Jerusalem (TPS) – Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat praised the Czech government on Wednesday for reversing a decision last week by its Education Ministry to require the removal of any reference to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in educational books. Barkat called the decision a victory against Palestinian incitement and lies against Israel.

“Truth has overcome lies,” said Barkat. “Future generations of Czech students will continue to learn the truth: Jerusalem is Israel’s capital and the heart and soul of the Jewish people.”

Last week, the Education Ministry in Prague ordered the Shocart publishing company to erase references to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, after Palestinian Authority ambassador to the Czech Republic Khaled al-Atrash complained that Shocart school atlases referred to the city as the Jewish state’s capital.

“The atlas says something that is unacceptable not only for the Palestinians but also according to international law and the official position of the European Union, including the Czech Republic,” argued al-Atrash.

Irena Valentova, a spokeswoman for the Czech Foreign Ministry, initially told local media that the country does not consider “east Jerusalem” to be Israeli territory.

“The EU member countries, including the Czech Republic, view Jerusalem as the future capital of both states, i.e. the State of Israel and the future State of Palestine,” Valentova said.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry slammed the short-lived policy, saying the Palestinian Authority is “no longer satisfied with poisoning the minds of Palestinian youth. Now it wants to spread lies and misinformation among Czech youth as well.”

Sunday, Barkat added his voice to the protest, asking Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka to reverse the decision.

“ Just as Prague is the capital of the Czech Republic, so too is Jerusalem the eternal capital of Israel,” Barkat wrote. “Future generations of Czech students deserve nothing less than the truth: Jerusalem’s rightful place as the capital of Israel, and the heart and soul of the Jewish people, cannot and should not, be denied,” Barkat continued.

By Tuesday, Education Minister Valentova had reversed the decision, saying “Jerusalem is Israel’s capital from the viewpoint of the declaration of the country to which this relates, which means Israel.”

“I am pleased that my letter to Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, together with other diplomatic efforts, have positively impacted this decision,” said Barkat on Wednesday. “I’m thankful to the Czech government for making the right choice, and for refusing to surrender to Palestinian incitement and lies.”

The newest recruits to the Israel Police force have arrived from the Czech Republic, and they are hairier than usual. Much hairier.

The 20 newest members of the Israel Police K-9 unit are all one year old, and were taken for a well-check prior to starting their six-month training program.

Once they’ve completed their “basic training,” the K-9 rookies will join the 220 other K-9 officers who comprise the rest of force.

Real national disposable income per capita in Israel has gone up by 1.7% in 2014 compared with the year before, reaching a level of 119% compared with the year 2000, Israel’s Central Board of Statistics announced on Wednesday.

In 2014, the government debt as a percentage of GDP (65%) was lower than that of France (85%), Spain (88%), the UK (94%), the US (98%), and Italy (127%). It was higher than Germany’s (48%), the Czech Republic (46%), Sweden (44%), Turkey (37%), Switzerland (21%), and Norway (17%).

Between the years 2008-2011 there was a moderate rise in net income inequality in Israel (according to the Gini coefficient, a.k.a. the Gini index or Gini ratio — a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income distribution of a nation’s residents, which is the most commonly used measure of inequality.) It was followed by a downward trend in the Gini index until 2013, but remains high in Israel, compared with other OECD countries — higher than the US, Turkey, Mexico and Chile.

In 2013, the net annual income per standard capita was 91,604 shekel ($24,283), a rise of 5% compared with the year before, in 2013 rates. The net annual reported income per standard capita in Jewish households was double the amount in Arab households.

In 2013, Israel’s household debt as a percentage of GDP (47%) was significantly lower than most other OECD countries, such as Spain (79%), France (63%), Germany (56%), and Italy (49%). It was still higher than that of Poland (35%), Slovakia (32%), and Hungary (31%).

58% of Israelis ages 20 and up were satisfied with their economic situation in 2014: 59% of men, 57% of women.

Israeli Jews were more satisfied than Israeli Arabs — 60% vs. 48% respectively.

(JNi.media) “On the invitation of President Hassan Rouhani, I will pay a visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran from September 7-9, 2015,” wrote Austrian President Heinz Fischer, and news agency IRNA published every word. “A high-level political, economic, scientific and cultural delegation will accompany me,” the president added. “I am very much looking forward to my stay.”

Fischer noted that “Austria was honored to host the E3+3 negotiations in Vienna. I welcome the positive conclusion of the negotiations and the agreement on a ‘Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.’ It shows that with persistence, goodwill and the readiness to compromise a good result for both sides can be achieved by way of diplomacy. I hope that the planned roadmap will be implemented by all sides, in every respect.”

After spending several paragraphs on a description of the Austrian-Iranian relationship that goes back to the 1850s, Fischer gets to the money shot: “During the ‘Iran-EU Conference, Trade and Investment’ organized by Iran on July 23-24, 2015 in Vienna, interesting investment opportunities have been presented,” he writes. “In preparation for my visit, Iranian and Austrian ministries have identified areas of a future cooperation. A roadmap will be worked out which will identify projects in the fields of energy, environmental technology, tourism, infrastructure, transportation, forestry and civil protection. Austrian companies are highly interested in joint ventures with Iranian companies in order to realize the great potential of the Iranian market as partners.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s Minister of Economic and Finance Ali Tayyebnia said in a meeting with Czech Republic Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek on Monday that a roadmap for economic cooperation with the Czech republic will also be drawn up soon.

The Iranian minister underlined that grounds are prepared for foreign investment in Iran and Iran welcomes Czech investors’ presence in Iran’s market, IRNA reported.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has already taken Iran off a list of countries that draw special scrutiny from security agencies for providing visas. “Both the home ministry and the Prime Minister’s office are on the same page that no visa application will be delayed for more than one week primarily for business delegations coming to India even from countries like Iran and China,” a senior Indian government official told LiveMint on Monday. “Once an application comes to the home ministry for a security check, it will be processed within one week and sent back to Indian missions.”

In early August, Switzerland announced that it would lift some sanctions against Iran in what it called a sign of support for the agreement between Tehran and world powers over its nuclear program, Europe.eu reported in mid-August.

The same website suggests that one result of the recent deal with Iran is that dozens of companies with ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a branch of Iran’s Armed Forces, will also win sanctions relief. With roughly 125,000 military personnel including ground, air and naval forces, the Revolutionary Guard was established in 1979 to protect Iran’s Islamic system by preventing foreign interference, as well as coups by the military or by “deviant movements.” However, the Guard has also developed into a “multibillion-dollar business empire,” and is reportedly the “third-wealthiest organization in Iran.”

According to Reuters, about 90 current and former Guard officials, the IRGC itself, and firms conducting transactions for the IRGC will be taken off the sanctions lists by either the US, the EU or the UN.

The Islamic Republic of Iran continues dodging inspections, harassing ships in international waters, evading sanctions and attempting to speedily sail forth on its mission towards nuclear weapons.

In the latest revelation we learn that in January of this year, the Czech Republic successfully blocked an effort by Iran to purchase a large cache of sensitive technology – compressors – useable for either nuclear or non-nuclear enrichment. However, the cache was discovered when the Czechs found that a “false end user” was stated for the order.

Iran had attempted to purchase the U.S. made compressors in the Czech Republic, but the “procurer and transport company had provided false documentation in order to hide the origins, movement and destination of the consignment with the intention of bypassing export controls and sanctions,” according to a UN panel which monitors compliance with sanctions.

The false documentation raised suspicions and the Czechs ended up blocking the deal.

Meanwhile, the West, led by a U.S. government suffering from Extreme Appeasement Syndrome, is working feverishly to conclude a deal with Tehran that, at best, tells Iran it better continue pretending in public that it isn’t pursuing nukes for ten years and then: Full Speed Ahead!

Not content to accept a mere ten year pause in their ability to publicly parade their nuclear accomplishments down the boulevards of Teheran, the mullahs and their minions are apparently continuing their shopping sprees to assemble the needed nuclear enrichment components. This is happening, of course, while the negotiations ostensibly to forbid Iran from doing what it is doing continue on the world stage.

A Czech state official and a Western diplomat familiar with the case confirmed to Reuters that Iran had attempted to buy the shipment of compressors from the U.S. Howden CKD company in the Czech Republic, and that Prague had blocked the deal.

A Czech official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the total value of the contract would have been about $61 million.

The U.N. report offered no further details about the attempted transaction.

The bomb explosion that killed a Palestinian Authority official at his office and home in Prague January was not caused by a safety mechanism in a safe, as previously claimed, the Prague Post reported Monday.

Police initially had ruled out a terrorist act or other foul play, but now everything is open to question, although police still say they are treating the explosion as an accident.

Jamal a Jamal was killed in the blast, and officials immediately downplayed the incident by saying the envoy was moving a safe when it exploded, supposedly because of a mechanism against anyone trying to tamper with its contents.

However, a Palestinian Authority official said at the time that the safe had not been in use for 20 years.

Prague police spokeswoman Andrea Zoulová said that the conclusion that the safe was not the source of the blast “was also drawn from a test carried out within the investigation. It has proved that the explosion did not occur inside the safe.”

Shortly after Jamal was killed, his daughter Rana said she was convinced that her father had been murdered.

Moreover, Czech police look into a suspicion of illegal arms possession as they have found 12 unregistered firearms from the 1980s in the embassy building.

The Palestinian Authority explained that the weapons were gifts from representatives of the then communist Czechoslovakia.