Archive for April 24, 2013

A ‘Palestinian’ Museum: What 200 years of history?

Palestinians building a museum claiming their national history goes back at least 2 centuries, but will that actually convince all the Regional Arabs?

By Aviel Schneider

 

Last week, the laying of the cornerstone of the new “Palestinian Museum” made headlines worldwide. The museum is a private initiative that aims to tell a 200-year-old Palestinian history.

 

Established adjacent to Birzeit University near Ramallah, the museum will be build in two stages and eventually encompass an area of almost 100,000 square feet.

Palestinian sources said a museum is one of the things every proper state needs. “I hope that the museum gives the Palestinians the opportunity to present their story to the world,” said museum director Jack Persekian. Continue Reading »

Israel’s airport security may require ‘suspicious tourists’ to open email accounts

 

Israel’s Attorney-general: Increasing threat from foreign ‘tourists’ exploited for terrorism 

Shin Bet security agents have legal grounds to demand access to email in exceptional cases where incriminating evidence may connect the ‘tourist’ to activities that threaten Israel’s national security.

By Israel Hayom Staff

 

Foreign citizens visiting Israel may be asked to open their email accounts for airport security when they land at Ben-Gurion International Airport, the Attorney-General’s Office stated Wednesday in response to a petition by a leading Israeli civil rights group.

Continue Reading »

US Treasury Shuts Down Hezbollah Money Laundering

Lebanese exchange houses accused of money laundering from used car dealerships and illicit drug trade going to terror group are frozen.

By MICHAEL WILNER, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

 

NEW YORK – The US Treasury Department on Tuesday listed two Lebanese exchange houses as institutions of “primary money laundering concern” for their work with Hezbollah, invoking Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act to effectively shut them out of the American economy.

HEZBOLLAH SUPPORTERS march through the streets of Beirut last year.

HEZBOLLAH SUPPORTERS march through the streets of Beirut last year. Photo: Khalil Hassan/Reuters

In a declassified statement of their case, the US claims that the Rmeiti Exchange and Halawi Exchange have consistently complied in a scheme that comingles money from used car dealerships in the US and drugs from South America into significant funding for the Lebanese terrorist organization.

Continue Reading »

No bunker-busters in latest Israel-US weapons deal

NYT reports differences in policy between Washington & Israel regarding possible attack on Iran:  bunker-buster weapons system not included in current deal.

 

Netanyahu advisor: Differences in views are re-emerging

By Ynet

The paper said that the Israeli Air Force will not get bunker busting bombs which can pierce layers of cement at underground sites. These bombs are considered integral to a successful attack on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.

Defense Cheifs Ya'alon & Hagel - Photo Yaron Brener

Defense Cheifs Ya’alon & Hagel – Photo: Yaron Brener

The deal signed this week between the US and Israel includes advanced weapons systems, but the interesting note is in the item left out of the deal, the New York Times reported Tuesday. Continue Reading »

Boston Hospital Chief Credits Israel With Setting Up Disaster Team

The terrorist attack at last week’s Boston Marathon was unprecedented for the city’s doctors – but they were prepared, thanks to Israel.

By
 

 

Minutes after a terrorist attack killed three at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, doctors and nurses at the city’s hospitals faced a harrowing scene – severed limbs, burned bodies, shrapnel buried in skin.

Alastair Conn, Chief of Emergency Services at Massachusetts General Hospital. -  Photo Screenshot.

Alastair Conn, Chief of Emergency Services at Massachusetts General Hospital. – Photo Screenshot.

For Boston doctors, the challenge presented by last week’s bombing was unprecedented – but they were prepared.

Many of the city’s hospitals have doctors with actual battlefield experience. Continue Reading »

Jordan Reports: Israel to Allow UNESCO to ‘Investigate’ Old City

Jordan reports that Israel has agreed to allow the UN mission to “investigate & assess” heritage conservation site in Jerusalem’s Old City.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

 

Jordan said on Tuesday that Israel has agreed to allow a UN mission to “investigate and assess” heritage conservation in Jerusalem’s Old City for the first time since 2004.

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.

 

“Jordan and Palestine, supported by Arab states, succeeded in pressuring Israel, for the first time since 2004, to accept and facilitate a UNESCO experts’ mission to investigate and assess the status of heritage and conservation of the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls,” a palace statement said, according to a report in the AFP news agency. Continue Reading »

Muslim exclusivity to pray on Temple Mount may be ending

Status quo threatened as MKs finally consider allowing Jews to pray on the Temple Mount.

Rumor sparks Arab media outcry over Jewish ‘prayers in mosque.’

By Maayana Miskin

 

 

For years Jews have been allowed to visit the Temple Mount, the holiest place on earth according to the Jewish religion, but have not been allowed to pray there. In late 2012 police issued draconian instructions under which Jewish visitors could be arrested for merely appearing to pray.

All that may change with MK Miri Regev’s appointment to head the Knesset’s Internal Affairs Committee. Regev (Likud) is planning a trip to the Temple Mount in order to weigh the option of permitting Jewish prayer at the site. Continue Reading »

Ex-MI Chief: Iran has Passed PM’s Red Line

“Iran has crossed Israel’s new red line,” Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin said, “it (will be) very difficult to stop Iran, when it decides to have a bomb.”

By Gil Ronen

 

 

Former Military Intelligence head, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, said Tuesday that “Iran has already crossed Israel’s new ‘red line‘” regarding nuclear weapons development.

Iran's Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility - AFP file photo

Iran’s Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility – AFP file photo

Yadlin, who is the Head of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), said that in the summer, Iran will reach a distance of one or two months between a decision and a bomb.” Continue Reading »

French Report: Israel & Jordan working to stop Syrian WMD transfers

Jordan has apparently given Israel permission to enter its airspace to access Syria in order to monitor & possibly act against the movement of chemical weapons

By Israel Today Staff

 

In a demonstration of regional cooperation against shared threats, Jordan this week gave the green light for Israeli drones to use its airspace to enter neighboring Syria in order to monitor the use and movement of chemical weapons.

Report: Israel, Jordan working together to stop Syrian WMDs

Israel Air Force Drone – Photo courtesy IDF Spokesperson’s Office

 

That according to French newspaper Le Figaro, which cited unnamed experts as saying the Jordanians had opened up two flight corridors to Israeli drones. Continue Reading »

Egypt reports arresting Israeli spy ring in Sinai

 

 

9 Palestinians & Egyptians reportedly arrested for by Egypt by gathering intel on behalf of Israel in the Sinai Peninsula

Salafi leader in Gaza admits their rocket fire from Sinai into Eilat was meant to harm Hamas & the Egyptian gov’t.

By Daniel Siryoti & the Israel Hayom Staff

Continue Reading »

Analysis: How much for Marmara compensation

A look into the context of the Israel-Turkey ex gratia payment negotiations, even though there’s no legal enforceability.

 

 

 
The real negotiations between Israel and Turkey to put the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla incident behind them have only just begun.
Turks mark anniversary of flotilla in Istanbul

Turks mark anniversary of flotilla in Istanbul – Photo: REUTERS

With three years of arguing over whether there would be “regret” or an “apology,” the real fight comes down to the money, with reports indicating Turkey wants $9 million, or $1m. per dead Turkish citizen and that Israel’s initial offer was $900,000, or $100,000 per victim.

The legal context of the negotiations is the wild and virtually unbounded world of ex gratia payments.

Continue Reading »

Haredi MKs respond to Lapid diatribe

Blamed by rookie finance minister for Israel’s huge deficit, the ultra-Orthodox MKs accuse Lapid of inciting hatred & scapegoating them to divert attention away from his planned tax hikes.

Moran Azulay

 

Haredi Knesset members are firing back following Finance Minister Yair Lapid‘s bitter diatribe at the Knesset plenum on Monday.

“He’s using the haredim as a means of distraction and a way to avoid the real questions about the enormous measures he’s imposing on the public,” said MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) who confronted Lapid at the plenum. “It will be because of him that Israelis take to the streets again soon enough.” Continue Reading »

Rebel groups warn Hezbollah to leave Syria

Syrian National Coalition urges the Lebanese gov’t to ‘adopt the necessary measures to stop the aggression’ of their Shi’ite terrorist group in Syria.

The Syrian opposition called on Hezbollah to withdraw its fighters from the country immediately, as activists said regime troops supported by pro-government gunmen linked to the Lebanese Shiite militant group battled rebels Sunday for control of a string of villages near the Lebanon-Syria border.

Members of the Free Syrian Army hiding behind scrap metal during an attack against Syrian government

Members of the Free Syrian Army hiding behind scrap metal during an attack against Syrian government forces in Aleppo, Syria April 21, 2013. – Photo: AP

 

The Syrian National Coalition – the main Western-backed opposition group – warned that Hezbollah involvement in Syria’s civil war could lead to greater risks in the area, and urged the Lebanese government to “adopt the necessary measures to stop the aggression of Hezbollah” and to control the border to “prevent further risks and to protect civilians in the area.” Continue Reading »

Israel plans bringing clean water to the world

 

The Israeli company Odis commemorates UN Water Cooperation Year by unveiling its new filtering system that could provide clean drinking water to even the most impoverished places.

By Yossi Aloni

 

Israel last week unveiled at the UN a unique new filtration system that will finally allow people in Africa and South America to access clean drinking water.

Ron Prosor – רון פרושאור
Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations

 

The presentation of the new system came during the Israeli delegation’s celebration of Israel’s 65th Independence Day at UN headquarters in New York City. Under the banner of “65 Years of Israeli Innovation,” the event was attended by ambassadors from around the world, UN officials, journalists and leaders of the Jewish community in New York. Continue Reading »

The loan of Balfour Declaration to Israel condemned by Arab League

Arab League proclaims Balfour Declaration as cause to the ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict, causing death and the loss of Palestinian rights.

The Declaration document will be on display at Independence Hall following the upcoming renovations to the building.

By Israel Hayom Staff

The Arab League has condemned the decision of the British National Library to loan the original Balfour Declaration document to Israel so it can be put on display at Independence Hall (where David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948) in Tel Aviv.
The Balfour Declaration

The Balfour Declaration

The original almost 96-year-old document has never left British soil.

Continue Reading »