Israel News

French Jewish immigration to Israel much higher from previous year

Jewish Agency anticipates about 2,500 French Jews immigrating to Israel in 2013, a 40% increase from last year.

The participation of young French Jews coming to Israel for long-term programs is also rising.

By Israel Hayom Staff

Immigration to Israel by French Jews is on the rise, according to data released by the Jewish Agency. The Jewish Agency expects that around 2,500 French Jews will move to Israel in 2013, a 40 percent increase from 2012.

A Jewish Agency aliyah fair in Paris – Photo: Lar

Around 800 French Jewish immigrants will arrive in Israel this summer on flights organized by the Jewish Agency.

Category: Israel News | Tags: Aliyah, France, French Jews, Jewish Agency

Get Ready for the 19th Maccabiah Games from Jerusalem

For the 1st time since 2001, the opening ceremony is returning to Jerusalem.

By ALLON SINAI

Four years of waiting is to come to an end in spectacular fashion when the 19th Maccabiah gets underway with Thursday’s opening ceremony in the capital’s Teddy Stadium.

Maccabiah games ready to kick off. – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Around 32,000 people are expected to pack the stands, with thousands of Jewish athletes from 77 countries to march around the stadium as part of the Parade of Nations.

President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will be among the numerous local and foreign dignitaries present at the ceremony.

Category: Israel News | Tags: Israeli culture, Jerusalem, Maccabiah Games, sports

Electricity theft by Palestinians the theme of this year’s Ramadan morality campaign

Palestinian theft of electricity increases debt to Israel by $70 million each year. Palestinian Authority fear Israel will pull plug, sinking them into darkness

The Media Line

RAMALLAH – During the pre-dawn hours in the holy month of Ramadan, while many are preparing a pre-dawn breakfast in preparation of the daylong-fast, others are tapping into the electricity grid. It’s an act that costs the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority (PA) millions of dollars annually.

Electricity on the way to the Palestinians – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Again this year, authorities will treat electricity theft like other personal bad habits rather than as a crime, working to prevent it through an advertising campaign that stresses morality during Ramadan, encouraging citizens to end the costly practice voluntarily. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: electricity, IEC, PA Crime, Palestinian Authority

Another Palestinian Precondition: Abbas Demands Airport in Ramallah

Western sources leak new list of Palestinians’ conditions for renewing peace talks

in wake of Kerry-Abbas talks, which include permission to build

airport in Ramallah, construction of hotels on the Dead Sea, more visas to work in Israel etc. etc. etc….

By Elior Levy

Western sources told Ynet Wednesday that in meetings with international sources on the issue of renewing peace talks with Israel, the Palestinians stipulated that they be granted approval to build an airport in Ramallah – the first in the West Bank.

Kerry, Abbas talk peace – Photo: AFP

It has been reported in the past that economic incentives would be granted to the Palestinians as part of the peace talks’ resumption, but so far the nature of said incentives has remained vague. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: John Kerry, Mahmoud Abbas, Peace Process, precondition

IKEA Considering Opening in Ramallah

After initial studies and meetings with PA official, IKEA is considering opening a new mega-store in Ramallah.

By Rina Tzvi

IKEA is considering opening a branch in Ramallah.

IKEA store – Reuters

Two IKEA executives visited Ramallah last month and met with the Palestinian Authority economics minister, Jawad al-Naji, Israeli daily Yediot Achronot reported

Israel has IKEA megastores in Netanya and Rishon Lezion and is set open a third next year in Kiryat Ata.

IKEA plans to have the Ramallah employees train at the Netanya store, which has an employee training center, according to Yediot.

“If asked, we’ll be happy to help establish the store,” said Matthew Bronfman, the franchisee for IKEA in Israel. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: IKEA, Ramallah

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PA official: EU’s new Judea & Samaria guideline will hurt Palestinians

Palestinian officials approach Europeans, saying that Palestinian laborers are going to lose their livelihoods because of the EU decision to exclude settlement enterprises from future cooperative agreements.

Leading manufacturer calls move illegitimate & destructive.

By Daniel Siryoti, Shlomo Cesana & Hezi Sternlicht

A senior Palestinian Authority official confirmed to Israel Hayom on Tuesday that many in Ramallah were dissatisfied with the European Union’s decision to withhold economic grants and incentives to Israeli companies situated in Judea and Samaria.

Palestinian laborers want to work – Photo: Aryeh Tadmor

“For our part, we approached a number of [European] Union officials, in the [Palestinian] Authority and also in Israel, to try and prevent the decision or at least to keep it unofficial,” said the official, who declined to give his name.

Category: Israel News | Tags: boycott, EU, Judea and Samaria boycott

Obama’s Ambassador nominee to UN, Power sees ‘unacceptable bias’ against Israel at UN

Power said at her Senate confirmation hearing that she would work to eliminate the unacceptable bias and attacks, which she believes is the product of “disproportionate” attention given to Israel.

By MICHAEL WILNER, REUTERS

WASHINGTON — Facing a Senate hearing Monday on her nomination to be US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power vowed to provide a full-throated defense of Israel at the international body, calling for an end to the “unacceptable bias and attacks” often leveled toward the Jewish state.

Samantha Power testifies on Capitol Hill, July 17, 2013 – Photo: Reuters

Power said she would work to eliminate such bias, which she believes is the product of “disproportionate” attention given to Israel.

Category: Israel News | Tags: Samantha Power, UN, US Senate

Shoah fund ‘paid out $1.24B’ to Holocaust survivors

Jewish weekly reports Holocaust survivors as well as victims’ heirs received money from Swiss Bank fund set up after scandal over dormant accounts of Jews killed in World War II.

By AFP

Holocaust survivors and victims’ heirs have received $1.24 billion from a Swiss fund set up after a scandal over dormant accounts of Jews killed in World War II, a magazine said Monday.

Some 457,000 Holocaust survivors and heirs have received money from fund (illustration) – Photo: AP

The Swiss-Jewish weekly Tachles said the figure was contained in a report by New York judge Edward Korman, who oversees the management of the fund

Korman’s report summed up operations since a landmark 1998 deal between the World Jewish Congress and Swiss banks. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Holocaust survivors, Swiss Bank, Switzerland

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Watch Video: Arab Anti-Jewish Riots in Jerusalem

Violent Arab mob smashes windscreens of cars with metal rods & debris as frantic Jews make their getaway. – This is Jerusalem, 2013.

By Gil Ronen and Ari Soffer

A video uploaded Wednesday shows a frenzied Arab mob targeting cars driven by Jews as they pass near Jerusalem’s Damascus (Shechem) Gate.

The video was uploaded to the “Free Qudss” account on YouTube, and to a group by a similar name on Facebook.

The text at the start of the video reads: “Destroying the settlers cars and arrests”, and claims to have been taken near Damascus Gate.

The account’s operators and the videographers claim the events are from Tuesday evening, and that the identities of the attackers had been blurred out to protect them from being identified. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: antisemitism, Arab riots, arab terrorism, Damascus Gate, Jerusalem, Terror

The EU is wrong…. Again

Will the Europeans ever understands that the conflict has little to do with the 1967 borders and everything to do with our very existence here?

By Knesset Member Ofir Akunis

The European Union is wrong. Taking a unilateral stand will not encourage the Palestinians to return to the negotiation table. On the contrary — automatically siding with the Palestinian Authority’s positions will only drive them away. Why engage in negotiations with Israel when their demands are met in advance?

MK Ofir Akunis – Facebook photo

It seems that past experiences have failed to leave their mark. Europe has supported the various erroneous notions previously employed here — the Oslo Accords, the disengagement from Gaza Strip, former Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert’s proposals to return to the 1967 borders and divide Jerusalem — have all failed.

Category: Israel News | Tags: EU, Israel boycott

London-UAE cable car deal included an Israeli boycott

Israel is the only country that the Transport for London, 10-year partnership deal, subjected to a total boycott.

By JTA

London’s main transportation agency has come under fire for a deal with a United Arab Emirates-based company that excludes Israel from future business dealings.

The Emirates Air Line a.k.a. the Thames cable car – Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Transport for London signed a 10-year partnership deal with Emirates Air Line on the Thames cable car, which opened in June 2012 ahead of the London Olympics.

According to the 2011 contract, which was revealed by the online watchdog group MayorWatch through a Freedom of Information request, Transport for London agreed to abide by the UAE’s foreign policy in the deal.

Category: Israel News | Tags: anti-Israel, Israel boycott, Israel UK, London

Judea & Samaria Higher Planning Council to debate building 1,071 new homes

As Kerry pushes for peace talks in Jordan, Planning Council to debate plan for constructing needed new homes.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF

The Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria is set to debate the advancement of plans for 1,072 new homes in West Bank settlements on Wednesday.

Modi’in Illit construction site [file]. -Photo: REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen

The debate comes as US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Jordan, where he will hold talks on the frozen Israeli-Palestinian peace process with the Arab League.According to the council’s agenda, it will debate a plan for 732 new homes in the Modi’in Illit settlement, located on the pre-1967 lines.The

Category: Israel News | Tags: housing, Judea and Samaria, new construction

US feels betrayed after Israel backsteps out of terror suit

The White House & Congress upset at Israel’s decision to back out of trial against Bank of China for its involvement in laundering money for Hamas & the Islamic Jihad.

The reason for Israel’s retreat: China conditioned Netanyahu’s state visit on promise from Jerusalem not to testify in trial.

Now, the US is threatening to subpoena Israel’s Ambassador Oren

By Shimon Shiffer

Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren was called back to Israel to take part in an emergency meeting convened this weekend by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so that Oren could pass on messages sent by the US administration and Congress in the wake of tensions between the two countries. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Bank of China, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel China, Israel US, Michael Oren, Terror

Syrians Fire on IDF Night-Patrol in Golan Heights, IDF Returns Fire

IDF on regular night patrol of border with Syria in the Golan comes under direct fire, returns fire at group of unidentified suspects on the Syrian frontier.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

An army force on a routine patrol of the border with Syria on the Golan Heights came under fire and shot back at a group of unidentified suspects on the frontier.

There were no injuries among IDF soldiers in the incident.

IDF troops survey the Golan Heights.- Photo: REUTERS

IDF soldiers identified a group of suspects who had entered an unmanned military post along the Syrian-Israeli border.

The suspects did not cross the border fence, but were in Israeli territory when they attacked the IDF, an army spokeswoman said. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Golan Heights, IDF, Syrian border, Syrian unrest

israelandstuffcom | July 16, 2013