Netanyahu and California Gov. Jerry Brown sign pro-business agreement
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and California Governor Jerry Brown signed a pro-business pact on Wednesday.
The agreement aims to expand and strengthen cultural, academic, and economic ties between Israel and California, with an emphasis on water conservation, alternative energy, cyber defense, biotechnology, health, agritech, and higher education.
“Israel has demonstrated how efficient a country can be, and there is a great opportunity for collaboration,” Brown said during a meeting with Netanyahu at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.
Israel can help California deal with its ongoing drought, according to Netanyahu.
“California doesn’t need to have a water problem,” Netanyahu said. “Israel has no water problems because we are the number one recyclers of waste water, we stop water leaks, we use drip irrigation and desalination.”
European youth group votes against Israel boycott
(JNS.org) The Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP)—a center-right political youth organization representing 39 European countries has cast the first-ever vote against boycotting products and factories in Judea and Samaria. The Samaria Regional Council in tandem with Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu party youth leaders successfully lobbied to pass the vote against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, which took place at the YEPP conference in Hungary.
“We are calling on all European Union institutions—especially in light of the renewed peace negotiations in the region—not to harm businesses that provide jobs and facilitate direct contact and cooperation between both sides in Judea and Samaria,” stated the decision, Israel Hayom reported.
The vote, which passed with a 90-percent majority, comes after strenuous behind-the-scenes efforts of the Samaria Regional Council’s Foreign Relations Office, headed by Regional Council Deputy Chairman Yossi Dagan. “This is a historic step toward shattering attempts to boycott Israel,” Dagan said.
House passes U.S.-Israel strategic partnership bill
(JNS.org) The American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Wednesday applauded the adoption of the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2013 by the House of Representatives.
The passage of the bill in a 410-1 vote comes after AIPAC held its annual policy conference this week in Washington, D.C.
The bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Ed Royce (R-CA), and Eliot Engel (D-NY), declares Israel as a “major strategic partner” of the U.S.
AIPAC said in a statement that the bill would “dramatically strengthen the relationship between the two allies as they work to confront new threats and challenges in the Middle East.”
In addition, the bill includes a number of areas of expansion between the allies, such as expanding forward-deployed U.S. weapons stockpiles in Israel, the transfer of essential military equipment to Israel, a visa waiver program for Israel, assistance for the Iron Dome missile defense system, and the promotion of cooperation in energy, water, science, homeland security, and agriculture.
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Hezbollah terrorists attempt to plant bombs on Israel-Syria border
(JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces identified two terrorists attempting to plant a bomb on the Israel-Syria border in the northern Golan Heights on Wednesday morning.
According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the terrorist cell was identified as belonging to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. The IDF fired tank shells at the suspects, striking them and thwarting the attack.
Recently, two rockets were also fired by Hezbollah on Israeli positions on Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights.
The IDF has been on high alert since last week, when Hezbollah promised retaliation following a purported Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah-bound weapons convoy on the Syria-Lebanon border.
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Illinois Chabad leader Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz dies at 59
(JNS.org) The regional director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Illinois, Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, died in Chicago on Tuesday at the age of 59.
Moscowitz was born on the North Side of Chicago. After several years studying in other regions, he returned to Chicago and founded the Tannenbaum Chabad House, serving Jewish students at Northwestern University. He later became Chabad’s head shliach (emissary) in Illinois. Over the years, Moscowitz helped grow nearly 40 Chabad centers in 21 cities across the state, according to Chabad.org.
Moscowitz died after not waking up during a routine surgical procedure on Tuesday.
Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky—chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, Chabad’s educational arm—said Moscowitz “served effectively with alacrity and distinction” as an executive board member of that agency.
“Just yesterday (Monday), he participated in a three-hour teleconference of the executive board, where matters pertinent to the wide world of shluchim (emissaries) were discussed,” Krinsky was quoted by Chabad.org as saying.
Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of the Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch, added on Moscowitz, “He was energetic, caring and dedicated. He was a close friend to everyone, and an active voice on behalf of Torah and Judaism. Rabbi Moscowitz was someone who put the cause of the community and the [Lubavitcher] Rebbe’s vision before everything else. Many shluchim would seek out his advice on a variety of issues.”
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Ukrainian Jewish leaders write letter criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin
(JNS.org) Josef Zisels, chairman of the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Ukraine (VAAD), and several other prominent Ukrainian Jews have written a letter accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of exaggerating the plight of Russian-speaking citizens (including Jews) under the newly established Ukrainian government, as well as exaggerating the need to protect those citizens as an excuse for an armed incursion into Crimea.
Referring to themselves as the “Jewish citizens of Ukraine” and “businessmen, managers, religious and public figures, scientists and scholars, artists and musicians,” the signatories challenge Putin’s assertion that Russia “wants to protect the rights of the Russian-speaking citizens of the Crimea and all of Ukraine and that these rights have been flouted by the current Ukrainian government.”
Several anti-Semitic incidents occurred throughout Ukraine since the beginning of the Maidan protests in November 2013, including the vandalism of a synagogue in the Crimean city of Simferopol last week and a Molotov cocktail attack on a Chabad center in Zaporozhye, but no evidence has been reported to prove that the incidents were intentionally instigated by any side of the ongoing political conflict in the country. The signatories challenge the assertion that anti-Semitism has risen in Ukraine.
“Your certainty of the growth of anti-Semitism in Ukraine also does not correspond to the actual facts,” they wrote. “They have tried to scare us (and are continuing their attempts) with ‘Bandera followers’ and ‘Fascists’ attempting to wrest away the helm of Ukrainian society, with imminent Jewish pogroms. Yes, we are well aware that the political opposition and the forces of social protests who have secured changes for the better are made up of different groups. They include nationalistic groups, but even the most marginal do not dare show anti-Semitism or other xenophobic behavior. And we certainly know that our very few nationalists are well-controlled by civil society and the new Ukrainian government—which is more than can be said for the Russian neo-Nazis, who are encouraged by your security services.”
“We have a great mutual understanding with the new government, and a partnership is in the works,” added the signatories, who called on Putin “not to intervene in internal Ukrainian affairs, to return the Russian-armed forces to their normal fixed peacetime location, and to stop encouraging pro-Russian separatism.”
Putin has broken his silence on the issue, defending Russia’s military incursion into Crimea as a humanitarian mission and describing Ukraine as a lawless country with militants “roaming the streets of Kiev.” Although he acknowledged that Ukrainians ousted their former president, Viktor Yanukovych, due to anger over corruption in his government, he said Ukraine is simply “replacing some cheats with others.”
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Preceding provided by JNS.org