Israel News

22 Mironov, leader of a pro-Kremlin party in the parliament, called for the prosecution of all officials responsible, “whether The Jewish Home | JANUARY 5, 2023 they wear epaulets or not.” The attack was “a massive blow,” said a spokesperson for the Russian-installed proxy government in the Donetsk region, Daniil Bezsonov. “The enemy inflicted the most serious defeats in this war on us not because of their coolness and talent, but because of our mistakes,” he wrote in a Telegram post. On Monday, Russia launched a flurry of Iranian-made exploding drones at Ukraine, continuing its barrage against cities and civilian infrastructure, especially the power grid. But it appeared that Ukraine’s increasingly effective air defenses once again minimized the damage. (© The New York Times)

Ben Gvir Visits Temple Mount

Israel’s new government faced a wave of international condemnation on Tuesday after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir paid a short morning visit to the Temple Mount site.

Jordan, which views itself as a custodian of the Temple Mount — a status Israel does not recognize, though it acknowledged the kingdom’s “special role” at the site in the countries’ 1994 peace treaty — castigated Israel over the minister’s visit.

“Jordan condemns in the severest of terms the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and violation of its sanctity,” the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Ben Gvir did not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque. He made a 15-minute visit to the Temple Mount compound around 7 a.m. — during the time Jews are allowed to enter the site. He had visited on numerous previous occasions, but Tuesday’s trip carried more weight as it was his first as a minister. It was also the fast of the Tenth of Teves.

Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, Eitan Surkis, was called into Jordan’s Foreign Ministry offices for a dressing-down, according to Hebrew media reports. Surkis told the Jordanians that Israel remained committed to the status quo, that there had not been any violations of the agreement, and that Israeli ministers have visited the site in the past.

After the visit, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Israel said the status quo must be maintained at holy sites and that Jerusalem understood Washington’s position on the matter.

The UAE, a country with whom Israel has normalized ties, condemned the visit. Saudi Arabia did as well, as did Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, among other countries.

In Israel, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef criticized Ben Gvir for the visit.

“As a minister representing the government of Israel you should be acting according to Chief Rabbinate instructions, which have long forbidden visiting the Temple Mount,” Rabbi Yosef wrote in a letter to Ben Gvir.

Rabbi Yosef called on Ben Gvir to stop doing so “in order not to mislead the public.”

After visiting the site, Ben Gvir said, “Our government will not surrender to threats from Hamas.

“The Temple Mount is the most important place for the people of Israel. We maintain freedom of movement for Muslims and Christians, but Jews also go up to the site, and those who make threats must be dealt with, with an iron fist,” he said.

The Hamas terror group had warned that a visit by Ben Gvir to the site would be a “detonator,” and vowed resistance.

Israel captured the Temple Mount and Jerusalem’s Old City from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War, almost two decades after Amman conquered it during the War of Independence in 1948. However, Israel allowed the Jordanian Waqf to continue to maintain religious authority over the area.

9.5 Million Strong

Israel’s population increased by 2.2% in 2022 to a total of 9,656,000, according to Central Bureau of Statistics figures released on Thursday.

Of the country’s residents, 7,106,000 are Jews (73.6%), 2,037,000 are Arabs (21.1%), and 513,000 are of other denominations.

Approximately 73,000 new immigrants arrived in Israel during 2022, compared to 25,000 last year, 80% of them coming from Russia and Ukraine.

Jewish Agency data for the period between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2022, shows that 37,364 immigrants arrived from Russia; 14,680 from Ukraine; 3,500 from North America, with assistance from Nefesh B’Nefesh; 2,049 from France; 1,993 from Belarus; 1,498 from Ethiopia as part of Operation Tzur Israel; 985 from Argentina; 526 from Great Britain; 426 from South Africa; and 356 from Brazil. Final totals for 2022 will be available after the year concludes.

“It was a dramatic year that emphasized the value of mutual responsibility among the Jewish people, and during which the Jewish Agency helped strengthen the resilience of Jewish communities, empowered weaker populations in Israel, brought tens of thousands of olim, saved lives from all over Ukraine and brought them to a safe harbor in Israel,” said Jewish Agency chairman IDF Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog.

Overall in 2022, approximately 204,000 persons were added to the Israeli population, including 178,000 infants (74.8% born to Jewish mothers, 23.8% to Arab mothers), while more than 52,000 persons died and approximately 4,000 Israelis left the country for at least 12 months. (JNS)

Charedi Population Grows the Most

percent of the 9.65 million total national population, according to an annual statistical report released early this week.

The data from the Central Bureau of Statistics data showed that with the charedi population’s current growth rate of 4% — the highest of any group in Israel — by the end of the decade, it will constitute 16% of the total population.

Over 40% of those 1.28 million live in two cities, Jerusalem and Bnei Brak. Another 7% live in Beit Shemesh. Others live in areas like Modiin Illit, Beitar Illit and Elad, or in small enclaves in big cities like Ashdod, Petah Tikva, Haifa, Rehovot, and Netanya.

Other findings note that the charedi population tends to be poor and has a strong sense of community and charity.

The incoming government has proposed a broad range of measures to benefit the charedi population, including increasing stipends for yeshiva students.

Between 2014-2021, the IDI found that the number of men studying in yeshivas and kollelim grew by 46%, to a total of 138,367.

Dermer Sworn in

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer was sworn in Thursday as strategic affairs minister. Dermer, a confidante of Prime Minister Netanyahu and known as “Bibi’s Brain,” is set to resurrect a ministry closed down by the previous government.

While the vaguely-titled Strategic Affairs Ministry has been utilized to advance a host of issues since its creation in 2006, it has been used most extensively in recent years in the service of combatting the BDS movement.

Dermer, who was in the mix for the role of foreign minister, appears set to be given super-charged responsibilities in his new post, with Israeli media reporting that he will essentially serve as Netanyahu’s point man with Washington, focusing on advancing normalization with Saudi Arabia.

Dermer, who had a contentious tenure as ambassador during Barack Obama’s presidency, now will seek cooperation with the administration of President Joe

pivotal

Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president.

In a discussion with JNS this past June, Dermer urged the Biden administration to confront Iran as a means to brokering an Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization deal. Speaking at the Tikvah Fund’s annual Jewish Leadership Conference in New York City, Dermer expressed confidence in an expansion of ties between Israel and Gulf Arab states, “because of the fundamentals that are bringing us closer together. And those fundamentals are the huge instability that you have in the region, the fear and common danger of Iran, the common danger of Sunni radical forces like ISIS and other forces in the region. And also the understanding that the United States has withdrawn largely, certainly militarily, from the region.”

He also cited Gulf states’ appreciation for Israel’s technological advancements, “so to the extent that you have Arab leaders who are concerned about the future of their countries, their national security, their national prosperity, then they should move towards Israel. What I’d like to see is the American administration help facilitate that.”

Claiming Biden would be worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize should a normalization deal come to fruition, Dermer was clear to JNS that he believed Washington’s posture towards Tehran was key.

“They have to get their policies right. And first and foremost, that means to confront Iran, and not appease Iran,” he said. “If you have an administration that is appeasing Iran, you are shrinking the space for the Arab leaders to move into an alliance with Israel. If they’re confronting Iran, you’re creating that space. And they have every reason to be confrontational with them, given what Iran has done and continues to do.”

Those comments came before full-on negotiations with Tehran over a revived nuclear accord petered out and before Russia began extensively using Iranian drones in its assault on Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia remains a holdout on that front, with its officials pledging multiple times after the signing of the Abraham Accords that full normalization with Israel will not be possible before an Israeli-Palestinian political settlement.

Dermer remains optimistic, noting that the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were among the countries saying the same thing—until they didn’t.

“A lot of public statements were made by a lot of people over a long period of time. You have to ask yourself, what is the interest of the Saudis? Do they have an interest in moving into an alliance with Israel? And the answer is yes,” he said.

Dermer said the Biden administration could best facilitate a path to normalization by ceasing their efforts to appease the Palestinians.

“I actually think that the Palestinian issue complicates it by putting the Palestinian issue front and center. You’re making it harder for these Arabs leaders to move closer to Israel. And I’m not sure if a lot of that idea that we have to solve the Palestinian issue is actually not coming from Washington rather than Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Citing the Biden administration’s praise for the Abraham Accords, Dermer said the administration “should ask themselves, how did that happen? Why did we succeed? And if they confront Iran, if they embrace Israel, if they give the Palestinians a path, like Trump did, but don’t chase after them, they actually will open up the space to get an Israeli-Saudi peace.”

Claiming an Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement would bring about an effective end to the broader Arab-Israeli conflict, Dermer said the solution is “within our grasp. But you need a real change of Iran policy in Washington to be able to actualize that and to take advantage of the opportunity.” (JNS)

Israel is one of the 10 most powerful, politically influential, and militarily strong countries in the world, according to a roundup for 2022 published by U.S. News & World Report.

The paper also found that the Jewish state has among the strongest international alliances.

Overall, Israel ranked 37th “best” country in the world out of 85 on the yearly list, now in its seventh year.

Among countries considered most powerful because they “consistently dominate news headlines, preoccupy policymakers and shape global economic patterns,” U.S. News & World Report put Israel in tenth place. Top of the list was the United States, followed by China and then Russia.

These are countries whose “foreign policies and military budgets are tracked religiously. When they make a pledge, at least some in the international community trust they will keep it. These countries project their influence on the world stage,” the outlet said.

Israel was tenth in the ranking for countries that have the “Strongest International Alliances,” as viewed by global survey respondents.

Israel’s highest ranking was for its military, which was placed fourth, behind Russia, the U.S., and China.

As for political influence, Israel was put in sixth place, just behind Germany and ahead of France.

U.S. News & World Report described Israel as “the only Jewish nation in the world” and “a small country on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.”

“For its relatively small size, the country has played a large role in global affairs,” it said. “The country has a strong economy, landmarks of significance to several religions, and strained relationships with many of its Arab neighbors.”

The top three countries overall were Switzerland, Germany, and Canada. The U.S. was in fourth place, followed by Sweden, Japan, Australia, the UK, France, and Denmark to round out the top ten.

UN Condemns Israel More Than Others

The year 2022 saw the United Nations General Assembly pass more resolutions critical of Israel than against all other nations combined, furthering observations that there is an ongoing lopsided focus on the Jewish state at the world body.

The General Assembly approved 15 anti-Israel resolutions last year, versus 13 resolutions criticizing other countries, according to a tally by the pro-Israel monitoring group UN Watch.

Russia was the focus of six resolutions condemning its invasion of Ukraine. North Korea, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria, Iran, and the U.S. were hit with one resolution each.

Saudi Arabia, China, Lebanon, Turkey, Venezuela, and Qatar, which have poor human rights records or were involved in regional conflicts, were not hit by any resolutions criticizing them.

Since 2015, the General Assembly has adopted 140 resolutions criticizing Israel, mainly over its treatment of the Palestinians, its relationships with neighboring countries, and other alleged wrongdoings. Over the same period, it has passed 68 resolutions against all other countries, UN Watch said.

In the 193-nation assembly’s most recent anti-Israel resolution on Friday, it approved a call for the International Court of Justice to weigh in on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The resolution promoted by the Palestinians passed by a vote of 87 in favor, 26 against, with 53 abstentions.

The resolution, titled “Israeli practices and settlement activities affecting the rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories,” calls on the Hague-based ICJ to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.”

Other anti-Israel measures in the past year focused on the “occupied Syrian Golan,” Palestinian refugees,