March 2012 Archives

Erdogan: Israel committing massacre in Gaza

Turkish prime minister resumes tough rhetoric against Israel claiming it failed to annihilate Strip by withholding food, medications and therefore now trying to subdue it with airstrikes

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan harshly slammed Israel on Tuesday claiming it is committing a massacre in Palestine in the backdrop of the recent flare-up on the Gaza border area.

Speaking at the Turkish parliament, Erdogan described Gaza as the world’s largest open air prison. He added that Israel is continuing its massacre in Gaza with airstrikes after failing to annihilate it by withholding food and medication.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister of Turkey - Photo: AFP

Ignoring the fact that most of the Palestinian fatalities in the current round of violence were terrorists, Erdogan stated that “twenty-three Gazas lost their lives in the past five days, including children on their way to school.” Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Israel Turkey

Israelis warned of travel to Turkey over imminent terror threat

Israel’s Counter Terrorism Bureau cites intel showing militant groups intend to strike Israeli, Jewish institutions in the country in the next few days.

Israel’s Counter Terrorism Bureau warned Israeli citizens Tuesday against traveling to Turkey, citing intelligence that terror groups were planning attacks against Israeli or Jewish institutions in the country.

Police officers standing guard at the scene where a bomb explosion took place in central Istanbul March 1, 2012. - Photo by Reuters

According the warning, Israelis are asked to refrain from travel to Turkey over information of intent to go forward with the attack in next few days.

Last Wednesday, the Turkish daily Hurriyet reported that Mossad warned Turkey that Israeli diplomatic missions in the country could be the target of attacks, quoting a story aired on NTV news, in which it was reported that Israel’s main intelligence agency sent a letter to the National Intelligence Agency saying that the “Iranian Revolutionary Guards-Quds Force” is preparing to attack Israelis in Turkey

According to the report, four individuals have already “entered Turkey from Iran” with weapons and the materials to carry out the alleged attacks on Israeli diplomats. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: Israel Turkey, Mossad

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Israel Strikes Oil Off Tel Aviv Coast

Israel has struck oil again, this time off the Tel Aviv coast. Owners say the find includes 100 million barrels of oil, worth $10 billion.

Israel has struck oil again, this time off the Tel Aviv coast. Developers maintain the find includes 100 million barrels of oil, worth $10 billion.

Modiin Energy and Adira Energy discovered an estimated 128 million barrels of oil and 1.8 trillion cubic feet of gas in shallow water less than 15 miles northwest of Tel Aviv.

Oil tankers in New Jersey -- coming soon to Israel? Photo by: Reuters

Officials called the find “significant” and added, “Surveys conducted in recent months found oil in the target strata. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: energy, gas, Oil

The Western Wall is for the birds

Swifts return to nest at Judaism’s most sacred site.

Swifts bird at Western Wall - Photo By Marc Israel Sellem

When the swifts come back to Jerusalem’s Western Wall this week there will be rejoicing as bird watchers and the religious welcome them home to Judaism’s most sacred site.

The common swift, which spends is entire life flying or sitting its nest, returns from wintering in South Africa to nest between the cracks in the ancient wall. For over 2,000 years, the crevices between the wall’s massive limestone blocks have served as the perfect nesting location for the swift (Apus apus). Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Western Wall

Israel begins prep work on underwater power cable with Cyprus

Feasibility study on longest electricity cable planned to run between two nations underway; project aims to bilateral energy security

Israel and Cyprus launched a joint feasibility study on Sunday, focused on the construction of an underwater power cable between the two countries.

According to the Cyprus Mail, the project aims to boost the two nation’s energy security, as well as offer Israel a way to export energy to Europe.

Co-operation - Illustration Photo: Index Open

The project is estimated at $660 million, and would eventually become a part of a much longer cable, stretching into Greece and from there to the pan-European electricity grid, the report said. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Mid-East News | Tags: energy

Circumcision tied to lower prostate cancer risk, U.S. study shows

Study jibes with scientific reports that wives and girlfriends of circumcised men have lower rates of infection with viruses which in rare cases may lead to cervical and other cancers.Circumcised men may have a slightly lower risk of developing prostate cancer than those who still have their foreskin, according to a U.S. study.

A newborn baby following his Bris, a Jewish circumcision ceremony in San Francisco, May 15, 2011. - Photo by AP

The World Health Organization already recommends the controversial procedure based on research showing it lowers heterosexual men’s risk of contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Last year scientists also reported that wives and girlfriends of circumcised men had lower rates of infection with human papillomavirus or HPV, which in rare cases may lead to cervical and other cancers. Continue Reading »

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Jewish News | Tags: Circumcision

Hamas Mortar Attacks Keep Terror on the Burner

Gaza terrorists attacked the Negev with five mortar shells at noon Tuesday, lowering the intensity of attacks but breaking the ceasefire.

Gaza terrorists attacked the western Negev with five mortar shells around noon Tuesday, lowering the intensity of attacks but breaking the ceasefire.

The attacks are seen as an attempt to maintain “calm,” which previously has been defined as a situation in which missiles are not fired on urban areas while primitive Kassam rockets and mortar shells are fired at the farming area of the western Negev.

They also provide an immediate test for Israel hours after IDF Chief of Benny Gantz said that the military would maintain quiet if terrorists silence their weapons but will “fight fire with fire” if not. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: hamas, Negev, Rockets, Terror

Rocket Fire a ‘Dramatic Development’

The IDF says the quantity and rate of fire from Gaza is unprecedented; notes terrorists are actively using civilians as human shields.

IDF officials say the 200 rockets fired at Israel’s southern communities since Friday marks a “dramatic development in terms of the quantity and rate of the fire.”

“In the first three days of the current round of fighting we’ve sustained a larger quantity of rockets than the quantity fired at Israel in the two previous rounds, in August and October, which were longer,” an army official said.

Hamas Kassam Launcher Wikimedia Commons

More than 50 of the rockets fired in recent days were medium-range missiles, and most attacks were carried out by the Islamic Jihad, the army said. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: Fatah, Gaza, Gaza Terror Attacks, hamas, IDF, Islamic Jihad

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Quartet issues bland statement on escalation

After UN meeting, group calls for calm in south, and for Israelis, Palestinians to remain engaged.

While the fighting in Gaza continued to rage Monday, the Quartet met at the UN, expressed “concern” at the violence, and — regarding the diplomatic process — called on the Israelis and Palestinian to “remain engaged” and “refrain from provocative actions.” The term “provocative action” is generally Quartet code for settlement construction.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Russian foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and UN Secretary-General ban Ki-moon meet at the UN headquarters, joined via a video-hook up by the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and Quartet envoy Tony Blair. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: UN

Israel, US med schools sign deal

Over coming months, Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Medicine in Galilee and University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine to explore joint development of cancer center which will integrate scientific research conducted by basic, translational and clinical faculty

Bar-Ilan University’s Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee and the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine have signed a landmark agreement which will further promote collaboration between the two institutions.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed recently at the Israel Business Conference in Tel Aviv, will allow the two medical schools to continue their collaboration on a wide variety of projects.

Bar-Ilan University.

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: Bar-Ilan

U.S. high-tech experts descend on Israel to discuss their brave new world

Dozens of high-tech professionals and scientists gathered on Sunday at the Peres Center for Peace in Jaffa for the start of a two-day course by Singularity University.

A team of American high-tech experts arrived in Jaffa on Sunday to discuss their belief that the world is on the threshold of an unprecedented technology revolution that will radically alter our way of life.

Dozens of high-tech professionals and scientists gathered on Sunday at the Peres Center for Peace for the start of a two-day course by Singularity University.

The university is a three-year-old institution based at the Ames Research Center of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in California’s Silicon Valley.

Category: Israel News | Tags: Shimon Peres

IDF Strikes Rocket Squad – 2 Terrorists Killed

IAF pilots eliminated a terror squad preparing to fire rockets at Israel’s southern communities from deep within civilian areas of Gaza.

IDF forces on Monday afternoon eliminated a two two-man terror squad preparing to launch a medium range rocket into Israel from northern Gaza.

Pilots reported a direct hit shortly after 16:00 hours. However, non-combatants were reportedly injured in the pre-emptive strike.

The IDF spokesperson’s office said “this case demonstrates the terrorist groups are using civilians as human shields,” and “open fire from the heart of population centers.”

Legal experts say mounting rocket strikes from civilian areas is a violation of the rules of war and the onus for civilian casualties rests with the terror groups. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: Gaza rockets, IAF

It’s time to exact a toll on Gaza

Using specific intelligence, the defense establishment assassinated the mastermind of the next terror attack just before Shabbat. This terror attack was planned in a way that would not only directly hurt Israelis but would also pressure Egypt to withdraw from its peace agreement with Israel. Everyone agrees that this was a precise preempting of terror, making justified and measured use of Israel’s right to defend itself.

Ze'ev Jabotinsky

Gaza was quick to retaliate – by the end of the Shabbat, more than 100 rockets had been fired toward highly populated areas in Israel. Despite all the defense measures in place, several Israeli civilians were wounded, one of them seriously.

Category: Israel News |

Hamas’ Zahar: Ceasefire likely to come soon

Organization’s leader Mahmoud Zahar says Israel does not want escalation; ceasefire will come when Israel stops attacks in Gaza; PRC, Islamic Jihad: No ceasefire while air strikes continue.

CAIRO – A truce is likely soon in the cross-border hostilities between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza but the timing depends on Israel, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said on Monday.

“I expect matters will calm down,” Zahar told Reuters in Cairo.

“The statements coming from them (Israel) either in public or via mediators, especially Egypt, say that they do not want escalation.”

Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar - Photo By Reuters

Asked how long it would take, Zahar said he did not know but it would depend on Israel, which he blamed for setting off the latest round of violence by killing Palestinian leaders on Friday. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Gaza rockets, hamas