Archive for August 10, 2012

Israel’s Ambassador Michael Oren’s Iran article in WSJ gets ‘thumbs-up’ from Bahraini FM

Bahrain’s Foreign Minister’s Tweet shows Iran’s nuclear program not solely an Israeli concern, explains Israel’s ambassador to U.S.

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JPOST CORRESPONDENT

 

WASHINGTON – When Bahrain’s foreign minister tweeted an article about Iran by Israeli’s US envoy, it underscored the shared nature of the Iranian threat, according to the envoy.

Michael Oren - Photo: JP

Michael Oren – Photo: JP

“It shows that the Iranian nuclear program is not solely an Israel concern but one of the entire Middle East,” Ambassador Michael Oren told The Jerusalem Post Thursday.

Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa tweeted a link to a piece Oren posted in The Wall Street Journal, which appeared on the website on Monday, titled “Time is short for Iran diplomacy.”

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Netanyahu & Barak advocate an attack this coming fall

Israeli daily reports PM & defense minister in favor of striking Tehran’s nuclear facilities before US elections despite IDF’s objections

By Ynet

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak advocate an attack of Iran‘s nuclear facilities in the upcoming fall, Yedioth Ahronoth’s senior commentators Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer reported Friday.

נתניהו וברק. לא סומכים על אובמה (צילום: אליעד לוי)

Netanyahu, Barak. Attack in the fall? – Photo: Eliad Levy

According to Barnea and Shiffer, “Not a single state official or military official or even the president – supports an Israeli attack in Iran.”

The report stated that Netanyahu and Barak believe that setting back Iran’s nuclear project is worth the risk – while defense officials believe the opposite to be true. Continue Reading »

IDF guarding African migrants hiding in underground viaduct on Israel-Egypt border

Migrant Workers’ Hotline writes to IDF legal adviser, allow asylum-seekers into Israel.

By Talila Nesher

 

A group of African migrants that attempted to enter Israel through Sinai is currently located in a viaduct in Israeli territory, close to the Israel-Egypt border, and under guard of Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

The group descended into the viaduct three days ago, while attempting to cross the border through the water passageway, which is open on the Egyptian side of the border. The group was stopped by IDF forces on the Israeli side of the border near the Carmit post. Soldiers from the post, responsible for patrolling the border, have given the migrants food and water. Continue Reading »

U.S. State Department report: Israel bars non-Muslims from worshiping at Temple Mount

State Dept issues Int’l Religious Freedom Report for 2011, criticizing Israel’s policy of barring non-Muslims from worshiping at Temple Mount • Israel Police cite “security considerations” for doing so.

By Shlomo Cesana

 

A U.S. State Department report published on Wednesday criticizes Israel for allowing only Muslims to pray on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The report, the “International Religious Freedom Report for 2011,” states that Israeli government policy is to grant freedom of religious expression to all, but despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling, police continue to prevent many people from praying in the area due to what they say are “security considerations.”

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Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh urges Egypt to re-open Rafah crossing

Haniyeh calls on Morsi to re-open Gaza border crossing closed since Sunday’s Sinai attack, says ‘Gaza could never be anything but a source of stability for Egypt’

By Reuters

 

The head of the Hamas government in Gaza urged Egypt on Thursday to open a vital border crossing closed since gunmen killed 16 Egyptian guards in neighboring Sinai on Sunday.

Rafah border crossing Photo: Reuters

Ismail Haniyeh pledged his support for Egypt’s investigations of the attack, which has led to the biggest Egyptian military assault in the Sinai Peninsula in nearly 40 years.

“At the same time I call upon my brother, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to open the Rafah crossing, to regain a lifeline for Gaza,” Haniyeh said at a dinner ending the daylong Ramadan fast. Continue Reading »

Massive blackouts plague Egypt

Blackouts, water cuts, & fuel shortages have enraged Egyptians, sending many to the streets to protest.

 

 

A massive blackout hit many parts of the Egyptian capital on Thursday, briefly halting traffic on much of its crowded subway and delaying the start of trading on the stock exchange.

Egypt has been beset by frequent power outages across the country since the hot summer months began. The blackouts, together with water cuts, have enraged Egyptians, sending many to the streets to protest.

Cairo

A general view of mosques is pictured before sunset during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Old Cairo August 9, 2012.

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Golan Commander: “We must be prepared for the worst.”

Golan Commander: As Syria battles, be prepared for worst-case scenario.

By Maayana Miskin

 

The IDF structure of command in the Golan changed this week, with Colonel Oren Cohen replacing Colonel Mounir Amar as head of the Hermon Brigade.

“In these days when a bloody civil war is happening just meters from here, we are changing the command of the Hermon Brigade, which is responsible for defending the eyes of the country,” said Brigadier-General Tamir Hyman, speaking at a ceremony in which Cohen took command.

“We are in a historic period. We do not know how the day after the fall of the Assad regime will look,” he said. Continue Reading »

Egypt requests extradition of 3 Hamas terrorists for Sinai attack

East Jerusalem newspaper al-Quds reports: Demands made to PM Haniyeh to turn over three militants that provided support to radical groups in Sinai

By Avi Issacharoff and Reuters

Egyptian intelligence made a request to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, using senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Zahar as an intermediary, to extradite members of  the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ paramilitary wing, according to an al-Quds newspaper report on Thursday.

Militants in northern Sinai.

Militants in northern Sinai. – Photo by AFP

A senior official informed the newspaper that the three militants provided indirect support to radical groups in Sinai, and are connected to weapons smuggling as well. Continue Reading »

Egypt in Political Uproar Over a 5 Minutes Interview With an Israeli

An interview with an Israeli reporter on common problems has led for calls of ministerial resignation in Egypt

By David Lev

 

Egypt was in an uproar Thursday, with Egyptians and officials demanding that the country’s communications minister resign his post, after an Israeli reporter was interviewed on Egypt’s Nile TV. The reporter, from Israel Radio’s Arabic service, was discussing the problem of Sinai terrorism, a problem common to Israel and Egypt.

According to reports in the Egyptian media Thursday, the Israeli reporter, Ayal Alima, spoke to the host of a news magazine program on Nile TV, and called on both the IDF and Egyptian army to derive lessons from the attack in Sinai earlier with week, in which 17 Egyptian soldiers were killed. Continue Reading »

Israel’s solar-powered desert oasis confronts world hunger

 

The best of Israel’s clean-tech & agri-tech  innovations are combined into a new ‘oasis’ system that could feed millions of desert-dwellers.

 

Growing the most crop per drop of water is an Israeli specialty. With little rain and a hot desert sun as unforgiving as the Sahara, Israel’s high-tech researchers and farmers have combined their expertise to grow a cornucopia of salt-tolerant crops in dry desert conditions. People from hungry countries far and wide come to learn from Israel’s expertise.

These crops are being grown with solar-energy desalinated water.

These crops are being grown with solar-energy desalinated water.

Now, a new research project by two desert research institutes has strung several Israeli agriculture and clean-tech specialties together to help alleviate world hunger and push back the desert through an artificial desert oasis using low-cost desalination technology that runs on solar power. Continue Reading »

BUSTED: Security forces arrest 2 suspects in the ‘Ramallah Lynch’ of 2000

IDF, Police, & Shin Bet operation uncovers Hamas terrorist organization in Ramallah/Binyamin region; 2 suspects confess to beating to death IDF reservists Yossi Avrahami & Vadim Nurzhitz ז”ל.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

 

Abed El Aziz Salha coming from inside the police station with blood on his hands

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), IDF, and Judea and Samaria district police arrested two men who confessed to taking part in the brutal October 2000 lynch of two IDF soldiers, security forces announced Thursday.

The arrests came after the Shin Bet and police uncovered an extensive Hamas terror structure in Ramallah and the Binyamin region, and arrested other suspects along with the two men.

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The Shadow Wars of Israel and Iran

Just enough ambiguity where the seed of doubt  makes it difficult for Israel or the US to respond

By and

 

BERLIN — A magnetic bomb detonated on a diplomatic car in New Delhi. The police uncovered a cache of explosives at a golf course in the Kenyan city of Mombasa. Five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in an attack outside the airport in the Black Sea coastal city of Burgas.

New Delhi


A car belonging to the Israeli embassy following a bomb blast in New Delhi, India, Monday, Feb. 13, 2012 – Photo by AP

These were just a few of what some Israeli and American intelligence officials say were nearly a dozen plots that form the backbone of a continuing offensive by Iran and Hezbollah against Israel and its allies abroad.
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Egyptian Police and Sinai gunmen clash in al-Arish

Armed militants stage drive-by shooting near police station in Northern Sinai; Egyptian army resumes 2nd day of crackdown

By Roi Kais

 

Egyptian police clashed with armed men in northern Sinai’s main town al-Arish, state television reported on Thursday, a day after security forces began a crackdown on Islamist militants in the region.

Security forces in Sinai – Photo: AFP

“Clashes resumed between armed men and police forces in front of police station number two in al-Arish,” Nile News television reported, citing its correspondent there.

Palestinian news agency Maan reported that Egyptian police officers were taken by surprise when gunmen opened fire at the station from a moving vehicle and escaped the scene. Continue Reading »

Tehran reports Iranians kidnapped by Syrian rebels are alive & well

Syrian rebels seized a busload (48) of religious Iranian pilgrims in Damascus on August 4 on suspicion of being military personnel.

By Reuters

All the Iranians kidnapped by Syrian rebels last week are alive and well, an Iranian foreign ministry official said, contrary to statements by rebels holding them that three of the captives had been killed in an air attack.

Bashar Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2nd R) review the guard of honor in Damascus January 19, 2006. – Photo by Reuters

Syrian rebels waging an uprising against the government of President Bashar Assad seized a busload of 48 Iranians in Damascus on August 4 on suspicion of being military personnel. Continue Reading »

Report: Saudis Threaten to Shoot Down Israeli Planes Bound to Iran

The Saudis threaten to shoot down Israeli aircraft that fly over its airspace on its way to or from Iran

By David Lev

 

Saudi Arabia has informed Israel in recent weeks that it will shoot down any Israeli planes that fly over its airspace on their way to or from Iran. A report in Yediot Achronot Thursday said that the Saudis have made it known that they will not allow their airspace to be used for any attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities by Israel, the U.S., or any other country.

F-35 stealth fighter

F-35 stealth fighter
Photo: IDF

According to the report, the Saudis transferred the message to Israel via senior officials in the administration of U.S. Continue Reading »