IDF renews search for soldier missing since 1997
(JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces is renewing the search for Guy Hever, a soldier who went missing in the Golan Heights in August 1997, Israel Hayom reported.
The decision to resume search operations for Hever was made by Maj. Gen. Orna Barbivai, head of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate. The searches will be conducted in areas where Hever was seen on the day of his disappearance. The IDF hopes to find new evidence that will shine a light on Hever’s fate.
Hever was 20 years old when he disappeared on Aug. 17, 1997, after leaving his base in the Golan Heights. Search efforts over the years have uncovered no clues of what happened to him.
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Netanyahu: Deal not close in Israeli-Palestinian conflict talks
(JNS.org) A deal in Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations is not close, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Likud party meeting on Monday.
“We are not standing before a permanent accord. We have a set of specific terms that have yet to be met in the negotiations. … We are still not there, not even walking down that hall,” he said, Israel Hayom reported.
“Only once Israel’s terms are met will there be a peace deal,” Netanyahu added.
Netanyahu’s comments present a stark contrast to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s remark last week that Israel and the Palestinians are “closer than they’ve been in years” to achieving a peace agreement.
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Iran nuclear deal ‘dead’ if new sanctions passed, Iranian foreign minister says
(JNS.org) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that if the U.S. Congress passed new Iran sanctions, the interim nuclear deal between Iran and world powers would be “dead,” even if those sanctions would not take effect for six months.
“If Congress adopts sanctions, it shows lack of seriousness and lack of a desire to achieve a resolution on the part of the United States,” Zarif said in an interview with Time magazine.
Zarif’s comments come as a bipartisan group of U.S. senators neared an agreement on a new round of Iran sanctions that would begin in six months and would not allow for any uranium enrichment, contrary to the interim deal that allows Iran to enrich to 5 percent, CNN reported. The new sanctions would permit commercial nuclear power for Iran.
“We’ll do sanctions tied to the end game where the relief will only come if they stop the enrichment program, dismantle the reactor and turn over the enriched uranium,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told CNN.
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Kerry may seek delay of terrorist prisoner release to pressure PA
(JNS.org) Reports indicate that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry may ask Israel to delay its next scheduled release of Palestinian terrorist prisoners unless the Palestinian Authority (PA) accepts at least some of the proposals put forth by Kerry on Jordan Valley security as part of Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations.
The PA has thus far refused all of Kerry’s proposals on the security issue. Before the current negotiations began, Israel agreed to release 104 Palestinian terrorists from its prisons, 52 of whom have been released so far.
Top Palestinian Liberation Organization official Yasser Abed Rabbo told AFP that Kerry’s Jordan Valley proposals “will drive Kerry’s efforts to an impasse and to total failure.” PA Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Karaka confirmed indications of a possible delay in the prisoner release, Israel National News reported.
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New venture seeks entrepreneurial solutions for people with disabilities in Israel
(JNS.org) PresenTense Israel, a volunteer-run organization aimed at bringing together entrepreneurs to revitalize Jewish communities, is teaming up with the Ruderman Family Foundation and Beit Issie Shapiro nonprofit to launch a new program aimed at bringing an entrepreneurial spirit to helping people with disabilities.
Dubbed A3i—Accelerating Inclusion in Israel—the program will be the first start-up accelerator focused on solutions that address the needs of people with disabilities. Entrepreneurs looking to get involved in the Ra’anana-based program must submit ventures addressing the needs of people with disabilities; the ventures may include hi-tech ventures, social businesses, or social ventures.
“The Ruderman Family Foundation believes that A3i will allow all of us to experiment, learn and broaden our capacity to become an inclusive society,” Shira Ruderman, Israel director of the Ruderman Family Foundation, said in a statement.
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Moshe Ya’alon: Iran building terror infrastructure in Central and South America
(JNS.org) Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said he believes Iran is building a terror infrastructure in Central and South America, using its embassies and local Shi’ite Muslim populations as bases.
“The Iranians use diplomatic mail [pouches] in order to transport bombs and weapons, and we know that there are states in South America, like Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, where the Iranians have terror bases, both in the embassies and among the local Shi’ite Muslim populations,” Ya’alon said in a meeting with Guatemalan President Otto Fernando Perez, the Times of Israel reported.
Ya’alon believes these bases can be used to attack Jewish or Israeli interests in the region, or to stage attacks inside of the U.S. similar to the foiled 2011 attack on a Saudi ambassador in Washington, DC.
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World Bank financing Red Sea to Dead Sea water pipeline
(JNS.org) The World Bank is financing a major water deal between Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) that will establish a pipeline from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea and a desalination plant, Globes reported.
The project, which has been in the works for several decades, will feature a 180-kilometer pipeline that will run from a desalination plant in Aqaba, Jordan, to the Dead Sea, providing more than 100 million cubic meters of brine water to replenish the Dead Sea, which is losing about 1.4 meters of water a year.
The pipeline will take advantage of the 400-meter drop in elevation between the Red Sea and Dead Sea, the lowest elevation in the world at -427 meters (-1,401 feet), to transport the brine water, which is a byproduct of desalination plants. Additionally, the Aqaba desalination plant will produce freshwater for southern Jordan, Israel, and the PA. The project will cost an estimated $200-400 million.
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Cleveland Jewish day schools to offer tuition discounts for Jewish community employees
(Cleveland Jewish News/Exclusive to JNS.org) Two Cleveland Jewish day schools on Dec. 3 announced a new tuition incentive program for Jewish communal employees who wish to send their children to a Jewish day school beginning in the 2014-15 school year.
The two schools—the Agnon School in Beachwood, Ohio, and the Gross Schechter Day School in Pepper Pike, Ohio—will offer tuition discounts of 40 and 35 percent, respectively.
Agnon will offer the discount to parents who work at agencies affiliated with the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, synagogues, and other approved Jewish community organizations.
“We’re pleased that both schools are offering the incentive,” said Marla K. Wolf, religious school director at Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood. “It makes a lot of sense to help out Jewish communal workers and educators.”
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Preceding provided by JNS.org