Archive for October 30, 2013

Bank of Israel governor Flug: Israel’s economy in good state

 

In her 1st public address since the gov’t approved her appointment as Bank of Israel governor, Dr. Karnit Flug tells PM’s Conference: ‘The growth rates in Israel are relatively high & the economy is in good condition compared to developed countries’

By Gilad Morag

 

Israel‘s growth rates are relatively high and the economy is in good condition compared to developed countries, Dr. Karnit Flug said Tuesday in her first public address since the government approved her appointment as the Bank of Israel’s new governor.

“Unemployment rates have dropped to a low level after going up during the crisis, but the output per worker is relatively low compared to the developed countries,” Flug told the Prime Minister’s Conference on Partnership and Growth, organized by the Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab, Druze and Circassian Sectors. Continue Reading »

Israel frees an aditional 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of peace talks

Those freed by Israel ‘in the name of peace’ were all convicted of murder before or just after the Oslo Accords were signed 20 years ago.

By and Reuters

 

 

Israel completed early Wednesday the release of 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of the resumption of negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. This was the second group of prisoners to be freed, after the first was was released two months ago.

Palestinian prisoners release

Palestinian relatives during a celebrate while waiting for his release at the checkpoint at the entrance of Beit Hanoun between north of Gaza Strip and Israel, Tuesday, Oct.

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Israel tells UNHRC: “Israel’s Unfair Treatment Must Come to an End”

After repeated discrimination by the council against the Jewish State, Israel ended its 18-month boycott and attended the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.

By Tova Dvorin

 

Israel defended itself against constant discrimination by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva today (Tuesday), demanding that Israel’s “unfair treatment” over the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria “must come to an end”.

UN Human Rights Council – AFP photo

Israeli ambassador to the UN Eviator Manor admitted to the council that Israel does not have “a perfect record”, stressing that the situation in Israel has been complicated due to “our difficult and complex security situation” with the Palestinian Arabs since its foundation in 1948. Continue Reading »

Livni’s misguided political strategy

Livni’s national security track record show, whatever her intentions may be, she is totally incompetent to understand, secure or advance Israel’s national security.

 

 

For Justice Minister Tzipi Livi, all politics are personal.She can be trusted, because she is good. Her opponents must be rejected, because they are evil.

Artwork by Stephen E Hughes

In her speech at The Jerusalem Post’s Diplomatic Conference in Herzliya last Thursday, Livni insisted that the only “legitimate” basis for opposing a Palestinian state is ideological. Livni stridently rejected the notion that one can oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state – in the two-state solution framework – for security reasons.

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Hezbollah chief blames Israel for the 17,000 missing Lebanese

Hezbollah leader Nasrallah calls for a political solution in Syria & the appointment of a group to investigate the 17,000 missing people due to the Israeli occupation.

 

 

Israel is responsible for “all Lebanese who have gone missing,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah declared in a speech in southern Beirut on Monday, according to the group’s Al-Manar TV website.

Hezbollah supporters gesture as they listen to Nasrallah on October 29, 2013 as be broadcasts from his secret underground bunker. – Photo: REUTERS

Speaking on a large screen, he also said that Syrian events were affecting everything in Lebanon, the website reported.

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Israel’s elderly are reported poorest in Western world

 

Prior to pensions & tax the poor are in great shape in relation to global situation. But after – the picture changes completely.

Taub Center report says 1/5th of Israel’s elderly live below the poverty level – 7 times more than in most developed countries.

By Omri Efraim

 

Death of the Israeli welfare state: poverty rates among the elderly in Israel are the highest in the developed world, with a huge margin in comparison to most countries. This is according to a new study by the Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel published Tuesday.

Illustration (Photo: Avi Roccah)

Illustration – Photo: Avi Roccah

The research conducted by the center’s executive director, Professor Dan Ben-David, and researcher Haim Bleikh, shows that based on their disposable income (after welfare payments, national security benefits and taxes), 21% of Israel’s elderly live below the poverty line. Continue Reading »

NY court awarded $900k to delivery man for supervisors’ gas chamber gags

Adam Wiercinski’s managers were heard to say ‘you smell like Jew’.

The New York Post reported Monday that the jurors decided it was time for payback.

 

 

A New York jury has awarded a Jewish deliveryman $900,000 in damages for the anti-Semitic harassment he endured at the restaurant where he worked, The New York Post reported Monday.

Mangia, the Manhattan restaurant where Adam Wiercinski worked.

Mangia, the Manhattan restaurant where Adam Wiercinski worked. – HAARETZ

According to the report, Adam Wiercinski was subjected to highly offensive gestures and remarks made by the supervisors at the Manhattan eatery, Mangia.

One night shift manager, Artur Zbozien, would often pass gas and then joke about Zyklon B, the cyanide-based pesticide used in Nazi gas chambers during the Holocaust. Continue Reading »

WATCH: When Abdul met President Peres in Jerusalem

On her first trip to Israel, Paula Abdul met Israeli President Shimon Peres at his residence.

By Ari Yashar

 

American singer and dancer Paula Abdul met Israeli President Shimon Peres on Tuesday morning on her maiden voyage to Israel, during which she plans to have a belated bat mitzvah at the Western Wall.

Abdul embraced Peres at the start of visit, which took place at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem.

“I’m so overwhelmed with gratitude to be here, I’ve wanted to come for years,” said Abdual. “My career took me many places and this is my first vacation in almost eight years that I’m actually here to sightsee like a regular tourist. Continue Reading »

Former Head of Mossad: Obama Also Spied on Israel

 

Danny Yatom, a former Israeli spy master says the United States has a very long history of listening in on their friends & enemies alike.

By Nina Giesecke

 

In the wake of the international scandal resulting from reports that America’s National Security Agency (NSA) tapped the phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the former chief of Israel’s Mossad revealed that Washington has been spying on the Jewish state, too.

Former Mossad Chief: Obama Also Spied on Israel!

Merkel was not the only leading international politician on whom the NSA was listening in, and “if the Americans think there would be a reason to spy on [Israel], they would do it,” said Danny Yatom. Continue Reading »

Proposed law: New fathers to receive 8 days paternity leave

 

A 1st in Israel: The Knesset’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved 8-day paternity leave for fathers.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual &  transgender group says proposed law excludes same-sex couples.

Edna Adato, Dan Lavie & Yael Branovsky

 

On Sunday, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a bill proposed by MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz), that entitles fathers to eight days paid paternity leave.

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Jerusalem Unveils the Gabriel Stone a Mysterious Hebrew Tablet

Israel Museum curators say only 40% of the 87 lines are legible, many of those only barely. The interpretation of the text featured in the Israel Museum’s exhibit is just 1 of 5 readings put forth by scholars.

By DANIEL ESTRIN AP

 

JERUSALEM — An ancient limestone tablet covered with a mysterious Hebrew text that features the archangel Gabriel is at the center of a new exhibit in Jerusalem, even as scholars continue to argue about what it means.

The Gabriel Stone,  An ancient stone with mysterious Hebrew writing and featuring the archangel Gabriel is being displayed in Israel, even as scholars continue to argue about what the inscription means. - AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner

The Gabriel Stone, An ancient stone with mysterious Hebrew writing and featuring the archangel Gabriel is being displayed in Israel. – AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner

The so-called Gabriel Stone, a meter (three-foot)-tall tablet said to have been found 13 years ago on the banks of the Dead Sea, features 87 lines of an unknown prophetic text dated as early as the first century BC, at the time of the Second Jewish Temple. Continue Reading »

2,000 people outside Ofer prison protest release of Palestinian prisoners

“The equation of ‘freeing prisoners equals talks’ or ‘freezing settlement construction equals talks’ is wrong, & the gov’t has to stop this,” Knesset Interior Committee chairwoman Miri Regev (Likud Beytenu) said.

By LAHAV HARKOV, JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

 

Some 2,000 people protested on Monday evening outside Ofer prison against the upcoming release of 26 Palestinian security prisoners, Israel Radio reported.

Bereaved families protest Palestinian prisoner release, October 28, 2013.

Bereaved families protest prisoner release outside Ofer prison, October 28, 2013 – Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

MKs from Bayit Yehudi, a party who has vehemently objected to the release of prisoners as part of the ongoing peace talks, attended the protest.

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Hamas plans frequent attacks on Tel Aviv for next war

 

 

Gaza’s ruling Islamist terror group is boosting its strength in preparation for its next conflict, producing medium-range M-75 rockets at an accelerated pace.

Israel still prefers Hamas over the extremist Salafist regime in Gaza.

By Elior Levy

 

The Shalit prisoner exchange deal and last year’s war against Israel led to a spike in the popularity of Hamas, which also enjoyed the support of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. But the overthrow of Islamist President Mohamed Morsi by the Egyptian army plunged Hamas into one of its most difficult periods in recent years, while the Palestinian Authority is credited with the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Continue Reading »

Israel to return to the UN Human Rights Council

 

Israel will appear at its Universal Periodic Review to present its human rights record, breaking its 18-month boycott of int’l body.

 

 

The Beduin in the Negev and Women of the Wall in Jerusalem are among the many issues Israel is prepared to address, when it breaks its boycott of the UN Human Rights Council and appears before it in Geneva on Tuesday for the first time in a year-and- a-half.

Beduin structures being evacuated, Ramat Hasharon, June 10, 2013 – Photo Courtesy, Ramat Hasharon Municipality

Eviatar Manor, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, phoned UNHRC president Remigiusz Henczel of Poland on Sunday to inform him of Israel’s decision to meet its final deadline to participate in the Universal Periodic Review process that all 193 UN member nations must undergo.

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IDF retaliates in Gaza after Palestinians fired rockets at Israel

 

2 rockets fired just hours after Israel releases names of Palestinian prisoners slated for upcoming release this week as ‘Peace’ gesture to Abbas.

No injuries reported, but in response, Israeli aircraft attack Palestinian rocket launchers.

Matan Tzuri, Elior Levy

 

Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired two rockets toward south Israel at dawn on Monday. A number of explosions were heard shortly after the “Color Red” siren warning of the incoming rockets sounded in communities located within the Ashkelon Beach Regional Council.

Qassam rocket in south (archives) – Photo: Roee Idan

One of the rockets was apparently intercepted by the “Iron Dome” air defense system, while the other apparently landed in an open area. Continue Reading »