Archive for April 30, 2012

Rocket Attack Strikes Near Sderot

Gaza terrorists launched a short-range Qassam rocket attack on Sderot Monday night. The rocket landed in an open area

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists in Gaza aimed at southern Israel Monday night, launching a rocket attack at the town of Sderot.

The short-range Qassam missile landed in an area about a kilometer away from Israel’s security fence along the Gaza border.

The explosion occurred in an open area, and no property damage was reported by the authorities. No one was physically injured.

Residents received a 15-second warning of the impending attack due to the Color Red incoming rocket alert system.

However, residents living in areas targeted by rocket attacks are frequently traumatized. Continue Reading »

Unemployment rate rises dramatically to 6.9%

Rate rises 0.4% from last month; labor force has also expanded, at least partially accounting for unemployment hike.

 

The unemployment rate in Israel rose significantly in March, to 6.9% of the labor force, compared with 6.5% in February, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported Monday. This represents 246 thousand unemployed people. The good news is that alongside the growth in unemployment, the labor force (the number of people in work or seeking work) has also grown, accounting for part of the rise in the unemployment rate.
Haredi man working - Photo: Baz Ratner/Reuters
Haredi man working – Photo: Baz Ratner/Reuters

This is the first time that the Central Bureau of Statistics has reported in accordance with the calculation method imposed by the OECD, which instantly increased the number of unemployed by 30%.

Continue Reading »

Israel Building Security Wall Along Lebanese Border

The wall is intended to protect the city of Metulla from sniper fire coming from the Lebanese border town of Kfar Kila

                                       

Israel began building a wall that will run several kilometers along part of its border with Lebanon, a military spokeswoman told Agence France Presse on Monday.

“This construction, which began on Monday, is being carried out in coordination with UNIFIL (the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) and the Lebanese army. The wall is intended to avoid frictions on the border,” she said.

Israeli public radio said the wall, which is expected to be several meters high, will protect the city of Metulla from sniper fire coming from the Lebanese border town of Kfar Kila. Continue Reading »

Apple’s Israeli hiring goes into high gear

High-tech workers, update your CVs: In the coming weeks, Apple’s Israeli headquarters will be posting dozens of positions to be filled

Preparations for Apple‘s Israeli research and development center have kicked into high gear. Mamon has learned that in the next few weeks, Apple will be launching a major hiring campaign. Dozens of personnel ads are expected to be posted for positions in the R&D center, which will be located in Haifa’s Scientific Industries Center (MATAM)

Apple is due to post dozens of job listings Photo: shutterstock

Apple is due to post dozens of job listings - Photo by shutterstock

At the end of March, Apple’s international site was already running four ads for engineering positions in Israel. Continue Reading »

Has Israel’s leadership come down with mad-Jew disease?

Why waste money on ‘Hasbara’ when our own experts tell the world that Israeli leaders are warmongering rejectionists?

 

This is what’s been going down in the last few days alone:

1. The Prime Minister says that sanctions against Iran aren’t working and the Defense Minister claims that Iran is irrational and then the Prime Minister stipulates that the Iranians want to make a bomb and then the IDF Chief of Staff flatly contradicts them and says that Iran is rational, sanctions are working and the Iranians won’t really make a bomb after all. And the Prime Minister and the Defense Minister go on saying what they were saying before, as if nothing’s happened.

Continue Reading »

Security barrier proves yet again to be a life-saver

28-Apr-12: Security barrier proves yet again to be a life-saver

By: Frimet and Arnold Roth
from their blog: THIS ONGOING WAR

We have more than enough reason to write here about the plain dishonesty that seems to characterize much of the criticism of Israel’s security checkpoints strategy. We wrote about this last Saturday night when armed terrorists were stopped at a security crossing en route to carrying out an attack on Israeli civilians – see “21-Apr-12: Stopped two more armed jihadists“.

IDF's checkpoint Hawara - Image Source

IDF's checkpoint Hawara - Oleg Popov, Reuters

That was only the latest in a terribly long line of occasions when the existence of the part-built barrier, plus the network of manned crossing points through which Palestinian Arabs are frequently required to pass, plus the alertness of service personnel, and especially Israel’s Border Guard, all came together to prevent another terrorist outrage.
Continue Reading »

Benzion Netanyahu Eulogized by Left and Right

MK Rivlin: “He never compromised.” President Peres: “He was a great historian and a great Jew.”

Public figures from both sides of the political spectrum eulogized Prof. Benzion Netanyahu, the prime minister’s father, after he passed away on Monday.

Knesset Speaker MK Reuven Rivlin, said, “I have known Benzion Netanyahu ever since my young adulthood. This is a man who tied his life to Jerusalem and Zionism, who was an assistant to Ze’ev Jabotinsky and was one of the great Revisionists.

“Benzion was an eminent researcher and historian who founded a house of pure political Zionism, without compromises, and his offspring have imbibed his observations and his world view. Continue Reading »

Former Mossad chief, Israeli minister trade accusations at New York conference

Meir Dagan defends statements made by former Shin Bet security service chief, criticizing Netanyahu and Barak over Iran; Minister Gilad Erdan says Dagan sabotaging international efforts to halt Iran’s nuclear program; Ex-PM Olmert joins in defense of Dagan, Diskin.

 

An embarrassing confrontation broke out on Sunday during a panel discussion at a New York conference, when former Mossad chief Meir Dagan accused Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan of lying, while Erdan replied that Dagan is sabotaging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to put a halt to Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

Former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi (left) and former Mossad chief Dagan, New York, April 29, 2012.

Former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi (left) and former Mossad chief Dagan at the New York conference, April 29, 2012 - Photo by Mark Yisrael Salem

At the conference, sponsored by the Jerusalem Post in New York, the two also exchanged harsh words after Dagan warned Erdan over the so-called “Dagan law,” forbidding former security officials to issue open statements until a certain cooling period wears off. Continue Reading »

Attempt to Abduct Israeli Girl at Disney World

Channel 10: nine year old girl was found drugged, with her head half shaved.

A nine-year-old Israeli girl was nearly abducted from her parents at Disney World, in Orlando, Florida, during the Pesach holiday.

A Disney park

A Disney park - Photo by Reuters

Channel 10 news reported that two Israeli parents and their two children were standing in line for one of the rides in the huge theme park when they discovered that their daughter had disappeared.

They immediately ran to the park’s security officers, who locked all of the park’s exit gates. The parents were taken to a control room, where they were asked to look for the girl on the numerous security cameras. Continue Reading »

Dutch queen knights Orthodox rabbi

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands makes Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs an officer of the Order of Orange Nassau.

 

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands on Friday morning made Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs an officer of the Order of Orange Nassau.
RABBI BINYOMIN JACOBS with Queen Beatrix [file] - Photo: RCE
RABBI BINYOMIN JACOBS with Queen Beatrix [file] – Photo: RCE
The head of state gave the title to the 63-year-old rabbi, who is the religious leader of the country’s Jewish communities outside Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, in a festive ceremony.

“This is an important day for Jews in this part of the world,” said Benoit Wesly, the head of the Jewish community of Limburg.

Continue Reading »

Woman: Maternity ward doctor called me ‘fat’

Woman who gave birth at Sheba Medical Center says anesthesiologist humiliated her ‘on what was supposed to be the most exciting day of my life’

 

A 30-year-old woman has claimed that an anesthesiologist at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv called her “appalling and fat” and urged her to “do something” with herself.

Archives Photo: Shutterstock

Archives Photo: Shutterstock

The Yedioth Ahronoth daily reported Sunday that the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, was ridiculed by a physician shortly after being admitted to the medical center’s maternity ward about five months ago.

The woman recently wrote on the hospital’s Facebook page that the nurses had told her that the doctor was having a “bad day.” Continue Reading »

Major British supermarket chain announces boycott of produce made in West Bank settlements

Co-op, fifth biggest supermarket chain in Britain, emphasizes it will continue doing business with companies that can guarantee none of their products come from outside the Green Line.

 

One of the largest supermarket chains in Britain has announced that it intends to boycott Israeli agricultural exporters that market also produce from the West Bank settlements.

Boycott - AP - May 2012

A Palestinian man throw a product from Jewish settlements in a fire in the West Bank village of Salfit - Photo by AP

While British food retailers have for some years now been labeling products that are grown or manufactured in settlements and in some cases boycotting them entirely, this is the first move by a major company to end all dealings with companies that export products from within the Green Line and from the settlements.

Continue Reading »

Egyptian Protesters Call Saudis ‘Israeli’

Mob that stormed Saudi embassy in Cairo drew Star of David, wrote “Israel” on walls.

Screenshot from YouTube protest

Screenshot from YouTube protest

Video of the Egyptian mob that stormed the Saudi embassy in Cairo in the last few days shows that the way the crowd expressed its disgust with Saudi Arabia was to call it “Israel.”

The video shows the demonstrators scrawling “Israel” and spray-painting Stars of David on the walls of the compound.

Blogger Elder of Zion commented: “They didn’t call them kufrs, or women, or infidels. No, they used the worst insult imaginable. They called them Israelis.”

Saudi Arabia closed its Cairo embassy following the huge protests that followed the arrest of an Egyptian civil rights lawyer who allegedly insulted King Abdullah. Continue Reading »

Navy takes suspicious Hamas vessel to Ashdod port

IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said Palestinian fishing boat had swerved from Gazan territorial waters.

 

The Navy escorted a suspicious Palestinian sea vessel to a naval port in Ashdod on Sunday after the boat failed to heed orders to return to its allocated waters.

Illustrative - Photo: Andreas Manolis / Reuters

Illustrative Photo: Andreas Manolis / Reuters

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said the Palestinian fishing boat from Gaza had swerved from Gazan territorial waters, and that a Navy boat first asked it to turn back.

After the request was ignored, shots were fired at the Palestinian boat’s engine, striking it. No injuries were reported.

The vessel was towed to Ashdod and its occupants were questioned by security services. Continue Reading »

Report: Islamic Jihad to hold historic elections

Sources tell al-Sharq al-Awsat terror group decided to hold elections due to disagreements over ties with Hamas, ‘resistance’ to Israel

 

The Islamic Jihad movement will hold elections for a new leadership for the first time since it was established in the 80s, the London-based Arabic newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Sunday, citing sources in Gaza and the West Bank.

Jihad rally in Gaza (archives) Photo: Reuters

Jihad rally in Gaza (archives) - Photo by Reuters

The elections will be held in the next few weeks in the same method the Fatah and Hamas movements held their elections.

According to the report, the terror group’s decision stemmed from major disagreements between the movement’s leaders in Gaza over general policies, relations with Hamas and Fatah and “resistance” to Israel. Continue Reading »