24 jan 2020
World leaders
Saying poverty-stricken victims of the Nazis would have benefited from the money spent on the event, survivors and aid organizations warn that the conditions some are living in are shameful
Galina Perevozkina is an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor living in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv who observed with frustration the arrival of world leaders in Israel to attend an event marking 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
“I fail to understand why [the event is taking place],” she said. "I think instead of spending money on such events, they should have invested in care for us, the old people who are survivors of the Holocaust."
What survivors need, she said, are “increased stipends and not glamorous receptions."
There are 192,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel today, of whom 48,000 live below the poverty line.
According to official data released by the Finance Ministry's department for Holocaust survivors’ rights, 67% live on a monthly stipend of just a few hundred shekels, and 33% have a monthly income of several thousand.
In 2019, 14,800 survivors died, constituting an average of 41 deaths a day and 1,233 each month.
Of Holocaust survivors in Israel, 39% are over the age of 85, 16% over 90 and 0.4% are over 100 years of age.
"Our physical and financial situation is very difficult," says 79-year-old Boris Verbovetsky, a blind Holocaust survivor from Beit Shemesh who immigrated from Russia 30 years ago.
"We live off the national insurance stipend because I have no pension from Russia and it is not easy to survive on that," Boris says, adding that he and his wife live on just NIS 5,000 a month.
"It is not only the money that is a problem, it is being alone and wanting some warmth," he says.
Daniel Hanoch, aged 88, was also critical of the World Holocaust Forum event and its organizers at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.
"Such an event should have found a way for the world leaders to meet survivors," he says. “The State of Israel took the reparation money [from Germany after WWII] and forgot the survivors who had to fight for a minimal existence.
They robbed us of our money and that is a crime. Many survivors have no money for medication. What do we have left? How long will we still be alive?
"Most of my friends are dead now, they did not receive any help when they needed it."
Hanoch says he has called for a dramatic increase in stipends for survivors.
Philanthropic organizations, many of which work with Holocaust survivors, agree.
“As commendable as it is to see world leaders honor the memory of the Holocaust, there are still survivors living among us in Israel and around the world, and to our shame, they exist in dismal conditions," says Yael Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Moshe Cohen, CEO of Chasdei Naomi, a non-profit that offers help for the underprivileged, says that Holocaust survivors in Israel are freezing to death.
This, he says, is “heartbreaking.”
Saying poverty-stricken victims of the Nazis would have benefited from the money spent on the event, survivors and aid organizations warn that the conditions some are living in are shameful
Galina Perevozkina is an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor living in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv who observed with frustration the arrival of world leaders in Israel to attend an event marking 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp.
“I fail to understand why [the event is taking place],” she said. "I think instead of spending money on such events, they should have invested in care for us, the old people who are survivors of the Holocaust."
What survivors need, she said, are “increased stipends and not glamorous receptions."
There are 192,000 Holocaust survivors in Israel today, of whom 48,000 live below the poverty line.
According to official data released by the Finance Ministry's department for Holocaust survivors’ rights, 67% live on a monthly stipend of just a few hundred shekels, and 33% have a monthly income of several thousand.
In 2019, 14,800 survivors died, constituting an average of 41 deaths a day and 1,233 each month.
Of Holocaust survivors in Israel, 39% are over the age of 85, 16% over 90 and 0.4% are over 100 years of age.
"Our physical and financial situation is very difficult," says 79-year-old Boris Verbovetsky, a blind Holocaust survivor from Beit Shemesh who immigrated from Russia 30 years ago.
"We live off the national insurance stipend because I have no pension from Russia and it is not easy to survive on that," Boris says, adding that he and his wife live on just NIS 5,000 a month.
"It is not only the money that is a problem, it is being alone and wanting some warmth," he says.
Daniel Hanoch, aged 88, was also critical of the World Holocaust Forum event and its organizers at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.
"Such an event should have found a way for the world leaders to meet survivors," he says. “The State of Israel took the reparation money [from Germany after WWII] and forgot the survivors who had to fight for a minimal existence.
They robbed us of our money and that is a crime. Many survivors have no money for medication. What do we have left? How long will we still be alive?
"Most of my friends are dead now, they did not receive any help when they needed it."
Hanoch says he has called for a dramatic increase in stipends for survivors.
Philanthropic organizations, many of which work with Holocaust survivors, agree.
“As commendable as it is to see world leaders honor the memory of the Holocaust, there are still survivors living among us in Israel and around the world, and to our shame, they exist in dismal conditions," says Yael Eckstein of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
Moshe Cohen, CEO of Chasdei Naomi, a non-profit that offers help for the underprivileged, says that Holocaust survivors in Israel are freezing to death.
This, he says, is “heartbreaking.”
23 jan 2020
According to an annual report, although only 27 Israeli troops perished in the past year, almost half died through suicide, marking an increase in the number of soldiers taking their own lives
Israeli military said the number of fallen soldiers in the year of 2019 was the lowest since the Israel Defense Forces was formed back in 1948, according to an annual report published Wednesday.
The IDF's Manpower Directorate said in the report that 27 soldiers died or had been killed in the past year and 35 troops were critically wounded, which also represents a dramatic decrease when compared to years prior.
According to the report, at least two soldiers fell during battle: 19-year-old Staff Sgt. Gal Keidan, who was killed last March in a terror attack at Ariel Junction when a Palestinian attacker stabbed him and seized his weapon, and First Sergeant Zachary Baumel, who disappeared in battle during the First Lebanon War and whose remains had been returned to Israel last April, after 37 years.
Eighteen-year-old soldier Dvir Sorek was declared by IDF as having been killed during "hostile terrorist activity." Sorek's body was found with multiple stab wounds last August near the seminary where he studied as part of a program which combines Torah studies with military service. The army said that the soldier was neither armed nor in uniform when his body was found.
The report says at least two soldiers died during military training: Evyatar Yosefi, who drowned during a solo training exercise, and Ron Oved who died when a parked bus rolled over a group of soldiers during tryouts for Paratroopers Brigade.
Additionally, the report claims that 12 of the fallen soldiers took their own life, as opposed to only nine in 2018, representing a slight increase.
Another five soldiers died in various car accidents, and two others died due to various medical conditions and illnesses.
"The number of fallen soldiers keeps decreasing," said Brigadier General Michael Yanko, head of the IDF Manpower Directorate. "Between the IDF and its soldiers there's a unique relationship based on commitment, every fallen soldier is person with a family. Even though we had a positive year, we're committed to learning additional lessons in order to decrease the numbers even more. Every fatality is one too many."
According to Yanko, the drop in the number of soldiers killed in traffic accidents is due to the army's increased efforts to educate the troops.
Yanko added the military is working to decrease the number of suicides among the troops. "We're continually working to decrease the availability of weapons to soldiers on leave," said Yanko. "We're also working to increase the number of military psychiatrics available to our soldiers."
Israeli military said the number of fallen soldiers in the year of 2019 was the lowest since the Israel Defense Forces was formed back in 1948, according to an annual report published Wednesday.
The IDF's Manpower Directorate said in the report that 27 soldiers died or had been killed in the past year and 35 troops were critically wounded, which also represents a dramatic decrease when compared to years prior.
According to the report, at least two soldiers fell during battle: 19-year-old Staff Sgt. Gal Keidan, who was killed last March in a terror attack at Ariel Junction when a Palestinian attacker stabbed him and seized his weapon, and First Sergeant Zachary Baumel, who disappeared in battle during the First Lebanon War and whose remains had been returned to Israel last April, after 37 years.
Eighteen-year-old soldier Dvir Sorek was declared by IDF as having been killed during "hostile terrorist activity." Sorek's body was found with multiple stab wounds last August near the seminary where he studied as part of a program which combines Torah studies with military service. The army said that the soldier was neither armed nor in uniform when his body was found.
The report says at least two soldiers died during military training: Evyatar Yosefi, who drowned during a solo training exercise, and Ron Oved who died when a parked bus rolled over a group of soldiers during tryouts for Paratroopers Brigade.
Additionally, the report claims that 12 of the fallen soldiers took their own life, as opposed to only nine in 2018, representing a slight increase.
Another five soldiers died in various car accidents, and two others died due to various medical conditions and illnesses.
"The number of fallen soldiers keeps decreasing," said Brigadier General Michael Yanko, head of the IDF Manpower Directorate. "Between the IDF and its soldiers there's a unique relationship based on commitment, every fallen soldier is person with a family. Even though we had a positive year, we're committed to learning additional lessons in order to decrease the numbers even more. Every fatality is one too many."
According to Yanko, the drop in the number of soldiers killed in traffic accidents is due to the army's increased efforts to educate the troops.
Yanko added the military is working to decrease the number of suicides among the troops. "We're continually working to decrease the availability of weapons to soldiers on leave," said Yanko. "We're also working to increase the number of military psychiatrics available to our soldiers."
21 jan 2020
Billions of US taxpayers’ dollars will continue to be funneled into Israel in the next fiscal year, and for many years in the foreseeable future.
Republican and Democratic Senators have recently ensured just that, passing a bill aimed at providing Israel with $3.3 billion in aid every year.
The Bill, co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Chris Coons and Republican Senator Marco Rubio, was passed on 9 January, only one day after Iran struck US positions in Iraq. Enthusiasm to push the Bill forward was meant to be an assurance to Tel Aviv from Washington that the US is committed to Israel’s security and military superiority in the Middle East.
Despite a palpable sense of war fatigue among all Americans, regardless of their political leaning, their country continues to sink deeper into Middle East conflicts simply because it is unable – or perhaps unwilling — to challenge Israel’s benefactors across the US government. “What’s good for Israel is good for America” continues to be the supreme maxim within Washington’s political elites, despite the fact that such irrational thinking has wrought disasters on the Middle East as a whole, and is finally forcing a hasty and humiliating American retreat.
The latest aid package to Israel will officially put into law a “Memorandum of Understanding” that was reached between the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Barack Obama administration in 2016. At the time, Obama had offered Israel the largest military aid package in US history.
Senator Rubio explained the passing of the recent Bill in terms of the “unprecedented threats” that are supposedly faced by Israel. Coons, meanwhile, said that “the events of the past few days [the US-Iran escalation], were a stark reminder of the importance of US assistance to Israel’s security.”
What is particularly odd about Coons’ statement is the fact that it was not Israel, but US positions in Iraq that were struck by Iranian missiles, and that they were fired in response to the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
Yet, the American taxpayers’ funding of Israel’s military adventures continues unabated, despite the rapidly changing political reality in the Middle East, and the shifting US role in the region. This confirms further that the blind US support of Israel is not motivated by a centralized, distinctly American, strategy that aims to serve US interests. Instead, the unconditional – and, often, self-defeating — US government funding of the Israeli war machine is linked largely to domestic American politics and, indeed, the unparalleled power wielded by the pro-Israel lobby in the United States.
According to the public policy research institute of the United States Congress, the Congressional Research Centre (CRS), between 1946 and 2019 (including the requested funds for 2020) US aid to Israel has exceeded $142 billion.
Most of this immense sum of money — over $101 billion — went directly to the Israeli military budget, while over $34 billion and $7 billion went to Israel in terms of economic aid and missile defense funding respectively.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the US no longer possesses a well-defined and centralized strategy in the Middle East; President Donald Trump changes American priorities from one speech or tweet to the next. However, the one consistent key phrase in whatever political agenda happens to be championed by Washington in the region at any particular time is: “Israel’s security”.
This precarious term seems to be linked to every American action pertaining to the Middle East, as it has for decades under every American administration, without exception. Wars have been launched or funded in the name of Israel’s security; human rights have been violated on a massive scale; the five-decade — and counting — military occupation of Palestine, the protracted siege of the impoverished Gaza Strip and much more, have all been carried out, defended and sustained in the name of Israel’s security.
US aid to Israel — the occupying state — continues, while all American aid to the Palestinians — the people under Israeli occupation — has been cut off, including the $300 million annual donations to the UN Agency responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
The Agency has provided education, healthcare, and shelter for millions of refugees since 1949, but is now, bizarrely, seen by both Israel and the US as “an obstacle to peace”.
Inexplicably, Israel receives roughly “one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though (it) comprises just .001 percent of the world’s population and already has one of the world’s higher per capita incomes,” wrote Professor Stephen Zunes in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
This massive budget includes much more than the $3.3 billion of annual funding, but the other amounts and perks rarely make headlines. Anywhere between $500 million to $800 million is given to Israel every year as part of a missile defense package; an additional $1 billion benefits Israel in the form of tax-deductible donations, while $500 billion is invested in Israeli bonds.
Then there are the loan guarantees, where the US government assumes the responsibility for billions of dollars that Israel can access as a borrower from international creditors. If Israel defaults on its loans, it is the legal responsibility of the US government to offset the interest on the borrowed money.
Since 1982, Israel has been receiving US aid as a lump sum, as opposed to scheduled payments, as happens with other countries. To fulfill its self-imposed obligations to Israel, the US government borrows the money and is thus left to pay interest on the loans. “Israel even lends some of this money back through US treasury bills and collects the additional interest,” Zunes explained.
US relations with Israel are not governed by the kind of political wisdom that is predicated on mutual benefit. But they are not entirely irrational either, as the American ruling classes have aligned their interests, their perception of the Middle East and their country’s role in that region with that of Israel, thanks to years of media and official indoctrination.
Despite the fact that the US is retreating from the region, lacking strategy and future vision, lawmakers in Washington are congratulating themselves on passing yet another generous aid package to Israel. They feel proud of their great feat because, in their confused thinking, a ‘secured’ Israel is the only guarantor of US dominance in the Middle East. That is a theory that has been proven false, time and time again.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
Republican and Democratic Senators have recently ensured just that, passing a bill aimed at providing Israel with $3.3 billion in aid every year.
The Bill, co-sponsored by Democratic Senator Chris Coons and Republican Senator Marco Rubio, was passed on 9 January, only one day after Iran struck US positions in Iraq. Enthusiasm to push the Bill forward was meant to be an assurance to Tel Aviv from Washington that the US is committed to Israel’s security and military superiority in the Middle East.
Despite a palpable sense of war fatigue among all Americans, regardless of their political leaning, their country continues to sink deeper into Middle East conflicts simply because it is unable – or perhaps unwilling — to challenge Israel’s benefactors across the US government. “What’s good for Israel is good for America” continues to be the supreme maxim within Washington’s political elites, despite the fact that such irrational thinking has wrought disasters on the Middle East as a whole, and is finally forcing a hasty and humiliating American retreat.
The latest aid package to Israel will officially put into law a “Memorandum of Understanding” that was reached between the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Barack Obama administration in 2016. At the time, Obama had offered Israel the largest military aid package in US history.
Senator Rubio explained the passing of the recent Bill in terms of the “unprecedented threats” that are supposedly faced by Israel. Coons, meanwhile, said that “the events of the past few days [the US-Iran escalation], were a stark reminder of the importance of US assistance to Israel’s security.”
What is particularly odd about Coons’ statement is the fact that it was not Israel, but US positions in Iraq that were struck by Iranian missiles, and that they were fired in response to the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
Yet, the American taxpayers’ funding of Israel’s military adventures continues unabated, despite the rapidly changing political reality in the Middle East, and the shifting US role in the region. This confirms further that the blind US support of Israel is not motivated by a centralized, distinctly American, strategy that aims to serve US interests. Instead, the unconditional – and, often, self-defeating — US government funding of the Israeli war machine is linked largely to domestic American politics and, indeed, the unparalleled power wielded by the pro-Israel lobby in the United States.
According to the public policy research institute of the United States Congress, the Congressional Research Centre (CRS), between 1946 and 2019 (including the requested funds for 2020) US aid to Israel has exceeded $142 billion.
Most of this immense sum of money — over $101 billion — went directly to the Israeli military budget, while over $34 billion and $7 billion went to Israel in terms of economic aid and missile defense funding respectively.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the US no longer possesses a well-defined and centralized strategy in the Middle East; President Donald Trump changes American priorities from one speech or tweet to the next. However, the one consistent key phrase in whatever political agenda happens to be championed by Washington in the region at any particular time is: “Israel’s security”.
This precarious term seems to be linked to every American action pertaining to the Middle East, as it has for decades under every American administration, without exception. Wars have been launched or funded in the name of Israel’s security; human rights have been violated on a massive scale; the five-decade — and counting — military occupation of Palestine, the protracted siege of the impoverished Gaza Strip and much more, have all been carried out, defended and sustained in the name of Israel’s security.
US aid to Israel — the occupying state — continues, while all American aid to the Palestinians — the people under Israeli occupation — has been cut off, including the $300 million annual donations to the UN Agency responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
The Agency has provided education, healthcare, and shelter for millions of refugees since 1949, but is now, bizarrely, seen by both Israel and the US as “an obstacle to peace”.
Inexplicably, Israel receives roughly “one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though (it) comprises just .001 percent of the world’s population and already has one of the world’s higher per capita incomes,” wrote Professor Stephen Zunes in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
This massive budget includes much more than the $3.3 billion of annual funding, but the other amounts and perks rarely make headlines. Anywhere between $500 million to $800 million is given to Israel every year as part of a missile defense package; an additional $1 billion benefits Israel in the form of tax-deductible donations, while $500 billion is invested in Israeli bonds.
Then there are the loan guarantees, where the US government assumes the responsibility for billions of dollars that Israel can access as a borrower from international creditors. If Israel defaults on its loans, it is the legal responsibility of the US government to offset the interest on the borrowed money.
Since 1982, Israel has been receiving US aid as a lump sum, as opposed to scheduled payments, as happens with other countries. To fulfill its self-imposed obligations to Israel, the US government borrows the money and is thus left to pay interest on the loans. “Israel even lends some of this money back through US treasury bills and collects the additional interest,” Zunes explained.
US relations with Israel are not governed by the kind of political wisdom that is predicated on mutual benefit. But they are not entirely irrational either, as the American ruling classes have aligned their interests, their perception of the Middle East and their country’s role in that region with that of Israel, thanks to years of media and official indoctrination.
Despite the fact that the US is retreating from the region, lacking strategy and future vision, lawmakers in Washington are congratulating themselves on passing yet another generous aid package to Israel. They feel proud of their great feat because, in their confused thinking, a ‘secured’ Israel is the only guarantor of US dominance in the Middle East. That is a theory that has been proven false, time and time again.
– Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
19 jan 2020
Israeli Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett, Saturday evening, gave the Israeli army instructions that restrict the activities of peace activists who participate in the weekly protests against the apartheid wall in the occupied West Bank.
Hebrew channel 12 reported that the decision is made in cooperation with Israeli army and police. It noted that the decision was taken against left-wing activists, claiming that they make chaos.
The Israeli army accused the activists of provoking members of Israeli army in the areas where protests took place, against West Bank settlements, such as Bil’in, Ni’lin and Kufr Qaddoum.
Bennett said: “No one has the right to harm our soldiers, it is time to stop these provocations and crack down on them.”
Dozens of local and international peace activists have participated weekly in demonstrations against the apartheid wall, in the occupied West Bank, for many years.
Israeli occupation authorities started to build a wall between the occupied West Bank and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 1948, during the era of Ariel Sharon in 2002, under the pretext of preventing attacks against Israel.
Palestinians and many internationals simply refer to it as “The Apartheid Wall.”
According to estimates, the area of the isolated and besieged Palestinian lands between the wall and the 1948 borders amounted to about 680 square kilometers in 2012; in other words, it expropriates 12 % of the area of the West Bank.
Al Ray further reports that, in 2004, the International Court of Justice of the United Nations adopted an advisory decision to condemn and criminalize the annexation and expansion wall, and the court’s decision considered the Israeli settlements in all its forms illegal, and contradicts the international law and legitimacy.
Hebrew channel 12 reported that the decision is made in cooperation with Israeli army and police. It noted that the decision was taken against left-wing activists, claiming that they make chaos.
The Israeli army accused the activists of provoking members of Israeli army in the areas where protests took place, against West Bank settlements, such as Bil’in, Ni’lin and Kufr Qaddoum.
Bennett said: “No one has the right to harm our soldiers, it is time to stop these provocations and crack down on them.”
Dozens of local and international peace activists have participated weekly in demonstrations against the apartheid wall, in the occupied West Bank, for many years.
Israeli occupation authorities started to build a wall between the occupied West Bank and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 1948, during the era of Ariel Sharon in 2002, under the pretext of preventing attacks against Israel.
Palestinians and many internationals simply refer to it as “The Apartheid Wall.”
According to estimates, the area of the isolated and besieged Palestinian lands between the wall and the 1948 borders amounted to about 680 square kilometers in 2012; in other words, it expropriates 12 % of the area of the West Bank.
Al Ray further reports that, in 2004, the International Court of Justice of the United Nations adopted an advisory decision to condemn and criminalize the annexation and expansion wall, and the court’s decision considered the Israeli settlements in all its forms illegal, and contradicts the international law and legitimacy.
