Posts

Israel News for September 10, 2015

/by

< back to sign up

Temple Mount Crackdown
Jews who visit the Temple Mount are often harassed by groups of Muslims called Mourabitoon and Mourabitaat — Arabic for male and female “sentries”. The mission of the “sentries” is to protect the Al Aqsa Mosque from the infidels, and they use physical violence and intimidation to get their job done. The Israeli government has finally had enough.

The defense ministry yesterday banned the groups, making anyone who takes part in, organizes or funds the group’s activities subject to criminal prosecution.

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, who signed the ban, said in a statement that the Mourabitoon and Mourabitaat are a “main cause in the creation of tension and violence on the Temple Mount specifically and Jerusalem in general”.

Upshot
It’s already illegal for Jews to even move their lips in prayer on the Temple Mount. Now it’s illegal for Muslims to harass and incite violence against them. Sound fair?

Israeli Murdered in Nigeria
Nir Rozmarin, a 42 year old Israeli working in Nigeria, was killed in an attempted kidnapping yesterday. The local Chabad emissary, who is organizing the transfer of the body to Israel, said that a jeep entered the building site where the Israeli worked in the morning, and that four men got out and grabbed him. He started shouting and tried to resist. People who were working in the office went downstairs, and a police officer who was outside the site immediately came to see what was happening there. The men began beating the officer. Rozmarin tried to run away, but they shot him in the head from close range.

May his memory be a blessing.

No More Judges
The government committee tasked with appointing rabbinical judges will meet today but is not expected to vote on new appointments.

Background
In addition to the regular civil and criminal courts, Israel maintains a system of rabbinic courts. The rabbinic courts can hear cases relating to business or monetary matters, but their main purpose and power is in the realm of divorce and conversion. The only way to marry and divorce in the State of Israel is via the official rabbinate. That makes the rabbinic courts the only place to adjudicate divorce cases.

Many Israelis feel that the rabbinic court judges are out of touch with modern, secular Israelis and that they make it difficult for women to obtain divorces and thereby remarry. That’s because most of the judges are charedi rabbis who generally abide by stringent positions in Jewish law.

The non-charedi public wants the committee to appoint religious zionist rabbinic judges, many of whom identify with Tzohar, a rabbinic organization seen as more sensitive to the needs of the non-orthodox public.

The charedi establishment, which in effect controls the official Israeli rabbinate, doesn’t feel that the Tzohar affiliated rabbis are strict enough and can be trusted to follow Jewish law according to charedi standards (which they believe are the only correct ones).

The dispute is reflected in the appointment committee, which is currently split. So instead of appointing 24 new judges to regional courts and 6 new judges to the supreme rabbinic court, no new judges will be appointed, and the system will remain backlogged and charedi dominated.

Yesterday, 30 agunot (women who are unable to obtain a religious divorce from their husbands and therefore cannot remarry) wrote a letter to the PM and the head of the committee begging them to appoint rabbinic judges who will be more likely to release them from their “chained” status.

Upshot
This is just another version of the battle that’s being fought over conversions, which led to the formation of an alternative court by a segment of the religious zionist rabbinate. It looks like the same thing might eventually happen in the general rabbinic court system. Unless the charedi and religious zionist rabbis can learn to live in peace, the future of Jewish unity in Israel doesn’t look great.

US in Sinai
In a previous issue we wrote about the 720 US peacekeeping troops stationed in Sinai as part of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) and how the US was evaluating ways to protect them from increased terrorism in Sinai or whether to simply withdraw them.

Last week four US soldiers and two Fijians were wounded when their vehicles were hit by a roadside bomb during a routine patrol near their base.

Anonymous US officials have told the Associated Press that the US will be sending at least 75 additional troops to the Sinai force, including a light-infantry platoon, a surgical team, surveillance equipment and other assets designed to beef up security.

US Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said that the US supports the role of the MFO and will continue to evaluate ways to better increase the security of the troops.

Back to Egypt
After four years of working out of the ambassador’s residence, the Foreign Ministry reopened the official Israeli embassy in Cairo, in a new location. The old embassy was closed after rioters stormed it in 2011.

The Israeli flag was raised and the national anthems of both countries were played during the ceremony. Israeli diplomats including the ambassador to Egypt Haim Koren and Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold attended, along with U.S. envoy to Egypt, Ambassador R. Stephen Beecroft.

The Egyptian government did not send any minister, or even a senior foreign ministry representative, to the opening ceremony. The deputy director of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s protocol department represented Cairo.

Upshot
Are the Egyptians just not that excited about the new embassy, or are they just playing to the Islamic masses by snubbing Israel? Hey, as long as there’s peace.

Shabbat Soccer a Go
Yesterday we told you that the Israeli Football Association decided to cancel all Shabbat games based on a recent labor court ruling. We also told you that Sports and Culture Minister Miri Regev was against the ruling and had instructed the Attorney General to find a way to allow the games to continue.

Well, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said yesterday that he would not enforce the Shabbat prohibitions. His reasoning: since the regulations haven’t been enforced for the past decade, why rock the boat and start enforcing them now? Solid.

The games, and the legal battle, will continue.

Israel News for September 9, 2015

/by

< back to sign up

The Book of Life
In anticipation of the upcoming Rosh Hashana accounting of “who shall live and who shall die”, the Central Bureau of Statistics has released its own accounting of the Holy Land’s population for the year 5776 (Hebrew calendar).

The population in Israel grew by 158,000 or 1.9%, in line with recent years. That’s made up of 170,000 births, 40,000 deaths and 28,000 new immigrants (do the math).

Aliyah increased by 35%, with new immigrants coming from Ukraine (26%), France (25%), Russia (21%) and the United States (9%).

The total population of Israel: 8,412,000. That’s made up of 6,300,000 Jews (75%), 1,746,000 Arabs (21%) and another 4% that don’t fit into either category.

To put this in perspective, the population of Jordan is 6.5 million and that of Lebanon is 4.5 million. Syria was at 22.85 million, but it’s probably closer to 18 million today.

Upshot
At the current rate, in ten years there should be close to 8 million Jews in Israel. That means that for the first time in over 2000 years, the majority of world jewry will reside in the land of Israel.

Shabbat Soccer
Last week an Israeli labor court ruled that soccer games on Shabbat constitute a criminal offense (based on Israeli law, not Jewish law) unless the teams obtain a waiver excusing them from the Shabbat restrictions.

Hundreds of Israeli companies and businesses have received these waivers. The problem in this case is that the waivers are issued by the Economy Minister, who happens to be Aryeh Deri, the leader of the charedi Shas party. The chances of him issuing the waivers are less than the likelihood of getting a snowstorm in Eilat — in the summer.

So, the Israeli Football Association has decided that there won’t be any soccer games next Saturday.

Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev doesn’t like this situation one bit (maybe she has season tickets?). She’s established a committee to figure out a solution within 60 days. She’s also pressing the attorney general to figure out a way around the immediate crisis, telling him to, “find a way of opening the league and continuing the policy of non-enforcement for 60 days, during which time the association and the directorate will have to find a solution.”

Regev feels that the decision to play or not play on Shabbat should not be decided by the courts. She wants the decision to be in the hands of the teams. “Teams that don’t want to play on Shabbat won’t play on Shabbat. And those that want to play will play.”

The case originated from complaints by religious players in the National Soccer League who protested the scheduling of league games on Shabbat.

In a related story, Economy Minister Deri has ordered the closure of the Israeli pavilion at the IBC 2015 exhibition in Amsterdam on three of the five days of the exhibition, since they fall on Shabbat and Rosh Hashana. IBC is the premier annual event for professionals engaged in the creation, management and delivery of entertainment and news content worldwide.

Upshot
The simple solution to the soccer dilemna is to turn Sunday into a day off and have the games then. That would make a lot of working folks very happy.

Labor and Charedim Unite
Liat Shochat has won the election for mayor of the town of Or Yehuda, outside of Tel Aviv. The interesting part of the story is that she was supported by the Charedi and Religious Zionist parties and her top aide was a charedi man. Shochat, 43, is a wife and mother of four. She isn’t religious.

Upshot
Mutual respect and common goals, which Shochat and the Religious parties share, are the keys to unity and peace among all Israelis. If only this would happen more often.

Poor Judgement
A 64 year old man who immigrated to Israel from Yemen twenty years ago decided to return to Yemen to bring back his brother. He’d been there several times on visits, but the last time he went he was accused of spying and imprisoned. He was released with all of the other prisoners when rebels attacked the city. You’d think that would have been enough to keep him from returning. It wasn’t.

The man traveled to Jordan last week, but couldn’t find any flights to Yemen. Then he met three Saudis who offered to take him to Yemen with them, for free. It seems like he accepted their offer. Ok, calm down, we’re just telling you what happened.

Now he’s missing. Surprised? The Israeli foreign ministry can’t help, since Israel has no diplomatic relations with Yemen. All we can do now is pray for his safety.

Shabbat Tragedy
A husband and wife were found dead yesterday in their Jerusalem apartment. The preliminary investigation shows that they died from suffocation caused by their Shabbat blech (a piece of metal that covers the gas stovetop burners and allows one to warm food on Shabbat according to Jewish law). The couple had set up their blech and then closed all the windows in their home. The burner flame consumed all of the oxygen in the apartment and then went out, allowing carbon monoxide gas to fill the air.

The couple had been married for two years. The husband, Yaniv Yehuda, 32, was an immigrant from France. His wife Rachel, 30, was an immigrant from the US.

According to reports, the couple’s table was set for Shabbat with a tablecloth, Kiddush cup and challah. May their memory be a blessing.

Dust in the Wind
Israel’s sky turned brown and yellow yesterday as a massive sand and dust storm, which moved in from Syria, settled over the country. Israel hasn’t seen a storm like this in 75 years.

The poor air quality, combined with a drastic increase in heat and humidity, led to a huge number of people with health complications. Magen David Adom treated 290 people for asthma attacks, fainting and heart problems connected to the weather. Hospitals also treated their share of storm casualties.

Lebanon and Syria got hit at least as bad.

Meteorologists predict clear skies on the horizon. Hope they get it right.

See cool pictures here.

Another Spirit Lifting Gift
Yesterday we told you that the electric company was cutting its rates. Now Israelis will be able to toast to even more savings. That’s because the Finance Ministry and tax authority have decided to cut taxes on alcoholic drinks including beer and hard liquor. They doubled the taxes on these drinks two years ago thinking that they would prevent Israelis from harming their health by drinking too much. But it turns out that Israelis are drinking just as much as they were before. In addition, the higher prices have boosted black market “moonshiners” who are producing and selling low quality alcohol that really is harmful.

Upshot
Israelis will be able to have their booze and put money in their pockets. Happy New Year!!