Pope condemns ‘worrying’ surge in anti-Semitism

Survivors in new boat tragedy pulled from sea

At least three people, including a child, died when a boat carrying more than 80 migrants sank off the Greek island of Rhodes on Monday, police says.

The sailing boat carrying the migrants ran aground on rocks off the Aegean island on a crossing from Turkey, a police spokesman tells AFP.

Most of the survivors had to be pulled from the sea, and police fear the death toll could yet grow as they try to determine how many people were on board.

Of those rescued, “57 are safe and sound and 23 were taken to hospital in Rhodes,” he says.

There has been a surge in migrants trying to reach Greece’s Aegean islands from the Turkish coast in the last 10 days.

More than 700 migrants arrived on the island of Lesbos last week.

Greece’s radical left government, which has taken a less hard-line attitude to migrants than its predecessors, appealed to local authorities last week to help accommodate the latest wave of refugees.

Greece lacks the means and the infrastructure to adequately cope with the growing number of migrants landing on its shores and crossing its borders, most of them en route to northern Europe.

— AFP

Merkel ‘appalled’ by migrant disaster

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is “appalled” by the latest migrant disaster in the Mediterranean and wants Europe to find “answers,” her spokesman says Monday.

Merkel, “like millions of Germans,” is appalled by Sunday’s capsizing of a fishing boat off Libya in which more than 700 people are feared dead, Steffen Seibert tells reporters.

Europe, “a continent which feels committed to humanity, must look for answers even when there are no easy answers,” he added.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Chancellery in Berlin, March 26, 2015. (photo credit: AFP/JOHN MACDOUGALL)

Egypt court sentences 22 people to death

An Egyptian court sentenced 22 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to death, convicting them of involvement in a break-in at a police station near Cairo and the killing of an Egyptian military officer in 2013, Ynet reports.

Yet another boat sinking, 300 on board

The International Organization for Migration says its Rome office has received a distress call from international waters in the Mediterranean about three boats in need of help.

The IOM says the caller reported 300 people on his boat with about 20 fatalities and said the boat was sinking. The caller provided no information on the other boats.

The IOM had no additional details, including the location of the distress call.

Earlier today, video footage and photos posted by the local news website Rodiaki of the grounding of a migrant boat off the coast of the Greek island of Rhodes on Monday show a large, wooden double-masted boat, people packed on board, just meters away from the island.

The vessel rocks wildly in the waves and passengers are seen in a photo jumping into the sea and swimming toward land.

In another video, about a dozen migrants sit on a floating piece of wreckage pushed toward the shore. Coast Guard officers and passersby jump into the waves to rescue the migrants, including a young child wearing a lifejacket.

At least three people are known to have died in the incident.

— AP

Torch lighters receive medal from Knesset speaker

The 14 people chosen to light torches on the eve of Independence Day receive medals from Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein. Here are pictures of some of them.

Lucy Aharish, journalist, news anchor and actress, receives a medal from Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Monday, April 20, 2015. (Photo credit: Knesset)

Lucy Aharish was interviewed by the Times of Israel. You can read the interview here.

Danny Gold, the inventor of the Iron Dome missile defense system, receives a medal from Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Monday, April 20, 2015. (Photo credit: Knesset)

Bank Hapoalim ‘to pay Peres $30,000 a month’

Former president Shimon Peres recently signed a contract with Bank Hapoalim according to which the bank will pay Peres $30,000 per month to act as a lobbyist to promote the bank’s objectives.

Former president Shimon Peres, seen during an interview in his office in the Peres Center for Peace, Tel Aviv, September 29, 2014 (photo credit: Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)

In a report on the website The Marker, journalist Sharon Shpurer writes that Peres may help the bank, one of Israel’s two largest, prepare to battle legislation that finance-minister-to-be Moshe Kahlon is expected to push.

Kahlon said during the election campaign and afterwards that banking was one of the sectors in Israel’s economy where competition was severely lacking.

Both Peres and Bank Hapoalim officials declined to comment on the report.

‘Remember HyperCacher victims on Memorial Day’

Heads of the Jewish community in France are seeking to memorialize the four civilians murdered in a branch of HyperCacher in Paris during Memorial Day this week, NRG reports.

“As far as we are concerned, the four victims of the HyperCacher terror attack should be treated like they were victims of terror in Israel,” says Yaakov Haguel, head of the department fighting anti-Semitism in the World Zionist Organization. “We should go visit their graves and pay the respect they deserve for being murdered only because they were Jewish. Of course, we must remember people killed in other terror attacks against Jewish communities around the world.”

In the HyperCacher terror attack in January, Amedi Coulibali held shoppers hostage when they were buying groceries for Shabbat. He killed four people before police commandos managed to take him out after a long standoff battle.

Solution to threats is ‘in this room,’ PM tells IDF brass

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the opening session of the IDF’s General Staff Forum.

“The meaning of independence to me is first and foremost the ability to defend oneself. In light of the threats growing around us, we have a solution – and it is sitting in this room. I trust you, the chief of staff, and I trust you and the IDF. The people of Israel trust you,” says Netanyahu, two days before Israel begins Memorial Day and Independence Day celebrations.

Child hit by truck, in critical condition

A five-year-old child is in life-threatening condition after being hit by a truck in Beit El, in the West Bank.

Magen David Adom paramedics were at the scene treating the child.

US envoy cleans Israel’s rivers on Earth Day

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro helps clean up Israel’s river banks ahead of Earth Day, which is marked on Wednesday.

Celebrating #EarthDay2015 by helping students from the Jordan Valley Regional Council clean up the river banks. pic.twitter.com/8tdGDVAKvL

— Dan Shapiro (@AmbShapiro) April 20, 2015

15 dead in attack on Scud warehouse in Sanaa

At least 15 civilians were killed in a series of explosions in Sanaa, the Yemenite capital, after Saudi coalition warplanes struck at a warehouse where Scud-type missiles were stored.

The warehouse fell into the hands of Shiite rebels, and the coalition strikes caused a serious of explosions in which several homes and cars in the area were destroyed.

Elsewhere, near the Saudi-Yemenite border, a Saudi border police officer was killed in an artillery shelling, Israel Radio reports. The officer is the eighth Saudi serviceman killed on the border since the Arab coalition’s operation against Shiite rebels in Yemen started a month ago.

Israel transfers withheld tax money to PA

Israel transfers to the Palestinian Authority NIS 2 billion (c. half a million dollars) of tax money it collected on behalf of the PA but withheld for the last four months.

Israel Radio reports that the final agreement on transferring the funds was made over the weekend by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai and his Palestinian counterpart Hussein al-Sheikh.

The Israel Electricity Corporation withdrew an appeal to the High Court of Justice in which it demanded that Israel subtract from the withheld funds a sum equal to the PA’s debt to the IEC. Justice Menahem Mazuz ruled that the IEC has no right to demand this.

The PA previously refused to accept a transfer of part of the withheld funds after a deduction for the debt. At the time, Qatar announced it would give the PA $100 million to prevent it from collapsing.

Child hit by bus succumbs to injuries

A 5-year-old child riding a scooter who was hit by a school bus in the West Bank community of Beit El succumbs to his injuries and dies.

An earlier version of this report erroneously said the child was hit by a truck.

Herzliya stabber admits attack was hate crime

The man who is suspected of stabbing an Arab employee of the Herzliya Municipality admitted during police interrogation that his act was nationalistically motivated.

The suspect allegedly yelled “Death to all Arabs” when he attacked the man. The victim was lightly wounded.

Likud wants deal with UTJ by tomorrow

Senior Likud officials say that they are making intense efforts to finalize the coalition agreement with United Torah Judaism by Tuesday, ahead of Memorial Day, NRG reports.

“It is not closed, but we are doing what we can in order to sign a coalition agreement by Tuesday,” a Likud official says. “Odds are at about 50%” to resolve all outstanding issues between the two parties by that date.

Negotiations with Kulanu and Shas are also said to be near completion, but agreements will likely only be signed after Independence Day celebrations, early next week.

Benjamin Netanyahu seen with Shas’s Eli Yishai (back right) and United Torah Judaism’s Yaakov Litzman (foreground) in the Knesset on March 18, 2013. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Coalition talks with Jewish Home are going less well. Party leader Naftali Bennett tweeted a threat to leave the talks and not join the government. Bennett was reacting to reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was intending to give Shas leader Aryeh Deri the Religious Affairs Ministry, a portfolio sought by Jewish Home.

According to Channel 2 political analyst Amit Segal, Bennett feels emboldened by TV appearances by both Zionist Union leaders who clarified over the weekend they would in no way join a unity government with Likud. This possibility was in any case unlikely and many political pundits accused Netanyahu of hinting at unity only as a lever to pressure Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu to lower their demands in coalition talks.

Segal assessed that Bennett will join the coalition since his party shares most values with Likud and the right-wing bloc, but that the sides will exhaust each other in coalition talks right to the very end of the allotted time to establish a government.

No major sanctions relief at start of Iran deal, Biden says

An Iran nuclear deal will not include substantial sanctions relief at the front end, Vice President Joe Biden said.

“If at the front end they expect there to be total sanction relief or significant sanction relief, there will be no deal,” Biden said in an address in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday to a Democratic political action committee, Politico reported. “This will be, ‘You have to earn it.’”

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said that there will be no deal between Iran and the major powers unless there is immediate total sanctions relief.

— JTA

Aussies remove kashrut marks over halal fears

A number of companies in Australia have removed kosher certification symbols from their packaging due to pushback over halal certification.

Rumors that money raised from halal certification helps fund terrorism are spurring the pushback, the general manager of the Kosher Australia certification, Yankel Wajsbort, told the Australian Jewish Times, and companies have called the Victorian-based kashrut certification authority and asked that the kosher symbols be removed.

The companies reportedly believe it is better to have no identifying religious certification at all.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and the Australian Crime Commission both reject the halal-terrorist link rumors, saying there is no evidence to support them, according to the AJN.

“In the last three months we have probably received 10 requests from companies that say they support kosher and want to stay kosher, but how do they argue that it’s different to halal,” Wajsbort told the newspaper. “Of those 10, we have had four or five companies that have asked to remove our symbol.”

— JTA

IAEA report says Iran abiding by interim agreement

Iran continues to meet its commitments under an interim nuclear agreement with the P5+1, a confidential UN nuclear agency report seen by Reuters shows.

The monthly update by the IAEA says that the Islamic Republic is not enriching uranium to a grade higher than 5 percent. The report also says that Tehran has not made additional advances in its activities at two enrichment facilities and a heavy water reactor still under construction, Reuters reports.

Man throws stone at Herzog’s wife’s car

An unknown attacker hurled a rock at the car of Michal Herzog, wife of Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog.

She was walking toward her car on Tzahal Street in Tel Aviv when a man suddenly appeared and threw a stone at her car. She was not hit but the rock damaged the windshield of the vehicle.

The MK’s wife called the police to complain, and officers were searching the area for the perpetrator. Herzog believes she was the target.

Yesh Atid MK Mickey Levi, a former high-ranking police officer, says, “Violence against politicians and their families is despicable and should be condemned by all shades of the political spectrum. Those responsible should bear the maximum penalty the law allows.”

File photo: Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog accompanied by his wife Michal prepares to cast his vote in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. (photo credit: AP/Ariel Schalit)

Pope condemns ‘worrying’ surge in anti-Semitism

Pope Francis condemns a “worrying” resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe and urges the continuation of dialogue between Christians and Jews.

Speaking during a meeting with the Conference of the European Rabbis (CER), a first since the organization was founded in 1956, the pope calls on all Christians to stand firm against anti-Semitism.

“The anti-Semitic tendencies and certain acts of hatred and violence in Europe are of concern. Every Christian cannot but be firm in the condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism,” he says.

He urges the two faiths to continue the dialogue that has progressed “systematically for almost half a century.”

Pope Francis has made interfaith dialogue a cornerstone of his papacy and has spoken out against anti-Semitism in the past.

Pope Francis arrives to celebrates an Armenian-Rite Mass on the occasion of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, in St. Peter’s Basilica, at the Vatican Sunday, April 12, 2015. (photo credit: AP/Gregorio Borgia)

Monday’s comments come after a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in Europe.

Moscow’s Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, who is also president of CER, says Jews in Europe were the “collateral damage” of an anti-Muslim offensive orchestrated by the extreme right.

The CER is one of the leading voices of Judaism in Europe and brings together more than 700 Jewish religious leaders.

— AFP

PA ministers say Hamas making life hard for unity gov

Ministers of the Palestinian unity government who came from Ramallah to a week-long working visit of the Gaza Strip say that Hamas is putting obstacles in their path and preventing them from doing their jobs.

The ministers threatened to leave the Gaza Strip immediately, Ynet reports.

A meeting between representatives of Hamas, Fatah and other factions in Gaza ended with no agreement and, according to Ynet, the ministers may choose to leave the Strip already this evening.

Peres denies report of $30K deal with bank

An associate of former president Shimon Peres flatly denies a reported that he works for Bank Hapoalim.

“The report is not true and Peres does not receive even a single shekel from the bank and does not work with it in Israel,” Israel Radio quoted a reaction by unnamed associates of Peres.

Earlier today, The Marker reported that the former president will be getting $30,000 per month in order to act as a lobbyist for the bank. The reports’ author assessed that Peres would also help the bank, Israel’s largest lender, to combat legislation that improve competition in the banking sector.

US calls Iran spy charge against US reporter ‘absurd’

The White House says an Iranian spy charge against a US reporter would be “absurd.”

Iran will reportedly charge a Washington Post reporter of Persian descent who was stationed in Tehran of being a spy for the US.

Turkey ‘shares Armenian pain’ over Ottoman-era killings

Turkey shares the pain of Armenians whose parents or grandparents were killed under the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says.

“We once again respectfully remember and share the pain of grandchildren and children of Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during deportation in 1915,” Davutoglu says in a statement released by his office to mark the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.

Armenians consider the mass killings a genocide, a term Turkey has consistently refused to recognize.

Davutoglu makes clear once more in the statement that Turkey does not accept the word genocide to describe the killings.

“To reduce everything to a single word, to put responsibility through generalizations on the Turkish nation alone… is legally and morally problematic,” he says.

— AFP

President, PM refuse to meet Jimmy Carter

President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both reject a request by former US president Jimmy Carter to meet, acting on advice from the Foreign Ministry.

It is not clear yet whether Carter will decide to cancel the visit, Haaretz reports.

The former president has voiced increasingly critical views on Israel in recent years.

Former US president Jimmy Carter on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, January 12, 2015. (screen capture: YouTube/Comedy Central)