Moody’s credit rating agency compliments Israel’s financial conduct
(JNS.org) International credit ratings corporation Moody’s presented a positive evaluation of Israel’s economy in its latest report, issued Monday, according to Israel Hayom. The agency says Israel is economically strong, institutionally and fiscally, and has the capability to weather tough global economic crises, as it did in 2008-9, and again in the current crisis. Moody’s economists pointed out that Israel’s economic performance was supported by a rising gross domestic product per capita, which crossed the 120,000 shekel ($30,000) annual threshold. Moody’s also ratified Israel’s credit rating, which has stayed at A1, the highest rating given in Moody’s upper-medium grade. Analysts predict a stable future for Israel and do not expect any changes in its rating. The credit ratings are determined by four criteria: economic strength, institutional strength (including the Bank of Israel and the Finance Ministry’s regulation of the economy); the current state of the banking and financial systems, and susceptibility to event risk.
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Jewish, Muslim leaders respond to ‘assault’ on their religious practices in Europe
(JNS.org Amid attempts to ban circumcision in Germany and ritual slaughter in the Netherlands, Jewish and Muslim leaders are uniting to fight what they call an ongoing attack on religious freedom in Europe. The European Jewish Press (EJP) reported that the European Jewish Congress (EJC), the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, and the Great Mosque of Paris hosted a gathering of Jewish and Muslim leaders from 18 European countries Sept. 4-5, with the goal of determining ways of responding to religious bans in their continent. “The recent attacks against our religious practices in Europe are an assault on all people of faith and they are indeed an attack on freedom of expression, the very basis for a free, democratic and tolerant European society,” European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said, according to EJP. Kantor said that while the practices Jews and Muslims have already been targeted, “tomorrow it could be Christians.”
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