UNESCO decision to pull Jewish exhibit slammed by U.S. and Israel
(JNS.org) American and Israeli officials blasted the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) decision to pull an exhibit on the Jewish connection to the land of Israel after the Arab League objected to the display.
The Arab League had expressed “deep worry and great disapproval” about the “People, Book, Land—The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel” exhibit, a Simon Wiesenthal Center project. UNESCO subsequently informed the Wiesenthal Center of its decision in a letter that said the display “could create potential obstacles related to the peace process in the Middle East.”
“[The exhibit] would not harm the negotiations,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his cabinet meeting Sunday. “Negotiations are based on facts, on the truth, which is never harmful.”
“UNESCO’s decision is wrong and should be reversed,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said.
“UNESCO is supposed to be fostering discussion and interaction between civil society and member states, and organizations such as the Wiesenthal Center have a right to be heard and to contribute to UNESCO’s mission,” Power added.
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Obama: Less than 50% chance for Israeli-Palestinian peace deal
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama told The New Yorker magazine that the chances of the ongoing U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations resulting in a final peace agreement are less than 50 percent.
“Obama told me that in all three of his main initiatives in the region—with Iran, with Israel and the Palestinians, with Syria—the odds of completing final treaties are less than 50-50,” wrote The New Yorker editor David Remnick.
Yet Obama said, “In all three circumstances we may be able to push the boulder partway up the hill and maybe stabilize it so it doesn’t roll back on us.”
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Report: Israel Hayom continues as Israel’s most widely read daily newspaper
(JNS.org) Israel Hayom continues to be the most widely read daily newspaper in Israel, according to a report published Monday that reviewed media consumption in the second half of 2013 in Israel.
The Target Group Index, which reviews the Israeli public’s exposure to newspapers and radio, determined that 38.6 percent of the public read Israel Hayom on a regular basis over the past six months, a 5-percent rise compared to the first six months of 2013.
Israel Hayom topped Yedioth Ahronoth, which ranked second with a 38.4-percent exposure rate.
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Abbas in Morocco: Jerusalem as Palestinian capital is condition for peace deal
(JNS.org) Having Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state is a condition for a future peace deal with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said at the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee meeting in Morocco over the weekend.
“There can be no peace without stability, nor agreement without occupied east Jerusalem being recognized as the capital of the Palestinian state,” Abbas said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Abbas also said that U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations should “not serve as a cover for the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
“Israeli politicians like [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu understand exactly that the Palestinians don’t want to reach a final status agreement. Yet, some people see the alarming signs and ignore them,” Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told JNS.org.
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IAF strikes Palestinian terrorist behind recent rocket fire
(JNS.org) A Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist responsible for recent rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel was targeted in an Israeli Air Force airstrike on Sunday morning, Israel Hayom reported.
The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit identified the targeted Islamic Jihad operative as Ahmad Saad, 22. Saad reportedly died from wounds he sustained when struck while riding on a motorcycle in the northern Gaza Strip.
“Gaza terrorists must know that there is a personal price to pay when planning and executing terror attacks against Israel,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.
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Netanyahu says he would be open to meeting Iran’s Rouhani
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would be open to meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani if the Iranian leader recognized the Jewish state, Netanyahu said in an interview on Canada’s CTV.
“If Rouhani said, ‘We recognize the Jewish state. We, Iran, are prepared to have peace with Israel, Israel would be here forever,’ well that would peak my interest, in Davos or anywhere else,” Netanyahu said.
Next week both Netanyahu and Rouhani will be attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Some have speculated that the two leaders could run into each other at that world event.
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Wounded Syrian couple treated in Israel
(JNS.org) Israel Defense Forces troops brought a wounded Syrian couple to Poriah Hospital near Tiberias last week. The couple, residents of the embattled town Daraa, arrived with gunshot wounds in their legs. The male is 27 years old, and his wife is 23.
Two months ago, the couple lost their daughter two weeks after she was born.
“Because of the gunfire and the siege on our town in the Daraa area, we were left with no choice but to deliver the child at home—and the medical condition of my baby deteriorated,” the woman told Israel Hayom. “All our pleading at the [Syrian] army checkpoint to go to the hospital did not help. We went back home and our daughter died there.”
While the couple remains hospitalized, their wounds are not life threatening.
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Israeli minister heads delegation to Abu Dhabi energy summit
(JNS.org) Israeli Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom and a delegation of officials traveled to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on Friday to attend a summit on renewable energy, Reuters reported.
Shalom is the first Israeli official to travel to the UAE, which does not recognize Israel, since 2010, when Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabouh was found dead in a Dubai hotel. UAE officials blamed the Mossad for the assassination.
Analysts speculate that the visit could be seen as a move towards closer cooperation between Israel and the Gulf States. Both sides fear increasing influence of Iran and its nuclear weapons program. Last fall, a report in the Sunday Times said that Saudi Arabia might help Israel in an attack against Iran.
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U.S. Rabbinic Council says it has reached ‘historic’ deal with Israeli Rabbinate
(JNS.org) The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) said it has reached a “historic” deal with the Israeli Rabbinate on determining the “Jewishness” of Jewish immigrants to Israel.
The agreement between RCA, the largest organization of Orthodox rabbis in America, and the Israeli Rabbinate comes following a controversy over the refusal of the Israeli Rabbinate to recognize the conversions of Rabbi Avi Weiss, an RCA member.
The new agreement allows individual RCA rabbis to prepare “Jewish status letters” on Jews who seek to immigrate to Israel. Those letters will then be immediately recognized by the Israeli Rabbinate.
“Since the earliest days of the RCA we have worked together with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel,” RCA President Rabbi Leonard Matanky said.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org