hz, Author at Netzach Yisrael

Netanyahu meets president, prime minister of Singapore in historic visit

hzFebruary 20, 2017February 20, 2017News

JTA

Netanyahu visited a local Singapore synagogue on Sunday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with his counterpart in Singapore, during the first visit to the country by an Israeli prime minister.

In a statement issued after the meeting Monday with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Netanyahu called Loong’s visit to Israel in April, the first by a Singapore leader, “an historic visit” and said that he was “following in your footsteps.”

“I believe that Israel and Singapore are kindred spirits. We’re small nations that have become in many areas global powers, and I believe that our cooperation makes us even more successful, cooperation in every field,” Netanyahu said. He cited a joint R&D fund that has already funded 150 projects for Israeli and Singapore companies working together in a variety of fields.

Israel and Singapore established diplomatic relations in 1969.

hzFebruary 20, 2017February 20, 2017News

Times of Israel

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, Feb. 19, 2017

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said he is optimistic that Arabs and Israelis can reach a peace deal in 2017.

Speaking four days after US President Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at a White House press conference about the possibilities of a regional peace agreement, Adel al-Jubeir told delegates at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday that the contours of an Israeli-Palestinian accord were clear, and that Saudi Arabia and other Arab states would work to bring it to fruition.

“I believe progress can be made in the Arab-Israel conflict, if there is a will to do so,” he said. “We know what the settlement looks like, if there is just the political will to do so. And my country stands ready with other Arab countries to work to see how we can promote that.”

hzFebruary 19, 2017Articles

BBC

By Colin Shindler: To understand where the concept of sharing or dividing this piece of land comes from, it is important to look at its recent past.

Arab nationalism and Jewish nationalism arose during the same period of history with claims to the same territory. This rationale was the underlying basis for an equitable solution, based on partition and a two-state solution.

In 1921, TransJordan (now the state of Jordan) was formally separated from Palestine (now Israel and the West Bank/Gaza). A UN resolution in 1947 proposed a second partition, this time of the territory west of the river Jordan.

hzFebruary 19, 2017February 19, 2017Articles

National Review

By Jonathan S. Tobin: Those who expected Donald Trump to effect genuine change in Washington still might be waiting for him to take action on some issues, but when it comes to altering existing Middle East policy, the president has not disappointed. With his refusal to specifically endorse a two-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the president has seemingly discarded the idea that has been the bedrock principle of U.S. Middle East diplomacy for the past generation.

When asked about a two-state solution during a joint press conference prior to his first meeting as president with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Trump replied:

“I’m looking at two-state and one-state. I like the one that both parties like. I’m very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.”

hzFebruary 19, 2017News

Algemeiner

An imam at an Islamic center in Montreal calls for the destruction of the Jewish people

The Canadian government must “finally get serious about addressing antisemitism,” the CEO of the country’s branch of a prominent Jewish organization said on Friday.

In a letter to group members, B’nai Brith Canada’s Michael Mostyn wrote, “Over the last few years, several clear instances of antisemitic hate crimes have occurred throughout the country, though appropriate charges were never laid. [We have] been diligent in reporting these hate crimes and demanding that the perpetrators be brought to justice. However, lawmakers have been silent when it comes to prosecuting these promoters of hatred and antisemitism.”

hzFebruary 19, 2017News

Times of Israel

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi told a delegation from an umbrella group of US Jewish groups that reaching an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of his top priorities.

Meeting in Cairo, Sissi told representatives from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations that reaching a peace deal would remove a main impetus behind terror attacks.

hzFebruary 19, 2017February 19, 2017News

Washington Post

Israel’s prime minister turned down a regional peace initiative last year that was brokered by then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, former American officials confirmed Sunday, in apparent contradiction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated goal of involving regional Arab powers in resolving Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu took part in a secret summit that Kerry organized in the southern Jordanian port city of Aqaba last February and included Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. The secret meeting was first reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz1

hzFebruary 19, 2017February 19, 2017News

Reuters

PMr Benjamin Netanyahu attends weekly cabinet meeting

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met secretly a year ago with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan in a failed attempt by the Obama administration to convene a wider regional summit on Israeli-Palestinian peace, Israel’s Haaretz daily said on Sunday.

At the White House on Wednesday, Netanyahu again raised the possibility of what he described as a “regional approach” to Israeli-Palestinian peace at a news conference with U.S. President Donald Trump, who appeared to embrace the idea.

Citing unidentified senior officials in former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration, Haaretz said Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Jordan’s King Abdullah and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry convened on Feb. 21, 2016 in the Jordanian Red Sea resort of Aqaba.

hzFebruary 18, 2017News, Uncategorized

Algemeiner

Algemeiner Editor-in-Chief Dovid Efune

The biggest challenge facing the Trump administration in terms of confronting ISIS is how to do so without benefiting Iran, the editor-in-chief of The Algemeiner said in an interview with i24 News on Thursday.

Asked by anchorwoman Michelle Makori about how the US could achieve the goals of both taking on Iran while also wiping out ISIS, Dovid Efune replied, “[Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu has said this — when your enemies are fighting each other, you do not strengthen one of them, you weaken both. The challenge for the new national security apparatus, from the president down is going to be how do you stem the threat of ISIS while ensuring that Iran is not empowered in the process. And I think we’re beginning to see what the beginning stages of what that strategy might look like. And that involves prying Iran and Russia apart [and] isolating Iran from Russia and the international community.”

hzFebruary 18, 2017News

Algemeiner

The lobby of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange

Israel’s economy had its strongest quarterly performance since 2013, the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

The economy grew by an annualized 6.2 percent in the last quarter of 2016, 4.2 percent in the third quarter, and 5.3 percent in the second quarter. The data showed that, year on year, the economy grew 5 percent in the second half of 2016, following 3.2-percent growth in the first half of the year.

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