Florida passes bill requiring state board to vet Israel-boycotting companies
(JNS.org) Florida’s state legislature on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed “SB 86: Scrutinized Companies,” which requires a state board to identify all publicly funded companies that are involved with boycotts of Israel.
The bill, which now heads to Florida Governor Rick Scott for signature into law after the 112-2 vote, continues the growing trend of individual U.S. states taking action against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. According to the bill’s text, the Florida measure is “requiring the State Board of Administration to identify all companies that are boycotting Israel or are engaged in a boycott of Israel in which the public fund owns direct or indirect holdings by a specified date; requiring the public fund to create and maintain the Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel List that names all such companies; [and] prohibiting a state agency or local governmental entity from contracting for goods and services that exceed a specified amount if the company has been placed on the Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel List.”
The states of Tennessee, Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania have all passed resolutions condemning BDS, while Illinois and South Carolina have gone even further. Illinois passed a bill that prohibits state pension funds from including in their portfolios companies that participate in the BDS movement, and South Carolina passed legislation that bars state agencies from contracting with any business that boycotts others “based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.”
“The [BDS] movement, while being anti-Israel, is not pro-peace or even pro-Palestinian. Its goals, if achieved, would leave Palestinians impoverished. We welcome the fact that Florida is joining Illinois and South Carolina in rejecting the boycott campaign,” said Roz Rothstein, CEO of the pro-Israel education and advocacy group StandWithUs.
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Netanyahu promises to end threat of Hamas terror tunnels
(JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Wednesday with a group of leaders from southern Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip, promising that the government and the Israel Defense Forces are working on a solution to end the threat of Hamas terror tunnels.
Netanyahu said progress was being made toward the development of a system to locate tunnels dug by Hamas under the Israel-Gaza border, Israel Hayom reported. Wednesday’s meeting took place at the request of the community leaders, who have expressed concerns in recent months about renewed efforts by Hamas to construct cross-border tunnels.
The main concern among southern Israelis is that Hamas terrorists will infiltrate their communities through the tunnels. Israel initially destroyed a network of such tunnels during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, but residents claim that they now hear digging coming from below the ground.
Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon took part in the meeting and said the Finance Ministry would allocate whatever funds are needed to build a new security barrier along the border with Gaza.
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Arab MK who met terrorists’ families banned from Israeli President’s Residence
(JNS.org) Israeli President Reuven Rivlin banned Member of Knesset Jamal Zahalka (Joint Arab List) from entering the President’s Residence and from participating in a meeting the president called with Israeli-Arab leaders, due to Zahalka’s condolence visit to Palestinian terrorists’ families last month.
Zahalka had asked to participate in the meeting two hours before it began. Despite his aides being informed in advance that he would not be allowed into the building, Zahalka showed up and unsuccessfully attempted to enter, Israel Hayom reported.
In light of Rivlin’s decision, Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh and fellow party member MK Masud Ganaim also canceled their participation in the meeting.
“While, unfortunately, individual Knesset members have chosen to undermine, in one way or another, our ability to establish trust between us, we are here today because we believe in our path,” Rivlin said at the meeting. “I expect to hear loud and clear from you, leaders of the Arab public, that the Arab public is fed up with these foolish attempts.”
Zahalka said, “I decided to participate. I notified the President’s Residence of this, and I was told that all the seats at the event were full and that there were no free spots. I didn’t know there was a chair shortage at the President’s Residence. They should seriously consider creating a budget to purchase additional chairs.”
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Obama and Jordan’s Abdullah: bring hope to Israelis and Palestinians
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) At a White House meeting on Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama and Jordan’s King Abdullah II discussed the ongoing wave of Palestinian terrorism against Israelis.
Obama said Abdullah played a vital role in “reducing some of the immediate sources of tension around the Temple Mount.”
“We continue to agree that it’s important for us to provide both sides a sense of possibility and hope, and not simply despair. That’s hard to do. And so we have explored ideas in terms of how we can make progress,” said Obama.
The president praised Abdullah as a “voice of reason and moderation and tolerance for all the parties concerned in this issue,” adding, “We very much appreciate his partnership in the process.”
Referring to the current tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, Abdullah similarly said, “These are obviously challenging times, but hope is something that we have to bring both sides.”
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Israeli envoy: Netanyahu-Obama relations are ‘good, given the circumstances’
(Bradley Martin/JNS.org) Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer said he believes the relationship between the two nations is as strong as ever despite the history of tension between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama.
“Of course, we have differences of opinion with regard to peace with the Palestinians and the Iran nuclear deal. But ultimately, I believe the relationship between America and Israel is strong enough to weather any such differences of opinion,” Dermer told an audience of 800 people at the Media Leadership Dinner of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) International Christian Media Convention.
The American-born Dermer was confirmed as ambassador in July 2013, replacing former envoy Michael Oren, who also born in the U.S. While he remains critical of the Obama administration-brokered Iran nuclear deal as well as the administration’s support for a Palestinian state, Dermer denied any rupture in relations between the two leaders.
“The current status [between the Netanyahu and Obama administrations] has been good, given the circumstances,” said Dermer.
The Israeli ambassador spoke of the greater danger that Iran poses due to the recent lifting of sanctions against the Islamic Republic by the U.S. and other world powers.
“Not many people know this: In the last few years, Iran has perpetrated terror attacks in 25 countries on five continents. An Iran free of sanctions will be far richer and more dangerous to Israel, to the region and to the world,” said Dermer.
“Our main concern [with the nuclear agreement] was, and still remains, not that Iran is going to violate the deal and get to the bomb, but that they can get to the bomb by keeping the deal,” he added. “I am very proud that my prime minister made that case, and I think that history will judge him very kindly for having done so.”
Besides his criticism of the Obama administration’s nuclear deal, Dermer has not shied away from publicizing other political disagreements with the administration, including on Obama’s position regarding Jewish communities in the disputed territories. In a move that targeted the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, Dermer last December sent products made in Judea, Samaria, and the Golan Heights as holiday gifts.
NRB is a non-partisan, international association of evangelical Christian communicators who come together “to spread the life-changing Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through every electronic medium available,” the group’s website says.
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Intelligence chief: ‘Israel will be the first to feel it when things explode’ in Gaza
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The situation in Gaza is deteriorating to the point where the Hamas-ruled Palestinian coastal enclave could be facing a catastrophe, and Israel is likely to suffer the consequences, the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee behind closed doors on Tuesday.
Israeli Knesset members who attended the meeting said Halevi based his assessments on a report published by the United Nations titled “Gaza 2020,” which said that if the situation in Gaza remains unchanged, the territory will become unlivable by 2020. According to one Knesset member, Halevi said, “If there won’t be improvement, Israel will be the first to feel it when things explode.” The intelligence chief also emphasized that at this time, the Hamas terror group does not want to re-open hostilities with Israel and is working to rein in other factions in Gaza to prevent them from firing rockets into Israel.
Addressing the situation along the Jewish state’s northern border, Halevi said Israel and Hezbollah alike have no interest in starting a war, but that one isolated incident is enough to potentially escalate matters.
Regarding Judea and Samaria, Halevi told the committee that Israeli cooperation with Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces is being maintained. Asked by a committee member whether there were concerns that the PA could collapse, Halevi replied that such a scenario can materialize once PA President Mahmoud Abbas is no longer in power, as Hamas would then attempt to seize positions of power within the PA.
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Israeli Knesset holds its first LGBT Rights Day
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a special appearance at the Israeli Knesset on Tuesday to take part in the legislative body’s first LGBT Rights Day.
Addressing the Knesset plenum, Netanyahu said, “I know that there were important and lengthy discussions today, and I came here to say one sentence to the members of the LGBT community: ‘Every human being was created in the image of God.’ This is an idea brought by our people to mankind thousands of years ago and it is the principle that must guide our national lives today.”
Also addressing the plenum, Member of Knesset Amir Ohana, the Likud party’s first openly gay lawmaker, said, “In this country, 10 percent of the population feel discriminated against by law. They cannot get married in their country, bring children into the world in their country [by surrogacy], or be their partner’s heir if he or she dies. This is not because they are hostile to the state, do not serve in the army or do not pay taxes. Rather, it is because they are members of the LGBT community.”
Israel is known as the most gay-friendly country in the Middle East region. In particular, Tel Aviv has been ranked as one of the world’s gay-friendliest cities.
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