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Thursday, Aug. 11 '16, ז' באב תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. POLL: COALITION UP, OPPOSITION DOWN AS LABOR PLUMMETS
2. SENIOR PFLP LEADER BARRED FROM LEAVING COUNTRY AMID TERROR FEARS
3. SALMONELLA WARNING FOR TEHINA PRODUCTS
4. TURKISH PARLIAMENT TO VOTE ON ISRAEL-TURKEY RECONCILIATION DEAL
5. KAHLON BLOCKS FUNDS FOR JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA
6. HAREDIM TO SURPASS ARAB POPULATION BY 2050
7. 45,000 ISIS JIHADISTS KILLED IN PAST TWO YEARS
8. HIDABRUT OUTREACH ORGANIZATION TO HOST TISHA B'AV MARATHON
1. POLL: COALITION UP, OPPOSITION DOWN AS LABOR PLUMMETS
by David Rosenberg
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's coalition would grow in size if elections were held today, a new poll shows, while the Zionist Union continues to hemorrhage voters.
According to a Maagar Mohot poll published Thursday morning, the six parties currently in the coalition would rise from a combined 67 seats today to 70 if elections were held today, while the opposition would fall collectively to 50 mandates.
Hardest hit according to the poll is the Zionist Union, led by Isaac Herzog, which would lose 14 of its 24 seats, sinking to just 10 mandates. Thursday's poll reflects the continuing decline of the Zionist Union, which was given 18 seats in the last Maagar Mohot poll. Other recent polls, including a Geocartographia poll published on Sunday, also show the left-of-center party losing much of its support, falling to as low as 8 seats in some polls.
The Jewish Home, on the other hand, would pick up 5 seats, rising from 8 to 13. That's also an improvement over the party's performance in the last poll by the agency, which had showed Jewish Home with nine seats.
Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party also gained in the poll, rising from 11 seats to 21, a three-mandate improvement over the last Maagar Mohot poll showing the faction with 18 seats.
The haredi United Torah Judaism party also received a boost, rising from its current six seats to seven, a slight improvement over the last poll from the agency. Shas also gained one seat, rising to eight.
The ruling Likud party declined slightly, from 30 seats won in 2015 and projected by the last poll conducted by the agency to 27 mandates.
Yisrael Beitenu picked up three seats, rising to 9, the same as shown by the previous poll.
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's centrist Kulanu party would lose 4 of its 10 seats in new elections. That is an improvement, however, over the previous poll, showing Kulanu with just four mandates.
The Arab Joint List party remained stable at 13 seats, while the left-wing Meretz party rose from five to six mandates.
2. SENIOR PFLP LEADER BARRED FROM LEAVING COUNTRY AMID TERROR FEARS
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) ordered Wednesday night a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) barred from leaving the country, amid fears he is planning to aid foreign terror cells.
The PFLP, one of the oldest terror groups within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has a long history of violent attacks against Israelis, including the 2001 assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. The faction is now a party within the Palestinian Authority parliament.
According to intelligence information acquired by the Israeli security establishment a senior member of the PFLP, Abed Khalil al-Latif Jat, a resident of eastern Jerusalem, had planned to travel to an undisclosed Arab country for the purpose of aiding overseas terror cells.
In response the Interior Ministry requested a restraining order barring the PFLP leader from exiting the country.
"This is a senior official within the PFLP, who has connections with overseas members of the terror group," Deri said. "Recently there have been concerns he has been planning to leave the country in the near future for the purposes of the PFLP, thus he has been banned from travelling."
3. SALMONELLA WARNING FOR TEHINA PRODUCTS
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The Shamir Salads company announced this morning that the CEO of the "Tehinat Hanasich" company that provides raw tehina for use in Shamir's products, had notified Shamir executives about a sampling test of the production line in which Salmonella bacteria were found.
Two other tests done by customers also found irregularities, with the possible presence of Salmonella. The raw tehina is used in several of Shamir's tehina and hummus based products.
The Health Ministry said in a statement that "last night Ministry inspectors visited the 'Tehinat Hanasich' factory following a report of possible Salmonella in the factory. Preliminary results of the inspection locate the problem in one production line. Some 200 tons of raw tehina are being kept in the factory and are slated for destruction. The factory has notified its costumers about the infected stock. Our investigation is ongoing."
The Shamir company immediately initiated a product recall and released a message to the public which included a list of the products that might be infected.
"The Shamir Salads company apologizes for the mistake that occurred through no fault of ours, and is working to remove all potentially infected products from supermarket shelves and other distribution avenues."
The company emphasized that all Shamir products that aren't tehina or hummus based are perfectly in order and fit for consumption. In addition, the tehina and hummus products which aren't within the range of the date of production for the recall are also fit for consumption.
The incident comes on the heels of a similar Salmonella infection found in Telma cereals, which also resulted in a product recall. The Knesset State Control Committee is holding a special session today (interrupting the summer recess) to discuss the Telma debacle.
4. TURKISH PARLIAMENT TO VOTE ON ISRAEL-TURKEY RECONCILIATION DEAL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Turkey's foreign minister has said that parliament will approve a deal to normalize ties with Israel before it goes into its summer recess later this month, the Anadolou news agency reported
Thursday.
"I think we will finalize this work before the parliament goes into the summer recess," Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as telling the state-run agency.
In June, Turkey and Israel signed a deal to restore their ties which hit an all-time low after
Israel intercepted a Gaza-bound Turkish vessel in 2010.
Israel had already offered compensation and an apology over the raid but with the agreement it also eased the naval blockade on the Hamas-controlled Gaza, allowing Ankara to deliver aid for Gaza residents.
Cavusoglu acknowledged parliament had so far not taken up the deal with Israel because of time pressure created by the July 15 coup attempt by rogue elements in the military seeking to unseat the government, which the Turkish government blames on US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen.
But he insisted that it would appear on parliament's agenda before the recess, which is due to start at the end of next week before parliament returns in mid-September.
"Israel has lived up to our conditions. We said 'if the conditions are fulfilled we'll normalize ties.' So we must implement it as soon as possible," he added.
Only once the deal is ratified by parliament will Turkey and Israel begin the process of exchanging ambassadors to fully restore their diplomatic ties.
AFP contributed to this report
5. KAHLON BLOCKS FUNDS FOR JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA
by Shlomo Pyotrovsky
Finance Minister and Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon cutoff talks Thursday morning between his ministry and the office of Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) over funding for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
The talks, which were part of standard budgeting procedure conducted for every government ministry, were terminated just hours before the government was set to approve a two-year budget agreement covering 2017 and 2018.
The Finance Ministry has pushed for cuts to defense allocations for Judea and Samaria, which have been incorporated into state budgets since the Oslo Agreement in 1993.
In total, the Finance Ministry is calling for 12.7 million shekels in cuts to funding for security in Judea and Samaria.
Despite the breakdown in talks between the Finance Ministry and Ariel's office, the government is still expected to approve the biannual budget today, paving the way for a general vote in the Knesset.
Last week the Knesset approved the use of a biannual budget, a move intended to strengthen the government and reduce pressure by smaller coalition partners for increased funding.
6. HAREDIM TO SURPASS ARAB POPULATION BY 2050
by David Rosenberg
A new study published this week suggests Israeli society is in the midst of a dramatic demographic shift, one which could radically alter Israeli politics, the Israeli economy, and the relationship between religion and state.
According to the 2016 annual survey of Israel's haredi community, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute and Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Israel's haredi population is likely to surge past the country's Arab population by mid-century – and become the single largest religious group among Israeli Jews.
The shift is caused by a confluence of trends among Israel's various population sectors.
Secular Jews, presently the largest group in Israel, have maintained a stable total fertility rate (TFR) – the number of children born per woman on average – just at the replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman, a figure that is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
The birthrate among traditional Jews has increased marginally over the past decade, rising from 2.2 in 2005 to 2.6 in 2014. Among traditional-religious Jews the rate is slightly higher, rising from 2.6 in 2005 to 3.0 in 2014.
For non-haredi religious Jews, the TFR has remained stable at 4.2.
But with a TFR of 6.9, the haredi population's growth rate is more than double the total Jewish TFR of 3.1 and even the Arab TFR of 3.3.
Given the significantly larger haredi TFR, the study projects the haredi population will surpass Israel's Arab population (including eastern Jerusalem, but not Judea, Samaria, or Gaza) around 2050.
By that point, the haredi population is expected to more than triple from its current size of roughly one million to over three million.
The study also projects the Arab TFR will continue its decline from 3.6 in 2009 to 2.6 by 2040.
While haredim made up just 9.9% of the Israeli population in 2009, with 750,000 out of 7,552,100, by 2014 that figure had risen to 11.1%, with 910,500 haredim out of a total Israeli population of 8,183,400.
By 2024, the study predicts, haredim will make up 14% of the Israeli population, rising to 19% by 2039, and 27% by 2059. At that point haredim will be a whopping 35% of the total Jewish population, outnumbering the secular, traditional, traditional-religious, and religious sectors.
This despite projecting declines in the haredi TFR, which is expected to decline to less than 5 children on average per woman by mid-century – but still well above the projected TFR for non-haredi Jews (2.4) and Arabs (2.6).
7. 45,000 ISIS JIHADISTS KILLED IN PAST TWO YEARS
by Arutz Sheva Staff
About 45,000 jihadists have been killed in Iraq and Syria since the U.S.-led operation to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) group began two years ago, a top general said Wednesday.
"We estimate that over the past 11 months, we've killed about 25,000 enemy fighters. When you add that to the 20,000 estimated killed (previously), that's 45,000 enemy (fighters) taken off the battlefield," said Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, who commands the American-led coalition campaign against ISIS.
MacFarland said estimates for the overall remaining strength of ISIS vary from about 15,000 to 30,000 but he noted the jihadists are having increasing difficulties replenishing their ranks.
"The number of fighters on the front line has diminished. They've diminished not only in quantity but also in quality -- we don't see them operating nearly as effectively as they have in the past, which makes them even easier targets for us," MacFarland told Pentagon reporters via a videocall from Baghdad.
"As a result, their attrition has accelerated here of late," he added.
Officials also estimate ISIS has lost 25,000 square kilometers (9,650 square miles) of the territory it once held in its self-declared "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria, or about 50 percent and 20 percent respectively in each country.
The U.S.-led military effort against ISIS started exactly two years ago, aimed at halting the jihadists as they swept across Iraq and Syria.
MacFarland was upbeat about the eventual recapture of Mosul in Iraq and Raqa in Syria, saying it would herald the "beginning of the end" of the campaign.
Critics have blasted the pace of the war, which got off to a slow start and, despite more than 14,000 air strikes and an intense effort to train partner forces, still has not routed ISIS from much of its territory.
MacFarland, who has headed the U.S.-led coalition for almost a year, said he had seen major progress.
"You don't hear the word 'stalemate' anymore. That's because over the past year with our partners, we were able to seize the initiative," MacFarland said.
"We now talk about maintaining the momentum of the campaign in both Iraq and Syria. In other words, we spend more time thinking about what we will do to the enemy than we spend thinking about what the enemy might do to us," he added.
AFP contributed to this report.
8. HIDABRUT OUTREACH ORGANIZATION TO HOST TISHA B'AV MARATHON
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2018045]
Hidabrut.com will be broadcasting a worldwide live marathon this Sunday (Tisha B'Av). Featuring 50 Rabbis, in 3 languages, from 4 locations across the globe. Popular speakers will include, The Chief Rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Zamir Cohen, Rabbi Yitzchok Grosman, Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb and many more world renowned lecturers from Israel, New York and France.
The marathon is being organized In cooperation with the Ohr Somayach yeshiva and Chazaq radio.
The webcast event's organizers encourage people who wish to more deeply connect with the meaning of Tisha B'av to take part in the lecture marathon:
"Don't spend this important fast day just waiting for it to be over. This year, it's never been easier to get inspired and connect to the Temple and its contemporary meaning for us!
"Pick and choose from a large number of videos that will touch your soul and bring you to yearn for the Third Temple. Don't let this Tisha B'Av pass without getting inspired."
Hidabrut, the outreach organization whose web site has been credited with "causing a revolution in bringing Jews back to Judaism" bills the event as "another innovative program to bring Judaism to the masses."
The Tisha B'Av Marathon will include lectures by 50 rabbis, 4 live stream locations, and lectures and videos in 3 languages - Hebrew, English and French.
The webcast event can be seen on the Hidabrut website from 9:00 am this coming Sunday, Tisha B'av.
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