Israel news:
Elor Azarya is hoping the Chief of Staff will lighten his sentence to more time in community service instead of a year and a half imprisonment. If a decision isn’t made Elor will start his prison term in two days.
A bus that serviced Jewish residents and Kollel students in Silwan was set on fire by Arab rioters who threw Molotov cocktails. The bus was totally destroyed but no one was harmed.
Arab children threw rocks at the tomb of Rachel and were immediately arrested and released with their parents each paying a 500 dinar fine.
Finance Minister and MK Moshe Kachalon originally made a law that would tax owners of a third apartment to discourage investors from buying properties and driving up the demand for properties and forcing them to sell so that young couples who can’t afford to buy a home will now be closer to that goal. The law drew a lot of opposition as only cosmetically helping Israel’s real estate supply and demand problem and yet bringing hundreds of millions of shekels to government coffers for scant improvement of a desperate situation. The law’s implementation was deferred till this fall and was to be implemented then. However the Supreme Court struck down the law saying that it was railroaded through the Knesset without proper review and was improperly passed. Moshe Kachalon says: “Tens of thousands of young couples are disappointed. I will continue to fight for them with every tool at my disposal.”
Some of the tools not being considered:
Lowering the taxes on housing for young couples.
Lowering the general cost of building by lowering the price of ‘Land Ministry lands’ and by lowering taxes to the whole market.
Flooding the market with land to drop the prices
These steps don’t involve taking from the citizen as the law proposes but giving citizens the chance to buy a home at a fair price. Taxes and fees account for about 40% of building costs.
Anti-biotic treatments to be shortened in the Israeli health system in light of the world scare of superbugs developing that are immune to anti-biotics. Israel uses anti-biotics more than many other countries and they want to curtail its use as much as possible.
World news:
New York Times ‘fake news’ publicized that Mike Pence is preparing to run for president in 2020. Vice president Pence dismissed the report as ‘contemptible and harmful’.
At a conference in Manila with China, North Korea dismissed South Korea’s overtures of increased diplomacy as “lacking honesty”. Meanwhile Trump and South Korea agreed in a phone conversation to increase pressure on North Korea while leaving the option of diplomacy open.
Nikki Haley expressed her pleasure with the UN Security Council’s vote to sanction North Korea: She told Fox News: “The US will respond based on North Korea’s actions… all options have always been on the table and will continue to be on the table… it’s time for North Korea to realize we’re not playing anymore.”