

According to OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project), the leak of the Hacking Team’s data revealed that Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense licensed the company’s surveillance spyware Remote Control System (RCS) which helped access personal computers and smartphones. Citizen Lab documented an RCS endpoint active in Azerbaijan from June to November 2013, but is unclear who was under surveillance. Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan purchased an RCS license via a California-based intermediary called Horizon Global Group in 2013. Hacking Team invoices show Horizon made payments of €130,000 on March 10, 2013 and €190,000 on May 30, 2013 for an initial RCS license.

Israel bombs Lebanon to destroy own downed drone – reports

June 21, 2015 By administrator

FILE PHOTO: An Israeli drone (Reuters / Ronen Zvulun)

A blast has been reported near the town of Saghbein in a remote area of Lebanon’s western Bekaa, sources told agencies. Hezbollah-run Al Manar TV said, an Israeli drone was downed in the area and the airstrike was Israel’s attempt to destroy it.

A Lebanese security source told Reuters that the cause of the blast “is still not 100 percent clear but most probably it was an Israeli airstrike to destroy their drone.”

#UPDATE: Israel raid destroys own crashed drone in Lebanon http://t.co/mzlAbM72x0

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) June 21, 2015

No comment has so far been issued by Israeli authorities.
Last year, Israel remotely detonated a surveillance device in Lebanon, the blast killing one member of Hezbollah. The device was concealed to look like a rock, but was nevertheless discovered, which prompted the demolition. The group responded by blowing up a bomb near the Israeli border, wounding two soldiers.

Israel is believed to have delivered several air strikes in neighboring Syria since the start of the civil conflict there. Those mostly targeted weaponry that Israeli sources said were destined for Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah. Hezbollah and Israel fought a 34-day war in 2006 in which hundreds of people were killed.

‘Erdogan brags about Turkish reconnaissance APC, even though it was jointly made with Israel’

May 23, 2015 By administrator

Weighing between nine and 14 tons, the Hurricane seats up to seven people who use it to engage in combat and reconnaissance missions.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had to figuratively wipe egg of his face this weekend.

According to a report in the Turkish daily newspaper Zaman, the firebrand leader paid a visit to the pavilion hosting the International Defense Industry Fair in Istanbul, during which he boasted of his nation’s growing influence in the global arms trade.

During a stop at one particular exhibit hosted by the Turkish weapons manufacturer BMC, Erdogan pulled the covers off of an armored 4X4 Humvee, bragging about how Turkey’s new “global brand.”

The only problem was that Erdogan had unveiled the Hurricane, a vehicle that was manufactured jointly with an Israeli firm, Hatehof (the company has since been renamed Carmor, while the vehicle itself was rechristened as “Carmine” during the exhibit).

Weighing between nine and 14 tons, the Hurricane seats up to seven people who use it to engage in combat and reconnaissance missions.

Israel’s once thriving strategic relationship with Turkey has disintegrated following fierce policy disagreements on the Palestine question, specifically as it relates to Gaza.

Erdogan has accused Israel of pursuing a policy of “genocide” against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, while the Turkish leader has been denounced as “an anti-Semitic bully” by former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman.

Rimma: Open letter to Mr. David Harris, Executive Director at AJC Global Jewish Advocacy

May 16, 2015 By administrator

by Rimma Varzhapetyan-Feller

Dear Mr. Harris,

I am making this appeal to you in an open letter to draw your attention to the fact that during the recent months articles inciting and propagating hatred towards Armenia and the Armenian people, and to me, as the leader of the Jewish community of Armenia, are published regularly in Israeli newspapers by a number of so called analysts – Arye Gut, Alexander Murinson, Maxime Gauin (e.g. Baku to the future: Azerbaijan, not Armenia, is Israel’s true ally , Anti-Semitism in Armenia.) report .jewishjournal.com

Biographies of the aforementioned authors and the content of the articles prove that they try hard to set public opinion and, particularly, the Jews, against the Armenian people, casting shadow on the centuries-old friendship of the two peoples.

Especially worth mentioning is Arye Gut’s latest brainchild – an article built on overtly false facts and attempts of manipulation.

A former citizen of Azerbaijan (he is Jew, not an Azeri), Gut, whose Facebook account provides ample evidence of his attempts to ensure the approval of the Azerbaijani authorities, speculates and manipulates data, positioning himself as allegedly “impartial” analyst.

In this article Gut yet again endeavors to convince the readers of the existence of anti-Semitism in Armenia and Diaspora. It is worth mentioning that Gut, Murinson and Gauin have already written nearly a dozen of articles, trying to provide proof of supposedly numerous cases of anti-Semitism in Armenia. Nevertheless, the examples they cite are either false or distorted. No representative of any political force, political party or NGO in Armenia has ever uttered any anti-Semitic remarks.

Rights of the Jewish community have never been questioned here. The Armenian people always have respected the Jews and admired the rich history of our people. Since time immemorial the Jewish community of Armenia has found favourable environment for free existence and enrichment of their culture on this land of rich culture.

The evidence of the Jewish presence in Armenia is a medieval Jewish settlement and cemetery, both preserved due to Armenian government’s and people’s care for it.

Not only does Arye Gut ignore it all, but also dares to voice poignantly indecent expressions addressed to me and the Jewish community of Armenia which is nothing but an example of anti-Semitism in itself.

As Michael Chlenow, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, stressed during the recent Global Forum “Against the Crime of Genocide” held in Yerevan a couple of weeks ago, “Even if the Jewish community of Armenia is small, it is well-organized and proud, and through its activity contributes to both enrichment of the Jewish culture and strengthening of centuries-old friendship of the two peoples.”

Armenia has never denied the Holocaust. This year on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day President Serzh Sargsyan addressed the Jewish community in a statement. During his visit to the USA in May, the President of Armenia also visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Armenia is the only country in the region where school curriculum includes direct reference to the Holocaust; moreover, according to various assessments, from the point of view of the awareness of the Holocaust, the Armenians are amongst the best-informed people in the world.

In his article Gut once again tries to use to his advantage the fact of cooperation between some representatives of the Armenian Diaspora and the Nazis during WWII. It is a historical fact that the Armenian legion did not take part in the combat operations and was stationed in the rear – mainly in France, Holland and Poland. The Nazi leadership never trusted the Armenian legion. On December 12, 1942 Hitler said that “…In spite of all declarations from Rosenberg and the military, I don’t trust the Armenians”. The members of the Armenian Legion never missed a chance to revolt against the Nazis and join the resistance groups. The Armenian POWs played important role in the liberation of South France, while another group of Armenian POWs revolted in Holland.

Most probably, Arye Gut is also aware that the Azerbaijani legion in the German Armed Forces was four times larger than the Armenian one. The Azerbaijani legion participated in a range of massacres of the Polish and the Jews (particularly, 40.000 people were annihilated during Volyn massacre). The former President of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan (1918-1920) Mamed Rasulzade, who nowadays is glorified in Azerbaijan, spared no effort to recruit the Azerbaijani prisoners of war to the ranks of the Nazi army.

As for the Armenians, they fought against the Nazis in the frontlines of the Red Army, as well as in Diaspora. More than half a million Armenians fought in WWII, and only half of them returned home. Armenian soldiers fought in all the bloody battles, liberating from the Nazi yoke numerous peoples, including Jews.

As if following a the long-standing tradition, Gut’s article ‘circulates’ the theses of Azerbaijani-Turkish anti-Armenian propaganda, i.e. the blatant denial of the Armenian Genocide and the repetition of the official Baku’s assessment of events in Khojaly in 1992. What is more, all this is by no means done in a professional manner. In reality, Mr. Gut would rather quote the then President of Azerbaijan Mutalibov on the events in Khojaly, who inadvertently exposed the masterminds and those who even today use these clichés for propaganda purposes.

I was raised in a Jewish family. From the very first days of war my father joined up and reached Berlin. He was given numerous military awards and decorations. Together with her parents and my elder brother, my mother was evacuated three times. My husband’s ancestors, Armenians, suffered the Genocide in the Ottoman Empire and a considerable part of the family was annihilated.

My family spares no effort to strengthen the friendly ties between Armenia and Israel. We wish peace and prosperity to the two countries, and, of course, all the people on Earth. Unfortunately, shameless liars and provocateurs like Mr. Gut accuse me of “complicity in Nazism, Fascism and anti-Semitism”.

They must have forgotten that people should think twice before they utter such remarks – one could be detained for that.

It is inconceivable that leading newspapers and journals publish rubbish, without thinking of their own reputation.

Dear Mr. Harris, your organization has always emphasized the importance of strengthening of tolerance between peoples and fight against hate speech.

Authors of articles, pointed out by me, try to manipulate the Jewish media and the Jewish community in their dirty and unacceptable propaganda stunts.

I am grateful to you and proud that for years I have been invited to participate in the American Jewish Committee Annual Forums, which always pay a great deal of attention to strengthening of tolerance and fight against inter-ethnic hatred.

I am full of hope that you will share my concern and together we will be able to exert joint efforts to resist such provocative behavior.

Sincerely,

Rimma Varzhapetyan-Feller,

President of the Jewish Community of Armenia

Israel: Armenian Archbishop chides Rivlin for referring to genocide as ‘mass killings’

April 27, 2015 By administrator

Aris Shirvanian reminds president that he had previously referred to the massacre as a genocide and was now backtracking.

A quarter of a century ago, as an MK, Reuven Rivlin broke the taboo on acknowledging the Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire.

Later, as speaker of Knesset, he defied government attempts to have the same subject removed from the Knesset’s agenda and gave the podium to MKs from across the political spectrum to air their views. The Armenian Genocide was a subject of consensus for all legislators. Report The Jerusalem post

On Sunday, Rivlin invited some of those former MKs to the President’s Residence, along with Armenian religious and lay leaders, writers Haim Gouri and Haim Be’er, plus IDC President Uriel Reichman, and noted historian Yehuda Bauer, who had also identified strongly with Armenian suffering.

In his address, Rivlin noted that in 1915 members of the Armenian nation were being massacred and some of them found shelter in Jerusalem, including among members of his own family. No one in Jerusalem denied the massacre, he said. “We are morally obligated to point out the facts as horrible as they are and not to ignore them.”

This year, for the first time, the Knesset sent a delegation to Yerevan to mark the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.

Rivlin said in his opening remarks that the Armenian people were among the first victims of modern mass killing.

Archbishop Aris Shirvanian took Rivlin to task, reminding him that he was in the Knesset when Rivlin spoke of the Armenian Genocide. To now refer to it as a “mass killing” was a regressive move, he said.

“I am disappointed,” said Shirvanian, chiding the president.

“This was a backward step on your part. You should have been more courageous as president.”

Shirvanian contrasted Rivlin’s euphemism with German President Joachim Gauck’s use of the word “genocide,” and said that he would send Rivlin a copy of Gauck’s speech.

Shirvanian said his grandfather, together with his brothers, had been conscripted into the Ottoman army and brutally killed by the Turks who deported, raped and killed men, women and children.

Tsolog Momijian, the Armenian honorary consul, lauded “noble Israelis” for initiating Knesset discussions on the subject, praising them as “people of great morality” who understand that the genocide is not a political issue but a moral case. He voiced the hope that one day Israel will recognize the genocide for what it was.

Yair Tzaban, former minister for immigrant absorption, said that for 25 years he has been involved in the struggle for the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide. He also recalled that Rivlin had been the first Knesset speaker who permitted the issue to be discussed in the plenum. Since then it has never disappeared from the parliament’s agenda, said Tzaban.

He said was proud that Jews had played an important role in publicizing the massacre, but he was ashamed that a nation that had risen from the Holocaust and that continues to battle to this day against Holocaust denial does not support the Armenian effort to have its genocide recognized. Those who do nothing to avert denial of the Armenian genocide contribute to the minimalization of the tragedy, he said.

IDC’s Reichman said Zionism carries the moral message that freedom and self determination are not just a solution for the Jews but for all peoples.

If the political system cannot acknowledge this, he said, then the citizens of Israel can. IDC is hosting a mega conference on the Armenian Genocide to ensure all of its students are aware of it. He was confident that other Israeli institutions would do likewise. “As Jews we must identify with Armenian suffering.”

The Jerusalem Post: Israel should recognize the Armenian Genocide

April 14, 2015 By administrator

Ahead of April 24, the Armenian Day of Remembrance, the State of Israel should follow the pope’s lead and recognize the premeditated massacre for what it was – genocide, The Jerusalem Post writes.

Official Israeli recognition of what happened – essentially the destruction of a civilization built up over four millennia – is important for a number of reasons, the news outlet says.

As Francis pointed out, failing to honor the memory of those Armenians systematically murdered because of who they were amounts to concealing and denying evil. Denial allows this evil to fester, like a wound that remains untreated.

Beyond the moral obligation to acknowledge and denounce genocide, which applies equally to all humanity, Israel has a special duty, the article says.

Founded in the shadow of the Holocaust, the State of Israel is a living testament to the failure of the international community to prevent genocide. It was in large part out of international recognition of this failure that legitimacy for a uniquely Jewish state with its own armed forces and sovereignty was born. Israel has an obligation to live up to that legacy by using its political sovereignty to prevent genocide not just against Jews but against any group, the article says.

As a minority religious group living in a predominantly Muslim Middle East, the Jewish people are the natural allies of the region’s Christians. The Armenian Genocide is a chilling reminder of the dangers that Christians, Jews and other religious and ethnic minorities face in this part of the world. The chances of a future genocide are greater in the Middle East than anywhere. Those who deny genocide tend to be those who want to see one happen again. Pope Francis has publicly recognized the Armenian Genocide. Now it is Israel’s turn, the article concludes.

Kardashians Jet to Israel for Baptism Bring on the Holy Water

April 13, 2015 By administrator

By Nir Hasson

The 22-month-old daughter of reality television star Kim Kardashian and her husband, rapper Kanye West, was to be baptized Monday at the Cathedral of St. James, an Armenian church in the Old City of Jerusalem.

West, Kardashian and their daughter, North West, as well as Kardashian sister Khloe, landed in Israel for a private visit Monday, following a roots trip to Armenia.

The celebrities and their entourage had originally planned to stay at the new Waldorf Astoria hotel in Jerusalem, but reportedly switched to another hotel after their plans to stay at the Waldorf Astoria were leaked to the public.

An Israeli security firm that specializes in protecting VIPs reportedly was hired for the visit.

They were scheduled to visit the Western Wall and other Jerusalem sites, where they reportedly will take some footage for their reality show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians,” and it is rumored that the sisters will make a trip to the Dead Sea.

They reportedly will travel from Israel to Jordan.

In January reports emerged that Kardashian and her two sisters were planning to buy a Tel Aviv apartment worth $30 million.