Report: Netanyahu freezes Jerusalem construction project

Report: Netanyahu freezes Jerusalem construction project
July 30, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel's prime minister has frozen a construction project in an eastern Jerusalem suburb.

The 900-apartment project in Pisgat Ze'ev, which is located outside the Green Line on land annexed by Israel in what is considered eastern Jerusalem, was ordered stopped by Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Channel 10 reported late Wednesday.

The report of the order came a day after Netanyahu met with U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, who reportedly pressed the prime minister on the settlements issue.

Article provided by JTA

A Lesson for Tisha Be'Av

Today commemorates the national day of mourning for the Jewish people. Read on...

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1248277926000

Journey through the Scriptures

Join us and Journey through the Scriptures: Psalms of Comfort and Hope

Hymns from Israel’s ‘Song Book’ That Will Strengthen, Bless, and Encourage God’s People

Lessons
The Shepherd and His Flock
A Cry for Mercy
Confidence in the Lord
Who Is There to Fear?
Light in the Darkness
A Mature Person of God
The House of the Lord

http://www.ifcj.org/site/PageNavigator/eng/rabbi/jtts/jtts_psalms_c_h

Emotions rise at rally in Israel

Ignore U.S. on settlements, protesters cry at rally
July 27, 2009

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- About 1,000 right-wing activists at a Jerusalem rally called on Israel to ignore the U.S. demand to freeze settlement activity.

The demonstration Monday night outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence also called on visiting U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell to "go home."

The demonstrators also marched carrying torches from Jerusalem's Paris Square to the U.S. Consulate.

"We are here to call on the government to fend off U.S. pressure to halt construction in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem," said Danny Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council settlers' umbrella group. "Not one construction plan has been approved since the inception of Netanyahu's government, yet the bulldozers are being readied to raze outposts."

Earlier Monday, young right-wing activists attempted to set up new outposts throughout the West Bank. Evening news programs showed police disbanding groups of teens from various locations.

This article was made possible by the JTA staff.

The Fellowship helps Israel's Youth at Risk through ELEM Van program

ELEM GALA TOUTS ITS SUCCESS IN RESCUING ISRAEL’S YOUTH AT RISK
JULY 24, 2009

By Masha Leon


“Who could believe this happened in Israel?!” ELEM/America president Ann Bialkin said at the organization’s June 17 gala, held at the Jewish Museum. “When ELEM — Youth In Distress in Israel started 27 years ago in America, its founders… could not believe the number of young people who were in court because of criminal acts! At least 300,000 Israeli youth [15% of Israel’s population] is at risk — alienated; vulnerable; victims of drugs, dysfunctional families.”

She credited ELEM’s multifaceted outreach programs with “linking them back to family, community and country.” Bialkin noted: “Despite the severe economic crisis, we have raised over $450,000 tonight and heard from Israel that we will receive $1 million for next year from The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews for our van program, which travels all over Israel every night of the week.” Asaf Shariv, Israel’s consul general, offered welcoming greetings. Michael Corriero, executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York, and Bialkin’s husband, Ken Bialkin, a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP , presented awards to the gala’s honorees: the Honorable Judith Kaye (retired), chief judge of the State of New York, and Phyllis Korff, a Skadden, Arps partner.

Hosted by NBC News’ legal analyst, Dan Abrams, CEO of Abrams Research, the dinner’s three co-chairs were Abrams’s father, Floyd Abrams, of Cahill, Gordon & Reindel LLP, whom late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan called “the most significant First Amendment lawyer of our age”; Joseph Flom, senior partner at Skadden, Arps, and Bernard Nussbaum, senior litigation partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. From 1993 to 1994, Nussbaum served as counsel to the president of the United States. A supervisor at an ELEM center in Rehovot, Dana Kohn, described the case of one of its clients, “a 15-year-old girl [who fled her home], ended up living with a 60-year-old man with whom she had to sleep.” Then the man “brought more men to sleep with her….The girl called the police and was rescued. Since then, she has undergone treatment, was involved in computer studies but,” Kohn stressed,” the most effective therapeutic Bialkin also alluded to Israel’s historic convulsions as contributing factors to the juvenile distress that ELEM encounters.

“When we began to work with the larger problem of alienated youth, dysfunctional families, drugs, incest, school dropouts, living on the street, we began to realize that Israeli youth were not only struggling to mature into proper adulthood, but [that] Israeli children were living in a constant state of siege. Since the moment of its birth and ever since, [Israel] has been subjected to war, vicious acts of hostility and aggression…exploding bombs, shrapnel-filled vests bombs and mortar shells. These were not only maiming, killing and destroying homes, but causing less visible damage — a [ripple effect] impacting on the developing minds of Israeli youth. So many young people in Israel feel powerless, helpless, frightened. They have lost trust in the ability of adults to protect them, and with that loss of trust comes the abandonment of hope and denial of aspirations…. And so ELEM will continue, as it has in the past, to reach out to troubled youth, one by one.”

Reporting the Truth

Breaking the Silence, supposedly a "human rights" organization, suffers from a lack of credibility. They publish anonymous "testimonies" about alleged abuses of the IDF during Operation Cast Lead, and are using these rumors to promote their anti-Israel agenda. The IDF is not pleased:

The IDF Spokesperson Unit regrets the fact that yet another human rights organization is presenting to Israel and the world a report based on anonymous and general testimonies, without investigating their details or credibility. Furthermore, this organization denied the IDF the minimal decency of presenting the report to the IDF and allowing it to investigate the testimonies prior to the report's publication. This was done while defaming and slandering the IDF and its commanders.

To read more: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2009/Reaction_to_Breaking_Silence_report_15_Jul_2009.htm

Why Khaled Abu Toameh writes for a Jewish newspaper

Over at AISH, there's a fascinating article about the courageous Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, who does great work reporting on events in the West Bank and Gaza for the Jerusalem Post and other media outlets:

Most of the world believes, often with passionate intensity, that Jewish settlements on land claimed by Arabs limits the chances for peace. Abu Toameh disagrees. "I wish the settlements were the problem," he says, because it can be solved by the Israelis. If settlements were the problem, he argues, then Gaza would now be at peace. After all, the Israelis pulled out in 2005. But the result has been war -- war among the Palestinians, war with Israel. "The real obstacle to peace is not a Jew building a settlement but the failure of the Palestinians to have a government. Is there a partner on the Palestinian side for peace talks? No."