JNS news briefs: December 3, 2014

jns logo short version

Preliminary bill to dissolve Knesset approved, new elections set

(JNS.org) A preliminary reading of a bill to disperse the Israeli Knesset passed on Wednesday, setting the stage for elections early next year.

The preliminary bill was passed 84 to 0, with a final reading of the bill scheduled for early next week. The move to dissolve the Knesset came after the various Knesset factions agreed to hold early elections on March 17, 2015.

In dissolving the government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused his former coalition partners, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and Hatnua chairman Tzipi Livni, who were both fired from their ministerial posts on Tuesday by Netanyahu, of consistently attempting to undermine his government.

“[Lapid and Livni] tried to overthrow me,” Netanyahu said, the Jerusalem Post reported. “The government was under constant threats and ultimatums. The country cannot be run in the current situation. Elections are not a good thing, but a government that is attacked from inside is seven times as bad.”

Various early polls indicate that Netanyahu’s Likud party is expected to win the most seats in the new election and be able to form a coalition with various right-wing and haredi parties.

Israeli teens increasingly targeted by online anti-Semitism, poll says
(JNS.org) Nearly 83 percent of Jewish Israeli teenagers encounter online anti-Semitism, and more than 51 percent are targeted due to their nationality, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In the same poll last year, 69 percent of Israeli teens reported being exposed to Web anti-Semitism, including 36 percent due to nationalistic reasons.

The poll of 500 Jewish teens from ages 15-18 encompassed hate symbols, websites, and messages found on social media and in videos and music.

“The more teenagers in Israel are using the Internet to connect with friends and share social updates, the more they are coming into contact with haters and bigots who want to expose them to an anti-Israel or anti-Semitic message,” ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman said.
*
France passes symbolic resolution recognizing Palestinian statehood
(JNS.org) The French National Assembly has voted 339 to 151 in favor of urging its government to recognize a Palestinian state Tuesday, becoming the latest European country to take up the issue.

The resolution proposed by the ruling Socialists and backed by other left-wing parties asked the government to “use the recognition of a Palestinian state with the aim of resolving the conflict definitively.”

Similar measures have recently been passed in the United Kingdom, Spain and Ireland, while Sweden formally recognized Palestinian statehood in October. Denmark and the European Parliament are expected to take up similar measures in December and January.

“Europeans may have nothing but good intentions, but recognizing Palestine without the PA [Palestinian Authority] first achieving a settlement with Israel is ultimately misguided. It would be a setback for the quest for real peace and the establishment of a real Palestinian state,” Daniel Schwammenthal, director of the American Jewish Committee’s Transatlantic Institute in Brussels, told JNS.org.

While the French vote was largely symbolic, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is spearheading an international effort to restart peace talks has declared that this will be a final effort.

“If this final effort to reach a negotiated solution fails, then France will have to do what it takes by recognizing without delay the Palestinian state,” Fabius said.

In a statement following the vote, Israel’s embassy in Paris said that “Israel considers the vote to be an error that sends the wrong message to the peoples of the [Middle East] region. Israel underlines the fact that the consistent policy of the French government remains unchanged: Only a negotiated solution will terminate the conflict.”
*
AIPAC calls for tougher sanctions on Iran amid nuke talks extension
(JNS.org) The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has called on President Barack Obama and Congress to toughen and introduce new sanctions against Iran amid an extension to nuclear talks.

“The Obama Administration should toughen sanctions enforcement, and Congress should quickly take up new bipartisan sanctions legislation,” the statement from AIPAC read. “Without new pressure, Iran is unlikely to modify its course.”

AIPAC said it believes that new sanctions “offer the best chance to persuade Tehran to abandon its quest for a nuclear weapons capability.”

Specifically, AIPAC says that new sanctions should include: re-imposing sanctions suspended under the interim deal, phasing out Iranian oil exports and natural gas condensates, as well as strategic sectors of the Iranian economy such as automotive, construction, engineering and manufacturing.

Nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 nations– U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany – were recently extended until mid-2015 after both sides failed to meet a Nov. 24 deadline.

Under the original interim deal signed in November 2013, Iran was provided with limited sanctions relief as part of efforts to forge a permanent nuclear deal. However, the interim deal has been extended twice as both sides have failed to reach an agreement.

The world powers want Iran to significantly scale back its uranium enrichment program. Under the deal, Iran was also supposed to cooperate with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). However, the UN nuclear watchdog agency has criticized Iran for not cooperating and stonewalling its investigation into Iran’s nuclear program.
*
Ukrainian Jewish leader downplays Jewish MP’s rise to parliament speaker
(JNS.org) The Ukrainian parliament’s decision to confirm a Jewish MP as speaker last week will not have major impact on the country’s Jewish community’s participation in Ukrainian society because in Ukraine “every person can (already) get any position independent of his ethnic origin,” said Eduard Dolinsky, the executive director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee.

The only nominee for the position was Volodymyr Groysman, who is from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and has served as the mayor of the city of Vinnytsia, Regional Development, Construction and Communal Living Minister, and Deputy Prime Minister.

Dolinsky told the Jerusalem Post that “for the Jewish community it’s not much of a difference.” He also believes that Groysman may not have “any connection to the Jewish community” and may be “half-Jewish” on his father’s side. However, Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich, did declare him Jewish according to Orthodox law.

Meanwhile other individuals of Jewish descent have recently reached success in Ukrainian politics. Billionaire Igor Kolomoisky who heads the United Jewish Communities of Ukraine has been appointed as governor of the Dnepropetrovsk region and has been campaigning against pro-Russian separatists in the east of the country. Though he ultimately lost, Jewish oligarch Radim Rabinovich ran in the Ukrainian presidential election in May.

*
Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman