Archive for category: news

Rabbi List
A list of 160 rabbis from 24 countries was released to the press over the weekend. The list is allegedly a blacklist of rabbis whom the Chief Rabbinate does not trust to verify the Jewish identity of immigrants. Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Lau has denied any knowledge of the list and has strongly reprimanded the rabbinate employee who leaked it to the press.

The Reality
When someone immigrates to Israel (aliya), in order to obtain automatic citizenship under the Law of Return, he must obtain a letter from a rabbi confirming that he is Jewish. A letter from a Reform or Conservative rabbi of a synagogue or institution is acceptable for the purposes of obtaining citizenship. The Israeli rabbinate does not have jurisdiction over citizenship.

If a person converts outside of Israel under the auspices of a recognized Orthodox or non-Orthodox rabbi, the convert is eligible for citizenship under the Law of Return. The Ultra Orthodox parties are backing a law in the Knesset that would give the Chief Rabbinate sole authority over all conversion conducted in Israel. But the law does not effect conversions done outside of Israel.

Since the rabbinate does have jurisdiction over marriage and divorce, the issues of acceptable rabbis and Jewish identity arise when the person in question wants to register for marriage with the rabbinate. In order to do that he (or she) must bring proof of his Jewish identity. At that point the rabbinate can demand evidence based on its own standards. Hence, the “blacklist”.

Regarding the “blacklist”, the overwhelming majority of the rabbis on it are affiliated with the Conservative or Reform movements, which we already know the Chief Rabbinate does not recognize.

So the uproar is apparently regarding the dozen or so US Orthodox rabbis on the list. Almost all of those rabbis are not accepted as members by the RCA (Rabbinical Council of America), which is the primary Modern Orthodox rabbinical umbrella organization, usually because of the quality or source of their rabbinic ordination or affiliations. For example, graduates of the Chovevei Torah are not eligible for RCA membership.

So while this “Blacklist” story makes a great headline and does much to create hatred and dissension within the Jewish community, it really isn’t anything new and doesn’t have much practical effect. (Fake news??)

Obviously, the story doesn’t help the Chief Rabbinate’s PR, but after the freezing of the Western Wall agreement and the push for the Conversion Bill, it doesn’t seem like PR is the rabbinate’s top priority.

Jewish Hebron
Last week UNESCO passed a resolution recognizing the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage site. The cave is the burial place of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah. Rachel is buried in Bethlehem.

In response to the resolution, PM Netanyahu has decided to cut an additional $1 million from Israel’s membership fees to the UN and allocate the funds instead to the construction of The Museum of the Heritage of the Jewish People in Kiryat Arba and Hebron, as well as additional heritage projects in Hebron.

The PM said, “Against UNESCO’s denial, Israel will present to the world the historical truth and the Jewish People’s deep connection—of thousands of years—to Hebron just as we did with UNESCO’s other delusional decision regarding the absence of a connection to Jerusalem.”

Netanyahu also put on a Kipa and read the passages from the Torah describing Abraham’s purchase of the cave.

For further reading click here.

Tragic Accident
Yesterday, 22-year-old Lieutenant David Golovenchich from Efrat was killed when a fellow soldier accidentally fired his rifle during a routine patrol in Hebron. Golovenchich was serving in Golani’s 12th battalion, which is in charge of the Hebron sector. He received emergency treatment at the scene and was rushed to a nearby hospital by helicopter, where he succumbed to his wounds.

Golovenchich will be buried today at 4:00pm with full military honors at the Har Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem. He is survived by his parents, two sisters, and two brothers.

The commander of the Central Command, Major General Roni Numa, has appointed a committee of experts headed by Colonel Ronen Tamim, the head of the Idan division, to investigate the circumstances of the incident.

For further reading click here.

Terror Foiled
Border Police stopped and searched a vehicle at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem and found a bag containing knives, stun and grenades and Molotov cocktails. The six men in the car, all from Nablus, were arrested for questioning.

For further reading click here.

Drone Crash
An IDF Skylark drone crashed in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. The IDF said it was investigating the crash and that there was no fear of leaked information from the aircraft. Last Thursday, another Skylark crashed near Bethlehem before being recovered by the IDF.

According to a senior IDF officer, “The majority of crashes are caused by technical failures and that appears to be the case with this particular crash as well. A technical failure can be caused by a particular component flaw or the engine. People need to understand this is a very basic aircraft, certainly relative to the incredible things it can do. The system is very widely used and every incident such as this is investigated thoroughly by the IDF and the manufacturer to reduce the amount of failures.”

The Skylark drone does not retain any intelligence data and can only be operated by its handlers via a special operating device. The IDF claims that there is absolutely no practical value to the enemy that finds the downed drone.

For further reading click here.

No Demolition
The Supreme Court rejected a petition by the Abu Khdeir family demanding the demolition of the homes of the Jews convicted in the brutal murder of their son. The families wanted the same punishment applied to Arab terrorists to be applied to the Jewish murderers.

Judge Rubinstein noted that regulation 119—which allows ordering the demolition of a home where suspected terror activity occurred or a home of terrorists, their accomplices or supporters—applies both to Arab terrorists and to Jewish terrorists.

However, the judges pointed out that demolition is used as a deterrent and not as a punitive measure. Judge Neal Hendel pointed out that while “we can understand how the victim’s family feels… we are dealing with a deterrent and not punitive measure. It should be remembered that the perpetrators were given lengthy prison sentence.”

In May 2016, Yosef Ben-David was sentenced to life (25 years) and a cumulative punishment of an additional 20 years in prison. One of the minors was sentenced to “only” 21 years in prison after judges determined that he played a “minor role” in the murder, while his accomplice received a life sentence.

For further reading click here.

Indian Visit
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off a three day visit to Israel yesterday by thanking PM Netanyahu for his warm friendship and by saying, “India is a young nation, in which talented youth is the driving force. In a world where rapid progress and development is taking place, India considers Israel as one of its most important partners.” Modi is first Indian PM to visit Israel in the 25 years since Indi and Israel established diplomatic relations.

PM Netanyahu welcomed Modi and said, “We love India and admire its culture, its history and democracy, your commitments and your progress. We see you as close souls in the task of bringing a better future for citizens and the world.”

During the welcome ceremony at Ben Gurion Airport Netanyahu introduced Modi to all of his cabinet ministers and got most of their portfolios right. When he introduced Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely, he pointed out that he was also the Foreign Minister. In addition to welcoming the Indian PM and shaking his hand, some of the ministers added their own personal comments.

To watch a video of the welcome ceremony click here.

Herzog Ousted
Isaac Herzog was ousted from his role as leader of the Labor Party when he suffered a resounding defeat in the first round of the Labor Party primaries yesterday. The winners were Amir Peretz and Avi Gabay, who will go head to head in a runoff on July 10th. Around 52,000 registered party members participated in the voting.

For further reading click here.

Aliyah Day
Over 200 North Americans celebrated the Fourth of July by making Aliyah – immigrated to Israel. Among the new olim, who arrived on a flight organized by Nefesh B’Nefesh, were 14 new IDF soldiers, 5 sets of twins, 34 families, 78 children and 51 singles. Over 2,000 new immigrants from North America are scheduled to arrive in Israel this summer.

For further reading click here.

US Navy
The US Navy’s USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier, with its 6,000 sailors, is docked in Haifa for a four day stay. Sailors are taking advantage of the opportunity to tour and get acquainted with the country, especially the Haifa pubs.

One Haifa bartender, Daniella, described the Americans: “They are very polite. They don’t demand anything. They say ‘thank you’ and ‘excuse me’. They are polite and fun. It’s an experience seeing them be so polite. I wish every Israeli would be like that.” Go Navy!

For further reading click here.

Conversion Controversy
PM Netanyahu is meeting this morning with the heads of his coalition partners to attempt to work out a solution to solve the controversy generated by a bill that would make the Chief Rabbinate the only body authorized to convert people to Judaism in Israel. The bill would pull the government’s recognition of private conversions, namely those not conducted by the Chief Rabbinate, even when those conversions are conducted by Orthodox rabbis or courts.

While the bill does not directly effect conversions conducted outside of Israel, the fear is that it might eventually impinge on those too.

The approval of the bill by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation gives the proposal coalition support, which generally all but guarantees its passage in the Knesset. But statements against the proposal by Yisrael Beitenu leader Avigdor Lieberman could potential threaten its passing.

The PM is leaning towards delaying the Knesset vote on the bill for at least six months.

For further reading click here.

Congressional Critics
Four Jewish Democratic members of Congress criticized PM Netanyahu’s suspension of the agreement to build a non-Orthodox prayer space at the Western Wall. They are Representatives Eliot Engel, Nita Lowey and Jerry Nadler of New York and Ted Deutch of Florida.

Engel said, “I typically refrain from weighing in on internal Israeli government decisions, but the recent developments affecting Kotel prayer and conversion have deeply affected the entire Jewish community, including communities in my district. Certainly, the Jewish community is stronger when united rather than divided. I implore the Israeli government to reverse these decisions and engage in a dialogue with the diverse diaspora Jewish community on how to move forward.”

Lowey said, “Israel should provide an opportunity for all Jews, men and women, to have egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.”

Nadler said, “I am deeply concerned by trends showing young American Jews’ dwindling levels of support for and identification with the state of Israel, and I worry that this decision by the Israeli government will only affirm suspicions that their voices and perspectives have been deemed irrelevant.”

Deutch said he some of his Jewish constituents had expressed disappointment to him about Netanyahu’s decision. “These are members of the community who deeply love and support Israel and they’re hurt and disappointed. I have to say I’m disappointed, too. And I say that not just as a member of Congress, but also as an American Jew.”

For further reading click here.

No German Deal
Germany has scrapped a billion dollar deal to lease Heron-2 drones from Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The reason for the cancellation is because the new drones were already equipped with offensive weapons systems. Germany’s government coalition is against using drones for attacking targets. They want to use them exclusively for intelligence gathering. Germany is currently operating more than ten Heron-1 drones around the world.

For further reading click here.

Olmert Out
Former PM Ehud Olmert will be paroled from prison on Sunday after serving a year and four months or two thirds of his sentence.

The Justice Ministry said in a statement:

“In a discussion at the attorney general’s office this evening, with the participation of the state prosecutor and the top echelon of the State Attorney’s Office, the parole board’s decision in the case of Ehud Olmert was thoroughly studied.”
 
“The State Attorney’s Office recommended that, on considering all the circumstances of the case, there is no basis for appealing to the district court against the parole board’s decision. The attorney general adopted the recommendation, and accordingly it was decided not to file an appeal with the district court.”

For further reading click here.

Super Shekel
The Israeli shekel continues to gain strength over the dollar and euro. That’s bad news for tourists heading to Israel. It’s also bad for Israeli exporters, whose products are now more expensive. Today the shekel fell below NIS 3.50 per US dollar.

The Bank of Israel is now coming under intense pressure to intervene in foreign currency trading and buy foreign exchange in order to weaken the shekel and help exporters. In April and May, the Bank of Israel bought over $2 billion in foreign currency, intervening every time the exchange rate went below NIS 3.60 per dollar. But for the past month now, the Bank of Israel has sat on the sidelines while the shekel slipped below NIS 3.50/$.

For further reading click here.

Math Wiz
According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), a prominent annual publication of university rankings by Shanghai Ranking Consultancy, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem ranks 11th in Math. The Weizmann Institute was ranked 10th in computer sciences and 50th in chemistry.

For further reading click here.

Jewish Link
The Jewish Link of New Jersey has published a great feature article about IsraelAM. To read the article click here.

Shabbat Transport
One day after successfully pressuring the government to disband the compromise agreement allowing for an egalitarian prayer area at the Kotel, the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and UTJ sent a letter to the Ministry of Transport asking that it revoke permits for public transportation on Shabbat in municipalities that permit it including Holon, Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya.

The letter said, “Amendment 28 to the Traffic Ordinance enables the Minister of Transportation to preserve the honor of Shabbat and to decrease its public desecration. The amendment states that ‘the Minister shall take into account, as far as possible, the tradition of Israel, with regard to the prohibition on the movement of vehicles on days of rest’. This refers to the desecration of Shabbat and Jewish holidays via public transportation.”

On a related issue, the Haredi parties have succeeded in moving a bill through the Knesset that places the sole authority to conduct conversions under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate. The law would bypass the Supreme Court’s decision to recognize private conversion for the purpose of the Law of Return.

Currently, all conversions conducted abroad by Orthodox or non-Orthodox rabbis are accepted by the State of Israel for granting citizenship under the Law of Return. The state rabbinate only recognizes conversions by Orthodox rabbis who are on a pre-approved list. The rabbinate controls marriage registration. That means converts converted by non-Orthodox rabbis or by Orthodox rabbis not on the “list” cannot be married in Israel.

The ultra-Orthodox parties view prohibiting public transportation on Shabbat and authority over conversion as vital to maintaining the Jewish character of the state.

For further reading click here.

Air Strikes
The Israeli Air Force attacked two Hamas military targets in Gaza last night after a rocket launched from Gaza landed in Israel (in an open area). A terror group related to ISIS claimed responsibly for the rocket attack. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all military activity in Gaza.

For further reading click here.

Outsourcing Tech
Due to a growing shortage of computer programmers and engineers, Israeli tech companies are outsourcing to Eastern Europe. There are currently hundreds of development centers located primarily in the Ukraine, but also in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Poland.

For example, Wix.com, which helps small businesses build websites and is one of Israel’s hottest tech companies, employs 120 workers in two development centers in Ukraine and another 80 at a site in Lithuania. Salaries in the Eastern European countries are 40% lower than in Israel. Most of the European workers speak English and there are also many Russian speaking Israeli, so communications isn’t a problem. Also, the countries and Israel share the same time zone.

The government is working on initiatives to improve math and science education and to integrate more Arabs and Haredim into the tech industry. But the shortage of programmers and engineers is expected to grow to over 10,000 within a decade.

For further reading click here.

Increased Security
PM Netanyahu announced last night that he intends to beef up security arrangements and implement other changes at the Damascus Gate in the Old City, where numerous terror attacks have taken place including the recent one that claimed the life of Hadas Malka.

He said, “I asked for changes at the Damascus Gate. They have prepared a plan to augment security and restrict the freedom of action by potential terrorists. I approved the this plan and it will be implemented extremely soon.”

Regarding the Damascus Gate he said, “The gate has become a gathering for murderers time and again, for attackers time and again. It has become a symbol of terrorism and has also become a symbol for anti-terrorism, of the fight against terrorism. That is why I asked for a plan and changes.”

For further reading click here.

Blood Money
Speaking in the name of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, PA spokesman Nabil Shaath said the Palestinians have a “social responsibility” to offer monetary payouts to the families of prisoners in Israeli jails because they are “political prisoners,” and that the payouts are the PA’s way of “look(ing) after innocent people affected by the incarceration or killing of their loved ones as a result of the military occupation.”

The statement incurred a wave of responses from victims of terror groups, saying that it showed the true face of the Palestinian political leadership.

Can the peace process move forward while these terror payments continue?

For further reading click here.

Lights On
Egypt has shipped 1 million liters of fuel to power the sole electricity power plant in Gaza yesterday. The move undercuts Abbas’s attempt to punish Hamas by cutting off his supply of electricity to Gaza and stopping tax payments to Israel, which caused Israel to cut its electricity supply to Gaza too. Hamas officials said more fuel shipments are expected this week, adding that 1 million liters can keep the plant running for three-and-a-half days.

Abbas has not commented publicly on the Egyptian shipment, but aides have said he is upset with the Arab nation for undercutting his pressure campaign. The Egyptian aide seems surprising, since Egypt has been trying to isolate and weaken Hamas, which it blames for supporting unrest in the Sinai. But there are political motives behind the aide, which relate to a former Gaza leader, Mohammed Dahlan, whom the Egyptians would like to see back in power. The aide is apparently part of a deal to increase Dahlan’s political presence in Gaza.

For further reading click here.

Beersheva Parade
Around 4,000 marchers participated in Beersheva’s first ever gay pride parade last night. City Mayor Rubik Danilovich said in a statement, “Be’er Sheva is for everyone and I am the mayor for everyone. … Be’er Sheva is united, accepting and tolerant. Even if we are difference, we are all equal in the same exact way.”

The parade was originally supposed to take place in 2016 but was cancelled by the Supreme Court’s rejection of a petition submitted by the Israeli National LGBT Taskforce (also known as the Aguda) and Pride House (a local Be’er Sheva LGBT center), requesting that Be’er Sheva’s first ever Pride parade be allowed to march down the city’s main road.

Police arrested a hared man with a knife who was trying to make his way into the crowds.

For further reading click here.

Big Donation
US billionaire Sheldon Adelson, a major Republican party supporter, will donate around $20 million for the major expansion of Ariel University, which is located in the West Bank (Samaria). The expansion will include buildings will be dedicated to natural sciences, social sciences and community health, as well as a faculty of Jewish heritage. The cost of the entire project is estimated at $113 million.

For further reading click here.