Netanyahu tours Be’er Sheva with Steve Forbes, hails city’s tech ‘revolution’
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—joined by billionaire Steve Forbes, owner of the Forbes magazine—on Thursday toured Be’er Sheva and the southern Israeli city’s Advanced Technologies Park at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). Netanyahu discussed the area’s potential in the field of high-tech.
“What we are seeing in Be’er Sheva is very significant progress, a global revolution,” he said.
According to Netanyahu, that revolution affords Israel a great deal of financial clout, along with military and security strength. But he said, “It requires a detachment from the regular templates and establishing a vision.”
Netanyahu told Forbes, “This is the future. The future of the global economy depends on the Internet economy, and that cannot grow without cybersecurity. We need to find solutions to safeguard banking systems, electronic systems, and air transportation. Cyber defense is a necessity, and it is our intention to be the leader in this field.”
The tour was also attended by Be’er Sheva Mayor Ruvik Danilovich, BGU President Professor Rivka Carmi, and the head of Israel’s National Cyber Bureau, Dr. Eviatar Matania.
“The true wealth of the State of Israel doesn’t lie in natural gas fields, rather in the quality human capital currently gathering in the Negev, in the academic institutions and the best intelligence and teleprocessing minds that come through here,” said Danilovich.
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Episcopal Church rejects Israel divestment, Mennonites delay vote for 2 years
(JNS.org) The Episcopal Church on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a resolution to divest from Israel, while Mennonite Church USA voted to delay a decision on divestment until its next general assembly two years from now.
The Episcopal House of Bishops nixed the divestment measure in a lopsided voice vote at its 78th General Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Mennonite Church, meanwhile, decided to table a divestment resolution in a 418-336 vote.
The Episcopal resolution was put forth by the Episcopal Committee for Justice in Israel and Palestine, which called on the church to investigate whether it is “complicit in Israeli human rights abuses through investments in companies that profit from Israel’s illegal occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands, and to advance the process to divest from such companies if we are found to be doing so.”
After the rejection of the divestment resolution, Rabbi Noam Marans—director of interreligious and intergroup relations for the American Jewish Committee—said, “The Episcopal Church is a significant partner in bringing the Abrahamic faiths together in support of Israeli-Palestinian peace.”
Earlier this week, the United Church of Christ had passed a resolution to divest from Israel at its General Synod in Cleveland.
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Israel approves Egypt’s request to bolster Sinai military forces
(JNS.org) Israel has approved Egypt’s request to bolster the latter nation’s military presence in the Sinai Peninsula following a wave of attacks this week perpetrated by an Islamic State-affiliated terror group, according to Israel’s Channel 2.
The 1979 peace treaty between Israel and Egypt stipulates that both countries must approve any extra military forces on either side of the Sinai border. Additionally, Israel on Wednesday closed its two border crossings with Egypt and bolstered its own forces in the region.
According to report in the Egyptian newspaper el-Watan, Islamic State-affiliated terrorists used sophisticated weaponry in their recent attacks on Egyptian forces, including the Russian-made Kornet anti-tank missile. This forced Egypt’s military to use F-16 aircraft in their counterattack against the terrorists, instead of Apache helicopters.
The Sinai terrorists launched a wave of deadly terror attacks on Egyptian forces on Wednesday, killing dozens of soldiers. The Egyptian military says it has killed 100 terrorists in counterattacks. Media reports on Thursday indicate that an additional 23 terrorists were killed in airstrikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, “We see in front of our eyes IS (Islamic State) acting with extraordinary cruelty both in our northern border and at our southern border.”
“Our hearts are with the Egyptian people. We send our condolences to the Egyptian government and the families of those who were killed in battle with the cruel terror,” added Netanyahu.
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U.S. Catholic school educators travel to Israel to learn more on region
(JNS.org) Catholic school educators from across the U.S. are in Israel to learn more about the Jewish state, anti-Semitism, and Catholic-Jewish relations as part of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) Bearing Witness Advanced program.
According to the ADL, the program offers Catholic school educators “the opportunity to gain a better understanding of the relationship of the Holy Land to Jews, Christians and Muslims.” Participants are experiencing Israel “from the modern, high-tech city of Tel Aviv to the bustling seaport of Haifa to the Old City of Jerusalem to the biblical town of Nazareth and the Golan Heights,” the ADL said.
From June 30-July 9, the educators are visiting the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, and other prominent sites, in addition to meeting with a variety of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders and professionals.
“This is a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience for Catholic educators to directly experience the breadth and diversity of today’s Israel,” said David S. Waren, ADL’s director of education.
Since 1996, ADL’s Bearing Witness Advanced program has trained more than 1,900 Catholic school educators on Jewish-Catholic relations.
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Jews fleeing Ukraine arrive in Israel, recount assaults by pro-Russian rebels
(JNS.org) Two Jewish refugees who say they endured torture by pro-Russian rebels in Eastern Ukraine arrived in Israel after making aliyah on Wednesday.
Lawyer Roman Makria, 25, his girlfriend Sasha Malinka, and a man from Donetsk who identified himself as “D” joined more than 7,000 Ukrainian-Jewish refugees who have moved to Israel since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict in November 2013.
Makria recounted how he was kidnapped by rebels and interrogated on suspicion of espionage. “In May 2014, a couple of thugs came to our offices and took me away. They interrogated me over the course of two days, all the while threatening to kill me, and then let me go. [Afterward,] I got fired from work because they didn’t want to be involved with all this and the thugs had told them I was a spy,” he said, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“After I was released, we fled to Kiev. We couldn’t stay in Donetsk any longer. Every day, rockets fell, there was gunfire. Many of my friends and acquaintances were shot, wounded or killed. When I got to Kiev, I found work. But I wasn’t able to make more than $120 a month. The rent in Kiev alone is three times more than I’m used to paying. It’s impossible to live there making so little. … I have nothing to go back to. The minute you flee your home, the Russian rebels move in,” added Makria.
Subsequently, the couple “decided to make aliyah and to begin a new, normal life here,” he said.
“D” recalled how rebels “broke into my house, put a sack on my head, beat me up and broke my jaw with the butt of their rifle.”
“I was terrified. They were Russian. They brought me to a cellar, I’m not sure where. They put a grenade in my hand and told me that if I didn’t give them the information they were looking for, then they would chop my head off. At a certain point, I lost consciousness. A day later, I woke up in a hospital in Dontesk; surgeons were hovering above, repairing my jaw,” he said.
Both men expressed concern over family members they were forced to leave behind in Ukraine.
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Canada and Israel to fund joint biomedical research
(JNS.org) Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver announced that his country is teaming up with Israel on the new Canada-Israel Health Research Program, a seven-year program expected to cost $35 million that will fund as many as 30 joint research projects in biomedicine. The initiative will start with a focus on neuroscience.
The program is a partnership between Israel’s Azrieli Foundation, Canada’s International Development Research Centre, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Israel Science Foundation. Projects funded by the program will include collaborations among trainee researchers from middle-income and low-income countries in order to promote those nations’ scientific capacity.
“Canada and Israel are renowned for excellence in health research, particularly in the neurosciences,” Oliver said, Yedioth Ahronoth reported. “The Canada-Israel Health Research Program harnesses the collective energies of our two great nations to pursue basic biomedical research aimed at improving health outcomes for Canadians, Israelis, and people throughout the world. I am pleased to note that researchers in developing countries will have an opportunity to contribute to these research endeavors as well.”
Oliver’s announcement, made on behalf of Canadian Health Minister Rona Ambrose, was joined by Israeli Ambassador to Canada Rafael Barak; Dr. Naomi Azrieli, chair and CEO of the Azrieli Foundation; Dr. Jean Lebel, president of Canada’s International Development Research Centre; and Dr. Alain Beaudet, president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
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