Israel Matters!

Netanyahu: Trump Feels ‘Very Warmly’ About Israel, Jews US President-elect Donald Trump feels “very warmly” about Israel and the Jewish people, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes. In an excerpt from the interview, the Israeli leader said: “I know Donald Trump. I know him very well … his support for Israel is clear. He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about the Jewish people and about Jewish people. There’s no question about that.”Asked if he expected a better relationship with Washington after the tumultuous years of Barack Obama’s administration, Netanyahu admitted that he had had differences of opinion with Obama, particularly on the US-led nuclear accord with Iran. But he insisted that the matter was never personal. click Israel Matters! 108 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.

Analysis: Trump and Israel - Now What? By: Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post“I love Israel and honor and respect the Jewish tradition and it’s important we have a president who feels the same way,” US President-elect Donald Trump said in a pre-recorded video message to a rally held recently in a restaurant overseeing the Old City of Jerusalem. “My administration will stand side-by-side with the Jewish people and Israel’s leaders to continue strengthening the bridges that connect, not only Jewish Americans and Israelis, but also all Americans and Israelis,” he said. “Together we will stand up to enemies, like Iran, bent on destroying Israel and her people, together we will make America and Israel safe again.” click Israel Matters! 107 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.

At Shimon Peres’s Funeral, World Leaders Gathered for a Final Farewell On a cloudless blue morning, an honor guard brought the flag-draped coffin of Shimon Peres to the Mount Herzl national cemetery as 100 world leaders and dignitaries from 70 countries bid farewell to the former Israeli leader and Nobel laureate whose dream of a lasting peace with the Palestinians remains elusive. click Israel Matters! 106 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.

Israel’s First-Responders Form Kaleidoscope of Cultures An unusual hug caused thunderous applause at a recent Knesset ceremony saluting Israel’s emergency medical first-responders and search-and-rescue personnel. Parliamentarian Yehudah Glick, who survived an Arab shooting attack two years ago, spontaneously climbed onto the podium to embrace Kabahah Muawhiya, an Arab-Israeli volunteer EMT with the national volunteer emergency medical services organization, United Hatzalah of Israel. “United Hatzalah is not just about emergency first response and medical rescuing, but it is literally uniting people from different walks of life and different religions,” Muawhiya told Israeli lawmakers. “It is a uniting of peoples and a unity of hearts.” click Israel Matters! 105 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.

Israel, Turkey Announce Reconciliation Deal Israel and Turkey announced a reconciliation deal that both sides claim will normalize relations that were ruptured more than six years ago when Israeli commandos seized a Gaza-bound Turkish ship, killing nine Turkish activists in the ensuing melee. The accord should put to rest years of hostility that began with Israel’s December 2008 Cast Lead incursion into Gaza and culminated in the May 2010 raid on the Mavi Mar-mara, part of a flotilla that aimed to bust Israel’s maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip. click Israel Matters! 104 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.

Netanyahu: US, Not Moscow, Is the Cornerstone of Israeli Foreign Relations The U.S. remains Israel’s chief ally and can-not be replaced by Russia, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recently before flying home after a two-day visit to Moscow. “It is not desirable or practical to replace the United States [with Russia]. The US is the cornerstone of our foreign relations,” Netanyahu told reporters. He had visited Moscow for the third time this year, and held his fourth face-to-face meeting with President Vladimir Putin. click Israel Matters! 103 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.

Netanyahu Offers Jewish History Lesson to UN Diplomats Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently offered to personally host a lecture on Jewish history for local U.N. staff following outrage over a resolution adopted by the U.N. cultural agency that failed to acknowledge Jewish ties to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the holiest site in Judaism. click Israel Matters! 102 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.

NGO Monitor: UN Agency Manipulates Data to Misrepresent Israel NGO Monitor has released a report highly critical of a UN agency deemed so biased in Jerusalem that the Foreign Ministry, according to diplomatic sources, stopped cooperating with it in any meaningful way several years ago. The organization is the Jerusalem-based UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OCHA oPt). NGOs are nongovernmental organizations. click Israel Matters! 101 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.

Israel to Create an Egalitarian Prayer Plaza at the Western Wall Israel recently approved a plan that would dramatically change the layout of Jerusalem’s Western Wall plaza, one of the holiest sites in Judaism, creating a space for egalitarian prayer and mixed-gender ceremonies for non-Orthodox Jews. The new area, which will enable men and women to pray side by side, is to be adjacent to the existing plaza run by stringent ultra-Orthodox rabbis. That area is split into prayer sections for men and women, although women are not allowed to read aloud from the Torah, wear prayer shawls, or sing there. click Israel Matters! 99 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.