IDF soldier killed by Lebanese sniper fire
(JNS.org) Israel Defense Forces Master Sgt. Shlomi Cohen, 31, was killed Sunday night by Lebanese sniper fire while he was on patrol near the Israel-Lebanon border.
The Voice of Lebanon radio station reported that the shooter, a member of the Lebanese army identified as Hassan Ibrahim, fled his post after the incident but returned to his base Monday morning. It was unclear why the shooter, who apparently acted alone, had opened fire.
“We will demand that the Lebanese army first of all provides an explanation of exactly what happened there, and whether this is really a rogue soldier, what they did with him, and what the Lebanese army plans to do to prevent incidents of this type,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said.
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Knesset passes new medical marijuana law
(JNS.org) The Knesset on Sunday approved an updated version of Israel’s cannabis law, which will centralize marijuana collection and raise the number of doctors allowed to prescribe cannabis treatment to 31, Israel Hayom reported.
The bill calls for severing the direct link between marijuana growers and patients. The marijuana will now be collected by medical supply company Sarel, and will be packaged and distributed to approved pharmacies.
Marijuana growers and some patients protested centralizing distribution.
“Creating a monopoly without a tender in this field is a fundamental breach of proper governance,” said Eli Zohar, an attorney representing the cannabis growers.
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‘Digital Israel’ project seeks to streamline government services
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israeli government on Sunday approved the “Digital Israel” project, presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which aims to offer the public a wide array of digital services based on a future optical fiber grid. The infrastructure supporting the project is scheduled to be completed within two years and should allow for Internet speeds of up to 1,000 megabits per second.
“This is an important social step that will help reduce social and geographical gaps,” Netanyahu said.
The project seeks to streamline a wide array of Israeli government services and to improve public access to the country’s education, health, and welfare systems.
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Prof. Robert Aumann denied University of Haifa honorary doctorate over politics
(JNS.org) The University of Haifa’s Executive Committee said it decided not to grant an honorary doctorate to Professor Robert Aumann, winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics in 2005, because his political beliefs do not fall in line with the university’s values.
The university was concerned about several Zionist positions espoused by Aumann, including a remark that “the most sensible solution” to the Israeli-Arab conflict is “a Jewish state and an Arab state, where the Jewish state is settled by Jews and the Arab state is settled by Arabs,” as well as a statement that Jerusalem “needs to remain Jewish,” Israel National News reported.
“Judging someone based on his political positions is extreme and extraordinary and should not be done in an academic institution,” Member of Knesset Shimon Ohayon (Likud Beiteinu) said regarding the university’s decision.
The University of Haifa said in a statement, “The process of choosing candidates to receive the honorary doctorate is a several-phased process. Only at its end are the recipients announced and reasons offered. The process is not over yet. Deliberations are internal and not meant for publication.”
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Israel incurs estimated $86 million in damages from snowstorm
(JNS.org) The Israeli Finance Ministry’s preliminary estimates place the total damage caused by the recent snowstorm in Israel, said to be the worst in the past 150 years, at 300 million shekels, or $86 million, Israel Hayom reported.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid created a joint situation room with the directors of the Israeli Finance, Interior, Social Affairs and Social Services, Education, and Health ministries, as well as local authorities, to deal with immediate financial needs created by the storm. Additionally, Israeli farmers warned that the storm would raise fresh fruit and vegetable prices significantly.
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Reform movement, Ruderman Family Foundation launch synagogue inclusion initiative
(JNS.org) The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism, and the Ruderman Family Foundation announced a new initiative to foster the inclusion of people with disabilities in synagogue life at the Reform movement’s biennial convention in San Diego.
The Ruderman Synagogue Inclusion Initiative invites the nearly 900 synagogues affiliated with the Reform movement to participate in an “Active Learning Network,” in which they will explore topics such as eliminating misconceptions about physical and emotional disabilities, creating congregational inclusion committees, and forging partnerships with other congregations and organizations.
“This new partnership with the Ruderman Family Foundation will allow us to create a network of synagogues that will model best practices not only for our Movement, but for the broader Jewish community,” said URJ President Rabbi Rick Jacobs.
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Hamas blames Israel for floods despite receiving emergency aid from Jewish state
(JNS.org) Israel opened the Kerem Shalom border crossing to the Gaza Strip on Friday to transfer emergency aid to residents suffering from wide-scale flooding and no heating.
The Jewish state sent gas for heating and water pumps to deal with the rampant flooding in Gaza. Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot stressed that Israel would do everything necessary to help the Gaza and Judea and Samaria populations, Israel Hayom reported.
Yet Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said, “Israel is the one to blame for what is happening in the Gaza Strip. The Knesset’s restriction on bringing building materials prevents us from fixing infrastructure and that is why we have floods.”
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Poll: 70 percent of Israelis support equal rights for LGBT community
(JNS.org) A new poll finds that 70 percent of Israelis support equal rights for the LGBT community.
According to the poll conducted for Haaretz by the Dialog Institute, 89 percent of secular Israelis support full equality, as did 72 percent of traditional respondents and 46 percent who defined themselves as religious or Arab.
The survey also reported that 59 percent of respondents support civil union legislation that provides a solution for gay couples. While gay marriages, like other forms of civil marriage, are not allowed to be performed in Israel, Israel does recognize same-sex unions from abroad.
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Tzipi Livni blocks bill that curbs tax benefits to anti-Israel NGOS
(JNS.org) Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni blocked a bill that would rescind government tax breaks for Israeli NGOs that support a boycott of Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The bill, proposed by MKs from HaBayit HaYehudi and Likud-Beiteinu and initially approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, would subject anti-Israel NGOs to a 45-percent tax rate on foreign donations.
Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein says the bill violates several Basic Laws of Israel, and even the Jerusalem-based watchdog group NGO Monitor opposed the legislation, saying it prefers to “expose” anti-Israel groups rather than fine them.
“Legislative proposals that go beyond democratic transparency and accountability for these NGOs are ill-advised, not enforceable, and damage Israel’s vital national interests,” NGO Monitor said in a statement.
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BDS activists infuriated by Abbas rejection of boycotts of Israel
(JNS.org) A statement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejecting a boycott of Israel has infuriated Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) leaders.
“No, we do not support the boycott of Israel,” Abbas said Dec. 9, South Africa’s The Star reported. “But we ask everyone to boycott the products of the settlements. Because the settlements are in our territories. It is illegal,” Abbas added.
Abbas’s comments conflict “with the Palestinian national consensus that has strongly supported BDS against Israel since 2005,” BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti told Electronic Intifada.
“There is no Palestinian political party, trade union, NGO network or mass organization that does not strongly support BDS,” Barghouti said.
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EU to offer massive aid package to Israel, Palestinians if peace deal reached
(JNS.org) The European Union is set to vote on a massive aid package to the Israelis and Palestinians as an incentive for both sides to reach a final-status peace deal.
The package—spearheaded by the foreign ministers of Germany, U.K., France, Spain, and Italy—is reportedly worth billions of euros and would include incentives such as increased access to the EU market, closer cultural and scientific ties, facilitation of trade and investment, promotion of business-to-business relations, enhanced political dialogue, and security cooperation, Haaretz reported.
But according to Maariv, the EU’s resolution on the package also called Jewish construction in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem an “obstacle to peace” and expressed “deep concern with regard to incitement, violent incidents in the occupied territories, house demolitions and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.”
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