Erdogan will no longer visit Gaza due to border-crossing denial by Egypt
(JNS.org) Islamist Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will not be visiting Gaza later this month, as he had planned, reportedly due to Egyptian military authorities’ refusal to allow him to enter the Hamas-controlled territory through the Egyptian border.
The denial by Egypt’s military authorities was due to Erdogan’s continuous criticism of the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi and of the new interim military-backed government, Al-Ahram reported.
Erdogan, who hails from the Islamist Justice and Development Party, has maintained close relations with the Muslim Brotherhood as well as its Palestinian offshoot, Hamas. Erdogan has also been a fierce critic of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. Erdogan’s visit to Gaza was intended to pressure Israel to end its naval blockade of the territory.
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Judea and Samaria population on the rise
(JNS.org) The first half of 2013 was characterized by a 2.12 percent population increase in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley, according to population registry data obtained by Israel Hayom. The information suggests that the growth rate is highest in the Har Hebron Regional Council, at 4.8 percent.
“The Har Hebron communities have become a magnet for couples and families who seek value-based education, quality of life and to make a national contribution,” said Har Hebron Regional Council head Tzviki Bar-Hai.
On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet expanded its list of cities and communities eligible for government subsidies, which included a record number of Judea and Samaria communities. The decision came just days after the resumption of long-frozen Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations and drew quick Palestinian condemnation. The Israeli government hopes to encourage more people to move to the communities on the “national priorities” list.
Yigal Dilmoni, deputy director of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group of municipal courts in Judea and Samaria, said, “Due to the high demand, the [Israeli] government needs to renew construction and issue new tenders” for Judea and Samaria communities.
As of July 1, the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria stood at 367,000 people, a growth of some 7,700 new residents over the last six months. This represents 2.12 percent population growth, as opposed to an average 1.9 percent nationwide population growth throughout the country in 2012.
This figure is significant when compared with what some say is the low availability of housing in Judea and Samaria, the sharp rise in housing prices and the palpable slowdown in construction tenders and the advancement of zoning projects in the settlements.
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Pre-1967 lines withdrawal opposed by most Israeli Jews, poll shows
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Sixty-three percent of Israeli Jews oppose a withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines, with land swaps, as part of a permanent peace agreement with the Palestinians, the latest monthly Peace Index poll released by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University shows.
The poll found that 79 percent of Israeli Jews think the renewed Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations with the Palestinians have a low chance of success of yielding a peace agreement, while 18 percent believe they have a high chance. Among Israeli Arabs, 41 percent think the talks have a low chance of success, while 47 percent believe there is a high chance.
According to the poll, 60 percent of Israeli Jews trust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to conduct negotiations with the Palestinians in a way that safeguards Israel’s security, while 37 percent do not. Among Israeli Arabs, 29 percent trust Netanyahu to do so, while 64 percent do not.
As part of a permanent peace agreement with security arrangements, a demilitarized Palestinian state, international guarantees, and a Palestinian declaration of the end of conflict, 77 percent of Israeli Jews oppose recognition of a Palestinian “right of return” involving the return of a small number of refugees and financial compensation for the rest.
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Australian politician Tim Fischer: ‘Jewish lobby’ controls image of Nazi-era Pope Pius XII
(JNS.org) Jewish groups and Israeli leaders have criticized former Australian deputy prime minister Tim Fischer for saying that the “Jewish lobby” has unfairly treated the legacy of Pope Pius XII.
Jewish groups are known to be critical of Pope Pius XII, who was pope during the Nazi era, for not publicly condemning the atrocities that were being perpetrated by the Germans against the Jewish people. But in his new book, Holy See, Unholy Me: 1000 Days in Rome, Fischer claims that Pius “instructed Catholics to help Jews, hiding hundreds in convents, monasteries and the Vatican,” and says the tactics of the “Jewish lobby” are “about representing a cause and maintaining influence and power.”
“This is very standard anti-Semitic fare… the notion of Jews controlling the world, either through financial markets or the media, or both,” said Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office, on Fischer’s book.
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Biblical archeology’s latest discovery: Ancient Jewish pottery village in Galilee
(JNS.org) A religion professor from Alabama-based Samford University has discovered an ancient Galilean Jewish village five miles near Nazareth in a recent archeological dig.
“The site of the discovery has been abandoned, except for agriculture, ever since the mid-fourth century A.D. … The buildings came down and people used its stones in other nearby buildings, then those buildings were destroyed and the stones were re-used agai,” said Professor James Riley Strange, according to Science World Report.
Archeologists discovered remnants of Jewish housing and synagogues at the site, as well as pottery and moulds that were used to make oil lamps. One discovered piece, an oil lamp, has an engraving of a menorah and a lulav.
From the discovery, experts suspect the village was a potters’ village. One of the earliest Jewish villages in the region during the Hasmonaean dynasty (140-63 B.C) was “Shikhin,” a potters’ village described by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus and by the Talmud.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org