Netanyahu tells GOP senators he still supports two states
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a delegation of Republican senators who visited Israel last week that he still supports a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Netanyahu stressed his support despite the fact that the Republican Party last month removed support for a two-state solution from its platform, the Times of Israel reported on Aug. 3, citing Montana Sen. Steve Daines, a member of the delegation.
“In virtually every meeting we had, including with the prime minister, there was always hope that the parties will return to negotiations,” Daines told the Times of Israel after returning from the trip. “But those need to be bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Daines told the Israel-based news website that Netanyahu stood by his 2009 speech at Bar Ilan University, in which he called for “two peoples [to] live freely, side by side, in amity and mutual respect.”
Daines supports a two-state solution provided the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
The two-state concept has long been a pillar of both Democratic and Republican policy in the region, and a stated policy of Netanyahu, although not of his government. The Democratic Party platform retained the party’s commitment to the two-state solution. — jta
Hamas pays civil servants with ex-settlement land
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is giving plots of land on which Jewish settlements once stood to civil servants in lieu of the salaries it owes them.
Hamas is giving the land to some 40,000 civil servants for their work over the past two years, the Associated Press reported. The land giveaway is illustrative of Hamas’ serious financial difficulties in the decade since it took control of the coastal strip, according to the AP.
Hamas has been paying the government employees 45 percent of their salaries each month since March; prior to that it was paying them 40 percent of their salaries every 50 days, according to the AP.
Under the land giveaway, groups of four Hamas employees each share a 500-square-meter parcel of land that they can develop or sell. Sand on the property can be sold for about $100 a truckload, the news service reported. Some 13,000 Hamas employees have so far signed up to take advantage of the deal.
The Palestinian Authority, which pays the salaries of an additional 70,000 civil servants in Gaza loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, opposes the land giveaway, saying that Hamas does not have the authority to privatize government-owned land.
Israel left 21 settlements in the Gush Katif bloc of the Gaza Strip, as well as four settlements in the northern West Bank, in August 2005 in an operation called the Disengagement. — jta
Palestinian tries to blow up Jerusalem light-rail train
A Palestinian man caught trying to board the Jerusalem light-rail with a bag holding pipe bombs planned to detonate them in retaliation for Jewish visits to the Temple Mount.
Ali Abu Hassan, 21, a civil engineering student at the Polytechnic University in Hebron, made the bombs himself, police said. The bombs included nails and screws dipped in rat poison in order to increase injuries.
Police filed a prosecutor’s report on Aug. 2, according to Israeli media. The same day, an Israeli court charged Hassan with attempted murder, creating a weapon and conspiracy to commit a crime, the Times of Israel reported.
Hassan reportedly tested prototypes of his bomb before attempting to detonate them in Jerusalem, police said. He also left a will at the university before leaving for Jerusalem to carry out the attack.
He first planned to ignite the bombs in a restaurant in the city and then decided to explode them on the light-rail.
He was prevented from boarding the light-rail during rush hour on July 17 by a security guard who thought he was acting suspiciously. An inspection of Hassan’s bag turned up the pipe bombs as well as knives.
He is being charged with attempted murder, manufacturing weapons and conspiracy to commit a crime. Police believe he acted alone. — jta
Michael Oren appointed deputy minister
Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, has been appointed deputy minister in the prime minister’s office.
The office announced the appointment, which also makes Oren head of public diplomacy, on Aug. 1.
Oren is part of the Kulanu Party, which joined the government after the elections in 2015. He served as Israel’s ambassador to Washington from 2009 to 2013, appointed by Netanyahu. — jta
Haredi schools exempted from teaching core subjects
Israel’s Knesset voted to exempt haredi Orthodox schools from teaching the core curriculum of general studies.
The bill passed its second and third readings on Aug. 1 by a vote of 41 to 28.
The new law cancels a law passed in the previous government, which did not include any haredi Orthodox parties, requiring haredi Orthodox elementary schools to teach 11 hours of math, science and English. The law was never enforced.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had promised the haredi Orthodox United Torah Judaism party that he would remove the core curriculum requirements as part of its coalition agreement.
The law requiring the teaching of core curriculum subjects had been championed by Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party, which is no longer part of the government coalition.
“The Israeli government has sold our children’s future and taken from an entire generation the ability to support themselves,” Yesh Atid said in a statement.
There are about 440,000 students in the haredi Orthodox elementary education system. — jta
Chinese group acquires Israeli games company
A Chinese consortium has agreed to purchase the Israeli social media games company Playtika for $4.4 billion in cash.
The consortium is buying the company from Caesars Interactive Entertainment, which acquired Playtika in 2011, for about $170 million. Caesars reportedly is selling the unit to pay down debt.
The deal is one of the largest acquisitions of an Israeli high-tech company, NoCamels.com, a news website on Israeli innovations, reported.
Playtika will remain at its headquarters in Herzliya in central Israel as an independent operator with its own management team following the sale.
Playtika, which was founded in 2010 and has more than 1,000 employees, has had additional studios and offices in Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Canada, Japan, Romania, Ukraine and the United States.
Playtika has more than 6 million daily users in 190 countries. Its most popular games include Bingo Blitz and Slotomania. The games are available in the Apple App Store. — jta