Arabs furious at Czech President’s Jerusalem remark

 

Egypt summoned Czech ambassador after their president discussed moving embassy to Israel’s capital.

By Associated Press

The Cairo-based Arab League has condemned remarks by the Czech president about moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, calling them a violation of Palestinian rights and international resolutions.

Czech President Milos Zeman - Photo: Reuters

Czech President Milos Zeman – Photo: Reuters

In its Wednesday’s statement, the 22-nation organization called for summoning the Czech ambassador in Cairo to express “dangers of these remarks.”

The United Nations proposed an international jurisdiction for Jerusalem when it wrote the mandate for a Jewish Israel state in 1947, but a 1948 war divided the city between Israeli and Jordanian control. Continue Reading »

Council of Europe: Religious Circumcisions are Legal

The head of the Council of Europe responds to Israel’s President Shimon Peres’s letter, assuring him there’s no law banning male circumcision.

By Elad Benari

 

President Shimon Peres was assured on Wednesday that there is no binding law banning male circumcision in Europe for religious reasons.

Eitan's Brit

Secular “Brit Milah” Jewish circumcision ceremony – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

The head of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland, responded to a letter Peres had sent earlier in the week, urging the council to reconsider a resolution it adopted against circumcision.

Jagland clarified in the letter that there were no “legal provisions regarding the practice of circumcision of young boys for religious reasons.” Continue Reading »

IMF: Israel’s economy better than all other Western economies

Israeli economy estimated to grow 3.8% in 2013 & 3.3% in 2014, whereas in same 2 years, the U.S. to grow by 1.6% & 2.6%, and the eurozone by 0.4% & 1%.

By Zeev Klein, Reuters & Israel Hayom Staff

 

The Israeli economy is expected to grow by 3.8 percent in 2013 and 3.3% in 2014, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday. The fund’s economists pointed out that Israel’s economy was strong, stable and diverse.

Israel’s economy likely to outperform other Western economies in 2013 and 2014 – Photo: Rafael Ben-Ari

The IMF’s outlook is similar to the that outlined by the Bank of Israel, according to which Israel’s economy will have grown by 3.6% by the end of 2013 and will grow by 3.4% in 2014. Continue Reading »

PLO official: Palestinians considering declaring peace talks a failure

PLO official Hanna Amireh accuses Israel of trying to “win time” & blame the Palestinians for the failure of the US-sponsored talks.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
 

 

The Palestinians are seriously considering declaring the failure of the peace talks with Israel, a senior PLO official said Wednesday.

Israeli, Palestinian delegations meet in Washington for iftar dinner, July 29, 2013.

Israeli, Palestinian delegations meet in Washington for iftar dinner, July 29, 2013. – Photo: REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

Hanna Amireh, a member of the PLO Executive Committee, said that this was one of the scenarios that were discussed during the last meeting of the Palestinian leadership.

Amireh accused Israel of seeking to “win time” and blame the Palestinians for the failure of the US-sponsored talks.

Continue Reading »

IDF missile destroys Syrian cannon that fired shells on Israel

 

Israeli Tamuz missile successfully destroys  Syrian cannon which fired 2 mortars at Golan Heights earlier in the day.

Yoav Zitun

An IDF Tamuz missile destroyed Wednesday afternoon a Syrian cannon which had fired two shells into Israeli territory earlier in the day and lightly injured two soldiers.

IDF soldiers shortly after shells landed (Photo: Avihu Shapira)

IDF soldiers shortly after shells landed – Photo: Avihu Shapira

During the incident in the northern Golan Heights, one soldier sustained light wounds from shrapnel, while another suffered from severe shock.

The IDF said the mortars were stray fallout from Syrian infighting near the border between President Bashar Assad‘s forces and rebels trying to overthrow him. Continue Reading »

After Surfing on Israeli Websites, Egyptian Accused of Spying

Owner of Internet cafe noticed an Egyptian lawyer surfing on Israeli websites, then reported him to security forces.

By Elad Benari

 

Israel and Egypt may have a peace treaty with one another, but studying Hebrew is apparently frowned upon in Egypt.

Illustrative – IsraelandStuff/PP

Egypt’s Al-Nahar TV aired a report last month about an Egyptian lawyer who was accused of spying for Israel because he was surfing on Israeli websites. The report was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

According to the report, the lawyer was sitting in an Internet cafe when the cafe owner began to suspect he was a spy after seeing that the lawyer had entered the website of the Israeli Mossad, and was talking on the phone in many languages – Italian, French, and Hebrew, among others. Continue Reading »

Two Israeli scientists win Nobel Prize in Chemistry

 

Michael Levitt, Martin Karplus & Arieh Warshel win Nobel Prize for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems.

All 3 scientists are Jewish, while Levitt & Warshel hold Israeli citizenship.

By Ido Efrati and

 

 

Three Jewish scientists – two of them Israelis who emigrated to the U.S. – won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday.

All three winners are U.S. Continue Reading »

2 IDF Soldiers Injured In Golan Heights From Syrian Mortar Fire

2 Israeli soldiers were wounded from a mortar shell that fell next to them, on the northern Golan Heights.

By Kochava Rozenbaum

 

Two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded by cross-border fire in the Golan Heights facing Syria.

A mortar shell exploded in the northern Golan Heights. It is not known whether the attack was spillover from the ongoing Syrian civil war or intentional.

According to preliminary reports, one of the soldiers was injured from shrapnel fragments and the other had suffered from shock as a result from the fall.

Both soldiers were initially treated for their moderate wounds at the scene by Magen David Adom medics, however, the pair will receive further treatment at a nearby hospital. Continue Reading »

IDF: Arab Male Wounded After He Jumped Border Fence

The suspected terrorist was shot & wounded by the IDF during an arrest on Tuesday afternoon after trying to jump a border fence.

By Kochava Rozenbaum

 

New reports indicate a suspected terrorist was shot and wounded during an arrest procedure by Israel Defense Force personnel after attempting to cross a border fence.

IDF in action – Photo courtesy: IDF Spokesman’s Unit

The army identified the terrorist with a group of Palestinian Arabs attempting to jump the fence near the Oranit checkpoint.

The soldiers called out for the suspects to stop, but they ignored the calls, leading the soldiers to open fire. Continue Reading »

World Bank: Lifting Israeli restrictions would help Palestinian economy

 

Not giving all of the West Bank to the Palestinians, restricts their economy by $3.4 billion annually, reports the World Bank.

 

 

The Palestinian GDP in the West Bank could increase by at least 35%, $3.4 billion annually, if Israel lifted its restrictions on Palestinian access and movement in Area C, the World Bank said in a report it issued Tuesday morning.

A Palestinian farmer in the West Bank ploughs his land.

A Palestinian farmer in the West Bank ploughs his land. – Photo: REUTERS/Baz Ratner

“Access to Area C will go a long way to solving Palestinian economic problems,” said Mariam Sherman, the outgoing World Bank Country Director for the Palestinian territories.

Continue Reading »

New Apartment to Buy up 72% since 2007

 

Israel’s recent Central Bureau of Statistics figures show highest rise in housing prices happened in 2009. The actual number of Israelis living in apartment they own remains stable over past 40 years.

Yaron Druckman

Apartment prices in Israel went up by 72% from 2007 to 2012, according to figures released Sunday by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). The sharpest annual rise in housing prices was 21% – from March 2009 to March 2010.

It takes the equivalent of 135 monthly salaries to buy a home in Israel. – HAARETZ.com

According to the figures, from 2000 to 2006 apartment prices in Israel dropped 12%. Continue Reading »

After 22 years of restoration, Czech village synagogue opens

More than 100 people were at the village of Ckyne to attend the ceremony rededicating the rare shul after its 22-year restoration process.

By

 

 

The synagogue in the southern Czech Republic village of Ckyne has been rededicated after a restoration process that took more than 22 years.

Former synagogue in the municipality of Ckyne, Prachatice District, Czech Republic, under reconstruc

Former synagogue in the municipality of Ckyne, Prachatice District, Czech Republic, under reconstruction in 2011. – Photo: Wikipedia Commons

More than 100 people attended the ceremony Saturday that included a religious service led by the cantor of the synagogue in the nearby Czech city of Liberec.

A Torah scroll found in the synagogue’s attic during the restoration was used in the service. Continue Reading »

Israeli PM: Mufti Demanded Nazis ‘Wipe Out’ 4,000 Children

Israel’s Prime Minister’s Bar Ilan speech, in which he stresses Palestinian leader’s “important” role in the extermination of Europe’s Jews.

 

Full text included.

By Arutz Sheva

 

Prime Minister Binymain Netanyahu delivered a speech Sunday evening at Bar Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center, in which he discussed the key security-diplomatic issues facing Israel: the Iranian threat and the attempts to reach an accord with the Palestinian Authority.

Unlike Netanyahu’s first speech at the same venue in 2009, a speech in which he voiced acceptance, for the first time, of a demilitarized “Palestinain state,” in this speech Netanyahu made clear that the problem preventing peace is “the profound objection by the hard core of Palestinians to the right of the Jewish people to its own country in the Land of Israel.” Continue Reading »

Israeli Newspaper: Must Protect local Christian ‘Arabs’ With Our Lives

 

Israeli media is slowly but increasingly taking notice of a growing group of local Christians distancing themselves as ‘Arabs’, & identifying with the Jewish state.

By Israel Today Staff

 

 

Israel’s largest daily circulation newspaper, Israel Hayom, carried in its weekend edition a moving story regarding the growing group of “Arab” Christians from northern Israel who are increasingly identifying with the Jewish state.

Jubrail (Gabriel) Nadaf a 39-year-old Arab Christian priest – Photo: Michel Dot Com

Jubrail (Gabriel) Nadaf a 39-year-old Greek Orthodox priest                         – Photo: Michel Dot Com

The newspaper was covering a conference where Greek Orthodox priest Father Gabriel Nadaf reiterated his position that “Jews and Christians are of the same covenant.” Continue Reading »

Women of the Wall agree to pray in newly designated space

Women of the Wall is demanding that the Robinson’s Arch section be equal to the existing plaza in size, topography, budget and facilities.

TEL AVIV — Women of the Wall agreed in principle to pray in a new egalitarian space adjacent to the Western Wall Plaza, provided the space meets several conditions regarding design and management.

Women of the Wall agreed in principle to pray in a new egalitarian space adjacent to the Western Wall Plaza. – JTA

Until those conditions are met, Women of the Wall said in a statement Monday that it will continue praying at the women’s section of the Western Wall, as the group has for 25 years.

Continue Reading »