A7News: 'Lapid has to tone down anti-haredi rhetoric'

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Monday, Jun. 10 '19, ז' בסיון תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. 'LAPID HAS TO TONE DOWN ANTI-HAREDI RHETORIC'
2. MK TAL RUSSO, SECOND ON LABOR LIST, QUITS POLITICS
3. YA'ALON: WE'LL ALL RUN TOGETHER TILL THE END
4. 'IF I CAN'T LIVE THERE, AT LEAST LET ME BE BURIED THERE'
5. JORDAN: 'ABBAS REJECTS EVERY SOLUTION TO THE CRISIS'
6. WATCH: IDF TROOPS TAKE CONTROL OF FOREIGN CARGO SHIP
7. PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY FUMES OVER FRIEDMAN'S STATEMENTS
8. IRAN UNVEILS NEW AIR DEFENSE MISSILE SYSTEM


1. 'LAPID HAS TO TONE DOWN ANTI-HAREDI RHETORIC'
by Haim Lev

A senior Blue and White official spoke out Monday against MK Yair Lapid (Blue and White) over his "anti-haredi messages", which the official warned could sink the party's chances of forming the next government.

Speaking on Army Radio – Galei Tzahal, Ronen Tzur, Blue and White party chairman MK Benny Gantz's strategic adviser, urged Lapid to tone down his "anti-haredi" rhetoric, calling Lapid's comments a threat to the party's ability to ever form a functioning government.

"The anti-haredi messages are a barrier preventing the Blue and White party from the ever having the ability to form a government," said Tzur. "If Lapid doesn't moderate his comments against the haredi public…then the opposition is saying in advance that it has no plans to ever form a government."

While haredi criticism of the Blue and White party during the previous election cycle was focused on the party's plan for chairman Benny Gantz to share the premiership with Lapid – rotating after two years – if the party formed a government, Tzur said Lapid's criticism of the haredi community had become an issue in and of itself.

"It isn't just a matter of the rotating [premiership], but the campaign as well. It's also about the agenda, which for all intents and purposes excludes the haredi community from being part of the government. That means were automatically pushing away 16 to 17 mandates and giving them to the Right. Why are we doing that? It is beyond me."

Tzur went on to suggest that Lapid was the only stumbling block to Blue and White potentially forming an alliance with haredi lawmakers – a necessary step towards forming a government.

"At the end of the day it hurts Gantz, [MK Gabi] Ashkenazi, and [MK Moshe] Yaalon, who aren't considered beyond the pale by the haredi parties' leadership."


2. MK TAL RUSSO, SECOND ON LABOR LIST, QUITS POLITICS
by David Rosenberg

Labor MK Tal Russo, who ran on the number two slot in the Labor slate in the April elections, announced Monday morning that he will be resigning from politics at the end of the current term.

In a surprise move Monday, Russo announced in a Facebook post that he would not be running in the elections for the 22nd Knesset, slated for September 17th.

"Friends, I went into politics four months ago with great plans to change the Labor party and the State of Israel, no less," Russo wrote. "But given the circumstances we find ourselves – early elections and new primaries to choose the leader of the [Labor] party after such a short period of time – I won't be able to do the things I had hoped. I don't want to be part of the struggle over an inheritance [of the leadership of the party], so I remove my candidacy for control of the party and from the Knesset list for the 22nd Knesset."

Russo announced his departure from politics less than a month and a half after he was sworn in as a member of the 21st Knesset – his first and only term in the Israeli legislature.

A general in the IDF reserves, Russo is a close ally of Labor chief Avi Gabbay, who appointed Russo to the number two spot on the party's slate for the 21st Knesset.

Gabbay, who came under fire from Labor MKs prior to the election as the party failed to make headway in the polls, faced calls for his resignation after Labor won just six seats in the April election – its worst performance in history.

Several Labor MKs have announced plans to run in the party's leadership primaries, slated for July 2nd, including former party chairman and ex-Defense Minister Amir Peretz and MK Stav Shaffir.


3. YA'ALON: WE'LL ALL RUN TOGETHER TILL THE END
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Senior Blue and White candidate MK Moshe Ya'alon on Monday said the party will run with the same list it currently has.

"We will all run together until the end," he told Army Radio.

Ya'alon, who formerly served as a Defense Minister from the Likud party, also said he sees US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman's recent statement that Israel has a right to annex parts of Judea and Samaria in a positive light.

"Ambassador Friedman's words show that there is an administration in Washington which sees the Israel-Palestinian conflict in a much more realistic way than previous administrations," he said. "The direction [US] President Donald Trump's peace plan is taking is realistic."

"There's no chance of a permanent solution in sight, but believe in separation, which began in Oslo, of some parts of Judea and Samaria. I would not want Arabs to be second-class citizens, but that is where [MK] Bezalel Smotrich has led [Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu now."

In fact, Israel's Arab citizens have the same rights and privileges as Israel's other citizens.

Ya'alon also criticized Israel's Arab Knesset members, explaining why he does not want to work with them.

"The Arab politicians voted like the coalition in the vote for State Comptroller and in the vote to dissolve the Knesset," he said. "They have their own agenda. It's not for nothing that some Israeli Arabs are repulsed by them."


4. 'IF I CAN'T LIVE THERE, AT LEAST LET ME BE BURIED THERE'
by Josefin Dolsten, JTA

Within hours of his mother's funeral, Rabbi Abba Cohen was driving from Baltimore to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. That night Cohen, together with his brother and sister, sat on a plane to Israel. The following day he would watch his mother being buried next to his father on the Mount of Olives, in Jerusalem. Only hours later he was once again on a flight, this time back to the United States, where he would sit shiva with the rest of the family.

"I was going to Israel, which I don't do every day and I always associate with joy and excitement, and here I was going to bury a loved one, so that was a very surreal experience," Cohen, who works as vice president for federal affairs at Agudath Israel of America, recalled of the burial four years ago.

Like many Jews, Cohen's parents wanted to be buried in Israel. The practice can be traced back to the Bible, where Jacob asks his son Joseph not to bury him in Egypt, but rather among his ancestors in Hevron.

In addition, Jewish tradition says believe that the dead will be resurrected when the Messiah arrives, starting with those buried in Israel. The process is prophesied to begin at the Mount of Olives, just beyond the eastern wall of Jerusalem's Old City.

But organizing a Jewish burial in Israel can be both complicated and costly.

Israel's national insurance system covers "burial expenses for anyone (even a foreign tourist) who dies in Israel and is buried near his place of death, or for an Israeli buried near his home here," according to Itim, the religious rights organization. However, those living abroad have to pay their own way and there are no rules limiting how much cemeteries can charge.

Cohen's parents bought their plots in the 1970s, but since then costs have risen dramatically. Today a plot on the Mount of Olives could cost as much as $30,000, according to Rabbi Shaul Ginsberg, who arranges burials in Israel for the New York-based Plaza Jewish Community Chapel.

Traditionally people have favored being buried in Jerusalem at either the Mount of Olives cemetery, the most ancient one in the city, or the Givat Shaul cemetery, the largest one, in the city's west. But with rising costs, people are looking elsewhere.

One cemetery popular among Americans Jews is Eretz HaChaim, which is located near the city of Beit Shemesh, about a 40 minute drive from Jerusalem. The majority of people buried there are foreigners, and out of those Americans make up the largest group, said Jonathan Konig, who assists the cemetery's burial society and sells headstones. The cemetery is Orthodox, as were "the overwhelming majority" of the approximately 5,000-6,000 people buried there, but Jews of all denominations are welcome, according to Konig.

Plots at Eretz HaChaim go for $9,500, in addition to a $1,500 one-time maintenance fee. The cemetery organizes transportation and other services necessary from arrival at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport for $2,200.

People can also expect to pay an additional $10,000-$15,000 for a range of necessary permits, transporting the body and services performed in the US, including ritual cleansing of the body. Ginsberg said El Al charges about $2,300 and United about $2,900 to transport a casket and body. That does not include flights for family members to attend the funeral in Israel.

Haaretz cited the Foreign Ministry as saying that 1,590 people died abroad and were buried in the Jewish state in 2016, an increase from 850 in 2007. That number includes Israelis who died while on vacation. Israel's Foreign and Interior Ministry did not respond or referred the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to people who did not respond to multiple requests for more current numbers.

Many Jewish organizations — including the National Council of Young Israel, Yeshiva University and the Rabbinical Council of America — have reserved plots at Eretz HaChaim for their members.

The National Council of Young Israel has held reserved plots at Eretz HaChaim since the late 1960s. Rabbi Binyamin Hammer, the organization's director of rabbinic services, says he has seen an increase in interest among Young Israel members in being buried in Israel in the last 20 years and that many are motivated by Zionism.

"The success of the day school movement has caused a tremendous amount of aliyah from America as well as people saying 'if I can't live there, at least let me be buried there,'" Hammer said, using the Hebrew word for immigration to Israel.

Rabbi Yehudah Prero, who coordinates burial in Israel for Young Israel, also attributes an increase to the fact that people today are less likely to stay in the same town or city for generations.

"They feel that if they pass away in a certain city, they don't know if their kids are going to be there," Prero said. "And even if they are, who knows where the grandkids are going to end up? But if they're buried in Israel, they know someone is going to come and be able to visit graveside."

For those who aren't members of an organization with reserved plot, there is Achuzat Kever, an Israel-based organization founded by Rabbi Michoel Fletcher in 2004.

Fletcher helps people from abroad secure plots at cemeteries across Israel and helps coordinate transportation and a range of other services. The rabbi works directly with a number of cemeteries who offer him commissions when he sells plots. In cases where he does not receive a commission, he charges clients a fee of about $500.

Itim also offers guidance on holding funerals in Israel.

Rabbi Seth Farber, the organization's founder and director, says that cemeteries and funeral homes in the US often cater to the needs and wishes of the family. But in Israel, the focus is on providing a funeral that the cemetery sees as adhering to their interpretation of Jewish law.

"It's not as user friendly for the family as America would be," he said.

For example, a family may bring with them their hometown rabbi thinking he or she will be able to lead the ceremony, but few Israeli cemeteries allow that. Some cemeteries do not allow women to give a eulogy and each one has certain traditions they follow without exception. Sometimes, the person who leads the funeral at the cemetery does not speak English.

Since 1996, says Itim, Israelis, Jewish or not, can choose to be buried in a civil ceremony at cemeteries that allow them.

Burial in Israel also has geographic challenges.

Surella Baer, 64, has visited her father's grave three times since he passed away in 1991. But health problems currently prevent her from traveling there from her home in Queens, N.Y.

"My husband's parents are buried here out on Long Island and he gets to see them every year twice a year," she said. "I really wouldn't mind doing that, but the truth is it's what my father wanted, so we did it."

Still, the practice holds deep meaning for many.

"It's not just going to a cemetery to visit your loved one," said Cohen of visiting his parents' graves on the Mount of Olives. "It is that, but the entire experience of the setting and the meaning and the place all of that is extremely, extremely powerful and whenever I've gone, I've felt it."

This article is sponsored by UJA-Federation of NY, to raise awareness and facilitate conversations about end of life care in a Jewish context. The story was produced independently and at the sole discretion of JTA's editorial team.



5. JORDAN: 'ABBAS REJECTS EVERY SOLUTION TO THE CRISIS'
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Jordanian officials are fuming over Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' management of the PA's financial crisis, Israel Hayom reported.

According to Israel Hayom, Jordan is concerned that a collapse of the PA will lead to violence, including towards Jordanians. Such a scenario would threaten the Hashemite kingdom's stability, the site noted.

Prior to the Six Day War in 1967, Jordan controlled all of Judea and Samaria after occupying the area in Israel's 1948 War of Independence, with only the UK, Iraq and Pakistan recognizing that annexation. After Israel took over the area in June 1967, many Arab residents living in Judea and Samaria crossed the Jordan River and moved to what was - and remains - Jordan. Today, those Jordanian "refugees" and their children make up approximately half of the country's population.

A senior Jordanian official said Abbas has rejected a proposal which would solve the PA's financial crisis. The source added that Abbas has ordered PA officials not to meet Israeli officials to attempt to solve the problem. This, he said, may lead to the PA's collapse.

Several days ago, PA leader Mohammad Shtayyeh said the PA is closer than ever to bankruptcy, due to its refusal to accept taxes transferred to it via Israel. Meanwhile, the PA's debts to Israel Electric Company and the local water company are estimated to be in the billions.

Earlier this year, outgoing Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) signed an order to deduct 42 million NIS ($11,578,350) - the amount paid to terrorists and their families - from the taxes transferred each month to the Palestinian Authority.

The deduction is in accordance with a law passed last summer, and will affect all payments made during 2019. Israel will cease deducting the payments when the PA ceases funding the murder and maiming of Israel's citizens.

Meanwhile, the PA is paying its employees just 50% of their salaries in order to continue paying the terror salaries in full.


6. WATCH: IDF TROOPS TAKE CONTROL OF FOREIGN CARGO SHIP
by Arutz Sheva Staff

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/264354

On Saturday night, the IDF received a report from a foreign cargo ship anchored off northern Israel, regarding a fire that had been ignited in its hull by unknown elements, an IDF statement confirmed.

The statement added that IDF Navy forces boarded and took control of the ship on Sunday, searching it in coordination with the ship's captain.

During the searches, the forces apprehended a stowaway and subsequently transferred him to the Israeli Police.

Ynet reported that the Turkish consul in Israel will visit the arson suspect, who is claimed to be a Turkish citizen.

Israel has been asked to confirm whether there were any Turkish casualties.


7. PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY FUMES OVER FRIEDMAN'S STATEMENTS
by Arutz Sheva Staff

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman's statement that Israel has the right to annex at least "some" parts of Judea and Samaria drew criticism from Israel's extreme left, as well as from the Palestinian Authority.

Senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official Saeb Erekat called on world leaders to boycott the US-led Bahrain summit, claiming annexation would be a "war crime under international law." He also claimed any such interference by the US would be "US partnership in the crime of Israeli settlement plans."

A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: "No plan for unilateral annexation by Israel of any portion of the West Bank has been presented by Israel to the US, nor is it under discussion."

MK Ofer Cassif (Hadash), slammed "the meaningless words of the US ambassador to Israel regarding the annexation of conquered territories show us what US President Donald Trump's 'America first' policy means."

"There is no law or international law and there is no United Nations resolution like 242. Only the American empire decides what is write and what is wrong. Neither the Israeli government nor the US government will hide the truth: The West Bank, Gaza Strip, and eastern Jerusalem are conquered Palestinian territories which will be redeemed and returned to their owners in accordance with their law as part of a proper peace agreement."

Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg said, "As long as Friedman is the US ambassador to Israel and not to a country of settlements, he needs to know that annexation is a disaster for the State of Israel. The Ambassador is not here in order to help create extremist messianic settlements, which work to destroy any chance of a peaceful and secure life without occupation. Peace is in the interests of the Israelis and Palestinians, who also live here. Even if the American government has decided to serve only the extreme right wing."

"Ambassador Friedman is a Trojan horse sent by the right-wing settlers to destroy Israel's interests and chance of peace," the leftist Peace Now NGO stated. "Friedman's extremist and irresponsible statements, just prior to the publication of President Trump's peace plan, do not allow room fro doubt: The US President, if his intends to serve as a fair broker, needs to order Friedman to pack his bags tonight."


8. IRAN UNVEILS NEW AIR DEFENSE MISSILE SYSTEM
by Sara Rubenstein

Iran's military unveiled the Khordad 15, a new locally built advanced air defense missile system at a ceremony in Tehran on Sunday.

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/264357

Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami said at the ceremony that the system, which is equipped with long-range Sayyad 3 missiles, can destroy enemy targets from a range of 120 kilometers (74 miles) and is also capable of destroying as many as six targets simultaneously, according to Iranian media reports.

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/264357

Hatami added that the Khordad 15 is capable of tracking "stealth targets" and intercepting them. "It can also trace stealth targets in areas 85 km (53 miles) in distance, and destroy them at a distance of 45 km (28 miles)," Hatami said.

The unveiling of Khordad 15 comes amid escalating tension between Iran and the US. Iran's announcement last month that it would withdraw from parts of the 2015 nuclear deal prompted US envoy on Iran Brian Hook, to say, "Any attack on American interests or on our allies will be met with force. If the Iranian regime tries, the American administration will respond."

The US also deployed an aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, outside the Persian Gulf last month and is sending 900 extra troops to the Middle East.