Israel News

24 Asian nation sends millions of workers to the Gulf states who send home billions of dollars in remittances. The Jewish Home | JUNE 9, 2022 The UAE alone, where some 3.5 million Indians live, accounts for 33% of remittances to India, at more than $20 billion a year. The UAE has singled out India among seven other nations as its future economic partner. This year, India signed a free trade agreement with the UAE, its first in more than a decade, and has eyed the rest of the Gulf states for similar agreements. There are more than 2.2 million Indians in Saudi Arabia, according to Indian officials.

Right to Self-Defense Against Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Friday morning met with Internation-

During their meeting, Bennett expressed Israel’s deep concern regarding Iran’s continued progress toward producing nuclear weapons while deceiving the international community by using false information and lies.

Bennett also emphasized the urgent need in mobilizing the international community to take action against Iran, using all means in order to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

He underlined Israel’s support for the IAEA to carry out its mandate visà-vis Iran in a professional and independent way and the importance of the IAEA Board of Governors delivering a clear and unequivocal message to Iran in its upcoming decision.

While Israel prefers diplomacy, Bennett made it clear that the country reserves the right to self-defense and to action against Iran in order to block its nuclear program should the international community not succeed in dealing with Tehran in the relevant timeframe.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Iran threatened to “raze” the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa.

“For any mistake made by the enemy, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground by the order of the Supreme Leader,” the Islamic Republic’s ground forces commander, Kiumars Heydari, told the semi-official Iranian Tasnim news agency.

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West Bank Law Torpedoed

In a critical blow to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government on Monday, the coalition failed to pass a directive giving Israel legal jurisdiction over Israelis living in the West Bank. The bill had been passed every five years since 1967.

Opposition MKs applauded following the announcement of the results: 52 MKs voted for it; 58 voted against.

Failure of the bill has led to speculation that the government will soon fall, and Israel will head to a new election.

Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi (Meretz) and Mazen Ghanaim (Ra’am – United Arab List) voted against the bill, and other Ra’am MKs and former coalition head Idit Silman absented themselves from the vote. Without their support, it was impossible to pass the bill, which must be reapproved by the end of June.

Yamina MK Nir Orbach confronted Ghanaim and shouted at him that their partnership in the coalition had failed.

“Some you win, some you lose,” Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who initiated the bill, told The Jerusalem Post following a meeting with Bennett. “Today, we’re on the other side.”

Sa’ar intends to convene a special meeting of his New Hope faction to decide their future in the coalition.

“All coalition members must support the government’s bill,” Sa’ar added. “Any coalition member who does not support such a fundamental bill is actively working to dismantle the coalition. Being in the coalition does not only mean receiving. There is also responsibility. Whoever does not support it cannot wash their hands, claiming innocence. A country cannot be run this way.”

Defense Minister Benny Gantz said he was looking for a non-legislative solution to the problem.

By opposing the bill, Sa’ar noted, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was harming the residents of Judea and Samaria and advancing his own personal interests at the expense of the state, he said.

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, chairman of Yisrael Beytenu, said no one should be surprised by Netanyahu preventing a bill from passing that would prevent West Bank chaos.

“He has harmed Judea and Samaria more than anyone else,” he said. “That is tradition with Netanyahu. That is part of his DNA.”

Religious Zionist Party MK Bezalel Smotrich said he was not concerned about harming his constituents in Judea and Samaria by halting the bill. It is better to bring down the government, form a rightwing coalition and then pass it, he said.

“A coalition that cannot pass its bills and is artificially respirated by [Joint List MK] Ahmad Tibi and the Joint List is illegitimate and bound to fall,” Smotrich told his faction. “Residents of Judea and Samaria are strong and understand the importance of bringing down the anti-Zionist government.”

Female “Halachic Advisors” to be Paid

Religious Affairs Deputy Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina) on Thursday announced that he will appoint twenty-one women as halachic advisers in communities across Israel in 2022.

Women have increasingly assumed active roles as certified experts of Jewish religious law throughout Israel in recent years, specifically in delicate areas traditionally associated with women such as “family purity.”

Deputy Minister Kahana’s move will see these female advisors officially recognized by the Religious Services Ministry for the first time and as such be eligible for state-funded salaries alongside communal pulpit rabbis, a statement from Kahana’s office said.

Kahana said, “Today it is clear to all that learned women are integral to Jewish communal life and halachic discourse. Female halachic advisers already serve in

26 critical roles around Israel, and the time has come for the State of Israel to celebrate this reality.” The Jewish Home | JUNE 9, 2022 He added, “I am confident that this important step will only serve to bolster Jewish life and scholarship, and I encourage more communities to follow suit.” In response to queries from Israel National News - Arutz Sheva, a spokesperson for Kahana explained that the halachic advisers in question are “yoatzot halacha” trained by Nishmat – The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. “Yoatzot Halacha programs are offered in a number of midrashot and seminaries, most notably at Nishmat – The Jeanie Schottenstein Center for Advanced Torah Study for Women. Their positions will be to give halachic advice to women in fields where they have received training, such as taharat hamishpacha, within the communities in which they have been appointed to serve. Much like communal rabbis in Israel, they will go through testing to assess their knowledge and expertise,” the spokesman said. He further clarified, “Yoatzot function within communities around Israel, specifically around issues of family purity. As of today, Deputy Minister Kahana is recognizing this reality, subsidizing their

Seeing Double

Nurses at Shaare Zedek Medical Center rubbed their eyes last week to make sure they were not mistaken: Identical twin sisters, both pregnant with their fourth babies, both with the same due date, gave birth at Shaare Zedek on the same day.

The identical twins, Yael Yishai (31), a programmer who lives in Gush Etzion; and Avital Segal, an accountant, also from Gush Etzion, both have three children – two girls and a boy.

According to Arutz Sheva, last Monday night, Yael, who was born a few minutes before her sister, arrived at Shaare Zedek after her waters broke. A few hours later, she gave birth. The next afternoon, Avital began feeling contractions, and arrived at the hospital, where she told the staff that a few hours earlier her identical twin had given birth.

Avital said, “The amazing nurses noticed the excitement and immediately asked for my sister’s name, so that they could put us in the same room in the maternity ward. After long hours in the delivery room, I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. The staff went above and beyond to make the process easier for me. After the birthing process was finished, they made sure to take me up to be next to my sister.”

Yael added, “Birth is a special and emotional event. I am very happy to share it with a good friend who is also a sister. It was fun being together in the room, with our new babies. In the past, we merited to give birth six weeks apart, for our third births, and this will be our second maternity leave together.”

Rina Dvir and Efrat Herling, head midwives at Shaare Zedek, shared, “In the delivery room, we, the midwives, are in an unending circle of creating life and family, and that is our motto. So when two sisters, identical twins, give birth, we rejoice in their double happiness.

“Most of the babies in the city are born here, and we feel ourselves part of one big family, in our roles here in the largest birthing center in Israel. The births went well, with healthy babies, and we wish them and their families a double congratulations and much health, contentment, and happiness.”

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Rabbi Uri Zohar Passes Away

Rabbi Uri Zohar, at one point one of Israel’s most famous performers and one of the world’s most prominent figures to become religious, passed away at the age of 86 last week.

Rabbi Zohar was born in 1935 in Tel Aviv to immigrants from Poland. After studying philosophy in Hebrew University, Rabbi Zohar began a wildly successful career in the performing arts, becoming famous as an actor, comedian, screenwriter and film director. He was known for his big personality and starred in many slapstick roles that poked fun at the Israeli culture and in Israel’s treatment of new immigrants.

Rabbi Zohar became religious in the late 1970s and later joined the charedi community, in a process which the Israeli public watched with a mix of shock, admiration, and sometimes horror as well. He later wrote a book chronicling this period of his life. Rabbi Zohar became active in the baal teshuva movement, as those who were not yet religious were able to relate to him and he was able to understand the struggles and challenges they were going through.

Around a year prior to becoming religious, Zohar won the Israel Prize but refused to accept it.

In 2021, Rabbi Zohar dedicated a Torah scroll – financed by real estate developer Alon Amram – to a synagogue in Zichron Yaakov, in memory of fellow artist Arik Einstein.

On Thursday morning last week, Rabbi Zohar suffered a heart attack and passed away.

Zohar’s son Ephraim eulogized his father at the levaya and described the “loving” relationship he had with G-d.

“Last night, you went to prepare for the prayer as you’ve done for the past 45 years. You were going to talk to G-d, and He gave you a great hug, a hug of two lovers… You didn’t shy away because you’re honest and loyal, as you’ve always been. From the moment you met your love, He was the only thing you cared about.

“What do we have to cry about? You have finally found peace,” Ephraim said.

India and Israel Bond Over Diamonds

Diamonds have proven an important economic and diplomatic link between Israel and India. According to a report by AFP, the diamond trade represents about $1.5 billion per year and about half of the trade between the two countries.

Israel’s Diamond Exchange is home to around 30 Indian companies, making India the foreign nation with the largest number of firms on the bourse.

The site quoted Israeli immigration lawyer Joshua Pex as saying that Indian diamond traders enjoy a “special status”