The National Council, the Swiss lower house of parliament.
The lower house of Switzerland’s parliament on Wednesday advanced a bill prohibiting the Swiss government from providing aid to NGOs engaged in boycotts of Israel.
The legislation calls for cutting off foreign aid to any groups that promote “racist, anti-Semitic or incendiary” actions or that call for boycotts of Israel, according to the Basler Zeitung daily.
The bill, which was proposed by Christian Imark of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, passed in the National Council with 111 votes in favor to 78 against.
David Friedman, President Trump’s choice to become the next U.S. Ambassador to Israel, is facing a difficult confirmation process in the Senate.
We have worked tirelessly over the years to build bridges between Israelis and Palestinians, but now is the time to send a strong message to stop Palestinian incitement and murdering of Jews. Naming Friedman the new American Ambassador to Israel is surely a signal that it’s no longer business as usual.
Now is the time to call your Senators and tell them that you support David Friedman.
In response to the backlash that David Friedman is facing in the Senate, I am urgently asking for your help. Please call your Senators today and tell them to support David Friedman’s nomination for U.S. Ambassador to Israel!
The vote is tomorrow and there is no time to waste.
Not everyone will agree with Mr. Friedman’s positions on settlements and moving the embassy, but we feel strongly that a new approach is required to change the behavior of the international community and the Palestinian Authority.
You can reach the office of New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez at (202) 224-4744 and Senator Cory Booker at (202) 224-3224.
You can reach the office of New York Senator Charles Schumer at (202) 224-6542 and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand at (202) 224-4451.
Thank you for your help in confirming David Friedman. With your support, we will continue to foster and grow our special bond with the State of Israel.
Hamas said set to recognize 1967 borders, but not Israel
Hamas is reportedly planning to endorse a state of Palestine along the 1967 borders — a move that would be a monumental shift from the group’s long-held policy of reclaiming all of historic Palestine — though it won’t recognize Israel’s legitimacy.
The new policy will be announced in amendments to Hamas’s charter that is to be published in April, after the group’s political bureau completes its internal elections, the Pan-Arab daily a-Sharq al-Awsat reported Tuesday, citing sources within the group.
The new policy is being crafted in order to engage regional and international partners, such as Egypt, the report said.
The first class of an army preparatory program for members of the Bedouin community graduated this week, with its 15 members bound for enlistment better equipped to handle the challenges awaiting them, participants said.
Up until last year, Israel had 55 pre-army programs, known in Hebrew as mechinot (mechina, in the singular), geared toward Jewish Israelis and three for the Druze community, but none for the country’s Bedouin population, according to Tal Galin, the head of the new Academy for Bedouin Leadership in the Galilee.
TORA, the umbrella organization of traditional Orthodox American rabbis, joins with many others who know of the integrity and competence of David Friedman, President Trump’s nominee for US Ambassador to Israel. We share his core values of respect for human life, for the importance of Israel in the lives of Jews, and his dedication to the United States as a world leader. We are offended by those who imply that there is any white space between his values and those traditionally of the Jewish people.
Israel, the only Jewish nation in the world, is a small country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. For its relatively small size, the country has played a large role in global affairs. The country has a strong economy, landmarks of significance to several religions and strained relationships with many of its Arab neighbors.
The founding of modern Israel can be traced back to World War I, when Zionists lobbied the British for recognition of a Jewish state in Palestine. After World War II, the British withdrew from their mandate of Palestine, and the United Nations proposed dividing the area into Arab and Jewish states, an idea opposed by the Arabs. Nonetheless, Israelis declared independence in 1948 and the new country then defeated the Arabs in a series of wars.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday discussed reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations during her first meeting with the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations.
Haley tweeted after her talks with Ambassador Riyad Mansour that the Palestinians should “meet with Israel in direct negotiations rather than looking to the UN to deliver results that can only be achieved through the two parties.”
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned upcoming trip to Israel will represent a diplomatic shift that “should have been carried out many years ago,” the Hindustan Times said in an editorial on Monday.
“Whatever the outcome of the visit, the very act of visiting Israel will be historic,” it noted. “No serving Indian prime minister has ever visited Israel. There are also increasing signals that Modi will break the traditional diplomatic hyphen New Delhi has maintained between Israel and Palestine and will not include a stopover in Palestine in his itinerary. Such a decision would fit in with Modi’s general attitude that Indian foreign policy should reflect the rising global profile of India, adhere strictly to the national interest and be less concerned about ideological and symbolic actions.”
“More fundamental is that such a trip would reflect the sea-change that has taken place between India and Israel since the former normalised diplomatic relations in 1992,” the New Delhi-based English-language paper went on to say. “Israel is now one of the three largest suppliers of arms and weapons to India, a major source of assistance in the country’s counterterrorism programmes and, uniquely in the world, a partner in the development of India’s nuclear arsenal. The last fact alone would indicate Israel has become strategically more trusted by India than any other country in the world.”
Much of the criticism of attorney David Friedman — President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next US ambassador to Israel — has been “beyond outrageous and really quite wrong,” the president of the World Jewish Congress said in a recent letter, seen by The Algemeiner, to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs committee, which is set to vote on the Friedman appointment later this week.
“One might disagree with him [Friedman] on a political point, but that doesn’t mean he is not extremely capable, upstanding, and that the president should have the absolute right to nominate whomever he desires,” Ronald S. Lauder wrote to Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee last Tuesday.
Israel enacted a law banning entry to foreigners who publicly call for boycotting the Jewish state or its settlements.
The Knesset passed the law by a vote of 46-28 on Monday, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported.
The ban applies to any foreigner “who knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel that, given the content of the call and the circumstances in which it was issued, has a reasonable possibility of leading to the imposition of a boycott – if the issuer was aware of this possibility.” It includes those who urge boycotting areas under Israeli control, such as the West Bank settlements.
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