Palestinian conflict talks extension requested by Israel
(JNS.org) Israel has asked the U.S. to extend the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations by a year. If such an extension is not approved, Israel believes it is likely the talks will fail. Israel’s concern stems from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s eagerness to get a framework agreement signed.
Israel, the Palestinians, and the U.S. agreed at the onset of talks that negotiations would proceed uninterrupted for nine months, with the goal of reaching a final peace accord and announcing an end to the conflict. The nine-month period ends in May. Israel has offered to sign a document stating that the two sides agree to extend the negotiations for another year, Israel Hayom reported.
Government officials say the Palestinians refuse to sign a framework agreement that would at the end of negotiations require them to recognize Israel as the Jewish state and require Israel to recognize the Palestinians’ need to form a nation. As long as the Palestinians refuse, Netanyahu will refuse to draw out a future Palestinian state on a map.
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Palestinian sniper kills Israeli Defense Ministry employee
(JNS.org) The recent uptick in Palestinian terrorism against Israel continued Tuesday when a Palestinian sniper fatally shot 22-year-old Salah Shukri Abu Latyef, a civilian employee of the Israeli Defense Ministry, while Latyef was making repairs to the Israel-Gaza border fence.
Latyef, a tractor driver, was airlifted to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, where he died of his wounds from the shooting. The Israel Air Force responded to the murder by striking two Hamas training camps, Reuters reported.
“This is a very severe incident and we will not let it go unanswered,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. “Our policy until now has been to act to thwart such incidents beforehand and to respond in force and this is how we will act regarding this incident as well.”
The murder of Latyef follows Sunday’s bus bombing near Tel Aviv, which resulted in no civilian injuries after the bus was successfully evacuated, and Monday’s stabbing of an Israeli policeman.
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Naftali Bennett: ‘We are pursuing the peace process as if there is no terror’
(JNS.org) Israeli Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett questioned the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations in light of Monday’s stabbing of an Israeli policeman.
“We are pursuing the peace process as if there is no terror,” Bennett said. “The assertion that the Palestinian Authority is not tied to the attacks is blowing up in our faces every day.”
A Palestinian man stabbed Israeli policeman Rami Ravid in the back on Monday near the town of Geva Binyamin outside Jerusalem. Ravid had “a complex surgery that began when the knife was still lodged in his back,” said Dr. Ofer Merin of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
“He was saved by a miracle,” Merin said, Israel Hayom reported. “The knife was close to his heart and other major blood vessels.”
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Indiana University, Kenyon College join schools leaving ASA over Israel boycott
(JNS.org) Indiana University and Kenyon College joined Brandeis University and Penn State Harrisburg as schools that have decided to quit the American Studies Association (ASA) over the group’s academic boycott of Israel.
“We should not be shutting out one side or the other, but rather open ourselves to engage in meaningful, substantial dialogue on fundamental questions with all sides,” said Sean Decatur, president of Gambier, Ohio-based Kenyon.
“Indiana University values its academic relationships with colleagues and institutions around the world, including many important ones with institutions in Israel, and will not allow political considerations such as those behind this ill-conceived boycott to weaken those relationships or undermine the principle of academic freedom in this way,” said Michael McRobbie, the school’s president.
Dr. Stephen J. Whitfield, an American Studies professor at Brandeis, told JNS.org regarding the ASA boycott, “It is a distraction, a distortion, and it has nothing to do with the scholarly and group research purposes of the organization.”
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Sheldon Adelson, IDC inaugurate Israel’s first school of entrepreneurship
(JNS.org) The Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson School of Entrepreneurship, the first school of its kind in Israel, was inaugurated on Sunday at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) college in Herzliya. The new institute aims to provide students with the knowledge and tools to realize their entrepreneurial ideas and ambitions.
“An entrepreneur is born with the mentality to take risks, though there are several important characteristics: courage, faith in yourself, and above all, even when you fail, to learn from failure and get up and try again,” Sheldon Adelson said, Israel Hayom reported. “You can teach these characteristics.”
Dr. Miriam and Sheldon Adelson are the world’s leading private donors to Jewish education, the Taglit-Birthright Israel program (to which they have contributed $180 million), and Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.
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Conference of Presidents combats BDS by working to restart global task force
(JNS.org) The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is working on restarting a global task force to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Media mogul Mort Zuckerman, a former Conference of Presidents chairman, headed the group’s previous Task Force on Delegitimization and BDS.
“We first established this several years ago and more than 60 organizations participated in it. When we first did it, nobody was really focused on the [BDS] issue,” Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents, told JNS.org.
While the American Studies Association (ASA) has made waves through its recent endorsement of an academic boycott of Israel, Hoenlein said the restarting of the task force has been planned for some time.
“We felt now it is time to revitalize it since there are a lot of groups, not just the ASA, that are increasingly involved [in BDS],” he said.
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Israeli Christian leader plans 100-foot Jesus statute in Nazareth
(JNS.org) Israeli-Christian leader Bishara Shylan plans to erect a 100-foot Jesus statue on Mount Precipice, a 1296-foot mountain overlooking Nazareth that the Christian Bible considers to be the site where the “Rejection of Jesus” occurred.
Shlyan, a merchant seaman, is concerned that Nazareth is losing its Christian identity. The city has seen a sharp decline in its Christian population, with Muslims now comprising nearly 70 percent of its 80,000 residents.
“Slowly, but surely, the Christian identity in Nazareth is beginning to disappear,” Shylan told Fox News.
Along with Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox priest, Shylan has also sought to encourage Christian participation in the Israeli army.
“Christians, who live here, need to donate and to contribute, not just in talk, but with action… We live here, and this country protects us, therefore we need to protect it,” Nadaf recently told JNS.org.
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Shimon Peres attends pre-Christmas celebration at Israeli Catholic church
(JNS.org) Israeli President Shimon Peres attended a pre-Christmas celebration at a Catholic Church in the Israeli city of Ramle on Sunday. He was joined by local Christian leaders as well as representatives of Israel’s other Christian sects.
Upon arrival at the Franciscan Catholic Church, Peres was greeted by a group of children dressed in Santa Claus outfits who sang Christmas carols in English, Hebrew, and Arabic.
“I came to offer my blessings on behalf of the State of Israel, where Jews, Christians and Muslims live together,” Peres told the audience.
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Turkey reduces demand for Israeli Gaza flotilla compensation
(JNS.org) Turkey has agreed to accept lower compensation from Israel for the Turkish citizens killed in the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident, a senior Israeli official said.
Nine Turkish militants who attacked Israeli soldiers as they boarded the Mavi Marmara ship were fatally shot. Before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the incident in a phone call this March, relations had soured between the two countries.
Earlier in December, Turkey and Israel resumed negotiations on compensation for the flotilla victims, according to Haaretz. Turkey had demanded $1 million for the family of each victim, but has since made a lower offer.
“The agreement is ready; all that’s left is to fill in the blank with a number. There are still differences regarding the amounts, but they have narrowed,” said the senior Israeli official.
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Israeli guard stabbed by terrorist, Gaza rocket falls in Ashkelon
(JNS.org) An Israeli security guard was stabbed in an apparent terrorist attack in Judea and Samaria, and was transported to a hospital in Jerusalem for treatment. On Monday in Ashkelon, Israeli police also found remnants of a Gaza rocket near a bus stop frequently used by schoolchildren, the Times of Israel reported.
Another stabbing attack was thwarted Sunday when IDF soldiers apprehended three Palestinians at the Mishor Adumim checkpoint in Judea and Samaria, reported Yedioth Ahronoth.
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Ilya Farber, jailed Russian-Jewish teacher, expected to be released next year
(JNS.org) The National Conference Supporting Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia (NCSJ) welcomed a Russian regional court’s decision to reduce the prison sentence of Ilya Farber, a former painter and school teacher who was jailed for bribery, from seven to three years. Farber is expected to be released next year, reported RIA Novosti.
“The release of Ilya Farber was a long time coming. Unfortunately, both of his trials were marred by hints of overt anti-Semitism. NCSJ is glad Mr. Faber will be reunited with his family,” NCSJ Executive Director Mark B. Levin told JNS.org.
A prosecutor’s remark during Farber’s first trial in 2012—“Can a person with the last name Farber truly help a village for free?”—was perceived as evidence for anti-Semitic undertones in the case.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org