OECD lauds high education rates among Israelis
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel has one of the highest-educated populations of any country in the developed world, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) latest global education report, released on Tuesday.
The “Education at a Glance 2015” report found that 85 percent of Israelis ages 25-64 have completed upper secondary education, compared with the OECD average of 76 percent. And 49 percent of Israelis in that age group went on to tertiary education (universities or colleges), compared with the OECD average of 34 percent—the second-highest rate of any country in the 34-member nation OECD.
Israel also had a low high school dropout rate of 14.6 percent, compared with the OECD average of 24.7 percent.
“Israel has the highest percentage of adults between the ages of 55-64 who have acquired tertiary education, almost twice the OECD average, and Israel is above the OECD average in its tertiary-educated population among every age group,” the findings said.
The report said Israel was one of only a handful of countries to increase its investment in education even during the global financial crisis, devoting 6.5 percent of its gross domestic product to its education system. Nevertheless, “Israel still spends less per student for all services, across all education levels, than the OECD average,” the report said.
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Israeli man seriously wounded in latest Hebron-area stabbing
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A 20-year-old Israeli man was seriously wounded on Wednesday morning near Hebron when he was stabbed in the upper body by a Palestinian terrorist.
The terrorist was shot and wounded by security forces at the scene of the attack. The wounded Israeli was conscious as he was transported to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for medical treatment.
The attack took place at the al-Fawwar junction southwest of Hebron. The area has been the scene of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis on virtually a daily basis in recent weeks.
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Gaza front quietest it has been in 15 years, IDF officer says
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) “The current period is relatively quiet, the quietest in the past 15 years, because Hamas understands that if it goes on or takes part in the recent terrorist activity in Judea and Samaria, it will pay a heavy price,” former Israel Defense Forces GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman said Tuesday at a panel titled “A Year Since Operation Protective Edge.”
The panel was held as part of the annual Sderot Conference, a forum devoted to social issues hosted by Sapir College.
“We in the defense establishment are committed to providing the best possible solution between one operation and another, between rounds [of fighting],” Turgeman said. “The IDF recognizes the threats and is preparing for many different scenarios. Hamas invested a lot of time and effort into building the [attack] tunnels, but the blow it sustained was immense, because we have created deterrence.”
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Israel reportedly hits Hezbollah and Syrian government targets
(JNS.org) Syrian opposition media has reported that Israel carried out airstrikes against Hezbollah terror group and Syrian government targets around Syria’s Qalamoun Mountains on Monday evening.
A report by the Syrian opposition news website Al-Souria Net said that eight Hezbollah fighters and five Syrian soldiers were killed in the raids.
“After several hours of reconnaissance flights above the area, Israeli planes suddenly launched two raids on a joint Assad forces and Hezbollah position,” Al-Souria Net reported. “This was immediately followed by a third raid.The Israeli planes resumed their attack with a fourth air raid after several minutes, targeting a Hezbollah position in western Qalamoun.”
The Qalamoun area is a major area of weapons transfers between Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.
Israel also reportedly carried out airstrikes near the Damascus airport on Nov. 11. Those strikes targeted weapons shipments intended for Hezbollah.
Amid the latest Israeli strikes, the tense situation in Syria continued to escalate on Tuesday, with Turkish F-16s shooting down a Russian Su-24 fighter jet along the Turkish-Syrian border.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Su-24 aircraft was flying over Syrian airspace when the plane was hit, but Turkish officials said the plane violated Turkey’s airspace. Putin said the the move by NATO member Turkey would have “serious consequences” for Russia-Turkey relations.
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Iran says nuclear deal to be implemented in early January
(JNS.org) Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said he expects the nuclear deal between Iran the P5+1 world powers to go into effect early next year.
“We expect it will be in early January,” Araqchi told reporters in Vienna following a meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency.
Under the nuclear deal signed in July, Iran must take a number of steps, including scaling back its uranium enrichment capabilities and reducing its stockpile of enriched uranium, in order to have international sanctions reduced.
But a report by the IAEA last week said Iran has yet to take a number of steps to fulfill its commitments under the nuclear agreement. According to the IAEA, Iran has so far only removed 4,500 uranium enrichment centrifuges over the past month and needs to dismantle an additional 10,000.
The report also said that Iran must reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium from 8,300 kilograms to 300 kilograms before the deal can be implemented.
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Obama offers condolences to family of Ezra Schwartz
(JNS.org) President Barack Obama called the family of Ezra Schwartz on Monday to offer his “profound condolences” after the Massachusetts teen was killed in a Palestinian terror attack in Israel last week.
The president “underscored that Ezra’s studies in Israel strengthened the bonds between Israel and the United States and, as we mourn his death, those bonds only grow stronger,” a senior Obama administration official said regarding the call, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Obama, the official continued, “condemned in the strongest terms the terrorist attack that took his life.”
While a U.S. State Department official swiftly condemned the terror attack that killed Schwartz on Nov. 20, Obama came under fire from some in the Jewish community for not personally condemning the attack and reaching out to the family sooner.
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Poll: 1 in 5 British Muslims sympathize with citizens joining Islamic State abroad
(JNS.org) One in five British Muslims sympathize with British citizens who leave the United Kingdom to join the Islamic State terror group, according to a new poll published by The Sun newspaper and conducted by Survation.
The study surveyed 1,003 British Muslim citizens about their views on Islamic State as well as their religious and national identities. More than half of the respondents said the Muslim community has a responsibility to condemn terror attacks carried out by Islamic State, while 38 percent disagreed with that statement. Seventy-one percent of British Muslims said their British and Muslim identities were “equally important” to them, while 17% percent said their Muslim identity is more important.
Regarding whether “Western foreign policy” is the biggest factor in Islamic State attacks, 38 percent of respondents concurred, while a quarter blamed Islamic State leaders for “exploiting young people.”
British media are questioning the methodology of Survation’s poll, particularly on the issue of whether or not the sample was representative of the 2.7 million Muslims living in the U.K.
Survation conducted a similar poll for Sky News in March that showed 28 percent of British Muslims having sympathy for those leaving the U.K. to join fighters in Syria.
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Tel Aviv to help India create ‘smart cities’
(JNS.org) The city of Tel Aviv on Monday announced a collaboration with India to create “smart cities” that will use innovative digital resources and systems to improve urban areas.
The Delivering Change Foundation, a Mumbai-based NGO, will be mentored and trained by Israeli representatives from the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo to employ Israeli ingenuity in the Indian cities of Pune, Nagpur, and Nashik in the northwestern state of Maharashtra, an Indian municipal spokeswoman told the Jerusalem Post.
Indian cities will be set up to use Tel Aviv’s DigiTel pass, through which citizens can pay water and municipal tax bills, order parking permits, and send photos of potholes or broken park benches to the municipal complaint line; citywide WiFi; digital city services; and GPS-based smartphone apps.
“In recent years, Tel Aviv has managed to become one of the world’s leading smart cities, thanks to innovation, resident engagement, and ‘out of the box’ thinking,” said Hila Oren, CEO and founder of Tel Aviv Global.
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Kerry meets Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, condemns Palestinian terror wave
(JNS.org) U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as President Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday in Jerusalem. The leaders discussed the ongoing wave of Palestinian terror in Israel, in addition to concerns over security issues related to Syria and Islamic State.
“Clearly, no people anywhere should live with daily violence, with attacks in the streets, with knives or scissors or cars,” Kerry said prior to his meeting with Netanyahu.
“Regrettably, several Americans have also been killed in the course of these past weeks, and just yesterday I talked to the family of Ezra Schwartz from Massachusetts, a young man who came here out of high school, ready to go to college, excited about his future, and yesterday his family was sitting shiva and I talked to them and heard their feelings, the feelings of any parent for the loss of a child,” added Kerry, a former U.S. senator representing Massachusetts.
Also on Tuesday, Kerry told Rivlin, “Israel not only has the right to defend itself but has an obligation to do so. The United States will continue to stand with Israel in support of your desire to live in peace and stability, without that violence.”
Netanyahu told Kerry before their meeting, “You are a friend in our common effort to restore stability, security, and peace. There can be no peace when we have an onslaught of terror—not here or not anywhere else in the world, which is experiencing this same assault by militant Islamists and the forces of terror. Israel is fighting these forces every hour.”
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Turkey shoots down Russian warplane near Syria
(JNS.org) Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian military aircraft near the border with Syria on Tuesday after sending 10 warnings within five minutes to vacate the area.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Su-24 aircraft was flying over Syrian airspace when the plane was hit, but Turkish officials said the plane violated Turkey’s airspace. Putin said the the move by NATO member Turkey would have “serious consequences” for Russia-Turkey relations.
“This goes beyond the normal struggle against terrorism. This was a stab in the back by the accomplices of terrorists,” Putin said, adding, “We will never tolerate such crimes like the one committed today.”
A deputy commander of a Syrian Turkmen brigade said that both pilots were “dead upon retrieval” after his men shot them while they parachuted to the ground, according to Reuters.
Knowing that the “skies are crowded” with military operations in Syria against the Islamic State terror group, Israel needs to “take safety measures” to avoid being dragged into the conflict, Israeli Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel recently told the Jerusalem Post.
Additionally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel is working to avoid clashes with Russian forces in Syria. He told Putin in a phone conversation, “Let’s make sure we don’t shoot down each other and let’s make sure we’re coordinated. Their air defenses; our air power. We did that; what we call deconfliction.”
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