Gennady Kernes, the Jewish mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine, was shot and wounded on Monday, Interfax-Ukraine has reported. Kernes was a strong supporter of deposed President Viktor Yanukovych. The Interior Ministry announced that local police are investigating. The motives for the shooting are still unclear.

Kernes was shot in the back earlier today, his press secretary told Interfax. “He is currently in intensive care. Doctors are fighting for his life. Surgery is under way,” she said.

Kharkiv is one of the most pro-Russian cities in the country’s Russian speaking east and was one of the only locations in which government forces have been able to dislodge separatists occupying government buildings. Kernes initially exhibited separatist leanings but later recanted, supporting the new administration in Kiev.

The city has been the site of ongoing clashes between supporters of the new administration in Kiev and those in favor of federalization. Fourteen people were injured in a flight between the two factions on Sunday.

After Yanukovych’s ouster in February, Kernes temporarily fled Ukraine. He has been accused by critics of sending gangs to attack anti-government protesters in Kiev.

US President Barack Obama announced new sanctions against some Russians on Monday to stop President Vladimir Putin from fomenting the rebellion in eastern Ukraine, but said he was holding broader measures against Russia's economy "in reserve".

Reuters contributed to this report

A top Hamas official said that the newly announced Palestinian unity government “will not recognize ‘Israel’ and will not give up the resistance,” throwing into jeopardy the new ruling government’s access to U.S. assistance and other measures.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to dissolve the long ruling Palestinian Authority and and has now surprised observers by forming a government with the terror group Hamas, which rules over the Gaza Strip.

Hamas and Fatah—Abbas’s political party that controls the West Bank—surprised Middle East observers on Wednesday morning by announcing that the rival groups would put aside differences to form a unity government with elections scheduled for later this year.

The move tossed another wrench into the fledgling peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and prompted sharp responses from U.S. officials.

Events took another surprising turn this afternoon when top Hamas official Hassan Yousef announced that the terror group would not renounce its commitment to violence and the destruction of Israel, according to Palestinian groups monitoring the situation.

Hamas will not recognize Israel—a chief sticking point in peace talks with Abbas—and “will not give up the resistance,” which is widely interpreted to refer to Hamas’s ongoing terror attacks against Israeli civilians and military personnel.

The announcement of the unity government came just days after Abbas threatened to completely dissolve the PA should peace talks come to a complete halt.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the news with skepticism.

“The Palestinian Authority, which just yesterday spoke about its dissolution, is now talking about reconciling with Hamas,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying. “They should decide what they want—dissolution to reconciliation? They should let us know when they want peace, because we want a true peace.”

Netanyahu said on Wednesday following news of the unity government that Abbas is siding with terror over peace.

“Does he [Abbas] want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel?” he asked. “You can have one but not the other. I hope he chooses peace, so far he hasn’t done so.”

State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki warned that the move could demolish the peace talks as well as America’s relationship with the PA.

“A great deal of effort has gone into building Palestinian institutions by Palestinians as well as the international community, and it would certainly not be in the interests of the Palestinian people for all of that to be lost,” Psaki told reporters.

Such a move would jeopardize U.S. assistance to the Palestinians, which has topped $100 million in recent years.

“The United States has put millions of dollars into this effort. It would obviously have very serious implications for our relationship, including our assistance going forward,” Psaki said.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinin (R., Fla.) announced on Wednesday that she will be lobbying other members of Congress to cut off aid to the Palestinians.

“The administration must halt aid to the Palestinian Authority and condition any future assistance as leverage to force Abu Mazen to abandon this reconciliation with Hamas and to implement real reforms within the PA,” she said in a statement.

“U.S. law is clear on the prohibition of U.S. assistance to a unity Palestinian government that includes Hamas, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, and President Obama must not allow one cent of American taxpayer money to help fund this terrorist group,” Ros-Lehtinen said.

“In the coming weeks, I will convene a subcommittee hearing on this issue and many more regarding the PA, Israel and the peace process,” she said. “It’s long past time the U.S. reassess its relationship with the corrupt Abu Mazen and his cronies.”

While Abbas has threatened to disband the PA in the past, the collapse of the latest round of U.S.-led peace talks has lent some urgency to his threat.

Israel could be forced to reassume governing control of the Palestinian territories, such as it did in the days before the Oslo accords.

A unilaterally established independent State of Palestine could complicate things further. Such a state would not be beholden to any security agreements with Israel or the United States and would not be forced to engage in any transparency measures.

Of the 193,000 Holocaust survivors living in Israel today, some 50,000 live in poverty, according to a report released Wednesday by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel.

The report consisted of several elements, including updated statistics gathered by the Foundation as well as two surveys– one among 400 Holocaust survivors and the second among 500 people from the general public.

Of the Holocaust survivors surveyed, 45% indicated they feel “alone” and one out of every five survivors was forced to choose between food and other necessities during the past two years due to financial problems.

Chaya Kujikaro, a 76-year-old Holocaust survivor from Romania could not hold back tears as she described her living situation at the press conference announcing the report.  Kujikaro and her husband made aliya after 1953, and as such she is not entitled to the same rights as Holocaust survivors by the State of Israel.

“I want to ask the government, why if you made aliya after 1953 are you not considered a Holocaust survivor?” she asked.

Kujikaro lives off of a National Insurance Institute pension with her 90-year-old husband who suffers from heart problems and is confined to a wheel chair. They are forced to spend thousands of shekels every month on medications and medical treatments and their apartment is too small for the wheel chair to fit into the bathroom and shower.

“It is very difficult for us and we don't see any exit from this [situation], sometimes we just want to end our lives, but this is not how we want to [die],” she said.

Kujikaro is not alone, according to the survey 60% of Holocaust survivors are worried about their financial situation; with 55% of survivors responding that they are unhappy with the way the government treats them.  Furthermore, 61% said they did not feel any difference in the past year with regard to government assistance and treatment.

“If the state was a bit more considerate, could help us a little bit, how much longer will we live?” she asked.

The findings also indicated that 43% of Holocaust survivors fear that the Holocaust will happen again and one out of three survivors worries that the younger generations will not remember the Holocaust.

The survey was conducted by telephone in the second half of March among 400 Holocaust survivors living in Israel and reflects a +/- 4.9% margin of error.

In comparison, the public survey findings indicated that a majority of the general population, 84%, believe the treatment of Holocaust survivors was “not good.”

Of the respondents, 52% believe that a majority of Holocaust survivors live in poverty and only 10% said they believe the situation of Holocaust survivors was “good or adequate.” 

In addition, 56% of the general public said they did not believe there was any change made by the government this past year with regards to treating and assisting Holocaust survivors.

The findings also revealed that only 39% of people surveyed said they know a Holocaust survivor.  Despite this, 73% of the respondents believe that the public will remember the Holocaust even after the death of the survivors.

The public survey was conducted March 23 and 24 by telephone and questioned some 500 Jewish adults aged 18 and up; the survey reflects a +/- 4.5% margin of error.

According to the report, the average age of the Holocaust survivor in Israel today is 85-years-old and some two thirds are women. Each year an estimated 13,000 survivors pass away.

According to the report, during the past year some 70,000 Holocaust survivors requested assistance from the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel.

Of the survivors seeking assistance from the foundation, 65% are above the age of 80, and 45% are above the age of 86.  Furthermore, 86% live on a monthly income of less that NIS 5,000 and 66% live on a monthly income of up to NIS 3,000.

Earlier this month Finance Minister Yair Lapid announced aNIS one billion national plan to assist Holocaust survivors.

The intended budget will be added to the NIS 835 million already allotted by the ministry for the next five years to assist Holocaust survivors.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has reportedly threatened to dissolve the PA and disband Palestinian security forces operating in the West Bank if peace negotiations with Israel fail, a move which would create huge security and diplomatic problems for Israel.

According to Palestinian sources cited by Yedioth Ahronoth on Sunday, Abbas and top PA officials are considering the drastic move, which would involve canceling the 1993 Oslo Accords and announcing that the Palestinian Authority is a “government under occupation” without full sovereignty, which would technically move full responsibility for the Palestinians, in the West Bank at least, to Israel.

The threat, which has reportedly been passed on to Israel, would also disband and abolish PA security forces operating in the West Bank, theoretically opening the way for expanded Palestinian unrest against Israeli forces. The move could also prompt a surge in international legal and diplomatic action against Israel.

Yedioth said a vote on the move is scheduled for a PLO meeting on Saturday, three days before the peace talks are currently scheduled to end.

The prospect of the PA’s dissolution was greeted with derision on Sunday by Economics Minister and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett, who has been a vocal critic of the negotiations. As PA head, Abbas is “encouraging terrorism against Israel” with his threat, Bennett told Maariv.

“If he wants to go, we won’t stop him. Israel won’t conduct negotiations with a gun to our head,” he said.

The current round of US-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are scheduled to end on April 29 after a nine-month negotiating period, and the two sides have been unable to come to an agreement to extend the talks. State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said last week that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are striving to reach an agreement to extend their peace talks beyond the deadline.

However, officials in Jerusalem said Friday that no progress had been made in emergency talks that took place between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators the night before, and that the two sides would meet again this week after the Passover holiday.

Washington is pushing for an extension, but the negotiations hit an impasse two weeks ago when Israel refused to release a group of Palestinian prisoners as agreed at last year’s launch of the talks.

Under the agreement, Israel had committed to a four-phase release of 104 prisoners held since before the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords, but it cancelled the release of the last group of 26 at the end of March. Among them are 14 Israeli Arabs who the Jewish state is refusing to free. It also wanted a prior commitment from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to extend the peace negotiations, which Abbas refused to make.

According to Israel Radio, the Palestinians are adamant in their demand that all 26 prisoners be released, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to concede on the issue of releasing the Israeli Arab terrorists. The head of the Shin Bet security service advised Netanyahu to release the 14 Israeli Arab prisoners in question and deport them to the Gaza Strip or abroad, the report said, but Netanyahu said he would not act in a way that may endanger Israeli citizens. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a group of Israeli MKs last week that he opposed any such deportation.

The Palestinians retaliated for the delay in the prisoner releases by seeking accession to several international treaties, a move Israel described as a “major breach” of understandings.

Abbas told the Israeli opposition MPs visiting him in the West Bank city of Ramallah last Wednesday that if talks were extended, he would want the first three months “devoted to a serious discussion of borders,” Haaretz reported.

The Palestinians want a state based on the lines that existed before Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Six-Day War.

By Associated Press, Published: April 14

UNITED NATIONS — Israel’s U.N. ambassador on Monday denounced a U.N. agency head for tacitly comparing the Jewish state to Nazi Germany and has demanded her suspension.

Israeli Ambassador Ron Prosor castigated Rima Khalaf, the head of the Arab-oriented Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, and called on the Secretary-General to suspend her.

In a speech in late February, Khalaf referred to “Israel’s adamancy that it is a Jewish State, which violates the rights of both the Muslim and Christian indigenous populations and revives the concept of state ethnic and religious purity, which caused egregious human suffering during the 20th century.”

U.N. diplomats generally refer to massive “human suffering during the 20th century” as a way of referring to the Holocaust without having to name Hitler in every speech, or gratuitously slur Germany, a major U.N. member state, every time the issue comes up.

Khalaf, who is Jordanian, ‘did not name Nazi Germany or make a specific comparison. The Holocaust would be one obvious inference from her speech, though there were many ethnic and religious purges, massacres and wars in the 20th century.

She clearly had issues with Israel, as she also said in her Feb. 25 speech in Tunis, “Foreign interference comes in various forms, such as violations of Arab rights and dignity, but its worst manifestation is the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the Syrian Golan Heights and Lebanese territories, in flagrant breach of international conventions and resolutions.”

Khalaf was introducing a report on development in Western Asia, and said: “The authors of the report claim that the damage caused by Israeli policies is not limited to occupation activities, but they believe that aggressive Israeli policies, including its support for discord aimed at establishing Arab sectarian mini-States and its nuclear program that is not subject to international monitoring, pose a continuous threat to the security of Arab citizens in the region as a whole.”

Prosor called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to suspend her and said, “It is unacceptable that inflammatory anti-Israel messages continue to be produced under the banner of the United Nations and using U.N. resources. By demonizing Israel, Ms. Khalaf is advancing a personal agenda rather than furthering the cause of peace or advancing regional Arab development.  Senior U.N. officials should lead by example and demonstrate tolerance rather than prejudice.”

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