Reports: Jonathan Pollard could go free in deal to extend Israeli-Palestinian talks
(JNS.org) Imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard could go free as part of a deal that would extend the U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations into 2015 and extract various concessions from the Jewish state, Israeli media reported with varying degrees of certainty.
Yedioth Ahronoth, citing an Israeli source familiar with the ongoing negotiations, reported that Pollard would be freed before Passover. Israel National News reported that a Pollard deal had “crystallized,” and Haaretz cited a senior Israeli official as saying, “Things are not sealed yet but we are not far from it.”
According to the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz, the deal includes five elements: Pollard’s freedom before Passover; extending the peace talks into 2015, with the Palestinians committing not to make unilateral moves at the U.N.; Israel proceeding with the fourth release of 26 Palestinian terrorists prisoners; Israel releasing another 400 Palestinian prisoners “without blood on their hands,” including women and minors; and an Israeli settlement construction freeze.
Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel told Army Radio that people close to Pollard, who is in his 29th year in prison, have told him that the jailed spy opposes a “shameful deal” to secure his freedom in exchange for the release of terrorists.
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Shimon Peres tells IAEA chief to judge Iran on its record, not its words
(JNS.org) Israeli President Shimon Peres met with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Yukiya Amano on Monday at the organization’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria.
“The international community has some issues it must deal with, among them the Iranian nuclear program and the dismantling of nuclear arms in the Middle East. Israel is an important partner to the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Yukiya said.
Peres said Iran “continues to enrich uranium and maintains the ability to develop nuclear weapons,” and that such a development “is something that can only be judged by actions—there is a huge gap between what Iran says and what Iran does.”
“I suggest you judge Iran based on its record, and not its statements and sounds,” Peres said, according to Israel Hayom.
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French immigration to Israel sharply rises in early 2014
(JNS.org) French-Jewish aliyah rose sharply in the first few months of 2014, according to figures released by the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI).
JAFI said 854 new immigrants arrived in Israel from France in January and February 2014, up from 274 during the same time period last year. JAFI attributed the 312-percent increase to its increased efforts to strengthen relations with the French-Jewish community, and to growing anti-Semitism in France as well as a worsening domestic economic situation.
Forecasted out, JAFI expects 2014 as a whole to continue the upward trend in French-Jewish aliyah. In 2013, 3,280 new French immigrants arrived in Israel, a 70-percent increase from 1,917 in 2012.
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