Abbas-Hamas Deal Puts Palestinians on Brink of Financial Collapse
Bloomberg reports that the PA/Hamas deal may trigger the financial collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as the U.S. and the U.K. look to implement cutbacks in aid. Under U.S. law, there’s a risk that the annual $440 million that American taxpayers contribute to Palestinian society will be yanked automatically. Similar terms govern the European grant of 426 million euros ($584 million), said David Kriss, the EU spokesman in Tel Aviv. Israel has already said it will withhold at least some of the $1.2 billion it collects annually for the Palestinians in customs tariffs and other payments. Ahmed Awad, a political scientist at Al-Quds Open University in Gaza City, noting simply that “we all know that the PA survives only through foreign donations and without them, it could collapse.”
Bloomberg Reinvests His $1Mil Prize
The Genesis Prize Foundation announced today Genesis Prize Laureate, former NYC mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, has chosen to invest the $1 Million award to create a global competition named the Genesis Generation Challenge. The Challenge will find—and fund—the next big idea that would measurably better the world. The Genesis Generation Challenge is designed to encourage teams of change agents from across the world to submit ideas for projects, guided by Jewish values, that demonstrate innovation and creativity in addressing the world’s pressing issues. Up to 10 winning teams each will be awarded at least $100,000 to implement their initiatives. The competition will officially begin on August 1, 2014 through an online submission process found at www.Genesis-Generation.org. Winners will be announced in the first quarter of 2015.
Sean Penn, Champion of Jewish Values
New York – Four and a half months after being mysteriously whisked out of Bolivia and brought back to the United States, Yanky Ostreicher, the Brooklyn businessman held in South America for thirty months made his first public appearance, and presenting an award to the Hollywood actor who was instrumental in arranging his return. The haredi Ostreicher presented the Champion of Jewish Justice Award to Penn last week in front of a crowd of approximately 800 guests at Cipriani in Manhattan, and admitted that the two men, who became close friends could not be more different, politically or religiously.
U.S. May Go Into Syria if CWs are Being Used
TIME Magazine’s chief foreign affairs correspondent Michael Crowley last week said the policy debate in Washington over how to approach the Syrian war may soon shift back to “talk of military action,” as Obama administration officials “brac[ed] for confirmation—in weeks or even days—that chemical warfare is underway again” inside the war-torn country. The dynamic is being driven by a stream of evidence—beginning weeks ago with French reports of “indications” and extending through just-published videos—that the Assad regime has been engaged in a systematic campaign to deploy chlorine-based chemical weapons (CWs) against rebel-heavy areas throughout Syria. Impending strikes had been called off under the auspices of a Russian deal that obligated Syria to join the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and turn over its vast stockpile of CWs for destruction. The regime has declared in recent weeks that it is unable to meet the latter obligation because of heavy fighting around what is thought to be roughly the remaining 5 percent of proscribed materials, while the use of chlorine in a battlefield context would violate its CWC obligations. Crowley suggested that any confirmation of such use would “again test [Obama’s] credibility, and renew talk of U.S. military action in Syria.”
Lapid Says Annexation Will Bring Down Gov’t
Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) made a strong statement against annexing Judea and Samaria last week, saying that “if Israel will annex settlement blocs, there will not be a government. There is no other solution than two states for two peoples,” Lapid added. “You cannot build infrastructure in isolated communities that, in any case, will not be part of Israel in the event of a future agreement. The [two-state solution] involves things that will hurt us all,” Lapid said. “Evicting 80 or 90 thousand settlers from their homes shakes us all. …It’s not just that the state will be different; each of us will have a different relationship with the government, the nature of the citizen-state relationship will change,” he insisted. “It will tear the largest rift in the state of Israel since the Yom Kippur War.” Yesha Council officials have categorically rejected the accusations and Globes published a full and detailed breakdown of the funds that were funnelled to Judea and Samaria.
American Troops Head to Africa
Foreign Policy reports that U.S. Special Operations troops are forming elite counterterrorism units in Africa to fight Al Qaeda affiliates. The NYT’s Eric Schmitt on Page One: “… The secretive program, financed in part with millions of dollars in classified Pentagon spending and carried out by trainers, including members of the Army’s Green Berets and Delta Force, was begun last year to instruct and equip hundreds of handpicked commandos in Libya, Niger, Mauritania and Mali. The goal over the next few years is to build homegrown African counterterrorism teams capable of combating fighters like those in Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group that abducted nearly 300 Nigerian schoolgirls last month. American military specialists are helping Nigerian officers in their efforts to rescue the girls.
Nigeria Says It Knows Where the Girls Are and May Negotiate
The Washington Post’s Pamela Constable: “A top Nigerian military official said Monday that the government knows the whereabouts of several hundred kidnapped girls but cannot reveal their location and cannot use force to rescue them, according to the website of the Ogun state television service. Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh, the government’s chief of defense staff, was quoted as telling a group of visitors at his office in Abuja, the capital, ‘The good news for the parents of the girls is that we know where they are, but we cannot tell you.’ He reportedly told the group, ‘just leave us alone, we are working to get the girls back.’ … It was difficult to know how specific Badeh intended to be in his statement, which appeared aimed more at reassuring his visitors, a group of Nigerians concerned about security issues, that the military was doing its job but would not use force to try and rescue the girls for fear of endangering their lives.”
Israel to Rebuild Synagogue Demolished During 1948 War
(JNS.org) The Israeli government has made plans to allocate 50 million shekels ($14.3 million) for the reconstruction of Jerusalem’s Tiferet Yisrael Synagogue, which was destroyed by the Arab Legion during the War of Independence in 1948, Israel Hayom reported. The official announcement of the landmark’s revival is expected to come on Jerusalem Day, May 28.
During the 1948 battle over the Old City of Jerusalem, the Jordanians were determined to prevent Jewish organizations from returning to areas that had been conquered, and made the decision to destroy Jewish sites such as synagogues.
Some Conservative Jews Call Out Leaders over J Street Vote
JNS.org—More than 70 Conservative Jews in an advertisement published Thursday called out the movement’s synagogue umbrella organization for its recent vote in favor of J Street’s application to join the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. The ad—which appeared in the New York Jewish Week, The Jewish Press (New York), The Jewish Advocate of Boston, the Washington Jewish Week, and the Baltimore Jewish Times—said J Street has accused Israel of war crimes when it defends itself from missile attacks from Gaza, gives a platform to advocates of the movement to boycott Israel, and has called on the U.S. not to veto U.N. resolutions that are critical of Israel. The ad’s sponsor, Jews Against Divisive Leadership, paid for a similar ad signed by more than 40 Reform Jews that was published last week.
Israeli Dairy Firm Tnuva Selling 56% to Chinese Company
JNS.org—The Chinese government-owned Bright Food Group will buy 56% of the Israeli dairy firm Tnuva, the Jewish state’s largest food company. According to the deal, Bright Food will make the purchase via British private equity house Apax Partners. Although the agreed-upon price is undisclosed, Tnuva is reportedly valued at 8.6 billion shekels, or $2.5 billion. “China is still a niche market, but there’s lots of room for growth. We’re getting increasing interest from international clients who are interested in China,” said Matthieu David-Experton, Shanghai-based CEO at Daxue Consulting. The deal, one of the largest in the history of the Israeli market, will allow Bright Food access to Israel’s technologically advanced dairy production. Tnuva earned more 7.17 billion shekels, or $2.05 billion, in 2013.
Tel Aviv U. Partnering With Beijing School on Research Center
JNS.org—Tel Aviv University (TAU) has announced that it is partnering with Beijing’s Tsinghua University. The universities will invest $300 million to establish the XIN Research Center for the biotech, solar energy, water, and environmental technology industries. China is interested in having Israeli technology “upgrade” its society, Shangyan Fen—a managing director for Catalyst-CEL, a joint Israeli-Chinese investment fund helping Israeli companies bring their products to the Chinese market. The agreement is just one event in a week that has by now been dubbed “China Week” in the Israeli high-tech industry. More than 400 Chinese officials arrived in Israel recently for a series of conferences and seminars, including the Tel Aviv MIXiii 2014 conference.
