IDF budget cuts mean no money for ‘elements that produce security,’ official says
(JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces will begin ceasing various activities as of early June, while certain military functions such as vehicle repairs are expected to dwindle one after the other, defense officials said.
“The significance of the emerging 2015 budgetary outline is that we will not be able to begin the year at all,” Defense Ministry Director-General Maj. Gen. (res.) Dan Harel told military correspondents at the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv on Monday, Israel Hayom reported.
According to Harel, “There will be money for elements pertaining to rehabilitation and retirement, because that is the law, but we won’t have money for the elements that produce security.” Untouchable portions of the IDF budget include $2.1 billion for pensions and $320 million for soldiers’ salaries during their mandatory service.
The IDF budget is expected to drop from the current annual level of $7.63 billion to $6.45 billion in 2015.
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Prosecutor’s office: Brussels Jewish museum shooting likely a terrorist attack
(JNS.org) The shooting that killed four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels last weekend was likely a terrorist attack, said Wenke Roggen, a spokesperson for the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office.
A 30-second video released by police shows a man taking a rifle out of a bag and shooting into a room before promptly leaving the scene.
“The analysis of the first images seems cold-blooded and apparently determined,” Roggen said Monday at a press conference. “It took less than 90 seconds. This combined with the fact that the shots were fired inside the Jewish museum makes us believe that the crimes were committed with a terrorist motive.”
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MKs propose bill to make Jerusalem Day a national holiday
(JNS.org) MK Yoni Chetboun (Habayit Hayehudi) proposed a bill in the Knesset on Monday to have Jerusalem Day, which commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, made into an official national holiday in Israel.
This year’s Jerusalem Day was observed Wednesday.
“Jerusalem Day has turned from a national celebration to something reserved for specific sectors of society,” Chetboun said, Israel Hayom reported. “Turning it into an official national holiday will give it the place it deserves within the Israeli experience, a national holiday for all of us.”
Chetboun added that he is hopeful the proposal would be implemented as early as next year.
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Pope Francis visits Western Wall, Yad Vashem on final day of Mideast trip
(JNS.org) On Monday, the final day of his Mideast trip, Pope Francis visited the Western Wall and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, among other major sites in Jerusalem.
At the Western Wall, the pope prayed by the remains of the Second Temple and left a note inside an envelope in one of the cracks between the stones. Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz said, “From this place, this holy place dedicated to you and me and millions of others worldwide, I wish to join you in asking the believers of all faiths to fight hatred and growing anti-Semitism.”
Francis met with Jerusalem Grand Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, urging his “Muslim brothers” to “respect and love one another as brothers and sisters.”
“May we learn to understand the suffering of others,” the pope said, Israel Hayom reported. “May no one abuse the name of God through violence.”
The pope laid a wreath at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery, where Israeli leaders and soldiers are buried, before visiting Yad Vashem. There, he laid a wreath in the “Hall of Remembrance” and kissed the hands of half a dozen Holocaust survivors.
“Never again, Lord, never again,” said Francis. “Here we are, Lord, shamed by what man, created in your own image and likeness, was capable of doing.”
Francis also visited the Hechal Shlomo Jewish Heritage Center in Jerusalem, together with Israel’s Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and Chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.
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Peres and Abbas accept Pope Francis offer to pray for peace at the Vatican
(JNS.org) Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas accepted an invitation by Pope Francis to pray for peace at the Vatican.
“In this, the birthplace of the prince of peace, I wish to invite you, President Mahmoud Abbas, together with Israeli President Shimon Peres, to join me in heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace,” Francis said on his Mideast trip. “I offer my home in the Vatican as a place for this encounter of prayer.”
Though Peres and Abbas accepted the pope’s invitation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office made no comment on the matter, according to The Jerusalem Post.
On his trip, the pope also condemned the shooting that killed four people on Saturday at a Jewish museum in Brussels, calling the attack a “criminal act of anti-Semitic hatred.”
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Spanish town votes to change ‘Kill Jews’ name
(JNS.org) The small Spanish village of Castrillo Matajudios, whose name translates to “Kill Jews Fort,” voted Sunday to change its name with 29 of 56 residents voting in favor, and 19 voting against the change. The rest of the residents abstained.
The second part of the town’s name was originally “Motajudios,” which means “Hill of Jews.” That name dates back to 1035, when Jews who escaped being killed at another nearby town settled on the town’s hill. Records from 1627 show that the name was then changed to “Kill Jews,” more than a century after the Spanish Inquisition, which had forced Jews to convert to Catholicism or face either execution or expulsion.
Some researchers believe that the town’s new name was invented by Jewish converts to Catholicism who wanted to make it seem that they opposed people who tried to maintain their Jewish faith. Others think the new name was simply a misspelling. The town’s official shield includes the Star of David.
A majority of the voters in the town backed reverting back to its original name, Castrillo Mota de Judios, or Hill of Jews, but no final decision has been made, reported Reuters.
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