Thursday, Feb. 11, 2016 thejewishlight.org
Israeli mikvahs must allow non-Orthodox conversions, Supreme Court rules

(JTA) — In a landmark decision, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that mikvahs in the country must open up to non-Orthodox conversion rites.

Until now, Israeli mikvahs have denied access for conversion immersions to Reform and Conservative converts. Israel’s mikvahs are run by Israel’s Religious Services Ministry, which operates in lock-step with the Orthodox-dominated Israeli Rabbinate.

Thursday’s ruling, based on a case brought in Beersheba, forces all Israel’s public mikvah ritual baths to allow access to groups wishing to perform non-Orthodox conversions.

The vice president of Israel’s Supreme Court, Elyakim Rubinstein, said the justices sought to reach a deal that would have given non-Orthodox converts access to three public mikvahs in various regions in Israel. But the Religious Services Ministry refused to compromise.

As a consequence, the ruling applies to all public mikvahs.

The court struck down all of the ministry’s arguments in favor of denying access, including the contention that mikvahs are open to all Jews and that these converts are not Jewish. Neither are Orthodox converts until they immerse, Rubinstein noted, concluding that the denial of access to those undergoing non-Orthodox conversions was unlawful.

“I think this is one of the most important constitutional rulings by the Supreme Court,” Gilad Kariv, the president of Israel’s Reform movement, told JTA. “This ruling really goes beyond the issue of immersion in the mikvah. The justices are saying that even if we have an Orthodox establishment, this establishment cannot impose any policy that goes against the basic democratic values of the state.”

Kariv said he believes the ruling will help the non-Orthodox movements score victories in other areas related to religious discrimination in Israel, such as lack of public funding for non-Orthodox streams of Judaism and restricted access to other public religious facilities by non-Orthodox Jews, clergy and institutions.

Until now, non-Orthodox conversion immersions were conducted in natural mikvahs — that is, the sea. For that reason, Kariv said, his movement has refused to convert children in the wintertime.

Hundreds of Israelis convert to Judaism under year under the aegis of the Reform and Conservative movements, according to Kariv. Though the converts are not considered Jewish by Israel’s Rabbinate and therefore have problems when it comes to marrying Jews, they are recognized as Jewish by Israel’s Population Registry.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, hailed the Supreme Court ruling.

“This is a breakthrough. Government-supported religious institutions must now, in a sense, move to a more pluralistic practice,” he said. “This changes some of the really difficult realities for non-Orthodox Jews and Judaism in Israel.”

Jacobs added that this fight exists in the United States, too. Most mikvahs in America are Orthodox-run and do not allow Reform or Conservative conversion immersions, according to Jacobs.

This was the second time in less than two weeks that the non-Orthodox movements in Israel scored a major victory. On Jan. 31, Israel’s government approved a compromise to expand the non-Orthodox Jewish prayer section of the Western Wall.

Israeli Airbnb guest refused by British host because of ‘aggressive settlers’

(JTA) — An Israeli man said a British Airbnb host refused to rent an apartment to him because, the host said, Israelis don’t respect “basic human rights.”

Ben Kelmer, a Tel Aviv photographer, reserved a London apartment for a week in March through the online company, which has come under fire recently for listing properties in West Bank settlements. In some cases, the listings indicate that the properties are in Israel proper.

When Kelmer contacted the host with a question about public transportation, the host said he could not “even consider hosting you,” the U.K.’s Jewish News reported.

“This is how the world pictures you: aggressive settlers occupying land, destroying houses. In a few words: not respecting basic human rights,” the message said. “On that basis, I just cannot even consider hosting you, even if you pay me millions.”

Kelmer posted to Airbnb’s Facebook page: “We were served a healthy dose of Grade A, European bigotry and discrimination at its finest, poorly masked as so-called, socially-conscious political protest of the worst, most prejudiced kind, that is strictly reserved to Israelis.”

“I’m an Israeli travelling to London in March with my wife. This is the reply we received today from a potential…” – Posted by Ben Kelmer on Thursday, February 11, 2016

The company posted a reply saying it would investigate the matter. Another Facebook user commented on Kelmer’s post, saying, “Appalling and sadly, happens too often.”

In December, a 13-year-old Israeli girl received a somewhat similar rebuff from a British citizen. When Shachar Rabinovitch of Zichron Yaakov emailed Marsha Levine, a former academic at the University of Cambridge, with questions for a research project on horses, Levine responded that she supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

“You might be a child, but if you are old enough to write to me, you are old enough to learn about Israeli history and how it has impacted on the lives of Palestinian people,” Levine wrote.

Netanyahu appoints new Shin Bet chief

(JTA) — Nadav Argaman, the Shin Bet security agency’s deputy director, has been appointed to the No. 1 position in the Israeli security service.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday that he had named Argaman to the job, the Times of Israel reported.

Assuming he is approved by the committee that oversees senior governmental appointments, Argaman, 55, will assume the post in May, replacing Yoram Cohen.

In a statement, Netanyahu said Argaman “has a proven track record of commanding and operative experience at the Shin Bet. I am certain that under his command the Shin Bet will continue to grow stronger on the operative and technological fronts, and will continue to protect the security of Israel.”

Argaman’s appointment comes just a month after the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, got a new head, Yossi Cohen.

Argaman joined the Shin Bet in 1983 and has served in a variety of roles there. He has been its deputy head since 2007, except for a year-long stint on Israel’s Committee on Atomic Energy.

In a statement, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that Argaman is “the right man to take the baton from Yoram Cohen and to lead the dedicated employees and the organization as a whole with determination and responsibility in this complex reality.”

American Jewish leaders meet with Egyptian president

(JTA) — Leaders of the American Jewish community met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo.

During the two-hour meeting Thursday, the delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations discussed regional issues and U.S.-Egyptian relations, including terror threats, moving forward after the agreement on Iran’s nuclear program and Israeli relations with Egypt, according to a press release.

A statement from the group called the meeting “an open and very productive discussion.”

“We came away with a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities and how we can play a constructive role in addressing them and fostering international cooperation,” the statement said.

The delegation met Tuesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and will arrive in Israel for a four-day summit beginning Sunday.

Jordan won’t extradite suspect in ‘82 Paris Jewish restaurant attack

(JTA) — Jordan is refusing to extradite to France a man suspected of carrying out a deadly 1982 attack on a Jewish restaurant in Paris.

According to Agence France Press, an unnamed Jordanian official said on Wednesday the country was rejecting France’s request to extradite Zuhair Mohamad al-Abassi, who was arrested in Jordan last June.

Al-Abassi, also known as Amjad Atta, 62, is a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin. He is the suspected mastermind of the 1982 attack on the Jo Goldenberg restaurant, in which six people were killed and 22 wounded.

Jordan reportedly rejected the request because an extradition deal between the two countries only went into effect in July, a month after al-Abassi was arrested and then released on bail.

The unnamed official told AFP that a second suspect in the attack, Nizar Tawfiq Hamada, would not be extradited because the statute of limitations on to the allegations against him have expired.

A total of six people are believed to have been involved in planning and carrying out the attack on the restaurant, in which two gunmen stormed the establishment in the middle of the day and opened fire on customers. Chez Jo Goldenberg, which was located in the heavily Jewish Marais neighborhood of Paris, closed in 2006.

Haredi protester burns Reform prayer book at Western Wall

TEL AVIV (JTA) — A haredi Orthodox man burned a Reform prayer book while protesting a women’s prayer service at the Western Wall.

The man, Itamar Gadassi, set the book on fire during the monthly service Wednesday of Women of the Wall, which meets at the wall’s women’s section. Protesters regularly shout epithets at the group and have thrown things at them in the past.

According to a press release from Women of Reform Judaism condemning the incident, Gadassi was stopped by police but allowed to stay at the site.

“My claim isn’t against Itamar Gadassi, it’s against those who incite against Women of the Wall and Reform and Conservative Jews,” Women of the Wall Chairwoman Anat Hoffman told JTA. “This incitement can lead to acts. There’s a connection between incitement and what happens in the street.”

Women of the Wall was party to an interdenominational agreement last month to expand the wall’s non-Orthodox section. In the wake of the agreement, several public figures made statements denigrating non-Orthodox Jews. Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said, “Reform Jews in the United States are a dying world” on Jan. 31, while Deputy Education Minister said the following day that Reform Jews and Women of the Wall should be “thrown to the dogs.”

Israeli settler attacks Palestinian truck with ax

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Police have arrested an Israeli settler for axing a Palestinian truck.

The man, 40, whose name was not given, attacked the truck near his home in the northern West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron, according to the Times of Israel. According to police, he hurled the ax through the truck’s windshield. No one was injured in the incident.

The truck driver reported the incident to Israeli police, and the man was arrested at his home hours later. He confessed to the act in a police investigation.

Indictments for settler crimes against Palestinians are rare. Out of 150 complaints of settler violence made by Palestinians in 2013 and 2014, only two resulted in indictments, according to the Times of Israel.

Israel to seek return of bodies from Gaza in Turkey deal

TEL AVIV (JTA) — As part of a coalescing Israeli-Turkish reconciliation deal, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon is seeking the return of Israeli bodies held by Hamas, the terrorist group that governs Gaza.

Turkey is demanding that Israel ease its blockade of Gaza before Turkish-Israeli relations are normalized. In exchange, according to Haaretz, Ya’alon wants Turkey to obtain Hamas’ agreement to return the bodies to Israel. The bodies, of Israel Defense Forces soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, were captured during the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas. Goldin’s family is conducting a campaign for his body’s return.

Ya’alon, according to Haaretz, is skeptical of reaching reconciliation and has added a number of conditions to the negotiations. Speaking in Greece last month, he accused Turkey of financing the ISIS terror group and said Turkey “enables jihadists to move backwards and forwards between Europe and Syria and Iraq and to be part of the ISIS terror infrastructure in Europe.

Turkish and Israeli negotiating teams met Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland. The countries are aiming to restore ties, which broke down in 2010 after Israeli soldiers killed nine Turkish citizens on the Mavi Marmara, a boat attempting to break Israel’s Gaza blockade.

Nine laureates to share in Dan David Prize

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Nine people have been selected as winners of the Dan David Prize, three $1 million awards given annually at Tel Aviv University.

The prizes are given by the Dan David Prize Foundation in the categories of past, present and future. This year, each prize will be shared by three people, according to a news release issued Thursday.

The past category focuses on social history this year. It will go to Inga Clendinnen, whose work has focused on the Holocaust and on oppression of the Maya; Catherine Hall, who focuses on gender history, race and slavery; and Arlette Farge, who focuses on women’s history, urban history and the history of crime.

The present category honors activists combating poverty. It will go to Sir Anthony B. Atkinson, François Bourguignon and James J. Heckman, all scholars of poverty and economic policy.

The future category will focus on nanotechnology and honor three pioneers in the field: Paul Alivisatos, Chad Mirkin and Sir John Pendry.

Under the terms of the prize, laureates donate 10 percent of their prize money toward 20 doctoral and postdoctoral scholarships in their fields.

Past Dan David Prizes have gone to filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, composer Zubin Mehta, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The prize will be awarded on May 22. It is named for international businessman and philanthropist Dan David.

Israel Police appoints first Arab Muslim deputy commissioner

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The Israel Police has appointed its first Arab Muslim deputy commissioner, who will lead a new unit charged with law enforcement in the country’s Arab sector.

Jamal Hakrush, from the northern Israeli Arab town of Kafr Kanna, will lead the 1,300-person unit, for which the police are currently recruiting officers, the Times of Israel reported Thursday. Arab Israelis make up one-fifth of Israel’s population but are involved in the majority of its crimes. Dozens of new police stations will be built in Arab communities.

“This picture is not only of concern to the police, but also to the Arab community itself,” Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich said Tuesday in a Knesset meeting. “There is a strong desire to strengthen policing in the Arab community. I met dozens of heads of Arab local authorities and discovered that there was great willingness.”

Kafr Kanna Mayor Mujahid Awawida said Hakrush is the right man for the job.

“Hakrush is a good and faithful man, and he can do the job properly,” he said, according to the Times of Israel. “He is a son of the village and my friend, and I congratulate him on the appointment.”

Reform Jews to shun Israeli tourism minister following insult

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli and American Reform Jews will shun Israeli Tourism Minister Yariv Levin, after Levin made disparaging comments about the Reform Movement.

During a cabinet meeting last month on a proposed expansion to the non-Orthodox section of the Western Wall, Levin called Reform Judaism a “dying world” that has succumbed to assimilation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned Levin’s statement.

In response, Israeli Reform Movement CEO Rabbi Gilad Kariv called on his American counterparts to turn their backs on Levin. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the American Union for Reform Judaism, accepted the call.

A meeting between Levin and Reform leaders in the United States next week has been canceled.

“As long as he [Levin] doesn’t think that Diaspora Jews have any right to voice opinions on matters such as the Western Wall, there’s no reason to give him a platform in Jewish communities and organizations in the United States,” Jacobs told Israeli Army Radio Thursday, according to Israeli reports. “Minister Levin will not teach us what support for Israel is.”

WORLD

Anti-Semitic educational videos pulled from NY schools

NEW YORK (JTA) — A New York state legislator is calling on all state districts to avoid using an educational publisher whose videos inaccurately depict Judaism.

On Wednesday, New York State Assemblyman Kenneth Zebrowski spoke out against the California-based Study.com, after the Jewish Federation of Rockland County raised concerns about two of its videos shown at public schools at two separate districts in the suburbs north of New York City recently, The Journal News reported.

In one video, Jews were described as being “aloof,” whereas in another, about first-century Palestine under Roman rule, Jews are depicted as aggressors, according to The Journal News.

In a letter to the company, Zebrowski urged it to review its videos to ensure its materials are “accurate and appropriate, especially when the materials are being used to introduce young, impressionable students to complex topics such as religion, race and ethnicity.”

The superintendent of Rockland County’s Nyack district told The Journal News that district officials had removed the two videos from use because they contain “historically inaccurate information and misrepresentation of the nature of Judaism.”

Jennifer McHam, a spokeswoman for Study.com, told The Journal News that the company is modifying at least one of the videos and that it “was not intended to offend or be anti-Semitic.”

Refugees in Greece get medical equipment from Jewish-funded group

ATHENS, Greece (JTA) — A New York-based humanitarian organization, funded by several Jewish groups, has begun supplying a Greek island with desperately needed medical equipment to help cope with the influx of tens of thousands of refugees.

The Afya Foundation has already dispatched a container full of aid to hospitals and rescue organizations on the island of Lesbos, said the foundation’s executive director, Danielle Butin, who has just returned from a visit to the island to assess the needs.

The situation she found was dire: Hospital wings stand empty for of lack of equipment, doctors lack medicine to treat the ill and Greek Coast Guard boats that are pulling drowning refugees out of the sea, don’t have basic resuscitation equipment like defibrillators.

“The simply don’t have enough medical supplies and equipment,” Butin said.

Over the past year, hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants, most of them from Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan, have landed on Lesbos in the northern Aegean Sea as they try to reach Europe.

Afya — which means “good health” in Swahili — has in the past sent medical supplies for humanitarian relief to Haiti, Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Malawi and Sierra Leone.

“We decided on this trip that our response is going to be to send as much as possible and we want to support the already existing systems with concrete supplies to benefit the locals and the refugees,” said Butin.

In Lesbos, Butin said she saw a newly renovated hospital standing empty, because local authorities don’t have the equipment to run it, while the existing medical facilities are stretched beyond their abilities.

She returned to New York with dozens of pages of handwritten lists in Greek of the supplies each hospital department was short of.

The first shipment was funded by the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, a coalition of American Jewish groups led by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

The coalition has so far raised more than $1.2 million to fund projects dealing with the Syrian refugees, according to the the JDC, including funding to the Israeli aid agency IsraAid, who have been operating in Greece since September, providing medical and psychological assistance to the refugees.

Israel also donated 1.5 tons of medication to the Greek Ministry of Health.

Butin said she is trying to raise further funds for additional shipments and has already had “extraordinary support from the Jewish community and [New York-area] synagogues.”

“We are trying to raise a couple hundred thousand dollars, the goal is to raise as much money as possible to keep the containers flowing,” she said.

Bernie Sanders revisits his childhood Brooklyn hood

NEW YORK (JTA) — The day after becoming the first Jew to win a presidential primary, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders visited his old neighborhood, a heavily Jewish area of Brooklyn.

Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont, led a CBS News reporter on a tour of Midwood section of the New York City borough, pointing out the rent-controlled apartment building on 26th Street where he grew up and recalling how his mother yearned to leave it for a single-family home.

According to Brooklyn blog Sheepshead Bites, Sanders strolled Kings Highway, one of the neighborhood’s main drags, stopping at a local Turkish restaurant Memo Shish Kebab for a lamb gyro.

“Not having enough money was a cause of constant tension,” Sanders told CBS. “And when you are 5 or 6 years of age and your parents are yelling at each other, it’s, you know — you think back on it now, you know — it’s traumatic and it’s hard.”

Sanders said he spent a lot of his childhood playing unsupervised with other children in the neighborhood, which he said taught him about democracy.

“The games were all determined not by adult cultures but kids themselves,” Sanders told CBS. “We would choose up a team — there was no other person dictating anything, we worked out our own rules. It was a very interesting way to grow up.”

Sanders graduated from the same public high school that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sen. Charles Schumer attended.

The neighborhood still has a large Jewish population, although its mostly Orthodox residents generally attend yeshivas and Jewish day schools rather than the local public schools.

After row over settler envoy, Brazil approves Israeli consul

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Days after Israel agreed to withdraw a former settler leader as its ambassador to Brazil, Brasilia approved the appointment of a lower-level Israeli diplomat to Sao Paulo.

The Brazilian government formally approved Dani Goren as Israel’s consul general in Sao Paulo on Thursday. His name was OK’d by Israel’s Cabinet on Jan. 17, but kept secret until Brazil signed off, in strict adherence to diplomatic protocol.

Fluent in both Portuguese and Spanish, Goren served as ambassador to Uruguay and held other diplomatic positions in Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia.

Last Sunday, a top Israeli official declared that Dani Dayan would not be Israel’s ambassador to Brazil after a sometimes-contentious seven-month standoff between the two countries. Brazil said it objected to Dayan’s appointment in part because his name was initially made public on social media rather than though diplomatic channels. The government also expressed discomfort with Dayan’s past leadership of the Yesha Council, the umbrella organization of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Goren, 60, is a seasoned diplomat with 30 years of experience. Born in Jerusalem, he served as second secretary at the Israeli embassy in Brasilia from 1987-1988. His master’s thesis was titled “Brazil’s re-democratization process in 1973-1985.”

The embassy in Brasilia and the Sao Paulo consulate have been Israel’s only diplomatic institutions in Brazil since the Rio de Janeiro consulate was closed years ago. Israel has honorary consuls in Rio and Belo Horizonte.

In addition to Goren’s nomination, last month saw the appointment of Israeli ambassadors to the Latin American countries of Argentina, Chile and Ecuador.

Sao Paulo is Brazil’s largest metropolis and one of the world’s largest with over 20 million people. It is home to some 60,000 Jews, or half of Brazil’s Jewish community.

Survivor to SS guard on trial: ‘Soon we will both stand in front of the highest judge’

(JTA) — The trial for a 94-year-old former Auschwitz guard opened with testimony from a 94-year-old Holocaust survivor, at the trial near Detmold, Germany, on Thursday, Reuters reported.

“I want to know why millions of Jews were killed and here we both are,” Schwarzbaum, who lost 35 family members in the Holocaust, said after detailing his memories of Auschwitz.

“Soon we will both stand in front of the highest judge — tell everyone here what happened, the way I’ve done just now!”

Hanning did not visibly react, according to Reuters.

Prosecutors said Hanning voluntarily joined the Waffen SS Death Head Unit at age 18, fighting in Eastern Europe before being moved in January 1942 to Auschwitz, where he served until at least June 1944.

Hanning has denied participating in mass killings, but prosecutors argue that, as a guard, he helped facilitate the murders.

“The final decision over life and death was made by the SS men,” prosecutor Andreas Brendel said, after describing how SS guards determined which new arrivals would be sent to the gas chambers.

The trial is expected to last until the end of May.

Last year, 94-year-old Oskar Groening, known as the “bookkeeper of Auschwitz,” was sentenced for being an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people in Auschwitz.

Three other former death camp workers in their 90s — two men and one woman —are scheduled to go on trial in the next few months.

According to Reuters, Nazi hunter Efraim Zuroff, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said that age should not be an obstacle to prosecution.

“When you think of these cases, don’t think of frail, old, sick men and women but of young people who devoted their energies to a system that implemented the Final Solution and aimed to obliterate the Jewish people,” he said.

Ted Cruz campaign defends pastor who said God will send hunters for Jews

(JTA) — Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign defended an endorsement from a controversial pastor who has said Jews will be hunted and put in death camps before Jesus returns.

Kansas evangelical Pastor Mike Bickle, whose endorsement the campaign publicized last month, runs a project called Israel Mandate, one of whose goals is “partnering with Messianic Jews for the salvation of the Jewish people.”

In a sermon in 2011, Bickle said God would give Jews a chance to convert to Christianity and “raise up the hunters” against those who refuse. Bickle called Hitler “the most famous hunter in recent history.” In 2005, Bickle said in a sermon that before Jesus’ coming, “a significant number of Jews will be in work camps, prison camps or death camps.”

Nick Muzin, a senior adviser to the Texas senator’s campaign, said Bickle was referring to biblical passages.

“Our campaign welcomes support from faith leaders across the country,” Muzin told Jewish Insider. “Mike Bickle is one of the hundreds who have endorsed us. My understanding is that he was paraphrasing the words of the prophets Jeremiah and Zechariah. I know that he has made support for Israel and the Jewish people a central part of his mission.”

The Anti-Defamation League and National Jewish Democratic Council both called on Cruz to clarify his opinion on Bickle’s views.

“Mike Bickle’s views about why God allowed Jews to be killed in the Holocaust, as expressed in a 2011 speech, are abhorrent, intolerant and unacceptable,” the ADL said in a statement, according to the Times of Israel. “We assume that Senator Cruz accepted Bickle’s endorsement without knowing about these comments. We hope that when these comments are called to the Senator’s attention, he will clearly and forcefully reject Bickle’s hateful ideas.”

Muzin said Cruz has 70 rabbis endorsing him.

“No one has a better record than Senator Cruz when it comes to standing with Israel, fighting against radical Islamic terror, and combating global anti-Semitism,” Muzin said in the statement. “We are proud of the support we are building in both communities and see them as complementary, and part of our larger goal of restoring Judeo-Christian leadership values to America and the world.”

Cruz has come under fire for comments that appear to indulge Jewish stereotype. In a primary debate, he criticized Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for having “New York values.” In February, he called the Yiddish word “chutzpah” a “New York term,” leading two columnists to connect the two statements and impugn Cruz for viewing Jews negatively. Cruz has also slammed neoconservatives, many of whose leading thinkers are Jewish. He also has become close to pro-Israel organizations and has been outspoken in condemning anti-Semitic attacks.

India close to $3 billion arms deal with Israel

TEL AVIV (JTA) — India is nearing final approval to buy $3 billion worh of arms from Israel.

The deal would make Israel one of the top-three arms suppliers to the world’s second-most populous country, according to the Times of India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who plans to visit Israel later this year, is waiting for a cabinet committee to approve the deal.

Under the deal’s terms, Israe; and India would jointly develop a surface-to-air missile system for the Indian Army. Israel would also sell India lasers and bunker-busting bombs.

Since Modi was elected in 2014, relations between the two countries have warmed. Netanyahu and Modi have met and spoken multiple times, and Indian President Pranab Mukherjee visited Israel last year.

‘Son of Sal’ serial killer, who murdered two Jews, convicted

(JTA) — A serial killer known as “Son of Sal,” who murdered three Brooklyn storeowners in 2012, has been convicted on three counts of second-degree murder.

Salvatore Perrone, 67, killed Mohamed Gebeli, 65, Isaac Kadare, 59, and Rahmatollah Vahidipour, 78, in the summer and fall of 2012, according to Reuters. Gebeli and Vahidipour were Jewish. After the conviction Wendesday, Perrone faces 75 years to life in prison.

Perrone claims he was framed. He was caught after the final murder when someone recognized his likeness on security camera footage. Police then found a rifle he owned, with his fingerprint, that matched the bullets fired in the murders. He later made statements implicating himself.

Perrone, who sold clothing, covered each of his victims’ heads with cardboard or clothing.

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