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August 17, 2014

The Passing Of Leibel Fein

Leave a Comment / Culture, Funerals, Judaism, News, Obituaries, People / Dating, Personal Voice, Worldwide /

Baruch dayan haemet (blessed be the true judge).

Earlier this week, the death of Leonard “Leibel” Fein was announced. Much has been said about Leibel Fein, and his many accomplishments, by many who knew him, and can speak from personal experience of him. I am not one of those people. I met, heard, and briefly spoke to him only once, when he addressed those attending the “>Kavod v’Nichum was fortunate to have Leibel Fein agree to be a speaker to those involved with Chevrah Kadisha & cemetery matters. His remarks that evening were an extension growing out of what he had said in the book he had written about the loss of his daughter, “>A Blessing at the End based on those remarks, and I recommend that you read the article.

So, among all the voices that have and will elegantly mourn and praise Leibel Fein, I am able to add only a few words about a passing encounter, but one that left a mark on me and others. That speaks to the stature and the impact of the man who has died, and I feel a loss at his passing, along with all those who had so many more reasons to mourn him. May the One who comforts comfort the mourners, and may his memory be for a blessing. 

The Passing Of Leibel Fein Read More »

Q&A Interview: Why do Iran’s Jewish leaders compare Israel to Nazi Germany?

Leave a Comment / Blogs, Is Featured?, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News, Opinion /

Sam Kermanian is perhaps among the most respected leaders of the Iranian Jewish community based in the U.S. For many years he was the Secretary General of the West Hollywood-based Iranian American Jewish Federation (IAJF) and a voice for the Iranian Jewish community to elected officials in California and Washington D.C. He has since substantially reduced his involvement with the IAJF but still serves as a senior advisor to the group. Amidst recent statements by Iran’s only Jewish member of Parliament denouncing Israel and other statements from Jewish leaders in Iran comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, Kermanian and other Iranian American Jews are shedding light on why Jews in Iran are verbally attacking Israel.

Recently I sat down with Kermanian to find out the truth behind these statements made by Jews in Iran against Israel. Since the 1979 Iranian revolution, Jews living in Iran face horrible duress from the regime’s strongmen and are forced to publicly denounce Israel in order to remain alive or even avoid imprisonment or death. The following is a segment of my conversation with Kermanian regarding these latest developments from Iran’s Jewish community…

 

Can you please share with us why Siamak Moresedegh, the only Jewish member of the Iranian parliament and Iran’s other Jewish community leaders have denounced Israel and compared Israel to Nazi Germany? And do you believe Iran’s Jewish leaders are under duress from the regime's authorities to denounce Israel?

Let me first start by saying that no person of conscience, particularly a Jew, can be indifferent to the death of even a single child and I would argue that this is true of all Israelis as well. That is why the measures taken by the IDF in trying to avoid civilian casualties among the Palestinian population are unprecedented in the history human warfare. The only party that gains from the deaths of Palestinian women and children is Hamas. It is in this context that I can say with confidence that Morsedegh’s vitriol can be attributed to four factors. First and foremost Morsedegh’s own history indicates that far more than being the representative of the Jewish community in the Iranian parliament he is a hand-picked representative of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence for representing that community in accordance with the wishes and propaganda guidelines of the IRI regime. Secondly, considering the Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) policies towards Israel and the fear and intimidation that the Iranian Jewish community faces inside Iran he might wrongfully think that he is serving the interests of that community by selling himself out to the IRI. But just as importantly, with respect to this latest utterance Morsedegh is proving that he has little knowledge or connection to Jewish history in general and the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust in particular. And lastly by acting the way he believes he is buying influence for himself and serving his own personal interests.

 

Do Jews in Iran truly believe that Israel is at fault for this conflict with Hamas? If not, then please advise their current situation that prevents them from being vocally supportive of Israel?

I doubt very much that any reasonable and logical person familiar with the facts would consider Israel to be at fault for a conflict that started with the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers followed by the launching of thousands of rockets on Israeli population centers. That said, the Jewish community of Iran lives under a stringent, tyrannical and cruel Islamic theocracy which also happens to be Hamas’ main supporter. Anyone in today’s Iran who would openly support Israel will be putting his life and those of his family in immediate danger.

 

Does the non-Jewish Iranian community in Iran, America and Europe realize the full extent to which the Iranian regime has been involved in funding, supporting and training Hamas for this current war?

If you follow the public statements of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader and its lesser military and civilian official it is clear that not only Iran does not deny its support for Hamas and other militant Islamic groups such as Hezbollah and Jihad but in fact they take pride in it and urge all Moslems to extend their own support to these groups. So one would be hard pressed to claim that the current anti-Israel sentiments displayed by some non-Jewish Iranians is attributable to their ignorance of the facts.

 

Why do Iranian Jews in the U.S. and elsewhere do have such a deep love for Israel? Is it because of the experience of fleeing Iran more than 30 years ago?

Iranian Jews consider the creation of the State of Israel as a redemption and the people of Israel as the heroes of the Jewish People. They have always supported Israel to the best of their abilities. In fact more than two thirds of Jews of Iranian origin currently live in Israel. There are no Iranian Jews anywhere in the world who do not have direct family ties to Israel which is only topped by their religious and cultural ties to that land.

 

Can you please explain how Jews in Iran are being utilized for propaganda purposes by the Iranian regime and why their statements lack credibility?

At present, virtually the entire leadership of that community is composed of people who are either direct recruits of the Iranian regime or for the very least are willing to tow the Iranian line. The Iranian Ministry of Information simply will not allow anyone who does not meet such qualifications to serve in any public capacity within that community. That includes the community’s so called representative to the parliament, most members of the Jewish Central Committee and even the religious leadership of the community.

 

Why do many in the Iranian American Jewish community today still have fear of what the regime will do to Jews in Iran if they are publically supportive of Israel?

The preservation of life is the highest value in Judaism. It is therefore only prudent for our organized community outside of Iran to consider all potential threats to the community inside Iran in determining their positions and charting their actions. At the same time the Islamic Republic of Iran needs to be aware that there are certain redlines beyond which our community abroad will not go, and certain issues on which it will not keep quiet regardless of cost. The safety and security of Jews and the State of Israel are two such issues.

Q&A Interview: Why do Iran’s Jewish leaders compare Israel to Nazi Germany? Read More »

Sunday Reads: Does Netanyahu get America?, ‘Supporting the moderates’, King David’s Jerusalem

Leave a Comment / Israel, Israel, Middle East, Rosners Domain-mobile, Worldwide /

US

Aaron David Miller imagines what the foreign policy of a Hillary administration would have looked like had she won in 2008 –

But on substance, Clinton’s policies would probably not have diverged fundamentally from the ones the president pursued while she was his secretary of state or those he has embraced subsequently. Indeed, Clinton could never have become Obama’s top diplomat and functioned so well in that job had they not been largely on the same page in terms of how they saw the world and what America should do about it. They both are transactors, not ideological transformers — smart, pragmatic centrists largely coloring inside the lines in a world of long shots and bad options. In other words, there’s no need for them to “hug it out” on foreign policy.

James F. Jeffrey explicitly argues in favor of going to war with ISIS –

Do military actions of this sort open the door to a “slippery slope” that could lead to new Iraqs and Vietnams? In theory, yes. But Barack Obama is the least likely president to make a mistake of this sort. Moreover, the reality doesn't equal the fear: Over scores of deployments and combat operations since 1945, the United States has rarely headed down the slippery slope. And let's be clear: The Iraq adventure under President George W. Bush was not a slippery slope but an intentional regime-change strategy gone wrong.

Israel

Alan Dershowitz reminds people like Jimmy Cater and Desmond Tutu that advocating for the legitimacy of Hamas is tantamout to supporting bigotry and anti-Semitism –

It may be necessary to negotiate – directly or through intermediaries – with Hamas, just as one “negotiates” with kidnappers, hostage takers or extortionists. But to “recognize” their “legitimacy,” as Jimmy Carter and Bishop Tutu would do, is to recognize the legitimacy of anti-Semitism. Carter, Tutu and other Hamas cheerleaders may be willing to do that, but no reasonable person who hates bigotry should legitimate Hamas's anti-Semitism or its express goal of destroying Israel and killing its Jewish inhabitants.

Israel Factor Panelist Alon Pinkas has some serious doubts and some harsh words about Netanyahu's understanding of America –

Yes. Benjamin Netanyahu. The man who markets himself as an America-ologist – a world-renowned expert to the subtlety of American politics with an American accent and a proper tie to match – has simply gotten lost.

Netanyahu's America, that of the late 80s, no longer exists – and he's the only one who has yet to internalize that fact.

Middle East

According to Fareed Zakaria, the US policy of supporting the Middle East moderates is a difficult one to carry out, because there are so few of them and they are usually on the losing side –

For decades, U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has been to support “moderates.” The problem is that there are actually very few of them. The Arab world is going through a bitter, sectarian struggle that is “carrying the Islamic world back to the Dark Ages,” said Turkish President Abdullah Gul. In these circumstances, moderates either become extremists or they lose out in the brutal power struggles of the day. Look at Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya and the Palestinian territories.

The Washington Institute’s Harry Reis writes about a number of agreements and precedents that might help with the rebuilding of Gaza –

Hamas will not give up its weapons willingly — the latest fighting showed that it clings to its rockets more dearly than to the lives of its citizens. The international community is determined to relieve suffering in Gaza, and statements such as the recent EU declarations indicate that it is also determined to prevent Hamas from rearming. Fortunately, existing instruments can be strengthened to achieve both objectives — there is no need to start from scratch.

Jewish World

A new book makes Benjamin Ivry ask some tough questions about John Paul’s attitude towards the Jews –

Such honoring of converts made some Jewish observers feel uneasy. They felt even worse when John Paul II sought to canonize Pope Pius XII, the wartime pontiff whose silence in the face of Nazi atrocities resulted in ongoing reproaches. Nor did John Paul II open Vatican archives on World War II to Holocaust researchers. Instead, he welcomed with state honors such visitors as Yasir Arafat and Austria’s Kurt Waldheim. In 1987, charged with lying about his Nazi past, Waldheim was put on a watch list and banned from entering the United States, but in 1994, Pope John Paul II awarded Waldheim a knighthood in the Order of Pius IX.

A curious article by Daniel Pioske examines the myths and the reality behind King David’s Jerusalem –

We may deride the many historical inaccuracies strewn throughout famous representations of David and Jerusalem, such as Frans Francken II’s celebrated portrait of David’s entry into his royal city. But such depictions serve as an important reminder that the desire to claim David’s Jerusalem as one’s own did not end with Charlemagne’s reign. Jerusalem is an idea as much as a place.

Sunday Reads: Does Netanyahu get America?, ‘Supporting the moderates’, King David’s Jerusalem Read More »

My Tribute to Leibel Fein

Leave a Comment / 50 Plus, Blogs, Culture /

Leonard 'Leibel' Fein’s death is a particularly painful loss to the liberal social activist progressive Zionist world. He spoke and wrote always the truth as he understood it, inspired by a deeply Jewish vision, with an eloquence and a precision of language that inspired, opened the heart and renewed a sense of purpose and hope in anyone who was open and receptive enough to resonate with his message.

I first met Leibel 44 years ago when I was a college student at the summer Aliyah of then Brandeis Camp Institute (now Brandeis-Bardin) in Simi Valley, California, where he had come to spend a month with us 70+ young people from all over the country and world. He spoke to us and with us, lecturing about American Jewish life and religion, God, Israel, Zionism, Soviet Jewry, and social justice.

Those were the heady euphoric years after Israel’s lightning victory in the 1967 Six-Days War, yet Leibel (an early scholar of the Israeli enterprise at Brandeis University) understood intuitively that the great victory of three years earlier on the battlefield that resulted in the reunification of Jerusalem and the acquisition of the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Sinai desert, did not address the deeper far more complex moral challenges that confronted the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

He emphasized that there were at least four significant challenges confronting Israel and world Jewry at that time; (1) the 1967 war would not be the last war Israel would be forced to fight; (2) Israel’s Jewish culture, moral and democratic character would be defined in part by how it settled the Arab-Israeli conflict, how it conducted itself as an occupier of more than a two and a half million hostile Palestinian Arabs then living in the West Bank and Gaza, and whether it treated Israeli-Palestinian citizens of the state as equal citizens with Israeli Jews; (3) what would be the fate of the three million Soviet Jews then trapped behind the iron curtain, and (4) looking us in the eye, what we young American and Canadian Jews (and a couple of Israelis), then in our late teens and early twenties, would become as American Jewish leaders.

For some reason, Leibel singled me out all those years ago (he was only 36 at the time!), gently but assuredly, and privately challenged me to become engaged seriously with the American Jewish community as a Zionist and a leader. In that way, Leibl became one of my earliest Zionist mentors.

I read nearly everything he would subsequently write, and so often over the decades he focused my thinking and redirected how I considered the great issues facing America and the Jewish people. He never lost his intellectual, moral and compassionate verve. As this last column (link below) that Leibel wrote for The Forward so eloquently and movingly expresses, with its introductory note by the Forward’s editors where he was a regular contributor, what made Leibel Fein's thought so deeply Jewish was that the prophetic tradition was always his proof text and he led as much from the heart as from the mind.

As Leibel battled his own demons over the years, suffered the tragic loss of his daughter, and finally illness that seemed to plague him for far too long, he never lost what made him that unique and compelling thought leader.

I will miss him, though we only saw each other at J Street conferences in recent years, but he is embedded in my heart as he is in the hearts of so many of us.

Zichrono livracha. May his memory abide as a blessing.

http://forward.com/articles/204190/from-gaza-to-sderot-trauma-marks-the-past-and-t/#ixzz3AcSJiiW2

My Tribute to Leibel Fein Read More »

The SELF Series Pt.1: 3 Cost-Free,Trial-Proven Tools That’ll Kick The Diet Monster’s Butt Pt.1

Leave a Comment / California, Moving & Shaking /

Dieting is an unending battle that you're never going to win, unless you have the proper weapons to destroy the “diet monster” once and for all. It's a game you will lose without the proper pieces to win. All diets tell you to go and do (workout, eat less, eat more); I tell you to start not in the kitchen, or at the gym, but to start with your inner Self.

There is no one way, no right or wrong way to kill the monster. After over 20 years of working with people from all walks of life, all different tax brackets, and from all ages- from 9 to 90- as well as from my experience of killing that monster, I perfected a method that will work for anyone, anywhere, anyplace- including you.

There are only three things in life that we can control: what we think, eat, and drink. Try to control everything else. It's impossible. With that said, I will teach you a few simple mind exercises, that will set you free forever. I would like to remind you that practice makes perfect. It's not success achieved overnight, but I can certainly promise a 10 day transformation success story. You will cheat, you will fail, you will start over again. I encourage that, because it is all part of this game.
Now that I took that load of guilt off of your shoulders, let me give you the simple weapons needed to take down that monster completely. Total annihilation, ladies.

Meditation: The Temple of Solitude and Surrender

According to “Everyday Grace” by Marianne Williamson: “What's very important to realize, however, is that the mind of someone who regularly practices prayer and meditation is literally a different mind. I know this is true of myself, simply from my own experience. My spiritual practice doesn't just make me feel better; I think it makes me a different woman than I am when I chose not to do it. Everything I'm involved with becomes infused with a peace I do not otherwise carry. It affects the reactions of people I meet, and the outcome of situations I might not even know exist.” How can you argue with that logic?

Picture yourself driving down a lonely road, and a grey, misty fog lays like a thick blanket, smothering the world around you. It's so thick, the way before you is hidden from view. You feel lost to the world around you, and don't know where to go.What meditation does in this metaphorical picture, is that it clears the fog, and allows the brilliant light of day to shine on your path. It elevates your mind to a higher place, and removes the destructive, abusive thoughts that, in the end, becomes your destructive, abusive patterns that eat away at your soul.

How to Meditate: Meditation 101

There is no one right way to meditate. There is a temple deep inside of you, it's your sacred place, a place where your meditation helps you to connect your mind, body, and soul to the energy of life, and detox the negative forces that trap your soul in its suffocating grip.

Picture yourself sitting in your favorite spot in your home. Sit comfortably, take a deep breath- in & out, let and go- that's it. This is your sacred place, your Temple of Solitude and Surrender, no one can get in and take it from you. Maybe, if you're like me, you'll light some candles, and play your soothing music. Keep your eyes closed to the world, and push away any destructive thoughts from your heart and core of your being. Now, with your mind's eyes, picture a golden light surrounding each and every pore of your body, starting from your head, all the way down to your painted toes. Imagine God pouring down his pure light to soak you completely in indescribable peace. Stay there for 5 minutes, and work yourself up to an hour. I bet, with time, even an hour won't be enough. Repeat this practice first thing in the morning, and last thing before you go to bed. Meditation will change how you eat, think, and drink, hands down, guaranteed. Don't you dare tell me that you don't have the time; meditation doesn't take away time, it gives you time.

Mantra Chanting

I know what comes to mind when you hear the word “chanting.” Instantly a picture of painted Indians chanting mumbo jumbo to their spirits and gods while dancing around a fire; the witch doctor shaking his heavily overdecorated “spirit staff” about, tossing some colorful powder into the fire. Not quite like this. I do mine in a simpler manner, minus the mumbo jumbo, but still works like a charm.

Mantra chanting can help you with the physical, emotional, and spiritual struggles and challenges that face you in your everyday life. How does this connect to weight loss? It helps you to make the changes from within you, to allow new habits to thrive and grow into new patterns and a new life.

Let me share with a personal experience of how mantra chanting helped me with getting rid of my sweet tooth. I used to have the world's biggest sweet tooth, and even with a lot of hard work over many years, it was not a habit I could kick out of my life. It clung needily to me, and would not let go easily. Then, I took on the practice of mantra chanting, on top of following my TRANSFORM food plan and workout routine. Chanting allowed me to set an intention for the results that I wanted to achieve, and focus my minds eye on the destiny that I had created for myself- though I hadn't gotten there yet. I concentrated my entire mind's being on one single entity: ridding my life of the craving for sweet things.

We all have blocks in our mind that hold us back from achieving success in our lives- whether work-related or personal emotional issues. Chanting helped me in removing the blockage that was stubbornly refusing to move out- rather like an unwanted tenant. You know what I mean. Mantra chanting will help you to subconsciously go to the places where you are scared to go, break the destructive patterns, and boot out that immovable tenant that just refuses to go. Not only for losing weight, or getting physically healthy, mantra chanting can help you benefit from every element of your life.

Prayer

Have you ever gone to the point of no return? Have you come to the end of the line? After all the hundreds of diets, fasts, detoxes, workouts, diet “food” products, diet pills, and expensive gym memberships, nothing has worked out the way you have hoped in  your journey to weight loss. On the point of giving it all up because the cravings only multiply instead of decrease, and exhausting every diet and most of your hard earned cash on things that don't work? Believe me, I have been there, and done that, many times than I can keep count.

It's funny how prayer is the very last thing we come to when we are down on our luck, and not the first thing. It would definitely save us many hours- and piles of Kleenex- of crying in hopeless desperation because the numbers on our scales tell us that we have gained pounds rather than lost them. The power of prayer is is rooted deep in our faith, and the understanding that we need to surrender, let go, and ask for help. When we recognize that we can't do it alone, that's where the true power lies in prayer. It makes us humble, open, and connects us to a higher level.

I don't care if it you believe in God, the Universe, Buddha, Jesus, or the man with the white beard and white gown. It doesn't matter, because when you pray, you let go of the limited you, and become an open vessel to receive the answer to your prayers, the solution to your problems, and the power to achieve it. Before we came to this world, God placed the answers to each and every question deep within us. Prayers help us reveal them, no matter how deep you think they're buried.

I used to feel embarrassed about prayer, and the thought that I needed to pray to make me stronger made me believe that I was weak. Now that I think about it, it makes me realize how naive I was about how much prayer has done for me regarding my food addiction and body image. It was my lifesaver, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

No matter where you are reading this book, I encourage you to give prayer a chance. It will not only change your body, but it will also change your life. How to pray, do you ask? Just say the words in your heart, whatever scares you the most, whatever you desire the most, whatever you need the most, and stay open to hear, see, or feel the answer. I promise the answer will be revealed to you.

The SELF Series Pt.1: 3 Cost-Free,Trial-Proven Tools That’ll Kick The Diet Monster’s Butt Pt.1 Read More »

Israeli wedding of Jew, Muslim draws protesters amid war tensions

Leave a Comment / Is Featured?, Israel, Lead Story, Mobile, Mobile-Homepage, News /

Israeli police on Sunday blocked more than 200 far-right Israeli protesters from rushing guests at a wedding of a Jewish woman and Muslim man as they shouted “death to the Arabs” in a sign of tensions stoked by the Gaza war.

Several dozen police, including members of the force's most elite units, formed human chains to keep the protesters from the wedding hall's gates and chased after many who defied them. Four protesters were arrested, and there were no injuries.

A lawyer for the couple, Maral Malka, 23, and Mahmoud Mansour, 26, both from the Jaffa section of Tel Aviv, had unsuccessfully sought a court order to bar the protest. He obtained backing for police to keep protesters 200 metres (yards) from the wedding hall in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion.

The protest highlighted a rise in tensions between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel in the past two months amid a monthlong Gaza war, the kidnap and slaying of three Israeli teens in June followed by a revenge choking and torching to death of a Palestinian teen in the Jerusalem area.

A group called Lehava, which organized the wedding demonstration, has harassed Jewish-Arab couples in the past, often citing religious grounds for their objections to intermarriage. But they have rarely protested at the site of a wedding.

The groom told Israel's Channel 2 TV the protesters failed to derail the wedding or dampen its spirit. “We will dance and be merry until the sun comes up. We favor coexistence,” he said.

'DEATH TO THE ARABS' THREATS CHANTED

Protesters, many of them young men wearing black shirts, denounced Malka, who was born Jewish and converted to Islam before the wedding, as a “traitor against the Jewish state,” and shouted epithets of hatred toward Arabs including “death to the Arabs.” They sang a song that urges, “May your village burn down.”

A few dozen left-wing Israelis held a counter-protest nearby holding flowers, balloons and a sign that read: “Love conquers all.”

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, sworn in last month to succeed Shimon Peres, criticized the protest as a “cause for outrage and concern” in a message on his Facebook page.

“Such expressions undermine the basis of our coexistence here, in Israel, a country that is both Jewish and democratic,” Rivlin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud bloc, said.

Lehava spokesman and former lawmaker Michael Ben-Ari denounced Jews intermarrying with non-Jews of any denomination as “worse than what Hitler did,” alluding to the murder of 6 million Jews across Europe in World War Two.

A surprise wedding guest was Israel's health minister, Yael German, a centrist in Netanyahu's government. She told reporters as she headed inside that she saw the wedding and the protest against it as “an expression of democracy.”

Arab citizens make up about 20 percent of Israel's majority Jewish population, and the overwhelming majority of Arabs are Muslims. Rabbinical authorities who oversee most Jewish nuptials in Israel object to intermarriage fearing it will diminish the ranks of the Jewish people.

Many Israeli couples who marry out of their faith do so abroad.

Malka's father, Yoram Malka, said on Israeli television he objected to the wedding, calling it “a very sad event.” He said he was angry that his daughter had converted to Islam. Of his now son-in-law, he said, “My problem with him is that he is an Arab.”

Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan

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Israel destroys homes of Palestinians suspected of killing Israeli teens

Leave a Comment / Israel /

Israeli troops on Monday demolished the homes of two Palestinians it suspects of the abduction and killing of three teenagers in the occupied West Bank in June, the army said.

Troops set charges to destroy the homes of Hussam Kawasme and Amar Abu Aysha in the southern West Bank before dawn and sealed off the home of a third suspect, Marwan Kawasme, the army said.

Israel accuses Hamas Islamist militants of the abduction and killing of Jewish seminary students Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrah, who went missing on June 12 and were discovered dead a couple of weeks later in the West Bank.

Hamas has neither confirmed nor denied the accusations.

Hussam Kawasme, a 40-year-old resident of Hebron, was arrested on July 11 but the other two suspects remained at large, the army said.

The killings set off a cycle of violence that led to a month-long offensive between Israel and militants in Hamas-dominated Gaza.

Israel carried out air strikes and a ground offensive in the enclave to counter militant rocket fire and to blow up a network of tunnels dug under the border to infiltrate the Jewish state.

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza says 1,980 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict. On the Israeli side, 64 soldiers and three civilians have been killed.

A ceasefire that brought fighting to a halt is due to expire later on Monday and Egyptian-mediated talks to end the conflict are not certain to succeed, according to Palestinian delegates participating in the talks in Cairo.

Hussam Kawasme's arrest was made public for the first time earlier this month in a document from a court case over whether houses belonging to him and two other suspects should be destroyed as a punitive measure.

It said Kawasme had admitted helping to organize the kidnapping – securing funding from Hamas and buying weapons which he passed on to the two other suspects who carried out the attack.

He also helped to bury the bodies of the teenagers in a plot of land he had bought a few months earlier, it said.

The military statement said Israel's supreme court had affirmed the military's wish to demolish the homes and had rejected three appeals by the suspects' families against their destruction.

Writing by Ori Lewis; Editing by Nick Macfie

Israel destroys homes of Palestinians suspected of killing Israeli teens Read More »