NEW EMBASSY
Papua New Guinea opened its embassy in Jerusalem on September 5, becoming the fifth nation to do so, at a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Papua New Guinean counterpart, James Marape. “Today is a milestone moment for my country Papua New Guinea,” Marape said. “We are here to give respect to the people of Israel to the fullest.” The embassy is located in the Jerusalem Technology Park in Malha, where Guatemala and Honduras have their embassies.
LEW NOMINATED
Former US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew was nominated on September 5 to be the next American ambassador to Israel amid Republican protest, partially due to his role in crafting the 2015 Iran deal. Lew was White House chief of staff from 2012 to 2013, and a member of former US president Bill Clinton’s cabinet from 1998 to 2001. If the appointment is approved, Lew, an observant Jew from New York, would replace Tom Nides, who left the post in July. Lew is “a true friend of Israel,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said, adding: “We look forward to working with him in the spirit of cooperation and to an alliance based on shared values.”
ISRAEL’S POPULATION
Some 9.8 million people were living in Israel ahead of Rosh Hashanah, with the country’s population expected to reach 10 million people by the end of next year, according to data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics on September 13. By the end of 2048, Israel’s population is expected to reach 15 million people. Of the 9.8 million people living in Israel, 7.2 million (73%) are Jews, about 2.1 million (21%) are Arabs, and another 549,000 are from other sectors, the CBS said.
CYPRUS RAPE
Six Israeli citizens were arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of raping a female British tourist, the Foreign Ministry said on September 4, in another allegation of group sex crimes by Israelis against a British citizen in the resort town of Ayia Napa. The suspects are 19-20 years old from the Arab Israeli town of Majdl el-Krum. A 19-year-old British woman alleged in 2019 that she had been gang-raped by around 12 Jewish-Israeli teenagers in Ayia Napa. She filed a complaint with the Cypriot police but later withdrew her statement and was charged for filing a false complaint.
WEIZMANN BREAKTHROUGH
Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have created a model of a human embryo from stem cells in the laboratory, without using sperm, eggs or a womb, offering a unique glimpse into the early stages of embryonic development. The breakthrough was published in the journal Nature on September 6 after a pre-print came out in June, during the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)’s annual meeting in Boston. “The question is, when does an embryo model become considered an embryo? When that happens, we know the regulations. At the moment we are really, really far off from that point,” said team leader Jacob Hanna.
FLAG FOOTBALL
The Israel Under-17 National Team won the gold medal at the first International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Flag Football European Youth Championships, completed on September 3 in Grosseto, Italy. Israel defeated Serbia 34-14 in the gold-medal game, after topping host Italy in a tight semifinal. The win came despite forfeiting a game scheduled for Shabbat, which all three Israeli teams, which have many members from Orthodox homes, refused to play. Israel had appealed the IFAF on Saturday scheduling for its teams.
SHAVIT DIES
Former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit died at age 84 during a trip to Italy, the intelligence agency announced on September 5. Shavit was the spy organization’s director from 1989-1996, during which time he significantly broadened its relations in the Middle East and globally. After retiring, Shavit served in many capacities, including founding chairman of Reichman University’s International Counter Terrorism Institute. and advisor to the Israeli National Security Council, In his book The Head of the Mossad, he describes his experiences and familiarity with Iran, gained from living there in the mid-1960s for 18 months.
SHUK LADY
Food writer and Mahaneh Yehuda tour guide Sybil Kaplan, whose article on “Rosh Hashanah: Tastes and traditions” appeared in the recent issue of The Jerusalem Report, died in Jerusalem on September 5. Born in Kansas 84 years ago, Kaplan made aliyah in 1970. She wrote a story about her career in journalism a few months ago under the title “The ‘shuk lady’ cooks,” featuring this photograph and the cover of one of her nine cookbooks.