Archive for category: news

US Veto
As expected, the US vetoed a draft resolution in the UN Security Council written by Egypt that called on the US to reverse its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The other 14 countries on the council voted in favor of the resolution.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said, “The United States has a sovereign right to determine where and whether we establish an embassy. I suspect very few member states would welcome Security Council pronouncements about their sovereign decisions.” She added, “What we witnessed here in the Security Council is an insult. It won’t be forgotten.”

PM Netanyahu responded to the US veto tweeting, “Thank you, Ambassador Haley. On Hanukkah, you spoke like a Maccabi. You lit a candle of truth. You dispel the darkness. One defeated the many. Truth defeated lies. Thank you, President Trump. Thank you, @nikkihaley.”

The Palestinians have said that they will call for an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly, where anti Israel (and anti US) resolutions are almost certain to pass with ease.

For further reading click here.

Attempted Murder
The Military Advocate General filed an indictment Monday against Muhammad Wadi for attempted murder in the attack against a group of children on a hike near the Palestinian village of Qusra in the northern West Bank two weeks ago. According to the indictment, during the incident, Wadi entered the cave where the children were hiding from a pursuing Palestinian mob and hurled large stones at them at close range. Some of the stones hit their chaperone, injuring him in the head.

One of the chaperones, who was also the father of one of the hikers, shot at the attackers and killed one of them. He was questioned by police for the shooting but subsequently released.

For further reading click here.

Palestinian Arrested
On Friday a video was taken of a Palestinian teenage girl and others harassing, pushing and hitting IDF soldiers on patrol in the village of Rabi Salih. The soldiers did not react to the harassment. Last night the girl was arrested by the Shin Bet and taken in for questioning.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday morning that the girl, Ahed Tamimi, will not be the only one to bear the consequences of her actions, “her parents and her surroundings won’t get away from what they deserve.”

Lieberman added that Israel “would not allow any harm to soldiers and officers. We’ll do what needs to be done. I will deal with this matter together with the Military Advocate General and the Chief of Staff. The most important thing is that those who carried out an offense during the day were arrested during the night.”

To watch the video click here.

IDF Video
The IDF has launched a new video series called inside the IDF. A new video is published each month with a roundup of the events of that month. To watch the latest episode click here.

Cannabis Fever
According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, around 400 farmers in Israel have applied for licenses to grow cannabis since the government loosened restrictions on medical marijuana last year. The ministry has also received 250 applications from nurseries wishing to distribute marijuana plants, 95 from pharmacies looking to sell cannabis products, and 60 from entrepreneurs interested in opening marijuana processing facilities. Regulators are reviewing the requests and have already provided preliminary approval to a majority of applicants. Doctors will be able to begin prescribing medical marijuana to patients in next six months.

A law to allow exports of medical marijuana is making its way through the Knesset after receiving support from top ministers, who estimated in August that sales could generate $1.1 billion for the Israeli economy. The bill is on track to be passed some time next year.

For further reading click here.

Winding Down
Our annual fundraising drive is ending today. If you’re still on the fence about contributing and you love our daily email and want to continue receiving it, please take a moment to show your support.

The amount of your donation is less important to us than the message that it sends us. Even a $12 donation, which would mean the daily email is worth $1 a month, would send a positive message of support and encouragement to continue.

And if you want to but simply can’t afford to contribute, send us an email telling us that you want IsraelAM to continue.

If we don’t end up reaching our modest fundraising goal, all donations received during this fundraising drive will be returned.

Contribute any amount you like by clicking the green button or contribute a preset amount by clicking one of the blue buttons:

Breaking News
A Palestinian terrorist stabbed a Border Policeman today during clashed between Border Police and Palestinian demonstrators near Ramallah. The terrorist was shot and neutralized. The victim suffered light injuries to his shoulder, and was taken to hospital for treatment.

For further reading click here.

Terrorist Bodies
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the state cannot indefinitely hold the corpses of terrorists and refrain from returning them to their families for burial. The court said that the government would need to pass a special law to hold the bodies. The state is currently holding the bodies of nine terrorists. Families of the terror victim lashed out against the ruling, claiming that it favored terrorists.

For further reading click here.

Pence Postponed
US Vice President Mike Pence is expected to postpone his visit to Israel from Sunday to Wednesday to help pass President Trumps new tax reform plan in the US Senate. Pence was scheduled to spend 2 to 3 days in Israel following Trumps declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The Palestinians announced that they will boycott Pence’s visit.

For further reading click here.

Ambassador Lights
David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel, lit the menorah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem for the second night of Hanukkah. Thousands attended the ceremony on Wednesday evening. Friedman lit the menorah accompanied by the Western Wall’s rabbi, Shmuel Rabinovitch; Jerusalem’s chief rabbi, Shlomo Amar; and the minister of tourism, Yariv Levin.

Friedman tweeted after the lighting, “A great honor to light the Menorah at the Western Wall. Some 2,180 years ago, the Maccabees reclaimed this very site and restored Jewish ritual to the Second Temple. Awed to stand on the same hallowed ground. Happy Chanukah to all!!”

For further reading click here.

Teva Cuts
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries plans to relocate or shut down most of its manufacturing operations in Israel as part of the wider global restructuring strategy announced by the company in late November. The company will fire over half of its Israeli workforce, cutting 3,300 jobs out of 6,430 in the country. It intends to do away with most of its domestic manufacturing activities, shutting and selling entire sites, and drastically reducing the size of operations in remaining sites.

PM Netanyahu has pledged to try and convince Teva to retain all of its Israel operations.

For further reading click here.

Hanukkah Music
Here’s a Hanukkah medley Hassidic style, to brighten up your day. Click here.

You Gotta Read This
Here a few emails we recently received:

This one is from Australia: “as someone with a long term interest in Israel’s past-present and future I really do appreciate your newsletter as it keeps me up to date with current affairs which we hear nothing about on the general news. I do intend to help with finance and am about to set up a means of donating, as a pensioner it may not be as big as a completed wall however one only builds with “one brick at a time”.

“I very much appreciate IsraelAM!! As a pastor, I have a great interest and love for Israel.
While I can’t afford to contribute, I want IsraelAM to continue.”

And finally, we just had to share this one: “I’m 89, on social security of $720 a month and food stamps and even buying a stamp to mail a letter is thought provoking. I really like to receive Isarael a.m. and hope you can continue. In God we trust….”

If you’re still on the fence about donating to our annual fundraising drive and you love our daily email and want to continue receiving it, please take a moment to show your support.

The amount of your donation is less important to us than the message that it sends us. Even a $12 donation, which would mean the daily email is worth $1 a month, would send a positive message of support and encouragement to continue.

And if you want to but simply can’t afford to contribute, send us an email telling us that you want IsraelAM to continue.

If we don’t end up reaching our modest fundraising goal, all donations received during this fundraising drive will be returned.

Contribute any amount you like by clicking the green button or contribute a preset amount by clicking one of the blue buttons:

Rocket Intercepted
Last night, the Iron Dome system intercepted a rocket over Ashkelon that was launched from Gaza. Earlier on Monday another rocket was fired at Israel and detonated in an open area near the border. There were no injuries or damage from either rocket. The IDF retaliated with armored and air attacks against Hamas posts in southern and northern Gaza.

For further reading click here.

Rabbi Passes
Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman, the sage and rabbinic leader, passed away this morning at the age of 104. Hundreds of thousands are participating in his funeral taking place at this time in Bnai Brak. He will be laid to rest next to his wife in the Ponevezh cemetery in Bnei Brak. May his memory be a blessing for us all.

Rabbi Steinmann’s last will and testament was read at the funeral. His instructions included:

1. Not to eulogize him or conduct any mourning gatherings.

2. Not to make mass announcements regarding his funeral. It’s enough if only 10 men attend.

3. To bury him among simple people.

4. Just to write on his tombstone, “Here is buried” along with his full name. No other accolades or approbations.

5. To purchase the cheapest and simplest tombstone.

6. That whoever want to benefit him should study one chapter of Mishna and recite 10 chapters of psalms each day for the 12 months of his mourning.

7. Not to call him “Tzadik” or “God Fearing” so as not to embarrass him in the “World of Truth”.

To read and listen to the entire will, click here.

To see images and video of the funeral click here.

To read more about Rabbi Shteinman’s life click here.

Landmines Exploded
Israel’s Landmines Removal Agency detonated a string of 300 landmines in the Golan Heights in a controlled explosion on Monday. The landmines were buried there by the Syrian army before 1967, when Syria controlled the area.

The Ministry of Defense is pursuing a campaign to clear the Golan of landmines. The campaign began in August and is expected to last three years and clear thousands of mines. The land cleared will be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Golan Regional Council and to the town of Majdal Shams (Druze) to be used for agriculture, tourism or other civilian uses.

For further reading click here.

Hanukkah Tonight
The holiday of Hanukkah begins tonight and lasts for eight days, commemorating the miraculous burning of one day’s supply of oil for eight days in the menorah in the Holy Temple rededicated by the Maccabees and the Jewish nation. The holiday also commemorates the victory of the Jewish people over the Hellenists, who tried to eradicate the Jewish religion. It was the first time a nation rose up in arms in the defense of freedom of religion. The lights of Hanukkah remind us to cherish our faith and freedom, and resist those that try to deprive us of them. May we all continue to enjoy the freedom represented by our Hanukkah lights and share the light with the entire world.

Testimonial
We couldn’t resist sharing this email we received yesterday from a reader:

“I’m fairly new to your emails. But besides for making a donation (I can’t afford much but I sent $36), I want you to know that you have quickly distinguished yourself as one of the most useful daily emails I receive. Thank you – and I hope you do continue.”

We greatly appreciate your support, and wish that all of our readers would feel the same way.

Big Question
One of the primary purposes of our fundraising drive is to determine whether you view IsraelAM as a valuable resource or just another email cluttering your inbox that you could do without. Publishing IsraelAM is extremely labor intensive and requires a huge commitment (as you can imagine). Continuing to do so only makes sense if we’re making a real impact. And we’re turning to you to either give us the push to continue or tell us it’s just not worth our effort.

Many of you have already shown us incredible encouragement and support by making donations, and we thank you for doing so. The overwhelming majority of you haven’t yet, which is also a message that we take seriously.

We’ve decided to continue our fundraising drive until the end of Hanukkah and then evaluate whether there’s enough interest in IsraelAM to make sense for us to keep publishing it.

If your feedback indicates that we should discontinue IsraelAM, all donations received during this fundraising drive will be returned.

The amount of your donation is less important to us than the message that it sends us. Even a $12 donation, which would mean the daily email is worth $1 a month, would send a positive message of support and encouragement to continue.

Contribute any amount you like by clicking the green button or contribute a preset amount by clicking one of the blue buttons:

US Recognizes Jerusalem
Yesterday, President Trump announced that the US recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that he has instructed the State Department to begin the process of moving the US embassy there.

Trump based his decision on several factors:

1. The law passed by Congress in 1995, by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, called the Jerusalem Embassy Act, which directed the federal government to recognize Jerusalem as the capital and to move the embassy there. The law was reaffirmed by a unanimous vote of the Senate six months ago. (Since that law, each President has signed a waiver every 6 months to override it.) Trump said, “While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering.”

2. The fact that not recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has not helped bring peace. Therefore, “It would be folly to assume that repeating the exact same formula would now produce a different or better result.”

3. The US is simply recognizing the reality of the situation — that Israel is the functioning capital of Israel. He said, “But today, we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more, or less, than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.”

4. “Israel is a sovereign nation with the right like every other sovereign nation to determine its own capital. Acknowledging this as a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace.”

Trump reiterated that the US is committed “to helping facilitate a peace agreement that is acceptable to both sides. I intend to do everything in my power to help forge such an agreement.”

He said that, “The United States would support a two-state solution if agreed to by both sides.” [Which means the US will NOT impose a two-state solution on Israel. As he said in the past, he’s open to whatever the parties decide — one state or two states.]

While recognizing Jerusalem as the capital, Trump also pointed out, “We are not taking a position of any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the resolution of contested borders. Those questions are up to the parties involved.” [How this will effect Israeli construction in predominantly Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem isn’t clear yet, but Israel will most likely take it as a green light to continue.]

Trump said, “This sacred city should call forth the best in humanity, lifting our sights to what it is possible; not pulling us back and down to the old fights that have become so totally predictable. Peace is never beyond the grasp of those willing to reach. So today, we call for calm, for moderation, and for the voices of tolerance to prevail over the purveyors of hate. Our children should inherit our love, not our conflicts.”

He concluded with a call for peace, saying, “So today, let us rededicate ourselves to a path of mutual understanding and respect. Let us rethink old assumptions and open our hearts and minds to possible and possibilities. And finally, I ask the leaders of the region—political and religious; Israeli and Palestinian; Jewish and Christian and Muslim—to join us in the noble quest for lasting peace.”

Trump also announced that Vice President Pence will travel to the Middle East to meet with leaders and reaffirm the US commitment to the region.

The moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem is expected to take several years.

To read Trump’s entire speech click here.

Evangelical Push
One of the main factors that contributed to Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem and move the US embassy there was intense pressure from US Evangelical Christians.

Activists’ efforts included an email campaign launched by the group My Faith Votes. The group is chaired by Mike Huckabee, the former Republican presidential candidate and father of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary. The group posted a form on its website and urged people to contact the White House to press for recognition of Jerusalem as the capital.

Another evangelical group, American Christian Leaders for Israel, which includes conservative activists Gary Bauer and Penny Nance, sent a letter to Trump warning that time was of the essence in moving the embassy.

“The faith community has talked to the administration for months and months about the need to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” said Robert Jeffress, pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas and an evangelical adviser to Trump. ”But the fact is, we didn’t have to do any convincing of this administration. This was a campaign promise that President Trump was happy to keep because he feels that way.”

To read more about this click here.

More to Come
Following the US recognition of Jerusalem, PM Netanyahu said today, “I would like to announce that we are already in contact with other countries which will issue a similar recognition. I have no doubt that the moment the American Embassy moves to Jerusalem, and even before then, there will be a movement of many embassies to Jerusalem. The time has come.”

Netanyahu added, “President Trump has immortalized himself in the chronicles of our capital. His name will now be held aloft, alongside other names connected to the glorious history of Jerusalem and of our people.”

Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Israel’s embassies abroad have already began putting out feelers to see if other nations were willing to follow suit and recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move their embassies there.

For further reading click here.

Arab Reaction
Reacting to Trump’s speech, Palestinian Authority President Abbas said, “Trump’s decision will not change the reality in the city of Jerusalem. This is a Palestinian, Arab, Islamic city and it is the capital of the Arab Palestine.” He said, “With this announcement, the American administration has chosen to violate all international and bilateral agreements and resolutions and it has chosen to violate international consensus.” Other Palestinian leaders echoed his sentiments.

Hamas called for rage, violence … all the usual stuff you’ve come to expect from a terror group.

Hundreds of Palestinians protested at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, carrying Palestinian flags. Among other things, protesters called out “We will sacrifice our lives for al-Aqsa.” In the West Bank, thousands of Palestinians protested in several different cities, including Jenin, Hebron, Bethlehem and Ramallah. Protests also took place in Gaza.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister said, “Jordan rejects the decision and all its implications and will continue to work for an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Tunisia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Lebanon, Syria — all strongly condemned the US move.

The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss.

The US State Department has asked Israel to “restrain” its response to the Jerusalem recognition.

For further reading click here.

Attackers Arrested
Last night, security forces arrested 20 Palestinians from the village of Qusra suspected of taking part in the attack on a group of Jewish children on a hike in the area last week. Other terror suspects were also arrested.

For further reading click here.

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