Archive for category: news

Pardon Rejected
President Reuven Rivlin has rejected a request to pardon Elor Azaria, the IDF soldier convicted of manslaughter for shooting a neutralized terrorist in the head and killing him. Azaria is serving a year and a half sentence.

Azaria filed his request a month ago, telling the president: “I unfortunately did not receive a just trial. This is how I feel, and nothing can change it. In any case, I ask for a measure of justice and mercy, the essence of the presidential pardon, from His Honor the President in this request.”

In a letter to Azaria explaining his decision Rivlin wrote, “… an additional lightening of your sentence would harm the resilience to the Israel Defense Forces and the State of Israel. The values of the Israel Defense Forces, and among them the Purity of Arms, are the core foundation of the strength of the Israel Defense Forces, and have always stood strong for us in the just struggle for our right to a safe, national home, and in the building a robust society.”

He added, “In addition, in September 2017, the Chief of Staff saw fit to further ease your sentence and reduce the punishment by four months from the prison sentence imposed upon you, for reasons of compassion and while taking into consideration your military service as a soldier in the operational arena.”

Defense Minister Lieberman and Culture Minister Miri Regev both lashed out at President Rivlin’s decision not to pardon Azaria. Rivlin was also attacked on social media, where images of him wearing an Arab kaffiyeh were posted. Police are investigating what they are considering to be incitement to violence against the president. Opposition MKs are calling on PM Netanyahu to speak out in defense of the president.

For further reading click here.

Terror Judgement
The Jerusalem District Court has ordered the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the terrorists who killed three Israelis on Highway 443 in 2001 to pay 62 million shekels to the victims’ families. The PA was ordered to pay 40% of the damages. The verdict clearly place blame on the PA for supporting terror activity.

For further reading click here.

Haredi Arrests
Hundreds of protestors from the Jerusalem Faction blocked several main highways and intersections in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak yesterday to protest the drafting of Haredi yeshiva students by the IDF. Some of the demonstrations turned violent and around 40 demonstrators were arrested.

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IDF Strikes Syria
IDF tanks in the Hermon area fired warning shots at Syrian army positions in the northern Golan Heights in Syria on two separate occasions. The IDF claims Syria violated the 1974 ceasefire agreement on the Golan Heights by using heavy tools to fortify a military post in the demilitarized zone between the countries. The IDF complained to the UN peacekeeping force stationed in the area before firing the warning shots. IDF tanks were deployed to Mount Hermon earlier last week.

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Cruise Time
Did you know that 85,000 Israelis went on cruises this year? Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) believes that number will rise by 20% next, and they’re looking to take advantage of it by offering route with a variety of kosher supervision and second vacations at half price. According to NCL’s managing director, Israel is in sixth place worldwide in the number of per capita cruise passengers.

For further reading click here.

Arrests and Maintenance
Police swooped down on the East Jerusalem Arab area of a-Tur overnight and arrested dozens of suspected terrorist. As part of the same operation, police and municipality workers removed piles of garbage and abandoned vehicles from the streets of the neighborhood, erected street signs that were missing, fixed traffic and streetlights and erased graffiti from walls.

Jerusalem District police commander Maj.-Gen. Yoram Halevy said at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies conference last week that these operations are meant to create balance and show the residents of east Jerusalem that “those who’ve done wrong will be treated as such and those who’ve done good will be rewarded.”

Halevy said this was part of the implementation of a new strategy by the Jerusalem District Police to shift its power from only chasing the “bad guys” to also nurture the “good guys,” so they “can help the police help them.”

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Confiscating Land
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced yesterday that, in certain circumstances, confiscating privately-owned Palestinian land for settlements is legal. He was specifically referring to the confiscation of Palestinian owned land for the construction of a main access road to the settlement of Harsha.

The attorney general’s announcement was primarily predicated on a ruling made a few weeks ago by Israeli Arab Supreme Court Justice Salim Joubran, who stated that private Palestinian land could be confiscated for settlements in certain circumstances, justifying his contention on the fact that “Israelis are also part of the local population.” He said, “Israelis there have the right to life, dignity, property and all rights afforded to other people in Israel.”

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Prisoner in Gaza
US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt hosted the family of Abera Mengistu, the Israeli held by Hamas in Gaza for three years, at the White House yesterday.

Greenblatt tweeted, “Today I welcomed the family of Abera Mengistu to the White House. Abera has been held by Hamas in Gaza for over 1,000 days since he disappeared in September 2014. It is outrageous that Hamas will not let him return home or communicate with his family.”

The Mengistu family, which is visiting the US as part of its effort to raise awareness for the struggle to bring him home, also attended the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Los Angeles, where they met with President Reuven Rivlin. They will also be visiting the United Nations.

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Better Banking
Transferring money from a US bank account to an Israeli account is an expensive and time consuming process, with transaction fees and bureaucracy on both ends. But Joseph Sokol, a 21 year old American oleh (immigrant) from Los Angeles, has come up with a solution.

Sokol has created, OlehPay, a website that enables users to inexpensively send money from the US to Israel. The website saves users foreign wire and processing fees, which make up the bulk of the costs of transfers. Users on average save about $65 on wire fees per transaction.

Sokol explained, “Our system debits the account in the US as a local transaction — which is cheaper than an international transaction, and credits the account in Israel as a local transaction as well. We do away with SWIFT, checks processing fees ATM fees and wire transfer fees.”

OlehPay limits transfers to NIS 50,000 ($14,000), because under NIS 50,000 Israeli law does not require a face-to-face meeting.

Regarding security, Sokol said, “All of the information is secured by segmenting the information on three separate servers, to fragment information about the transactions, personal information and account details.”

The company is licensed through its partners as an accredited money service business in the US and Israel and holds customer funds in individually secured FDIC (Federal Department of Insurance Corporation) insured accounts — ensuring the safety of customer funds.

The 2 man company, Sokol and his partner Meir Leff (22), currently has around 400 users and is in negotiations with an interested Chinese billionaire investor.

For further reading click here.

To check out the website click here.

Jerusalem Demolitions
The Jerusalem Municipality, led by Mayor Nir Barkat, will demolish six apartment buildings in the Arab neighborhood of Kafr Aqab, which is part of Jerusalem but outside of the security barrier. The buildings slated for destruction are all at least 6 stories high and one of them houses a mosque. The buildings were all built illegally, without permits. The demolition will be carried out in a joint operation between city officials, Israel Police, the IDF, and the Shin Bet.

A spokesman for the mayor’s office said, “The demolition orders were issued months ago against [the buildings] which had been built illegally and without building permits and which had no residents [when the orders were issued] and which today are still largely empty. Time and again, the courts, including the Jerusalem District Court and the Israeli Supreme Court, issued [demolition] orders.”

He added, “Demolition of the illegal buildings will enable the City of Jerusalem to pave a highway, improving the lives of tens of thousands of residents. The new road is absolutely necessary, and it will benefit all of the residents of Kafr Aqab.”

For further reading click here.

Secret Meetings
According to Israeli media reports, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizonkot traveled to Belgium for a secret meeting with the commander of the American forces in Europe, US General Curtis Scaparrotti, over the weekend. The two military leaders reportedly discussed the Iranian military build-up in Syria and the country’s civil war winding down. This was the second meeting between the two men in the past two weeks.

Satellite images commissioned by the BBC seem to show Iranian construction activity at a Syrian army base eight miles south of Damascus and only 30 miles from the Israeli border.

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Health News
According to a study just released by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, 53 percent of Israelis are overweight including 16.6% who are obese. The numbers are still below the OECD average of 54% for overweight and 19% for obese. In the US, Hungary, New Zealand and Mexico, over 30% of the population is obese. Japan is the thinnest nation.

The OECD survey found life expectancy for Israelis has increased by 10 years since 1970, with an average person now living to the age of 82.1. Israeli women live 4 years longer (84.1 years) than Israeli men. Japan has the highest average life expectancy, with 83.9.

Israeli teens eat more vegetables than those in all other OECD countries, except for Belgium. But Israeli teens are also the least likely to do daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

Israel has the highest rate of colon cancer survival in the OECD, at 71.7%, compared to an average of just 62.8%. Israel also has the fifth lowest suicide rate among developed nations.

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Netanyahu Biography
If you’re interested in learning more about the longest serving Prime Minister in Israel’s history, you should read this new biography called The Netanyahu Years, by Ben Caspit. The book is basically divided into 3 parts. The first part traces Netanyahu’s life from his childhood through his rise to the PM’s office. The second part focuses on his tumultuous relationship with US President Obama and the third part on the Iranian threat.

There’s a lot you’ll learn from this bio that you might not know about the PM. For example, did you know that Netanyahu was married three times? He met current wife Sarah when she was an El Al flight attendant on one of his flights before he became PM. His second wife an American Christian woman who converted to Judaism under the auspices of the Conservative movement. The fact that Netanyahu enjoys the support of the Haredi parties, who reject Conservative conversions, is a true testament to his political prowess. On the flip said, his only daughter from his first wife is now Haredi.

While the author of the book doesn’t seem to be Netanyahu’s biggest fan, it is still a relatively balanced and factual account of the PM. But a warning: you might not like what you learn.

To check out the book on Amazon click here.

Fighting Terror
A Palestinian official claimed yesterday that Palestinian Authority security forces stopped seven terror attacks against Israelis in the West Bank in October. According the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the Palestinian security apparatus prevented planned stabbings, shootings and bombings. The Palestinians have been cracking down hard on Hamas members in the West Bank, arresting 46 last month along with dozens of members of other terror groups.

For further reading click here.

Egypt Talks Peace
In an interview with Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that he believes a solution can reached to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and that the Israeli public can be persuaded into signing a peace agreement.

He said, “We, the Arabs, can convince public opinion in Israel of the advantages of peace. The benefits gained following the agreement between Egypt and Israel are evidence of that. Finding a solution to the Palestinian issue will bring about a new situation in the region. Our brothers in the Gulf states understand this issue.”

The Egyptian president also praised the reconciliation agreement between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

For further reading click here.

Toyota Invests
Toyota AI Ventures managing director Jim Adler has told “Reuters” that Israel is the market of the future. The new $100 million California-based venture arm of Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp wants to make more investments in Israeli robotics and vehicle technologies after its initial $14 million investment in Ramat Gan based Intuition Robotics in July. The fund invests in artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomous mobility and data and cloud computing.

Adler said, “We will see more involvement of Toyota in the Israeli market in the future. There’s more in the pipeline.”

For further reading click here.

New Business Site
Israel’s leading financial newspaper Calcalist has launched an English-language news site dedicated to Israeli tech. Calcalistech.com, or CTech, will be an online gateway to Israeli tech, providing international readers with real-time, high-impact stories from the country’s vibrant innovation hub.

The new site will report on large Israeli linked tech companies as well as Israel’s startup scene. The site also has an iOS and Android app.

To go to the website click here.

Jewish Manuscripts
On the 100th anniversary of Russia’s October Revolution, Israel’s National Library and the Russian State Library announced an agreement to digitize the Gunzburg collection’s 2,000 manuscripts.

Baron David Gunzburg, a Jewish-Russian aristocrat, amassed one of the largest and most important collections of Jewish manuscripts before his death in 1910. The Russian State Library’s Gunzburg collection includes over 2,000 manuscripts and thousands of printed volumes, including biblical texts, Talmuds, rabbinic interpretations, and philosophical treatises by Aristotle, Averroes, Maimonides, Al-Ghazali and others.

The project to digitize the library is being funded by a Russian oligarch who is Muslim. The collection will be available online at the National Library of Israel’s digital manuscript archive.

For further reading click here.

Lucky Tourists
A young couple from Romania hit the jackpot by being the 3 millionth tourists to Israel in 2017. They were greeted at Ben Gurion airport with a red carpet and by Tourism minister Yariv Levin, who whisked them away to a luxury suite at a Dead Sea hotel by limousine. They also got a helicopter tour of the country, a guided sunset tour along Tel Aviv’s boardwalk, and a gourmet private dinner prepared by Israeli chef Nir Zook at his home.

But the most surprising part of their adventure came when they were met by PM Netanyahu in Jerusalem, who proceeded to give them a guided tour of David’s Citadel in the Old City. And it was quite a tour.

To view the video of the PM going the couple his personal tour, click here.

IDF Says No
The IDF has refused to allow Hamas to retrieve the bodies of its terrorists that were killed in the tunnel destroyed earlier this week unless Hamas releases more information regarding the bodies of slain IDF soldiers killed in 2014’s Operation Protective Edge. Hamas had appealed through the Red Cross on Wednesday. Although the bodies are technically in Gaza, the IDF prohibits Gazans from getting within 300 meters of the border.

Several left-wing organizations yesterday appealed to the Attorney General and the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories demanding that the IDF allow the Palestinian search and rescue teams to enter the border area to locate and retrieve the bodies.

A spokesperson from one of the organizations, Muna Haddad, said, “To prevent them from locating and rescuing those missing in the area currently under the control of the Israeli army is a blatantly illegal policy and contravenes both Israeli and international law and violates the Geneva Convention.”

For further reading click here.

Air Force Show
This coming Sunday, Israel will host air force units from around the world as part of the biannual “Blue Flag” international training exercise. The exercise, which is centered at the Ovda airbase in southern Israel, will be the largest ever in Israel’s history. It will include around 70 foreign aircraft, and hundreds of pilots and air support team members. Participants in Blue Flag include the United States, France, Italy, Greece, Poland, Germany, and India.

To watch a video and see images click here.

Birthright Makes Change
Two years ago Birthright, the organization that organizes free trips to Israel for Jews in the early twenties, integrated meetings with Israeli Arabs into their trip itineraries. This week they suspended those meetings. In a statement to Haaretz, Birthright explained that the “results of the initial evaluation have shown that there is a need for further analysis of this module in the context of the educational trip as a whole.”

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union of Reform Judaism, criticized the decision saying, “The fact  that Birthright Israel has decided to halt their outreach to Arab citizens of Israel shows just how out of touch Birthright is  becoming. Birthright has been a transformative experience for over half a million young Jews, 40 percent who self-identify as Reform, but many are now questioning whether the ten-day trips are exposing participants to a too-narrow slice of contemporary Israel.”

Jacobs added that cutting out the meetings, “will communicate loudly and clearly that these are trips with a narrow political agenda that is out of step with today’s young Jews and most of their parents as well.”

For further reading click here.

Chief Rabbi
According to a report in the haredi Mishpacha magazine, top officials in the Shas party are considering asking Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef to resign as Chief Rabbi of Israel and join Shas in order to revitalize the party. As Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Yosef is forbidden from engaging with a political party.

Shas officials believe that Rabbi Yosef can blunt Shas’ continuous slide in the polls if he would join the party due to his stature as the son of Shas founder and former Chief Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. A senior Shas official said, “Thousands of attendees fill every event which the Chief Rabbi appears at. It’s almost like 25 years ago when Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef was still alive – he brings electricity with him”.

For further reading click here.

Kosher Beauty
Rotem Rabi, 21, is Miss Israel 2017. Now she’s in China for the international Miss World pageant. Rabi was raised in a traditional family and keeps kosher, always. That’s not so easy in China. Rabi said, “I’m having difficulty with the food, almost nothing here is kosher.
I’m living on pineapple and cookies, and I hope that the problem will be solved in the next few days.”

I’m sure Chabad will be on the case after they read this.

For further reading click here.

Shabbat Music
What happens when a group of Sephardic musicians get together for an informal jam session to sing Shabbat songs? You will definitely enjoy.

To watch the video click here.