IDF’s new mortar warning system soon to be operational
(JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces announced Sunday that its new tactical radar system, which aims to warn residents of communities along the Israel-Gaza border of incoming mortar fire, will become fully operational in October.
While the IDF’s Color Red alert warns of incoming rocket fire and gives Israeli residents of border communities about 15 seconds to reach shelters, it has proved less effective against mortar shells, which usually travel shorter distances at lower altitudes, resulting in residents often having no warning or only a few seconds’ warning of incoming mortars.
This prompted the IDF to develop the new system, which has undergone several successful tests. About 25 of the new radar systems have been deployed in the border communities, and the IDF hopes they will lengthen the warning time for incoming mortar fire by up to eight seconds, giving residents a full 15 seconds to reach shelter. But an IDF official told Israel Hayom that even with the new system, the timeframe for warnings is an educated guess, since it depends on the type of mortar and the location inside Gaza from where it is fired.
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PM tours future Jordan border fence, says Israel must ‘strictly’ control borders
(JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday toured the site where construction has begun on a fence that will ultimately stretch the length of Israel’s eastern border with Jordan.
The first section being built is an 18.6-mile stretch between Eilat and Timna in southern Israel. The budget for this section is $71.4 million. The fence is meant to prevent the entry into Israel of illegal migrants and terrorists. Its construction comes after Israel completed building fences along the lengths of its borders with Egypt in the south and Syria in the north.
Referring to the current refugee crisis in Europe, Netanyahu said at the construction site, “Unlike Europe, which has 360 million residents and a huge economy, Israel is a small country, with a small population, and has no demographic depth. Therefore, it must strictly control its borders.”
Netanyahu, however, reiterated that Israel is not indifferent to the plight of Syrian refugees.
“Israel was the first country to provide humanitarian aid to people wounded in the civil war in Syria, and we have already treated more than 1,000, including women and children,” he said. “[But] we will not allow Israel to be flooded with infiltrators, work migrants, and terrorist operatives. We see today what is happening to countries that have lost control of their borders.”
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Tel Aviv University a major source of Google employees, report says
(JNS.org) Tel Aviv University (TAU) is the third-largest source outside the U.S. of graduates who go on to work for the Internet search engine giant Google, according to a report by the Business Insider website.
On Sunday, Business Insider published a list of the 20 universities with the most graduates hired by Google, which has 57,000 full-time employees across the globe. Between 2.5 and 3.5 million people apply for jobs with the company annually, and about 4,000 are hired.
Currently, 288 TAU alumni work at Google. TAU was the only university listed by Business Insider whose language of instruction is not English. Among non-American schools on the list, only the U.K.’s Oxford and Cambridge universities had more employees at Google.
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Average monthly Israeli salary hits historic high of more than $2,500
(JNS.org) The average monthly salary in Israel has reached an all-time high of more than $2,500 per month, according to a report published by the Jewish state’s Central Bureau of Statistics.
The report said that in June, the average salary jumped 7.9 percent, or $187, to reach $2,562. Additionally, the number of employees in Israel rose 2.5 percent in the first quarter of 2015, as 82,000 people joined the workforce to bring the total number of workers to 3.41 million.
Israel’s oil and gas exploration sector pays the highest nationwide at an average salary of $5,998 a month. The next best-paid sector is banking, where employees earn an average of $5,265 a month. Senior officials in government-owned companies take home average monthly salaries of $4,751, while the Israel Electric Corporation and the Mekorot Israel National Water Company pay an average of $4,676 a month.
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Capital of Wales removes photo exhibit on Israeli soccer after BDS pressure
(JNS.org) The city council of Cardiff, Wales’s capital, withdrew a photo exhibit on how soccer can unite Jewish and Arab communities in Israel after pressure from pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activists.
The exhibit was set to run for a week at Cardiff’s Central Library ahead of a soccer match between Wales and Israel. But the city council decided to pull the display after anti-Israel complaints and over fear that it could “lead visitors to suppose that the council was displaying bias,” a council spokesperson said, The Guardian reported.
The city council’s opposition leader, Judith Woodman, called the move “shameful,” adding that the council “has led the way in diversity and community cohesion and in the past has not bowed to the minority who complain.”
The Israeli Embassy in London dubbed the decision “outrageous,” saying the exhibit’s purpose “is to celebrate racial and interfaith harmony in Israel—something that is in stark contrast to what is happening elsewhere in the Middle East.”
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Jewish Democrat Cardin opposes Iran deal after Senate approval in hand
(JNS.org) U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), who is Jewish and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, said Friday that he will vote against the Iran nuclear deal.
“We must agree to counter Iranian support for terrorism and confront Iranian violations of ballistic missile protocols and international human rights obligations,” Cardin wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, while calling his decision a “close call.”
Cardin’s announcement came after the Obama administration had already secured the 34 Senate votes necessary to block an override of a presidential veto of Congressional rejection of the deal. But the White House needs 41 pro-deal votes to enable Senate Democrats to filibuster and prevent President Barack Obama from needing to use his veto power.
Before Cardin, the only Senate Democrats to publicly oppose the deal were Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Robert Menendez (N.J.).
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Islamic State forces Syrian Christians to sign ‘dhimmi’ contract under threat of death
(JNS.org) The Islamic State terror group published photos of the terror group forcing Syrian Christians to sign a dhimmi (non-Muslim) contract that forces the Christians to pay a “jizya” tax and severely curtails their freedom to practice their faith under the threat of death.
According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, which obtained and translated the photos and contract text, the Christians signed an 11-article contract that requires them to “pay the jizya poll tax, abide by Islamic rules, and refrain from certain activities.”
Some of these stipulations include Christians being forbidden to build churches, perform religious rituals or show a cross in public, and drink alcohol in public. Additionally, they must respect Muslims and not criticize Islam. The terror group said that if Christians violate any of these rules, they will be “treated as a combatant.”
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