Jewish news briefs: September 4, 2015

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Laser technology lets handicapped Israelis make music with their bodies
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An Israeli initiative could significantly improve the quality of life of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, and other untreatable diseases. The Grabski Rehabilitation Center in Migdal Haemek in northern Israel has decided to spread joy through a music room that allows its 40 residents—some of whom are wheelchair bound and unable to move their arms or legs—to play different musical instruments.

Cameras and laser sensors, connected to computers and screens, were installed throughout the room. By “cutting” the laser beam with their hands, or via any other bodily movement captured by the camera, the patients can control sounds and create a computerized melody.

The music room was inaugurated in a ceremony on Thursday. One resident whose life has been improved by the music room is Yoav Aharoni, 48. With a special crane, caretakers at the facility move Aharoni from his bed to his wheelchair. In the music room, he especially loves singing along to Israeli singer Shlomo Artzi’s song “Melech Haolam” (King of the World).

Rika Bider, 52, a former journalist, suffers from multiple sclerosis and is treated at the facility.

“I’ve always loved music,” she says, “and I even traveled to see concerts in England. Ever since the disease spread throughout my body I’ve been handicapped, and now, all of a sudden, not only can I listen to music, but I can also create music and dance in my wheelchair to the sounds of the music I create.”
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Netanyahu plans to cut Israel’s VAT and corporate tax after surplus
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon announced in a joint press conference on Thursday that they plan to cut Israel’s value-added tax (VAT) and corporate tax rates following a recent tax surplus.

“In order to encourage growth, I have decided together with Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon to reduce taxes, to cut VAT to 17 percent and Companies Tax to 25 percent,” Netanyahu said, adding that he believes the move will help contribute to economic growth.

Kahlon said the decision to cut the taxes stemmed from surplus tax receipts that amounts to billions of shekels, “which we intend to return to Israel’s citizens.”

“If there are further surpluses, we intend to continue the trend of tax reductions,” added Kahlon.

According to Globes, Israel’s state tax revenues were NIS 2.5 billion ($636 million) higher than forecasted in August, with a cumulative surplus of NIS 10 billion ($2.5 billion).
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5 American yeshiva students attacked by Palestinian mob in Hebron
(JNS.org) Five American yeshiva students were attacked by a Palestinian mob throwing stones and Molotov cocktails when they got lost on their way to pray at the Cave of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Two of the five students were slightly injured on their faces from the stones and broken glass. But the group was saved when a Palestinian resident of Hebron offered them shelter from the mob and called the police.

“I heard shouts outside, I left my house and saw the five Jews frantically leaving their car, which was attacked by stones,” Hebron resident Faiz Abu Hamadiah, 51, told the Israeli news website NRG.

“They were very pressured, one was injured and bleeding from his face. I calmed them down,” said Hamadiah. “I told them in Hebrew that it will be okay, I gave them water, and I helped the injured man. I told them they were safe in my house. Immediately afterward they called the police, and I sent teenagers to call the army to take them to the checkpoint.”

According to a spokesman for the Hebron Jewish community, the Israel Defense Forces used to have a checkpoint at the entryway to the Palestinian section of the city, but recently handed it over to Palestinian security forces.
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Israeli president hopes Pope Francis can be a ‘bridge’ for peace
(JNS.org) Israeli President Reuven Rivlin met with Pope Francis on Thursday at the Vatican, where Rivlin praised the pontiff’s ability to bring people together and hoped that he could act as a bridge for Middle East peace.

“I said to the Pope that I see in him a bridge, and asked of him to serve as such in the most difficult of places for mediation, where there no trust exists between the parties,” Rivlin said.

Among the other topics discussed during their meeting were efforts to combat the rise in global anti-Semitism, the financial crisis surrounding Christian schools in Israel, and a joint initiative between Israel’s government and Christian community aimed at developing the area around the site of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan Valley.

“I told the pope that the initiative has the potential to bring together the peoples of the region— Jordanians, Israelis, and Palestinians, and all those of faith—Christians, Muslims, and Jews,” Rivlin said.
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Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei: ‘no deal’ if sanctions suspended rather than lifted
(JNS.org) Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that despite the securing of enough U.S. Senate votes to guarantee approval of the recently reached nuclear deal in Congress, “there will be no deal” for Iran if sanctions are only suspended rather than lifted.

Khamenei said that while some U.S. lawmakers have referred to the “suspension” of sanctions, Iran has “insisted that sanctions ought to be lifted, not suspended,” the Associated Press reported, citing the Iranian Tasnim news agency.

“Otherwise, there would be no need for us to take part in the negotiations. We could continue our work and could increase the number of our centrifuges to 50,000 to 60,000 from the current 19,000 in a short while and continue 20-percent [uranium] enrichment, and speed up research and development,” said Khamenei.
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German MP blasted for calling Israeli security fence worse than Berlin Wall
(JNS.org) Israeli and Jewish organizations blasted a German Green Party lawmaker for saying that Israel’s security fence is worse than the Berlin Wall.

“The Berlin Wall is a toy” in comparison to the security fence, said Member of Parliament (MP) Uwe Kekeritz in a recently posted YouTube video that was filmed at an apparent anti-Israel event organized by the German Protestant Church in June.

“It is obvious that Green MP Uwe Kekeritz learned nothing about the larger picture about Middle East politics and history during his visit to Israel,” said the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, Efraim Zuroff, the Jerusalem Post reported.

Kekeritz had also said it “must be made clear to the Israelis that they cannot continue with their policies without consequences,” and that it is “taboo” to criticize Israel in Germany.

“To the best of my knowledge, the Berlin Wall was not built to stop terrorists from committing suicide attacks against West Berlin civilians, [it was] rather to prevent East Germans from fleeing to freedom in the West. And the number of people shot by communist authorities far outnumbers any casualties at Israel’s security fence,” said Zuroff, who added, “There is no shortage of criticism of Israel in Germany today and no one is preventing him from voicing criticism of Israel, justified or unjustified.”

Prof. Gerald Steinberg, head of the Jerusalem-based research institute NGO Monitor, said, ”This case highlights the damage done by irresponsible NGOs, particularly in Germany, who promote vicious anti-Israel propaganda campaigns. In their activities, Misereor and Brot für die Welt, both of which are funded by the German government, present entirely biased and immoral distortions of the conflict.”

“In addition, as NGO Monitor has documented, a number of the political foundations including the Green Party’s Heinrich Böll Stiftung fund and partner with the ideological fringe, adding to the distortions. The public money that these groups channel into targeting Israel results in misinformed and unethical statements and positions from German journalists, MPs academics, and others,” Steinberg added.

Kekeritz later expressed regret for the comparison on his website, stating, “To deduce a comparison with the dictator in the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) and the democratic legal state of Israel is absurd.”

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