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1. Calls for Change to Law of Return
by Hillel Fendel
The law that grants automatic Israeli citizenship to Jews everywhere is under attack, following the perceived increase in Russian immigrant crime.
Yaakov Kedmi, former long-time head of the governmental Nativ office for immigration from the former Soviet Union, says there is no cause for concern. “The number of criminal elements who took advantage of the Law of Return to imigrate to Israel from Russia is very small,” he said Tuesday. “The opposite is true: Many immigrants became involved in crime only after they arrived in Israel.”
MK Meir Sheetrit (Kadima), a former Interior Minister, says the Law of Return must be amended immediately. “The situation is totally wanton, and the law must be changed urgently,” Sheetrit told Army Radio in response to Kedmi's comments.
“I propose that anyone who wants to come here as a Jew,” Sheetrit said, “should come and reside here for five years, take an oath of loyalty to the State, and only then receive citizenship.”
Former Knesset Speaker Avrum Burg went even further, saying that Jews need not receive preferential treatment over anyone else when requesting Israeli citizenship. “The Law of Return was formulated when many Jews were persecuted in their home countries,” Burg explained, “but now that most Jews live in democratic countries, there is no further need for the Law of Return.” Burg, whose father Yosef long headed the National Religious Party, has often surprised observers with his anti-Zionist positions.
The Law of Return issue has risen to the fore once again with the news that the likely perpetrator of the cold-blooded murder of six members of a Rishon LeTzion family last month – two grandparents, two parents, a toddler and a baby – immigrated to Israel from Russia several years ago. In addition, it has been revealed that Russia asked for his extradition two years ago because of his involvement in a robbery in which one person was hurt.
Minister of Immigration and Absorption Sofa Landver, who herself immigrated to Israel from Russia in 1979, lashed out against what she called “racist generalizations.”
“The witch hunt over the Aliyah from the Commonwealth of Nations [former Soviet Unio in light of the solving of the family’s murder is nothing more than racism,” Landver said. “Talk of more stringent checks on immigration candidates and changing the Law of Return is unacceptable.”
2. Jewish Spy Shot to Death in Moscow
by Hillel Fendel
The Russian news agency Interfax reports that Israeli-Russian businessman Shabtai Kalmanovitch, who was convicted by an Israeli court of spying for Russia, was shot to death on Monday.
Kalmanovitch was fired upon by a passing car near his home in Moscow. The personal driver of his Mercedes was seriously wounded in the incident.
Kalmanovitch was convicted some 20 years ago of having given information to the Russian KGB agency, and served 5.5 years of a nine-year sentence. He was released from prison in March 1993 because of ill health and as part of a deal in which Russia would help supply information about captive Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad.
Kalmanovitch later became a successful businessman in Russia, as he had been in Israel. He would have been 62 next month.
3. Hamas Testing Missiles That Could Hit Tel Aviv
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
The Hamas terrorist organization has test-fired a missile that could hit Tel Aviv from Gaza, according to the IDF's Military Intelligence (AMAN) chief.
Addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, AMAN head Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin revealed the details of the successful missile test. The projectile was fired out to sea off the Gaza coast in recent days, he explained, saying that IDF observers recorded the impact 60 kilometers (37 miles) away from the launch site. The missile, produced by Iran, can thus reach the Dan region, including metropolitan Tel Aviv, bringing the major coastal city within range of attacks from Gaza.
Just last year, IDF intelligence projected that Hamas would be capable of independently producing missiles with a 50-kilometer range. The Israeli assessment was based on evidence that the Iranian regime would provide the know-how and necessary supplies for the longer range projectiles. Iran, it is believed, wants to enable Hamas to endanger Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city and economic center.
Smuggled in Via Tunnels
According to the AMAN assessment divulged on Tuesday, Hamas, the jihadist group currently ruling the Gaza half of the Palestinian Authority, received the test-fired missile by way of underground smuggling tunnels. Hamas has dug and controls a network of such tunnels running under the border between Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai.
"Hamas does not want a confrontation with Israel at this time," Yadlin added, "so that it can continue to fortify its civil control in the Gaza Strip."
In the North
Turning to the situation on Israel's northern border, Maj.-Gen. Yadlin said that the Hizbullah terror organization continues to receive weapons and supplies from Iran as well. A portion of this growing cache, he explained, is in southern Lebanon. The area south of the Litani River in Lebanon is meant to be free of Hizbullah weapons, a ban ostensibly enforced by United Nations peacekeepers according to a 2006 Lebanon-Israel agreement.
One week ago, a senior Lebanese army officer revealed that his soldiers identified and dismantled four rockets near the border with Israel. The source said that the rockets, three of which were ready for launching at Israel, were found in a village construction site.
Iran is not alone in supporting local jihadist elements, Yadlin noted. Syria has become the leading factory for weaponry shipped to Iran-backed terror groups in the Middle East, he said. AMAN assesses that Syria is playing a two-faced game in which it sells weapons to terrorists out the back door while presenting a moderate face to the West.
A Direct Result of the Gush Katif Expulsion
Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari (National Union), a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that the AMAN report is not news. It seems to him more like "gossip," he quipped in an interview with IsraelNN TV.
"There is no doubt [that the Hamas missile threa is the result of the expulsion from Gush Katif and the establishment of the State of Hamas, which poses a threat to the State of Israel," Ben-Ari stated.
Military Intelligence should have been loudly and clearly warning of the dangers of the current situation before the removal of the Jews from Gaza, Ben-Ari explained. "We don't need AMAN to inform the Knesset after the fact that there was a missile test. ...We don't need gossip, we need warnings."
The MK said that he demands AMAN undertake an internal investigation to relearn "exactly what their function is."
4. Clinton's About-Face: Israeli Offer 'Falls Short'
by Maayana Miskin
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had high praise for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's willingness to freeze Jewish growth in Judea and Samaria (Yehudah and Shomron) in a news conference held Saturday night in Jerusalem. However, two days after describing the freeze as “unprecedented,” Clinton told reporters in Marrakesh, Morocco, that the freeze “falls short” of U.S. desires.
“This offer falls far short of what our preference would be,” Clinton said Monday, between meetings with Arab foreign ministers to discuss America's policy regarding Israel and the Palestinian Authority. However, she said, “if it is acted upon it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements.”
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, also in Morocco, told reporters that “all of us” Arab states are disappointed by what they view as insufficient U.S. pressure on Israel to cease all construction east of the 1949 armistice line, including in eastern Jerusalem.
Israel “can get away with anything,” Moussa claimed. He expressed pessimism over American efforts to restart negotiations between Israel and the PA, saying, “Failure is in the atmosphere all over.”
PA leaders criticized Clinton this week for her praise of Israel's construction freeze, and restated their refusal to speak with Netanyahu unless Israel freezes building in all Jewish areas in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.
5. MK: 'Cruel' Workplace to Blame for Poverty
by Maayana Miskin
MK Shelly Yechimovich of Labor believes that the 2008 National Insurance Institute (NII) report on poverty reveals a serious problem with Israel's labor laws. The fact that so many workers remain poor is a sign that “the workplace is becoming very cruel,” the MK says.
"The most worrisome datum from the latest report is the fact that almost fifty percent of Israel's poor are workers,” Yechimovich told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew news service on Monday. “That is to say, a person can work from morning to night... and remain poor.”
If Israelis cannot make a decent living through work, it will be “a serious blow to society,” Yechimovich warned. She pointed to the fact that many employees work for contractors, and to “exploitative contracts,” as two of the factors that have created a class of working poor.
The Solution? 'Buy Israeli'
One simple way to begin solving the problem is to force government ministries to buy from Israeli manufacturers, Yechimovich said. “The security agencies must buy their uniforms from Israeli factories, not from China,” she states.
Herzog: Data Encourages Work
Welfare Minister Yitzchak Herzog had a different approach to the NII data. The most recent poverty report “shows a direct connection between joining the workforce and escaping poverty,” the minister said.
Herzog pointed to the drop in poverty in the Arab sector, which followed an increase in Arab participation in the workplace, as proof that more workers means fewer poor families.
6. 'Rock of Ages' Discovered in Akko
by Hana Levi Julian
A treasure trove of some 350 rare pieces of marble, hoarded beneath an ancient cellar floor, have been uncovered during an excavation conducted approximately 100 meters north of the Old City wall of the coastal city of Akko. According to Dr. Edna Stern, excavation director for the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The marble was concealed as one would bury a jar with gold coins. It seems that the owner was in fear of impending danger."
The unique find, which dates 800 years back to the Crusader period (the thirteenth century CE), includes a collection of 350 marble items that were gathered from buildings that had been destroyed. The hoard was found during an archaeological excavation conducted by the Antiquities Authority prior to construction by the Akko municipality of a new building to house classrooms in the Hilmi Shafi Educational Campus.
According to Stern, the find is exceedingly rare, "the likes of which have never been discovered in the Kingdom of Jerusalem (the capital of which was Akko) in the Crusader period," she said.
"During the archaeological excavations we came upon a cellar that was sealed by collapse, comprised of building stones and charred beams. Beneath the cellar floor a hoard of approximately 350 marble items and colored stones was discovered, including two broken marble tombstones with Latin inscriptions (one belonging to a person by the name of Maratinus), flat marble slabs and marble tiles of various sizes and colors, etc. Some extraordinary items were also found, among them a large stone cross and a large fragment of porphyry (a rare precious purple stone, which has been the color of royalty from Roman times). The quality of the marble is excellent and it was undoubtedly imported from abroad."
During the Crusader era, Akko was an important international trade center, she noted, adding the marble hoard reflects the magnificent buildings that existed in the area but had not survived, and the commerce and wealth of its residents.
"Just as there is a trend today to incorporate wooden doors from India or roof tiles from old buildings in Italy in modern villas, at that time they used to integrate ancient architectural items from the Roman and Byzantine periods in their construction," Stern explained. "And just like today, people at that time also yearned for the classic and the exotic. We know from written sources that they bought and sold such stones, which were exceptionally valuable, to be reused in buildings. We can assume that the owner of the hoard, whether he was a merchant or he collected the stones for his own construction, was aware of impending danger and therefore buried the valuable stones until such time as the tension abated."
However, the cache of stones was not sold in the end. According to Stern, “We can reasonably assume that the collapse that was found above the hoard is evidence of the building’s destruction in 1291 CE, when Crusader Akko was conquered by the Mamluks and was completely devastated”.
The marble hoard was removed from the field and transferred to the Israel Antiquities Authority for further study.
(Israel news photos: courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority / Howard Smithline)
7. Int'l Delegations, Trade Shows and Conferences Flood Israel
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Israel is hosting a plethora of international delegations, trade shows and conferences this month, drawing global leaders in politics, business, academia and technology. According to the Jewish Agency, "November is a very popular time for travel to Israel."
Possibly the largest single group en route to Israel this month comes from Nigeria. That nation's annual Christian pilgrimage to Israel is expected to include about 15,000 Nigerians over the next few months. This week, Senior Deputy Director-General of the Tourism Ministry, Rafi Ben Hur, welcomed the 18 members of the Pilgrimage Committee of the Nigerian Government and a representative from the Nigerian Embassy in Israel. Representatives from the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of the Interior, the Israel Police and all the relevant tour operators who are preparing to welcome the pilgrims also took part in the meeting.
Another sort of pilgrimage is already underway this week in Jerusalem. The very first Israeli World Congress for the Advancement of Surgery, which began on November 1, is wrapping up Wednesday at the Jerusalem International Congress Center (ICC). Dr. Scott A. Shikora, who initiated the international conference, wrote to guests of the gathering:
"Two years ago I was graciously invited to speak at a surgical conference in the Holy City, Jerusalem. It was my first trip to Israel. The experience was beyond words and has permanently changed me. First, I was struck by the warmth and willingness of Israeli surgeons to welcome me into their clinical lives and to collaborate on projects and research. I now have many new dear friends I didn’t have before the trip. Secondly, I was impressed by the brilliance and ingenuity of the Israeli biomed community, widely regarded as one of the most vibrant in the world. Furthermore, I was greatly impacted by my travels throughout the country, and of course, Jerusalem itself. This birthplace of three major religions will not disappoint and I can guarantee will stir up all kinds of emotions."
High-level political and trade missions are also either already visiting Israel, or are on their way here, this month.
The Department of Commerce of the (U.S.) State of Wisconsin is organizing a trade mission led by Governor Jim Doyle, slated for November 14-20. Israel, described as "a center for cutting-edge technology and innovation", was selected "to promote Wisconsin's water and environmental technologies, life sciences, agri-business, and other industries." The mission was organized to coincide with the International Water Technologies and Environmental Control Conference and Exhibition (WATEC 2009) in Tel Aviv, where Governor Doyle will deliver remarks.
Another trade mission scheduled to coincide with WATEC is coming from Australia. The Sustainability Trade Mission to Israel, November 15-21, will be led by Phillip Costa, Australia's Minister for Water and Regional Development and South Australia's Chief Scientist, Dr. Ian Chessell. The mission, "specifically designed for CEOs and senior management from business, government and academia, will combine exposure to key Israeli industry figures together with topical high level business meetings designed to expose delegates to innovative business ideas and opportunities," according to the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce and the Israel Trade Commission. Delegates will learn about Israeli expertise in "management of water resources; water reuse, desalination and security; agriculture under arid conditions; sustainability; alternative energy; clean technologies to ameliorate climate change; and innovation in agritech products and solutions"; as well as "Israeli government policy success in promoting R&D and commercialisation...."
WATEC 2009 itself is to take place on November 17-19 at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Center and will draw business, environmental science and political leaders from around the world. The exhibition is billed as "Israel's prime event for showcasing its technologies and expertise in water and environment technology fields."
A bipartisan group of ten legislators from Minnesota, led by U.S. State Representative Frank Hornstein, will be in Israel November 4-13 on a fact-finding trip, paid for out of their own pockets. According to a news release, the group will "foster stronger Minnesota connections to the region, learn more about Israeli clean and high-tech businesses, explore the dynamics of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and visit religious and historical landmarks." In that context they will meet with the parents of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held hostage by the Hamas half of the Palestinian Authority in Gaza since 2006, tour the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, visit the Palestinian Authority, and more.
Also visiting both Israel and the Palestinian Authority this week is a delegation representing several British trade unions. The visit is being organized by TUFI, established to strengthen the links between the Israeli Histadrut national trade union, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions and the British Trade Union Movement. The delegates will meet their Israeli and PA colleagues, visit factories, tour the security barrier between the PA and pre-1967 Israel, as well as hold meetings with government officials.
Int'l. Women's Organizations Sponsor Israel Gatherings
Two international delegations to Israel this month are dedicated to women and women's issues.
About 50 women from 30 countries - including government ministers, legislators, civilian activists, senior NGO organizers and leading academics - are slated to attend the 26th Biennial International Women's Leadership Conference at the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center (MCTC) on November 8-12. This year's conference is to focus on the impact on women of the global financial crisis.
The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) is on its Israel Mission, which began November 3 and will last through November 9. The mission, including meetings and discussions with leading women's rights activists in Israel, will focus on women and the public sphere, gender discrimination, and more.
The International Financial and Legal Professionals Conference, sponsored by the American branch of the Emunah women's organization, will take place at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem from November 22-26. It will bring together attorneys, accountants, financial planners and investment advisors for networking and discussions. Topics will include: the top ten tax issues every deal lawyer or accountant should know about; year-end tax and estate planning; charitable giving techniques; foreign passive investment companies and Israeli IPOs; and corporate governance. The delegates will also be invited to tour the Israeli Supreme Court, the Knesset, the Israeli Stock Exchange, the Old City of Jerusalem, and key sites of interest in Tel Aviv.
Other Trade Shows
In addition to WATEC 2009, November will see a series of international trade shows. Among them are:
HOTEX, the 26th international exhibition for equipment, services and technologies for the hospitality industry, in conjunction with KITEX, an international exhibition of institutional kitchens and restaurants equipment. They will be held from November 24-26 in Tel Aviv's Trade Fairs Center.
The 26th International Exhibition for Food and Beverage, "Israfood", and the Annual Food and Beverage Packing Trade Show, "FoodPack", will also be held on the same dates at the Tel Aviv Trade Fairs Center.
Computax, the annnual international exhibition for computer systems, hardware and software, will be held from November 10-12 at the Tel Aviv Trade Fairs Center. Also to be held on these dates at the same location are ISCOM, the biannual exhibition for office and computer technologies, and ISPRINT, an exhibition for the printing and cross-media technology industries.
In addition, Tel Aviv will host the first international summit to discuss the rise in organized and violent crime in cities throughout the world, Safe City 2009. Co-organized by MK International Security Consulting and Israel Gateway, Safe City will bring together security experts, law enforcement officials and political leaders from around the globe. The conference will take place from November 30 through December 6, 2009, in the framework of Israel Gateway's Seventh International Foreign Trade Conference and Exhibition.
