Archive for April 9, 2013

NGO warns: Save enough natural gas for domestic use

The NGO Adam Teva V’Din to legislators: Be sure Israel allocates enough offshore gas for use at home.

 

 

 
Environmental advocacy group Adam Teva V’Din (Israel Union for Environmental Defense) has distributed a question-and-answer guide to MKs about minimizing natural gas export, the group announced on Sunday.
Tamar natural gas rig.

Tamar natural gas rig. – Photo: Albatross

As gas from the Tamar offshore reservoir began to flow into Israel a week ago, green groups have responded by pressuring government officials to ensure that the country keeps enough for its own citizens. The 250 billioncubic- meter supply from Tamar alone would be able to support Israel for the next 25 years, and the developers have estimated that adjacent Leviathan reservoir contains about double the supply.
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A Controversial Advocate or Grand Pretender

Yeshiva University criticized for presenting award to former President Carter after decades of demonizing Israel.

 

Pro-Israel activists have launched a campaign to prevent a Jewish university from presenting anti-Israel former President Jimmy Carter with the school’s “International Advocate for Peace Award.”

Jimmy CarterYeshiva University’s Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is scheduled to present Carter with the award on Wednesday, leading former alumni and pro-Israel advocates to galvanize in opposition to what they say is the former president’s anti-Israel views.

“I can’t imagine a worse candidate for any kind of a human rights award,” Harvard law professor and pro-Israel author Alan Dershowitz told the Washington Free Beacon Monday. Continue Reading »

Elderly Arab shepherd severely beaten; settlers offer assistance

Hassan Barhoush, 80, severely beaten & left for dead while tending his sheep.
Shocked Avnei Hefetz residents visit him in hospital, seek
assailants.

By Itamar Fleishman

 

Hassan Barhoush, an 80-year-old Palestinian shepherd from Kafr al-Labad in the West Bank, remains hospitalized at the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv after being severely beaten a week-and-a-half ago by two unknown assailants with rods.

"לא תהיה יותר מאנרכיה". חוסני ברהוש ואביו בבית החולים (צילום: ירון ברנר)

Barhoush and his son at the hospital – Photo: Yaron Brener

Both of Barhoush’s hands were broken in the attack, and he was left bleeding on the ground. Police have launched an investigation into the incident.

The elderly man’s son, Husni, told Ynet his father tends his sheep for two or three hours a day and then returns home. Continue Reading »

Arab Youth Discuss Holocaust’s Impact After Visiting Poland

Scores of Israeli Arab youths in the National Service participated in a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony, then discussed the sad events and its relevance to Israeli Arabs.

By David Lev

Dozens of Arab youths in the National Service (Sherut Le’umi), who serve as counselors in the No’ar Oved Ve’lomed youth group (associated with the Labor Party), participated in a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony on Sunday night. After the ceremony, the youths discussed the importance of the Holocaust to the Jewish people – and its relevance to Israeli Arabs.

Israeli youth at Auschwitz

Israeli youth at Auschwitz – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Many of the youths had recently returned from a trip to Poland, where they visited the concentration camps and learned first-hand about the Holocaust. Continue Reading »

Health Ministry seeking to drop salt from Israeli tables

With 75% of Israeli salt consumption coming from processed foods, the Health Ministry released a plan to reduce salt intake by 3 grams a day in the average Israeli’s diet within 7 years.

The Health Ministry has unveiled a new program to reduce the amount of salt in food in Israel. The move is expected to have a gradual effect on the taste of most processed foods sold here.

The Health Ministry is revising salt-intake recommendations

The Health Ministry is revising salt-intake recommendations. – Photo: Bloomberg

Sunday was World Health Day and the theme for 2013 was high blood pressure. In honor of the event, the Health Ministry released a plan to reduce salt intake by 3 grams a day in the average Israeli’s diet within seven years. Continue Reading »

Kerry meets Abbas then conveys to Israel precondition #6 to begin talks

When Kerry met PA president in Ramallah, Abbas adds relinquishment of W. Bank area under Israeli control (as per Oslo Accords) to list of preconditions.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH & HERB KEINON

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry flew into Israel from Turkey late Sunday afternoon, his second visit in two weeks, and went directly to Ramallah for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Ramallah

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Ramallah – Photo: REUTERS

Abbas reiterated his stance regarding the resumption of peace talks with Israel, but added a new demand: that Israel hand control over parts of Area C in the West Bank to his authority.

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Police Catch Temple Mount Terrorist Cell

The group of Hamas terrorists that were operating from the Temple Mount, were behind recent string of firebomb & stone attacks that left 5 Israeli police officers injured.

By Israel Today Staff

 

 

 

Israel on Sunday revealed that its security forces recently captured a Hamas terrorist cell operating out of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

The Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site for well over 3,000 years.

The Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site for well over 3,000 years.

 

The five-man cell had been behind a string of recent stone and firebomb attacks on and around the Temple Mount. Nine Israeli police officers were wounded last month in one of the firebomb attacks. Continue Reading »

Worldwide Anti-Semitism for 2012 is up 30%

 

Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry annual report notes disconcerting increase in violent incidents against Jews in 2012, especially in  Greece, France, Hungary & the Ukraine

Kantor Center Report: “EU is not doing enough to combat this phenomenon”.

By Yael Branovsky & Israel Hayom Staff

A new report published Sunday, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, noted a 30 percent increase in anti-Semitic violence and vandalism worldwide in 2012.

The report, by Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, said the past year had seen “an alarming rise in the number of terrorist attacks and attempted attacks against Jewish targets, and an escalation in violent incidents against Jews worldwide.”

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Binyamin Netanyahu, ‘We won’t put our fate in the hands of others’

On eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, PM Netanyahu pledges ‘never again,’ referring to Iran.

Israel President Peres: ‘Threat against one nation is threat against all.’

 

 

 

“There will never again be another Holocaust,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pledged on Sunday evening, in a direct challenge to Iran, during the state ceremony marking the start of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu speaks at Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu speaks at Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Calling the Jews a people that “seeks peace,” Netanyahu noted that “there are who seek to extinguish this light of ours.”

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Gaza Launches Rocket on eve of Holocaust Day

 

A Terrorist Rocket explodes in open area of Shaar Hanegev with no injuries or damage reported. ‘We’re used to disruptions,’ resident says.

By Neri Brenner

 

Palestinians fired a rocket at the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council on Sunday – the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Archive Photo Roee Idan

Archive Photo: Roee Idan

The rocket exploded in an open area. No injuries or damage were reported.

Benny, a resident of Shaar Hanegev, recounted, “During the Holocaust Day ceremony the siren sounded. All those in the club entered the security room and after several blasts were heard from afar, we resumed the ceremony.”

He further added, “We’re used to these disruptions. Continue Reading »

Teachers Union of Ireland brands Israel ‘apartheid state’ & calls for boycott

 

Ireland’s Teachers Union passed a resolution urges all its members to cease all collaboration with the State of Israel.

By

 

 

The Teachers Union of Ireland has adopted a resolution in support of an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, which the union called an “apartheid state.”

Ireland-Palestine Solidarity protesters call for a boycott of Israel


From November 2012, protesters in Ireland call for a boycott of Israel following Israeli bombing of Gaza. – Photo: AP

 

The motion, passed unanimously on April 4 during the union’s annual congress, calls for “all members to cease all cultural and academic collaboration with Israel, including the exchange of scientists, students and academic personalities, as well as all cooperation in research programs,” according to a report on the website of the Center for Research of Globalization. Continue Reading »

Israel Concerned After Syrian Troops Withdrawn from Golan

Damascus withdrew large numbers of gov’t troops from the Golan Heights & rebels have taken over, the Guardian reported.

By Elad Benari

 

 

The Syrian government has withdrawn large numbers of troops from the Golan Heights, in a move that has cast doubt over the future of a UN peacekeeping force on the strategically vital plateau, the British Guardian reported Sunday.

Western diplomats told the newspaper that the Syrian redeployments near the Golan ceasefire line were the most significant in 40 years, with at least several thousand soldiers thought to have been moved in recent weeks to battle fronts closer to Damascus. Continue Reading »

Netanyahu transfers of 50m NIS to Holocaust survivors

PM Netanyahu emphasizes Israel’s deep commitment to Holocaust survivors, says gov’t will crack down on wave of attacks on elderly.

NGOs plan demonstration & calls for the gov’t to guarantee survivors can “live in dignity.”

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that he had ordered the transfer of 50 million shekels to Holocaust survivors.

Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said he had agreed on the amount with Finance Minister Yair Lapid.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at last cabinet meeting of current govenment, March 10, 2013.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at last cabinet meeting of current government, March 10, 2013. – Photo: GPO

He also addressed a wave of recent attacks on the elderly saying that the government would “apply its full weight” to prevent such crimes and to punish the perpetrators.

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IDF officers in Auschwitz: ‘Witnesses in uniform’

 

 

Members of Israel’s IDF delegation visit concentration camps, meet with German soldiers to discuss Judaism, politics, Islam in Europe. Major Rabinstein, ‘We had to salute while German anthem was playing; this was not easy’. 

By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit

 

Unique delegations of IDF officers, dubbed “Witnesses in Uniforms,” continue to fly to Europe. These delegations consist of some 180 IDF officers from various units, including reservists. The delegations visit the concentration and death camps, the ghettos and the old communities of the destroyed European Jewry.

‘Completely different experience.’ Auschwitz – Photo: Reuters

These trips are preceded by extensive studying and preparation that the delegation members undergo, including a tour of Yad Vashem. Continue Reading »

IDF Security Screw-up as Gazan Reaches Jewish Community

An unarmed man from Gaza succeeded in penetrating all the IDF defenses & reach the town of Netivot. Security officials concerned.

By Maayana Miskin

 

A man from Gaza managed to get past several layers of IDF security and to reach the Israeli city of Netivot shortly before Passover, Yisrael Hayom reports.

The man was unarmed and apparently did not plan to carry out a terrorist attack. His infiltration has caused great concern in the defense establishment regardless, as it is feared that he could have shown terrorists a way of entering Israel.

In addition, military commanders are concerned that the man may have been a terrorist doing reconnaissance. Continue Reading »