Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday January 5, 2007

Shorts: Mideast

Ups, downs of aliyah

Immigration to Israel is at an 18-year low.

The Jewish Agency for Israel said that 21,000 foreign Jews immigrated in 2006, the lowest annual figure since 1988.

But the data showed a relative rise in aliyah from Anglophonic countries.

While immigration from the former Soviet Union is down dramatically — the main reason for the record low — nearly 4,000 American and British Jews moved to Israel in 2006, figures not seen from those communities in more than 20 years. — jta

Prisoner exchange in the works?

Hamas reportedly accepted an Israeli offer to exchange Palestinian prisoners for a kidnapped Israeli soldier. Ha’aretz quoted Palestinian sources Tuesday, Jan. 2 as saying that Hamas approved a swap of 450 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

The source added that Israel had not yet agreed to Hamas’ list of prisoners, which included senior Hamas terrorists and Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving consecutive life sentences for his involvement in lethal terrorist attacks.

Shalit, 20, was abducted by Hamas-led gunmen in a June cross-border raid. — jta

Olmert aide probed

A senior aide to Ehud Olmert was questioned by police as part of a graft investigation.

Shula Zaken, a senior official in the Prime Minister’s Office, was interrogated Tuesday, Jan. 2 along with senior officials from the Israel Tax Authority. Police cited suspicions of bribery and breach of trust.

According to media reports, Zaken is suspected of having used her connections to arrange top-level jobs in the Tax Authority in exchange for tax breaks. — jta

Torah takes to skies

An Israeli airline has an onboard Torah.

Israir announced Dec. 28 that it would install a Torah scroll aboard one of its planes as part of efforts to accommodate religious passengers who want to hold prayer services midair.

The move comes amid a push by Israir’s main rival, El Al, to fend off a threatened boycott by Orthodox clients offended by revelations that it recently flew on Shabbat.

Israir runs four weekly flights from New York to Tel Aviv. —jta

Iran says centrifuges to work by March

Some 3000 centrifuges being installed at the Iranian nuclear reactor in Natanz will be operational by March, Iranian government spokesman Gholam-Hussein Elham said during a press conference Tuesday, Jan. 2, according to a report by the Islamic Republic News Agency.

The news agency also claimed that “the installation and working of 3000 centrifuges” were being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency. A centrifuge is a rotating vessel for uranium enrichment.

Meanwhile, speaking in the southwest Iranian city of Ahvaz, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad charged that the timing of the execution of Saddam Hussein was “designed to serve as a tool for the occupation forces to create insecurity and discord in Iraq and the region.”—jta

Third of northerners in trauma, study says

Thirty-three percent of northern Israel residents are suffering from either medium or high, and in some cases severe, posttraumatic symptoms as a result of last year’s war with Hezbollah, a study has shown.

The study showed that most residents do not expect their local councils to evacuate them in the event of war but rather to look after them in their communities. And not all residents want assistance from billionaires and aid groups, the study said. — ynet news

Palestinians failing

to get message out, Hamas site says

The Palestinian Authority is failing to get its message through to the world because of “poorly qualified or unqualified spokespersons with inadequate political and linguistic abilities,” the Hamas English-language Web site claimed in an editorial Tuesday, Jan. 2.

The editorial said Palestinians “need professional spokespersons with excellent knowledge of the world and mastery of foreign languages, especially English, to tell the world in straightforward manner that Israel is a murderer, liar and land thief and that the problem lies squarely in the Zionist theft of our land and savagery of our people (sic).” — jta

Israel eyeing U.S.-made missile defense system

Israel reportedly is considering the acquisition of an American missile-killer to replace a locally made version.

Ha’aretz reported that Israel and the United States are in talks on the possible purchase of the THAAD, or Theater High-Altitude Area Defense system, which would replace the Israeli-made Arrow II.

Israel’s purchase of THAAD would be at least partly funded by U.S. aid disbursements.

The Arrow is now the world’s only tested ballistic missile-killer, and its development is seen by many Israelis as symbolic of the Jewish state’s self-reliance in security matters. Israeli and U.S. officials had no immediate comment on the report. — jta

Abbas security forces reportedly

get arms

Mahmoud Abbas’ security forces reportedly received an arms shipment in Gaza.

Israeli media reported Dec. 28 that a shipment of several thousand assault rifles entered the Gaza Strip through neighboring Egypt last week, destined for Palestinian Authority security forces loyal to the relatively moderate president and pitted against the governing Hamas faction.

The reports were confirmed by security sources in Israel but denied by Abbas’ spokesman. Egypt had no immediate comment. — jta