From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Uruguay elects president with ties to Israel, Jewish community
(JTA) — Uruguay elected a president who has twice traveled to Israel and has an open dialogue with his country’s Jewish community.
Dr. Tabare Vazquez, the ruling leftist coalition candidate, was confirmed as president Monday with 53.6 percent of the vote in the second round of national elections. Rightist Luis Lacallae Pou garnered 41.1 percent of the vote.
Vazquez, 74, will be president of the South American country for the second time. During his first administration, 2005 to 2010, he made an official three-day visit as a guest of then-President Shimon Peres, during which he visited the Weizmann Institute, Schneider Children’s Hospital and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.
Vazquez, an oncologist, also traveled to Israel in 1982, representing Uruguay in an international seminar about cancer research.
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From PressTV
Israeli forces shoot Palestinian woman in West Bank
Israeli forces have shot a Palestinian woman near an illegal Jewish settlement bloc in the southern occupied West Bank.
The incident took place on Monday at a crossroads in south of Bethelhem.
Israeli police sources claim the woman was shot after she stabbed an Israeli soldier near the Gush Etzion settlement.
Police reports say the solider also suffered minor injuries. Further details have not yet been released.
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From PressTV
US rules out Syria border no-fly zone
The United States has rejected the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over northeastern Syria along the border with Turkey to deny the Syrian military the ability to launch airstrikes there.
The US was “open to discussing a range of options with the Turks” but that a no-fly zone over Syria was not on the table “at this point,” President Barack Obama’s spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday.
Turkey has requested the US to establish a buffer zone along the Turkish-Syrian border.
“A no-fly zone must be declared and this no fly-zone must be secured,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters on September 26 on his return from the 69th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Associated Press reported.
From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Coalition rift has Israel heading toward early elections
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel may be heading to early elections, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid accused of each other of fomenting a coalition crisis.
Netanyahu, head of the Likud party, and Lapid, whose party has the most seats in the coalition government, in a meeting on Monday night failed to repair the coalition rift, leading both sides to say that the early vote will be called.
The Israeli media reported that the elections would come in March. Elections are scheduled for November 2017.
A bill disbanding the Knesset could come to a vote as early as Wednesday.
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From the Jewish Telegrapic Agency
Israel’s Cabinet retains amendment to jail rabbis who perform private weddings
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Cabinet let stand an amendment that would subject rabbis who perform wedding ceremonies outside the Chief Rabbinate’s purview and the marrying couple to a jail term of up to two years.
On Sunday, the Cabinet debated the amendment to legislation passed last year that allows couples to go outside their own communities to find a rabbi certified by the Chief Rabbinate to marry them. Dozens of couples marry outside of the Chief Rabbinate every year.
“The present law is an outrage,” Rabbi Seth Farber, director of the ITIM Advocacy Center, which wrote the proposed change to the amendment, said in a statement. “I am disappointed that the Cabinet couldn’t look beyond petty politics in order to rectify this law, which is disproportionately severe and ludicrous. Israel is now among a few select countries where it is a criminal act to perform a chuppah.”
Farber said his organization will now seek litigation to protect rabbis and couples who want to be married outside the Chief Rabbinate.
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From PressTV
Israeli forces take Syria militants to Israel’s hospitals
Israeli forces have taken three wounded militants belonging to Takfiri groups fighting against the Syrian government to hospitals in Israel.
According to reports by Israeli media on Monday, two of the Takfiri militants were transported to Nahariya Hospital in Galilee, and the third one was taken to Poriya Hospital in the Israeli coastal city of Tiberias.
The reports also revealed that in excess of 449 wounded militants have been treated at Nahariya Hospital.
Last month, the Israeli media said, “Poriya Hospital has treated 124 wounded from Syria so far.”
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