Israel will have to return two parcels of agricultural land in the Jordan Valley to Jordan after the Hashemite Kingdom refused to extend a lease on the lands outlined in the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty.
The transition will affect dozens of Israeli farmers who have been working the 247 acres of land for the past 25 years.
The two parcels of land, Naharayim in the Jordan Valley and Tzofar in the Arava, include the Island of Peace Park at the junction between the Jordan and Yarmouk rivers. They were returned to Jordan as part of the 1994 peace treaty, but leased by Israel under a special clause with the provision that Israel would have use of the land for 25 years and be able to renew as a matter of procedure.

The global Jewish population hovers around 14.8 million ahead of Rosh Hashanah, which marks the start of the year 5780, according to estimates published by Professor Sergio Della Pergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the American Jewish Year Book 2019.
Of this year’s nearly 15 million Jews, an estimated 8.1 million live outside of Israel, including around 5.7 million in the United States. In Israel, the number of Jews is close to 6.7 million, compared to 6.6 million in the Jewish year 5779. Many more reside in Europe and countries around the world.

Nearly two years after James A. Fields Jr. rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters at a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, the avowed neo-Nazi and convicted murderer apologized in court Friday as a federal judge sentenced him to life in prison for 29 federal hate crimes.
“Every day I think about how things could have gone differently, and how I regret my actions,” he said in a packed courtroom here. “I am sorry.”

Special counsel Robert Mueller said Wednesday that he would not testify before Congress on Russian interference.
“I hope and expect this to be the only time that I will speak to you in this manner,” Mueller said in remarks from the Justice Department. “I am making that decision myself — no one has told me whether I can or should testify or speak further about this matter.”
Mueller also said that any testimony he would give publicly would not go beyond what is already laid out in the public version of his 448-page report.
Wednesday’s comments marked Mueller’s first public statements on the investigation, which he concluded earlier this year.

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The heads of Israel’s charedi parties on Monday morning met Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at his home, Kikar Shabbos reported.
Netanyahu’s meeting with Shas leader Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and UTJ’s Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman came just before the two met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to recommend Netanyahu continue in his position as PM.
“We recommend Netanyahu as candidate for the premiership,” said Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman.
“We worked with him during the previous term. We did everything we could for the Jewish people, and so we think that he is the right candidate for prime minister.”
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}