Archive for April 24, 2012

Gaza’s Hamas rulers will begin teaching Hebrew in schools

Education Ministry official says students should be introduced to as many languages as possible. PA: Shame Hamas-Fatah row affecting education

 

A senior Hamas official in Gaza said the territory’s terrorist rulers intend to begin teaching Hebrew for high school students beginning next year.

Students in Gaza Photo: AP

Students in Gaza - Photo: AP

Ziad Thabet, the Education Ministry undersecretary, said Monday the government is trying to find and train teachers. He says students should be introduced to as many languages as possible.

Hebrew, the chief language of Israelis, is now only offered as a university course.

Thabet says the Gaza government still needs to approve the decision, but it is likely to go ahead. Continue Reading »

Netanyahu was briefed on efforts to stop ’60 Minutes’ report on Israel’s Christians

PM was fully updated by Israeli ambassador to U.S. Michael Oren on his attempts to halt an investigative report on Israel’s treatment of its Christian community which he thought would harm Israel’s interests.

 

The attempts by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren to halt the broadcast of a “60 Minutes” investigative report on the Christian community in Israel and the West Bank were carried out after a series of consultations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his political adviser Ron Dermer.

Benjamin Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu - Photo by: Reuters

It is unclear whether Netanyahu or Dermer were the ones who instructed or suggested that Oren directly address the president of CBS in an attempt to prevent the broadcast, but the two were fully informed on the affair almost since its start.

Continue Reading »

New Technology Turns Any Mirror Into a 3D Display

Microsoft Israel Innovation Labs invents Alice, which creates a compelling and interactive three-dimensional effect.

Arutz Sheva attended Microsoft Israel R&D Center’s fourth annual Think Next 2012 conference in Tel Aviv and met the (Innovation Labs) iLabs team, which has developed a new technology.

The technology, called Alice, creates a compelling and interactive three-dimensional effect using a screen and a Kinect camera.

Mirror Mirror on the Wall – are These Virtual Elements or Physical?

Mirror Mirror on the Wall - are These Virtual Elements or Physical?

 

According to Rotem Bennet of Innovation Labs, the technology allows for any mirror to become a three-dimensional display.

The technology can be used for window shopping, he added, since any window has some reflective material. Continue Reading »

Druze professor appointed ambassador to New Zealand

FM Lieberman chooses Hebrew Literature Professor Naim Araidi to represent Israel in New Zealand

 

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has appointed Druze Professor for Hebrew Literature Naim Araidi as Israel’s ambassador to New Zealand, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Sunday. This is the first time a member of the Druze community is appointed an ambassador in a political appointment.

Naim Araidi Photo: Courtesy of the Araidi family

Naim Araidi Photo: Courtesy of the Araidi family

Born in Kfar Maghar, Araidi, 62, wrote his doctorate on the poetry of Uri Zvi Grinberg. He gives regular classes at the Haifa and Bar-Ilan universities, serves as the dean at the Arab Academic College for Education and is a member of the Sapir Prize board. Continue Reading »

Termination of Israeli-Egyptian natural gas agreement serves dangerous precedent

Move may be intended to pressure Israel to give up lawsuit for $8 billion in compensation for damages.

Mohamed Shoeb, head of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, announced Sunday evening, that the company will terminate the agreement to provide natural gas to Israel, after a decision had been made on Thursday, due to what he had termed “Israel’s repeated breaching of the agreement.”

Shoeb, in interview on Al-Hayat television, stressed that the deal termination was due to failure on the part of the Israeli side to transfer the payments owed by Israel for some months and “had nothing to do with the repeated attacks on the pipeline.”

Continue Reading »

Saudi Hacker who Hit Israel Dies at 28

A top Saudi hacker who targeted Jews and Israel has died at age 28 of an asthma attack.

A top Saudi hacker who targeted Israel and Jews has died at age 28, Saudi media reported Sunday. The man, who was not named, died of an asthma attack brought on by summer sandstorms.

The hacker, who called himself “Cyber Terrorist,” was known for hacking well-protected sites including Microsoft. He targeted Jewish and Israeli sites in particular, as well as a site belonging to Danish cartoonists who drew cartoons of Mohammed.

A fellow Saudi hacker calling himself “hell cyber” told the media that “Cyber Terrorist” had put “defending Islam and the Prophet” as his top priority. Continue Reading »

IDF boards ship allegedly smuggling arms to Gaza

Israel Navy vessels intercept ‘HS Beethoven’, detected about 160 miles from Israel flying a Liberian flag.

 

Commandos from the navy’s Flotilla 13 unit boarded a cargo ship, the HS Beethoven, in the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday night on suspicion it was trying to smuggle weapons to the Gaza Strip.

illustrative photo - Photo: Andreas Manolis / Reuters

illustrative photo - Photo: Andreas Manolis / Reuters

The ship, which was flying a Liberian flag, was intercepted by Israel Navy vessels approximately 260 km. from Israel’s coast. Commandos boarded the ship with the captain’s consent and began searching cargo containers for arms.

IDF officers said that searches aboard the ship could continue until the morning. Continue Reading »

Egypt ends gas deal with Israel, stakeholder says

Egypt’s energy companies inform EMG they have terminated agreement to supply gas to Israel. Source: Deal’s termination will set Egypt 30 years back, ‘both economically and politically’

 

Egypt‘s energy companies have terminated a long-term deal to supply Israel with gas after the cross-border pipeline sustained months of sabotage since a revolt last year, a stakeholder in the deal said on Sunday.

Blast at Egypt gas pipeline (archives) Photo: EPA

Blast at Egypt gas pipeline (archives) - Photo: EPA

Ampal-American Israel Corporation, a partner in the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG), which operates the pipeline, said the Egyptian companies involved had notified EMG they were “terminating the gas and purchase agreement.” Continue Reading »

New Yorkers seek new Zionist high from Israeli gas mask bongs

Israeli model 4A1 gas masks on display in the East Village might not protect you from a chemical weapons attack. That’s because their protective filters have been removed and replaced with foot-long acrylic bongs meant for smoking marijuana.

Israel has a shortage of civilian gas masks, but you wouldn’t know it from walking down Manhattan’s St. Mark’s Place, where the masks are on sale in half a dozen stores for a mere $25 each.

Gas masks with bongs

Israeli gas masks on display in Manhattan, with bongs attached to them - Photo by: Claudio Papapietro, The Forward

The Israeli model 4A1 gas masks on display in the East Village — where storefront noodle shops bump up against vintage clothing stores — might not protect you from a chemical weapons attack.

Continue Reading »

‘Lebanese-Style’ Terror Ambush Near Hevron

Sophisticated roadside explosive targets civilians who escape unhurt miraculously. Israeli press ignores the story.

Two Jewish civilians were targeted by a sophisticated Arab roadside bomb Wednesday night near Hevron but escaped unhurt miraculously. The serious incident was hardly reported at all in the press, which was busy counting the number of blows dealt to anarchists who tried to block a major thoroughfare.

Combat soldiers in live-fire drill

Combat soldiers in live-fire drill - Israel news photo: IDF spokesman

Chaim Siton, a resident of Avigail in southern Mount Hevron, was driving home with a friend on the dark and largely deserted road, when he saw a piece of black fabric waving in the wind and thought it was a dog running toward the road. Continue Reading »

Country of Concern: Turkey Suppressing Christian Worship

ISTANBUL, Turkey — On April 18, 2007, three Christians were bound to their chairs, tortured, and stabbed repeatedly at a Bible print shop in Malatya — their throats slit.

Country of Concern: Turkey Suppressing Christian Worship

Country of Concern: Turkey Suppressing Christian Worship

Five years have now passed since the Malatya murders, an incident that was perhaps the most tragic and brutal murder of Christians in modern-day Turkey.

Click to view interview

Today, believers are facing increased persecution and the country is gradually moving away from secularism.

“You see everyday is April 18. Everyday I have to live without him,” widow Susanne Geske told CBN News on the one year anniversary of her husband’s murder. Continue Reading »

Ethiopian demonstrators claim double standard on right to protest outside Netanyahu’s home

The authorities say Ethiopian Israelis’ protest camp near the Prime Minister’s Residence is disturbing the neighbors. Funny, they never said that about other demonstrations.

 

For nearly two years now the sidewalk outside attorney David Hagoel’s home in Jerusalem has been blocked. As someone who lives on the corner of Ramban Street opposite the Prime Minister’s Residence, Hagoel is used to protesters pitching their tents nearby. It doesn’t bother him anymore.

Yayo Avraham.

Yayo Avraham. 'People will come to Jerusalem from every corner of the country - Photo by: Emil Salman

“The protest vigil doesn’t infringe on my right and my family’s right to privacy,” Hagoel wrote last week.

Continue Reading »

Israeli Official: Rockets Fired at Eilat Came from Libya

Israeli defense official says that the rockets that were fired from Egypt toward Eilat earlier this month were smuggled from Libya.

The rockets that were fired from Egypt toward Israel earlier this month were smuggled from Libya, an Israeli defense official told
The Associated Press on Friday.

The official was referring to the firing of two Grad-style rockets at the Israeli resort town of Eilat, right before the Passover holiday.

Israel has said the attacks originated in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt has denied the rockets were fired from its territory.

The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity according, told AP that Israel believes the rockets were stolen from a Libyan weapons storehouse and smuggled into Egypt. Continue Reading »

In Egypt and Jordan, Brotherhood feels the heat

Analysis: Islamist movement finds journey to power may be more difficult than expected.

 

The euphoria with which the West first welcomed the Middle East revolts has long subsided, as Islamists’ electoral victories across the region spark fears that the “Arab Spring” has devolved into an Islamic winter. But developments in Egypt and Jordan last week have forced the region’s oldest and largest Islamist group – the Muslim Brotherhood – to wonder whether the road to political rule may be bumpier than anticipated.
This week, the Egyptian Brotherhood’s presidential ambitions suffered a blow when the country’s electoral committee disqualified its main candidate, Khairat al-Shater, over a prior criminal conviction.
Continue Reading »

2 terrorists nabbed near Tapuach Junction

Two Palestinian teens arrested by Border Guard officers found in possession of five pipe bombs; explosives defused safely

 

A terror attack was thwarted Saturday following the arrest of two Palestinian teens by Border Guard and police officers, near the Tapuach Junctionin the West Bank.

The two, both 17, took a taxi to the junction and upon arrival began walking towards the checkpoint.

Their behavior aroused the suspicion of Border Guard and police officers stationed at the checkpoint, who called on them to stop for a routine search. The teens attempted to flee and the officers initiated suspect-arrest protocol, eventually apprehending them. Continue Reading »