hz, Author at Netzach Yisrael

‘Birthright for Moms’ Resonates with World’s Small Jewish Communities

hzDecember 5, 2016December 8, 2016Articles

JTA

By Cnaan Liphshiz: Amid preparations for her wedding 12 years ago, Errika Abouaf was happy to skip the mikvah, the ritual bath where Jewish brides traditionally undergo immersion before marrying in an Orthodox ceremony.

Her excuse for opting out was that her tiny Jewish community of Larissa in northern Greece has no mikvah.

“But it’s also because I didn’t feel like doing it,” said Abouaf, who now lives in Athens with her son and husband. “I felt an aversion of some kind.”

It’s a common sentiment in a country where 87 percent of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Members of Greece’s present-day Jewish community of 5,000 perceives its Jewish identity as mostly cultural and independent to religion, community leaders say.

hzDecember 5, 2016December 5, 2016News

Times of Israel

In a sign of growing ties between Israel and Africa, Jerusalem is hosting seven ministers and many other top officials from over a dozen Western African countries for agricultural conference in Israel this week.

The three-day conference starting Monday, entitled “Enhancing Sustainable Agricultural Productivity in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions,” is co-organized by Mashav, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, and the Economic Community of West African States, a union known as ECOWAS.

hzDecember 4, 2016December 5, 2016News

Algemeiner

Nevada Lieutenant Governor Mark Hutchinson and pro-Israel activists introduced a new resolution seeking to counter the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The proposed Senate Bill 26 will seek to counter the discriminatory environment fostered by the BDS movement, according to the Israeli-American Coalition for Action (IAC for Action), which is promoting the measure. Nevada’s anti-BDS resolution will be similar to others passed by more than a dozen US states in recent years.

hzDecember 4, 2016December 5, 2016News

Times of Israel

Secretary of State John Kerry excoriated the Israeli right, claiming that support for settlement construction stems from a desire to subvert Israeli-Palestinian peace, during a speech before the Brookings Institution’s Saban Forum on Sunday afternoon.

A subdued Kerry, wearing reading glasses and referring to extensive notes, notably refrained from committing to veto any UN resolution intended to establish a Palestinian state, only promising a veto “if it is a biased, unfair resolution calculated to delegitimize Israel.”

hzDecember 4, 2016December 5, 2016News

JTA

Ontario has become the first Canadian province to reject the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, campaign against Israel.

Ontario’s legislature on Dec. 1 by a vote of 49 to 5, passed a motion rejecting “the differential treatment of Israel, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.” All five opposing votes came from the left-leaning New Democratic Party.

hzDecember 3, 2016December 3, 2016News

Times of Israel

Most Democrats consider Israel to be a burden to the United States, according to the published findings of a poll released by the Brookings Institution on Friday.

The survey found a clear majority of Americans (76%) said Israel was “a strategic asset” to the US, its authors said. At the same time, they said, “a majority of Democrats, 55%, say that Israel is also a burden”; among Republicans, 24% consider Israel a burden. Fifty-two percent of Independents do not consider Israel a burden and 41% think it is.

hzDecember 3, 2016December 4, 2016News

JTA

Haim Saban, a major Democratic Party funder, said Keith Ellison’s election as chairman of the Democratic National Committee would be a “disaster” for the relationship between Jews and the party, signaling a looming crisis between the party’s progressives and the centrist pro-Israel community.

The scathing broadside delivered Friday by the Israeli-American entertainment mogul, from the floor of the annual Saban Forum, an event he funds bringing together U.S. and Israeli leaders and influencers, underscores the degree to which Ellison’s campaign for DNC chief could erode relations between establishment Jewish groups and the party.

hzDecember 2, 2016December 1, 2016News

Times of Israel

The Ohio House of Representatives approved a bill targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

The bill, HB 476, passed Wednesday by a vote of 81-13. Five members did not vote.

hzDecember 2, 2016December 3, 2016News

Brookings

Pluralities of the American public support Obama Administration action at the United Nations on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict before leaving office.

hzDecember 2, 2016December 5, 2016Articles

NY Post

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault this week called the bloodshed in Syria, where Bashar al-Assad is butchering civilians, “a descent into Hell” and demanded an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.

British Prime Minister Theresa May called the situation “horrific.”

The Security Council didn’t act — but the UN General Assembly managed to pass six resolutions targeting Israel.

One of them even calls for putting more people under Assad’s thumb, demanding that Israel cede the Golan Heights to Syria.

‘Birthright for Moms’ Resonates with World’s Small Jewish Communities

African Ministers in Israel for First-Ever Agricultural Summit

Anti-BDS Legislation Introduced in Nevada

Kerry, in Stinging Rebuke of Settlements, Doesn’t Rule Out UN Action

Ontario Passes Motion Rejecting BDS

Most Democrats Consider Israel ‘a Burden’ on US

Saban Says Keith Ellison’s DNC Win Would Bring ‘Disaster’ to Relationship between Jews and Dems

Ohio House of Representatives Approves Anti-BDS Bill

American Attitudes on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

As Syria Burns, the UN Again Bashes… Israel