No real peace without end to Palestinian incitement, Ya’alon says
(JNS.org) Peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians could be signed on paper, but as long as the Palestinians still educate their youth to hate Israelis, the peace “will blow up in our faces,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon said Monday.
“The crux of the matter is education in the Palestinian Authority, and if I open a PA textbook and see that Israel doesn’t appear on the map, or that Tel Aviv is designated as a settlement, and when a 3-year-old boy is brought up to admire suicide bombers—you can sign any agreement and in the end it will blow up in your face,” Ya’alon said during a security assessment briefing at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, his first such briefing as defense minister, Israel Hayom reported.
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Israel ranks 10th in the world in number of millionaire households
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel ranks 10th in the world in the number of millionaire households per population, according to the Boston Consulting Group’s annual global wealth report. Some 3.8 percent of Israeli households are millionaires, the report found—more than in Japan, Canada and the Netherlands.
The small Gulf nation of Qatar topped the list of most millionaire households, with 14.3 percent of households holding the equivalent of more than $1 million in capital.
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Bill Clinton’s $500,000 speaking fee for Israeli gala ignites controversy
(JNS.org) A controversy has arisen over the payment of a $500,000 fee to former U.S. President Bill Clinton to address a June 17 gala at the Peres Academic Center in Rehovot, Israel.
An Israel Hayom investigation found that the Jewish National Fund (JNF), which is taking part in the event, gave the Peres Academic Center part of the money to cover Clinton’s fee, with the academic center covering the rest.
“This is an unnecessary waste of public funds by a supported body that receives aid from the state,” Israeli Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich told Israel’s Channel 1 television network.
But a spokesperson for JNF said, “Clinton was invited by the Peres Academic Center, which signed the agreement and determined all the details and financial conditions a year ago. The event is not being funded by the public, but rather by the participants who contribute millions to Israel.”
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Widespread protests erupt against PM Erdogan in Turkey
(JNS.org) Widespread protests against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan erupted over the weekend and continued into Monday, as Erdogan’s increasingly authoritative policies have angered many Turks, especially within the country’s secular community.
The protests began in Istanbul’s famous Taksim Square over government plans to turn nearby Gezi park into a shopping mall modeled after Ottoman-era army barracks, have turned into a widespread rebuke of Erdogan’s decade-long rule, spreading to other major Turkish cities such as Ankara and Izmir as well as several cities abroad with significant Turkish ex-pat populations, the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman reported.
Turkish police cracked down on protesters by firing tear gas and water cannon. Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler said 1,750 people were arrested since May 28 in connection with the protests.
On Sunday, Erdogan dismissed criticism that he has become a “dictator.”
“I don’t have dictatorship in my blood… I am a servant, I don’t have any interest in making provocation,” Erdogan said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Many Turks have accused Erdogan of “Islamizing” Turkey through crackdowns on opposition journalists, forced resignations of secular military officials, and increasing Islamic-style laws such as a recent ban on public alcohol consumption.
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Abbas appoints new PA prime minister
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, who assumed his position in January 2005 and has been serving more than four years since his term officially expired in January 2009, has appointed Rami Hamdallah as the new PA prime minister, Ma’an news agency reported.
Hamdallah, who is currently president of An-Najah University located in Nablus, will replace Salam Fayyad, who resigned April 13.
Abbas and Fayyad, a western-educated economist, frequently clashed over the direction of the PA. Additionally, members of the terror group Hamas, which rules Gaza, despised Fayyad’s ties to the West and relationship with Israel.
Hamdallah, who has no prior political experience, has a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Lancaster in the United Kingdom. He has served as president of An-Najah University since 1998.
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Alicia Keys, American pop superstar, to perform in Israel despite boycott calls
(JNS.org) Pop superstar Alicia Keys said on Friday that she will continue with her planned performance in Tel Aviv on July 4, despite calls from the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement to cancel the event.
In a letter posted on a pro-BDS website, Pink Floyd band member Roger Waters and author Alice Walker both urged Keys to cancel the performance.
Waters, who recently helped persuade Stevie Wonder not to perform at a Los Angeles fundraiser for Friends of the Israel Defense Forces, wrote, “We must stand united with all our brothers and sisters against racism, colonialism, segregation and apartheid.”
But Keys dismissed the appeal, believing that music can help bring peace.
“I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show,” Alicia Keys told the New York Times.
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Senator Lautenberg honored by Hillel days before death
(JNS.org) U.S. Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), who died Monday at age 89, had received the Renaissance Award from Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life at a Hillel gala last Thursday in New York City.
Lautenberg received the Hillel award in recognition of accomplishments including the law named after him. The Lautenberg Amendment allowed Soviet Jews and other minorities from the former USSR to immigrate to the U.S.
“It is truly an honor to be recognized by Hillel—a great organization that instills students with a connection to Judaism and Israel,” Senator Lautenberg said.
Hillel, along with National Council on Soviet Jewry: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, is also awarding the newly established Lautenberg Prize to the Genesis Philanthropy Group. The prize “will be presented annually to organizations and individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to the strengthening of Jewish identity within the Russian-speaking Jewish community,” according to Hillel.
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