Poll: 77% of Israelis oppose bill to ban free newspapers
(JNS.org) A new poll found that 77 percent of Israelis oppose the bill to ban free newspapers in Israel, which passed its preliminary Knesset reading on Nov. 12. The legislation targets the free daily Israel Hayom, the country’s top-read print newspaper for more than four years.
In the survey, conducted by Panels Politics Polling, 15 percent of Israelis supported the bill and 8 percent had no opinion. The results closely match those of a poll commissioned last month by Israel Hayom, which found that 79 percent of Israelis oppose the legislation.
Voice of Israel radio’s Knesset insider, Jeremy Saltan, explained on the “Josh Hasten Show” that despite the measure’s preliminary passage, Israel Hayom is not going away anytime soon. The bill’s next destination is the Knesset House Committee—where a vote might not be imminent because that committee is chaired by MK Yariv Levin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. Netanyahu has said the bill to ban free newspapers “shames the Knesset.” After the House Committee, the bill would need to return to the Knesset floor for a first reading, go back to the House Committee, and have a second Knesset floor reading before being ready for a final vote, according to Saltan, a branch director and Central Committee member for the Habayit Hayehudi party.
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Oskar Schindler’s grave in Jerusalem Catholic cemetery to be refurbished
(JNS.org) Forty years after his death, authorities have decided to refurbish the burial site of Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who helped save thousands of Jews during World War II. Schindler is buried in the Catholic cemetery on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Development Authority, the Custodia Terrae Sanctae, the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry, and the Jerusalem Municipality have launched a joint campaign to renovate and landscape Schindler’s grave site and erect a memorial there.
Part of the construction, which is expected to cost around $524,000, will include revamping pathways to the cemetery and Schindler’s grave, and building shaded seating areas nearby. Rooms near the burial site are also slated for renovation, and an indoor site commemorating Schindler will be constructed to preserve his memory.
Schindler was honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel for saving 1,200 Jews’ lives during the Holocaust, and for hampering the Nazi war effort while putting his own life in peril. Upon his death, the Jews whose lives he saved and his family members fulfilled his final wish to be buried in Israel.
The Custodian of the Holy Land, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who heads the Franciscan order in Israel, welcomed the decision.
“The Custodia Terrae Sanctae continues to honor his [Schindler’s] memory and sees the development of his grave site and memorial as an important project to Custodia and Jerusalem as a whole,” said Custodian of the Holy Land Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who heads the Franciscan order in Israel.
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Kerry discusses allaying Jerusalem tension with Netanyahu and Abbas
(JNS.org) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday in Jordan, where the leaders discussed how to reduce the tension surrounding the Temple Mount holy site in Jerusalem.
In a statement following his meetings, Kerry said Netanyahu “strongly reaffirmed his commitment to uphold the status quo” of barring Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. Jordan’s King Abdullah was part of the Kerry-Netanyahu meeting.
Abbas, according to Kerry, stated his commitment to “non-violence and restoring calm” in Jerusalem and the West Bank, where Palestinian terrorism has been on the upswing.
“There is an urgent need to address these greatest tensions, and an imperative need to uphold the status quo at the Temple Mount,” Kerry said.
An Israeli official told the Times of Israel that Netanyahu spoke to Kerry and Abdullah about the need for Abbas to end violence-provoking incitement by PA officials. Just hours before the Jordan meetings began, Arab rioters threw stones and other objects at Israeli police in eastern Jerusalem.
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Islamic State and al-Qaeda reconcile in Syria, promise joint terror attacks
(JNS.org) The Islamic State and al-Qaeda have reportedly reached a deal to reconcile their differences and coordinate joint terror operations in Syria, according to high-level Syrian opposition sources.
According to a statement to The Associated Press by a commander in the Free Syrian Army, the two terror groups met Nov. 2 in the Syrian town of Atareb, west of Aleppo, and agreed to halt infighting and to open up a new joint front against the Kurds in northern Syria.
Sources indicate that a number of terror factions attended the meeting, including Islamic State, the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, the Khorasan Group (an al-Qaeda affiliated terror group comprised of veteran fighters from Afghanistan and Pakistan), and two smaller groups, Jund al-Aqsa and Ahrar al-Sham.
The al-Nusra Front was originally one of the most powerful jihadist forces fighting the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. Most the leadership and fighters for Islamic State originated with al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), which fought against U.S. forces there. But after overrunning parts of northern Iraq, Islamic State became flush with heavy weaponry and cash that it took from the fleeing Iraqi military and banks that it looted, becoming the more powerful of the two jihadist groups.
“If there is less blood being spilled against each other and they don’t have to worry about that, that’s going to make it easier for the jihadis to go after Assad or any western-backed forces,” Tom Joscelyn, an analyst for the Long War Journal website, told The Associated Press.
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Amid instability in Israel, FIDF galas across U.S. raise funds for soldiers’ wellbeing
(JNS.org) At a time when Israel faces an increasingly unstable security situation—including recent vehicular attacks on Jerusalem’s light rail stations, stabbings, tension at the Temple Mount, and Arab riots—Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) is raising money at record-high levels for programs that enhance the wellbeing of those protecting the Jewish state.
FIDF, which raises more than $80 million annually, says it “offers a range of programs that address the educational, social, economic, recreational, spiritual, and cultural needs of the IDF soldiers as well as the families of soldiers fallen in defense of the State of Israel.” Among other programming, the organization supports bereaved families, supports “lone soldiers” whose families live outside of Israel, runs medical programs for wounded soldiers, and builds recreational centers as well as synagogues and educational facilities for soldiers.
This fall, FIDF has been hosting gala fundraisers around the country. On Nov. 6, the organization’s Western Region raised a record of more than $33 million in Beverly Hills, Calif. Other recent FIDF galas took place in Chicago ($2 million raised); Long Island, N.Y. ($1.4 million raised); Michigan ($1 million raised); Boston ($800,000 raised at the gala and $4.1 million raised by the region this year); northern New Jersey ($600,000 raised at the gala and $3 million raised by the region this year); Philadelphia; Ohio; San Francisco; San Diego; Baltimore; and Scarsdale, N.Y.
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Christian Zionist organization seeks to deepen Hispanic ties with Israel
(JNS.org) The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) is partnering with the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC)/Conela, one of the largest Hispanic Christian organizations in the U.S., in order to deepen Hispanic engagement with Israel.
According to NHCLC/Conela, one of the goals of the partnership is to increase Hispanic Evangelical participation in ICEJ’s annual Feast of Tabernacles celebration in Jerusalem.
“Our objective is to exponentially increase Hispanic participation and attendance at the annual Feast of Tabernacles, held each fall in Jerusalem under the sponsorship of the Christian Embassy,” Dr. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the NHCLC/Conela, said in a statement.
Since 1980, ICEJ has annually hosted the Feast of Tabernacles celebration in Jerusalem to coincide with the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. This year, the event drew more than 5,000 Christians from 80 countries.
According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, Hispanics are one of the fastest-growing segments of the Evangelical Christian population, with 16 percent of American Hispanics identifying as Evangelical in 2013, up from 12 percent in 2010.
“We are excited about partnering with Dr. Samuel Rodriguez in this new initiative to bring more Hispanic pilgrims to the Feast each year,” Dr. Jurgen Buhler, ICEJ’s executive director, said in a statement. “Their presence in Jerusalem will have a great impact on the Israeli people, and it will only enhance the incredible fellowship we enjoy with Christians from across the globe at this unique biblical festival.”
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Israeli Knesset honors Canadian sergeant-at-arms who shot parliament terrorist
(JNS.org) Kevin Vickers, the Canadian sergeant-at-arms who shot the gunman who had stormed the Canadian Parliament in October, was honored by the Israeli Knesset during a visit to Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Vickers and praised him for his bravery.
“This terrorist attack proved once again that Islamic extremist terrorism knows no borders,” Netanyahu said, the Times of Israel reported. “Israel and Canada will continue to fight the forces of global terrorism.”
Vickers shot Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who had recently converted to Islam, on Oct. 23. That day, Zehaf-Bibeau killed a Canadian soldier near the National War Memorial in Ottawa and then entered the parliament, where he opened fire before being shot by Vickers.
Israeli Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said that on the day of the attack, he spoke to his Canadian parliamentary counterpart to express concern.
“Thwarting the terror attack was not my act alone, but that of the entire staff, and we were proud of it,” Vickers told Edelstein during their meeting at the Knesset.
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PA cartoon shows Temple Mount activist Glick being strangled by terrorist
(JNS.org) A Palestinian Authority newspaper printed a cartoon portraying wounded Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick as a snake, Palestinian Media Watch reported Thursday.
Glick, a promoter of Jewish access to the holy site, was shot and seriously wounded on Oct. 29 by an Arab gunman riding a motorcycle outside of a Jerusalem conference. He remains hospitalized, though his condition is improving.
On Thursday, the bi-weekly Capital City newspaper, which is distributed with the official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, printed the cartoon showing terrorist Mutaz Hijazi, who shot Glick, attempting to strangle Glick while saying “You make me mad!”
The “general supervisor” of the Capital City is Othman Abu Gharbieh, who is a member of Fatah’s Central Committee and the secretary general of the Popular National Conference of Jerusalem, a PLO-connected institution that publishes the bi-weekly newspaper. Capital City frequently honors terrorists, according to Palestinian Media Watch. In the same issue of the newspaper that included the Glick cartoon, the headline “Jerusalem will speak only Arabic” accompanies photos of the terrorists Hijazi and Ibrahim Al-Akari, who has killed two Israelis and injured more than 13 in Jerusalem terrorism.
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