Police arrests of four suspects in the murder of three homosexual youth in 2009 disproves the former libel that Haredim, or possibly other Orthodox Jews, carried out the murders as a hate crime.

Following the arrest of three Jewish suspects Wednesday, police have arrested a fourth man who is a “prominent member” in the homosexual and lesbian community. He was not necessarily involved in the murder, but he possessed information concerning the identity of the murdered at the “BarNoar” center in Tel Aviv, police said.

If the police department’s conclusions are correct, it is clear the murders were not a hate crime against homosexuals, and it appears the motives were personal vengeance. Conceivably, the suspects could be orthodox, but they clearly did not kill out of hate for homosexuals.

The real hate is against orthodox and Haredi Jews.

The homosexual community protested the murders and blamed Haredim, particularly the Shas religious party.

“I warned in a column last year that Israel is a place which, on the one hand has liberal laws, but on the other does not attempt to counter homophobia,” Danny Zak, a gay activist and journalist, told the Jerusalem Post during the demonstration. “A murder was waiting to happen,” Zak added.

“The Shas party has the blood of two innocent kids on their hands. Shas has blamed gays for earthquakes and diseases. This is incitement, but no one is put on trial for it.”

If the police are correct and have indeed nabbed the killers, the homosexual community will have to do a lot of soul-searching, as Israeli media and political parties in the center and left still should be doing over the accusations that the entire national religious and settler community was responsible for the assassination of Rabin.

On Tuesday, June 4, a bi-partisan congressional call went out for the United States government to move its Embassy from Tel Aviv, to the capital of Israel, in Jerusalem.

The call went out from the congressional Israel Allies Caucus at an event marking Israel Reunification Day, the day in 1967 that Jerusalem was reunified as the result of Israel’s defeat of the Jordanian army.  Israel acquired the land by defeating Jordan which attacked Israel as part of the 1967 war, despite Israel’s repeated pleas to Jordan to stay out of the hostilities.

The Congressional Israel Allies Caucus is a bi-partisan pro-Israel body which is jointly headed by Democratic and Republican Congressmen alike, and includes dozens of Congressmen across the political spectrum.

“We strongly believe that Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of Israel with no waivers and no caveats,” said Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn (CO-05), co-chair of the IAC.

“It is long overdue for the U.S. government to relocate our embassy to Israel’s capital, Jerusalem,” said Democratic Congressman Brad Sherman (CA-30). Sherman, who is Jewish, who became the co-chair of the IAC in late May.  He noted that the move was a “no brainer” because the location of the planned U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem is in a part of the city which has been under Israeli sovereignty since 1948.

“The deep commitment and friendship to the State of Israel transcend political differences,” said Republican Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-08).

The Capital Hill event marking Jerusalem’s reunification was marked by dozens of lawmakers all over the world, via simultaneous broadcasting in government centers in Israel and in Europe.

“We appreciate your tireless efforts to secure the future of Jerusalem and of the Jewish State,” said Noam Katz, from the Embassy of Israel in Washington.  “You are true and abiding friends who stand faithfully by our side.  Your continued friendship inspires and sustains us.”

On the same day as the bipartisan plea, President Obama once again sent his official memorandum to the secretary of state invoking the suspension of the 1995 U.S. law that requires this country to move the embassy to Jerusalem.  Obama, as has every president since the law was passed, both Democrats and Republicans, claimed that the embassy cannot be moved to Jerusalem because to do so would endanger the national security interests of the United States.

“I hereby determine that it is necessary, in order to protect the national security interests of the United States, to suspend for a period of 6 months the limitations set forth in sections 3(b) and 7(b) of the Act.”

But the rebuff by the U.S. president did not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants.

Newly installed Knesset member Dov Lipman flew in to Washington for the event.  He said, “Jerusalem is not just a place but an idea where we can unify people of all faiths and all backgrounds.”

“We have made Jerusalem a place where everyone can worship openly.”

Helene Fragman Abramson has been a careful observer of events in the Middle East for as long as she can remember.  Most of the time, Abramson grinds her teeth about the raw deal that Israel gets in the mainstream media, in academia, and – sometimes – in the arts.

That’s why Abramson was so thrilled to read that Rhythm & Blues singer Alicia Keys refused to cave to pressure from a fellow African American artist, writer Alice Walker, who tried to pressure Keys into cancelling a scheduled appearance in Israel on July 4.

Abramson thinks everyone who wants Keys to know that people support her principled position – but who cannot be in Tel Aviv to hear her and show their appreciation in person – should purchase one of Keys’ CDs or songs on July 4.

It’s a small gesture, but it will make a big statement.

“It seems to me we keep rewarding people who seek our demise,” Abramson told The Jewish Press on Monday, June 3. “I do my best to put my money where my mouth is, and that is not always so easy.

“Point is, we can use our wallets to punish as well as to reward.  If we can close it to attacks on the Jewish state, we can also open it in friendship.”

It is not easy for people in the entertainment industry to resist public calls by older, famous people, to shun a person or a land vilified with the worst calumny, that of racism; many artists and other celebrities have been unable to resist the call.

Alice Walker, the 69-year old author, is best known for her novel The Color Purple 31 years ago.

But in the past few years Walker has become infamous for her single-minded hatred of Israel and her efforts to strangle the Jewish State through economic and political boycotts.  In 2011, Walker sailed aboard the “Audacity of Hope,” seeking to puncture Israel’s lawful blockade of Gaza.  She refused to allow her best-selling novel to be translated into Hebrew, and she attempted, along with fellow Israel-hating artist rock musician Roger Waters, to prevent the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra from performing at Carnegie Hall in October, 2012.

Most recently, Walker wrote a letter which she posted on the Internet, calling on Alicia Keys to cancel her scheduled singing appearance in Tel Aviv, Israel. Walker was not content to merely call Israel an apartheid country.  She told Keys Israel is “unbelievably evil,” “greedy” and “cruel,” and that it is responsible for a great deal of global suffering.

The response from Keys came swiftly: “I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show.” A Facebook page was set up to thank Keys.

And Abramson is suggesting everyone go one step further.

So on July 4 – or leading up to it – everyone who wants to thank Alicia Keys for standing tall and seeking to ‘unify audiences in peace and love’ should buy an Alicia Keys CD or tune either online or in stores.

Abramson said, “I am so grateful that Keys has not succumbed to pressure from fellow artists, the very people who should appreciate Israel.  Half of them would not have been able to develop their craft in most of the neighboring Arab and/or Muslim nations.

“I decided that I would buy an Alicia Keys CD on the date of her performance as a way of saying thanks.  I posted it on my Facebook page and asked others to share the idea.”

Another synagogue was again vandalized on Friday night in Bat Yam, adjacent to Tel Aviv, in the sixth anti-Semitic attack on a synagogue in the city in the past month.

“We came to the synagogue, and were deeply distressed to find it vandalized. It really tears up my heart. The police came and saw the damage, but announced that nothing can be done”, one member said. ”

“If this would happen to a mosque or church the world would be reeling with rage. The police must put an end to this before a real tragedy occurs. This must stop,” another added. Thousands of Arabs and Christians live in the area.

Last Wednesday, crosses were spray-painted at the entrance to the nearby Ohel synagogue, and swastikas and crosses  were painted on the walls of synagogues and windows were broken in previous attacks.

Members of the Ohel synagogue, which was established by Holocaust survivors, staged a protest rally on Thursday against desecration of the synagogues.

“The police come, take statements and shoot photos, but none of the terrorists have been caught yet” one of the congregations members said.

After vandals struck the Ohel synagogue twice a month ago, synagogue official Miki Moskowitz told Channel 2,  “I am certain that if settlers had sprayed hate slogans on a mosque, that Public Security Minister Yitzchak Aharonovitch would immediately be interviewed on any available podium” to condemn the attack. “Since this was done in Bat Yam, no one cares,” he added.

‘My Israel’, an extra-parliamentary Zionist activist group, issued the following statement in response to these recent attacks, “All acts of vandalism are ugly, in the Shomron as well as in Bat Yam. The media must awaken and become active and ‘biting’ as they can. These incidents in Bat Yam should be treated by the government, police and media with the same magnitude as they are in the Shomron.”

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas  advisor on high-tech affairs strongly criticized a planned meeting between Palestinian Authority and Israel high-tech companies, calling such meetings “unacceptable” because they give the world the wrong impression.

The adviser, Sabri Saydam, told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an  news agency that Palestinian Authority companies should reconsider their participation and “give priority to Palestinian interests.”

He added that the companies should not act  independently of the PA union of high-tech firms.

What could be wrong about Israeli and PA high-tech companies talking to each other, especially since officials from 11 high-tech companies, including Microsoft and Cisco, are to attend?

For starters, the forum is being organized by the Peres Center for Peace. That already puts a Zionist stamp on the meeting.

The forum is entitled ”Business without Barriers,” but without barriers, the Palestinian Authority cannot claim it is an Israeli scheme for  Apartheid.

One of Saydam’s problems is that, according to Ma’an, “there were still few details about the event.”

Perhaps it is a Zionist plot to snare Microsoft and Cisco into declaring that Israeli high-tech companies have a Jewish identity, and that might cause the international community to think that Israel is a Jewish state.

Even worse, the meeting is scheduled for Tel Aviv. The Palestinian Authority undoubtedly would want it to take place in some PA high-tech city, if any exist.

And what would the international community think if it saw that Palestinian Authority Arabs and Israeli Jews can sit down for direct talks on high-tech without pre-published “details of the event?”

One might reach the conclusion, horror of horrors, that Abbas could sit down with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu without knowing ahead of time ”details of the event.” But that might lead to negotiations, in the true sense of the term.

And that would spell the end of Abbas’ “peace process” strategy of “I take, you give.”

Now that Microsoft and Cisco understand what Abbas means by “direct talks,” maybe they can explain the term to John Kerry.

Cancer sufferers and survivors are at increased risk of major obstetric complications, according to new research by Israeli researchers to be presented next week at the Annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

It is well known that cancer treatments decrease fertility, but very little has been known until now concerning pregnancy outcomes in cancer sufferers and survivors. Tel Aviv’s Sheba Medica Center researchers Drs. Richard Lawrence and Nir Pillar interrogated a large database of U.S. inpatient statistics and identified 15,191 births in which the mother was a cancer sufferer or survivor. Compared with other women, these births were at very high risk for a range of complications ranging from blood clots and premature labor to maternal and fetal death.

“Parenting has been defined as one of life’s greatest fulfillments, and parenthood is a major concern among cancer survivors”, explained Dr. Lawrence, the abstract’s senior author. “Increasingly we are seeking to understand and improve the life-experience of cancer survivors, once cancer treatment is behind them… Our recommendation is that these pregnancies should be considered ‘high-risk’, and very closely monitored.

Meet Jay Shultz, president of the Am Yisrael Foundation and head of seven non-profit organizations serving the international community in Tel Aviv. What opportunities does Tel Aviv offer to immigrants from English-speaking countries and others planning to settle in Israel? Tune into the second part of this week’s Goldstein on Gelt podcast to find out!

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Israel’s Waze user-run navigation service easily beat out Google’s app Tuesday night when the Israel Electric Corp. closed down the high-speed Ayalon Highway that runs through Tel Aviv.

Drivers using the Google app, which uses Android devices that broadcast information of traffic, found themselves being directed to the Ayalon even though it was closed, the Globes business website reported.

On the other hand, Waze, which operates on drivers’ reports, directed motorists to alternate routes.

The website noted that Waze learned its lesson from a disastrous mix-up four months when its system directed drivers to the Ayalon, which had been closed due to flooding. Waze later made it possible for drivers to report blocked roads, which saved the day on Tuesday.