The president and CEO of the United Jewish Communities says the Israeli government is shirking its responsibilities to its war-weary communities. In interviews with various Israeli media during his visit this week to the Jewish state, Howard Rieger said the Israeli government has not followed through on its commitments to rebuild Israel’s north and Sderot a year after Israel’s war with Hezbollah and amid ongoing shelling from the Gaza Strip. “You got a problem, we’re there to help solve it when it fits in the context of an emergency,” Rieger said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post. He expressed concern that the government again was asking the UJC for money to refurbish bomb shelters. “A year later I think, why hasn’t it been solved within the last 12 months?” Rieger also said Israel has failed to fulfill its commitments to accelerate the pace of Ethiopian aliyah and ease the absorption of Ethiopians into Israel. “The government never met that commitment,” Rieger told Yediot Achronot.
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