Israel News

The Jewish Home | DECEMBER 8, 2022 Herzog Visits Bahrain, UAE

Earlier this week, President Isaac Herzog visited Bahrain, the first visit by an Israeli head of state to the island kingdom. His trip revolved around business potential between the two nations. In remarks by Herzog, King Hamad, and Foreign Minister Abdul Latef Al-Zayani, they each spoke about the importance of upgrading economic ties since the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020.

On Sunday evening, Herzog joined Bahrain’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman bin Hamad at the Bahrain Economic Development Board.

With regards to business development, by January, there will be five direct weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Manama, and the next few months would see the number rise to seven.

On Sunday, Herzog also met withwith Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The monarch underscored his support for the “legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” in his public statement delivered alongside the visiting Israeli head of state.

Notably, the monarch did not mention a Palestinian state, nor did either leader bring up Iran, a country that both see as an enemy.

At the beginning of their meeting, the president gave the monarch a silver mezuzah.

Herzog also met with members of the local Jewish community while he was in Bahrain.

On Monday morning, Herzog headed to the United Arab Emirates to meet with allies there. He had visited the country earlier in the year to participate in the Expo 2020 Dubai.

Israeli leader met with the United Arab Emirates’ President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and reassured him that “the Abraham Accords are a national consensus in Israel on all sides of the political spectrum,” as a government that includes the far right prepares to take power.

“Now we have to reach cruising altitude,” Herzog told Bin Zayed. “That is, to upgrade ties between us even more, to strengthen them and to bring more nations into the Abraham Accords.”

Bin Zayed replied that “we built a very strong bridge between the countries that we both can be proud of.” He also told his Israeli counterpart that Herzog should consider the UAE his “second home.”

Ahead of his departure from Israel, Herzog said the trip was “predominantly a message of peace in the region.”

Al Jazeera Appeals to ICC

Al Jazeera has formally requested that the International Criminal Court (ICC) open an investigation into the death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, the news outlet announced on Tuesday.

Abu Akleh, who worked for the network, was killed in Jenin in May during an exchange of fire between the Israel Defense Forces and Palestinian terrorists.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid criticized the Palestinians’ move, saying in a statement that “no one will investigate IDF soldiers, and no one will preach to us about morals in warfare, certainly not Al Jazeera.”

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz noted that the incident had already been investigated by the IDF.

“I expressed my condolences following the passing of Shireen Abu Akleh. At the same time, we must remember that this was a combat scenario, which was investigated thoroughly,” he said in a statement.

“I suggest that [international] officials and Al Jazeera representatives go investigate what is happening to reporters in Iran and nearby regions where Al Jazeera operates. There is no other military that operates under the moral standards of the IDF, and I would like to emphasize my full support and that of the entire defense establishment, to the commanders and soldiers who are defending the citizens of Israel,” he added.

The IDF investigation into the incident found that while it was not possible to unequivocally determine the source of the shot that killed Abu Akleh, there was a “high probability” that she had accidentally been hit by IDF fire. The investigation further took into account the context in which the incident occurred, with Israeli troops under “life-risking, widespread and indiscriminate” fire from Palestinian terrorists.

The IDF emphasized that at no point was Israeli fire directed at anyone other than the Palestinian terrorists, some of whom fired “from the area in which Ms. Shireen Abu Akleh was present.”

In November, news surfaced that the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had launched its own probe into Abu Akleh’s death. Both Lapid and Gantz said at the time that Israel would not cooperate with the investigation. (JNS)

Tel Aviv is World’s 3rd Most Expensive City

Last year, Tel Aviv was crowned the world’s most expensive city. This year, the Israeli city lost that ignoble title as it was toppled by New York City and Singapore in The Economist’s annual list of least and most expensive cities in the world published last week.

Tel Aviv cracked the top five in 2020’s list before leaping to the top a year later, mostly due to the NIS’s strong showing in the foreign exchange market compared to the Euro and the U.S. dollar.

The British magazine ranked close to 200 cities across the globe based on the pricing of hundreds of individual items and services offered in those cities.

These can include a McRoyal meal at the international fast food chain McDonald’s, one kilo of apples, and a month’s rent for a two-bedroom apartment, which are all then compared to the purchasing power of the city’s average salary. In turn, even if a certain service is more expensive in some cities, the actual cost of living is measured and ranked in proportion to the average wage in the examined city.

One of the metrics measured by The Economist that helped see Tel Aviv rise to the top last year was the cost of an average family vehicle, an item that was introduced to the magazine’s statistical database used to compile its list. Tel Aviv is ranked as one of the most expensive cities in this parameter.

At the bottom of the list, some of the world’s least expensive cities include the Iranian capital of Tehran, Tunis, Tashkent, Tripoli, and Syria’s Damascus.

NYT: We Were Wrong About Gaza Fishing

The New York Times published an editor’s note correcting its false report that Gaza’s fishing industry is on the verge of collapse due to an Israeli blockade of the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

Using official Palestinian statistics, the media watchdog group Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) proved to the Times that the claim is false. CAMERA provided information indicating that the fishermen have more than doubled their annual catch in the last 15 years. In addition, the number of registered fishing boats has also more than doubled, according to Tamar Sternthal, director of CAMERA’s Israel’s office.

In a Nov. 27 article, “Amid Israeli Blockade on Gaza a Fishing Fleet Limps Along,” Times correspondent Raja Abdulrahim claimed the Israeli blockade has been “devastating for the Gaza Strip’s fishing industry.”

But CAMERA refuted the claim and provided the Times with research data from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics disproving the false statement.

On Dec. 3, the Times printed the editor’s note acknowledging the article omitted important context, leaving the impression that the industry has been devastated. “The current catch is higher than that in the early years of the blockade,” the note reads.

“CAMERA staff are doing the basic research that Times staff should be doing themselves,” stated Andrea Levin, executive director and president of CAMERA. “Abdulrahim’s story claiming Gaza’s fishing industry is collapsing falls completely apart when you look at the facts. But the Times’ impulse to run with any storyline blaming Israel subverts ethical reporting norms and leads again and again to these blunders.” (JNS) lion tourists visited Israel from January through October this year – and many more are expected. By the end of 2022, Israel’s Tourism Ministry predicts that 2.5 million visitors will have come to the Jewish State in 2022.

Ministry figures last month showed some 2,078,000 tourist arrivals in Israel in the first 10 months of the year. Should these figures continue at the same rate in November and December, the ministry said it expects to record be-

These numbers are a far cry from 2019’s figures when Israel welcomed more than 4.5 million tourists, its strongest year on record, but the numbers show promising signs of recovery for inbound tourism.

Israel only reopened its skies in March, lifting most Covid-related travel restrictions.

Hotel industry figures also point to signs of recovery. According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), 19.3 million hotel stays were recorded between January and October this year compared to 21.8 million over the same period in 2019.

To boost tourism recovery efforts and meet demand, Israel has been steadily working to grow and to diversify the number of hotel rooms. The Tourism Ministry believes there is a shortage of internationally rated luxury hotels and also of modern, cheaper hotels at lower price points. Hotel ownership in Israel at present is largely confined to seven domestic groups — Atlas Hotels, Brown Hotels, Dan Hotels, Fattal Hotel Group, Isrotel, Prima Hotels, and Orchid Hotels — while a number of leading global hotel chains have limited presence that the Tourism Ministry would like to grow.

This year, Tourism Ministry expects to complete the delivery of some 4,500 new hotel rooms, with another 4,000 plus scheduled for next year. These are substantial increases to some 57,000 existing hotel rooms across the country, with the largest numbers of rooms located in Jerusalem and Eilat. Twelve new hotels are due to open in 2023, adding to the 27 new hotels scheduled to start receiving guests in the coming months

In total, 51 hotels are in the planning pipeline as Israel hopes to more than double its pre-Covid tourist numbers to 10 million visitors by 2030.

Chaos at Ben Gurion