Archive for April 23, 2013

Sharansky gets ‘OK’ from PM to pursue Western Wall prayer plan

Sharansky’s plan calls for the Robinson’s Arch archeological site at the southern part of the Western Wall to be used as the designated space for egalitarian prayer.

 

JERUSALEM — Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky was given a green light by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to pursue his plan for a permanent egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall.

Jerusalem (2)

Western Wall and Temple Mount seen in Jerusalem

 

Netanyahu told Sharansky to continue reviewing the situation with Zvi Hauser, the director general of the Prime Minister’s Office, and Yaakov Amidror, Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Jewish Agency spokesman Benjamin Rutland told JTA on Monday. Continue Reading »

EU preparing guidelines for labeling West Bank products

EU pursuing efforts to ensure labeling of settlement goods.

Israeli postal codes placed on exported products already alert European custom officials that products originate over the 1967 line.

 

 

The European Union is working on legal guidelines for any member states that might choose to clearly label products produced in West Bank settlements, according to diplomatic sources.

Activists march through  Modi'in Illit supermarket

Activists march through Modi’in Illit supermarket – Photo: REUTERS

“We are pursuing efforts to ensure correct labeling of settlement goods as tasked by the council,” an EU spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

The work now underway in Brussels to create guidelines for the sale of West Bank settlement products follows a December 2012 conclusion by an EU meeting of foreign ministers that all agreements with Israel “must unequivocally and explicitly indicate their inapplicability to the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, namely the Golan Heights; the West Bank, including east Jerusalem; and the Gaza Strip.”

Continue Reading »

Erdoğan to visit Gaza in May ignoring Kerry’s request

Turkish

media reports

 their PM refuses to postpone Gaza visit set for May despite US Secretary of State’s request.

Turkish officials meet with Israelis in Ankara to discuss compensation

Roi KaisBy

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday urged Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to postpone his visit to Gaza in order to prevent disruptions to efforts to restart the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.

 

Kerry & Erdoğan – Photo by Reuters

Reports in Turkey said Erdogan refused the request. Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is in Israel to discuss developments in Syria and Iran. Continue Reading »

Nepal nabs Iranian planning terror attack on Israeli embassy

An Iranian was detained by Israeli security staff & found with a counterfeit Israeli passport.

By Haaretz Staff

 

An Iranian national carrying a forged Israeli passport was arrested on April 13 by security personnel from the Israeli embassy in the Nepalese capital Katmandu, Channel 2 News reported on Monday.

Aerial view of a road in Kathmandu

Aerial view of a road in Kathmandu – Photo: Dr Michel Royon/Wikimedia Commons

According to the report, the man was spotted acting suspiciously outside the Israeli mission in the city. He was detained by Israeli security staff and found to be in possession of a counterfeit Israeli passport. Channel 2 reported that embassy staff handed the suspect over to local police, where he reportedly confessed to the suspicions against him. Continue Reading »

Israel Capitulates to Hunger-Striking Terrorist

In exchange for his early release, imprisoned terrorist Samer Issawi has reportedly agreed to end his hunger strike which has lasted more than 8 months.

By Elad Benari

 

Israel has reached a deal with a Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist prisoner who has been on a long-term hunger strike, officials in the PA said on Monday night.

The terrorist, Samer Issawi, has reportedly agreed to end an on-off hunger strike which lasted for more than eight months in exchange for an early release, the officials told Reuters.

Issawi agreed to a deal brokered by Israeli and PA officials to serve eight months for violating bail conditions, after which he will be freed to his Jerusalem home, according to Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian prisoner organization. Continue Reading »

EU Favors Labelling of ‘Settlement Products’

Report: EU foreign ministers support efforts to label products from Judea, Samaria & ‘East-Jerusalem’.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

 

EU foreign ministers, among them Britain’s William Hague and Laurent Fabius of France, have said they will back EU efforts to label products from Israeli communities in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, according to a letter obtained by AFP on Friday.

“We warmly welcome your commitment to work with fellow commissioners to prepare EU-wide guidelines on the labelling of settlement produce,” said the letter by 13 ministers, addressed to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and dated April 12.

“This is an important step to ensure correct and coherent application of EU consumer protection and labelling legislation, which is in fulfillment of our previous commitments and is fully consistent with long-standing EU policy in relation to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the letter said, according to AFP. Continue Reading »

Open Skies Cause Turbulence for Israeli airlines

 

Israeli airlines may strike Sunday if the cabinet approves new ‘Open Skies’ agreement with the EU.

Transportation Ministry: Airline agreement is good for economy & the public.

By Israel Hayom staff

Barring a last-minute compromise, Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia and Israir will go on strike on Sunday to protest the government’s expected approval of a new comprehensive civil aviation agreement with the European Union.

Continue Reading »

Israel set to buy new US aircraft & missiles

NYT Report: Israel will be the 1st country to buy the V-22 Osprey, the U.S.-made military tiltrotor aircraft with both a vertical takeoff and landing.

 

WASHINGTON — Israel is set to become the first nation to buy the V-22 Osprey, an U.S.-made military aircraft which combines helicopter maneuverability with airplane speed and range.

A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey – Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey – Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The sale, which according to The New York Times will be finalized during the Middle East visit next week by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, would also supply Israel with new missiles designed to take out an adversary’s air-defense radars. Continue Reading »

Hezbollah marches eastwards to support Assad

Iranian regional allies are mobilizing on behalf of Assad’s regime, with Hezbollah heading further & deeper eastwards, at the risk of provoking a Syrian response.

By JONATHAN SPYER

 

 

 
This week saw a sharp escalation in the emerging confrontation between the Syrian Sunni rebels and the Lebanese Hezbollah organization. This conflict is the result of Hezbollah’s increasingly visible engagement in Syria on behalf of the Assad regime.
Flags of Hezbollah, Assad's Syria

Flags of Hezbollah, Assad’s Syria – Photo: REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

Syrian rebels for the first time this week fired rockets into the Hezbollah controlled Hermel region, adjoining the Syrian border. Two Lebanese citizens were killed and a number of others wounded, as rockets landed in the villages of al-Qasr and Hawsh al- Sayyed Ali.

Continue Reading »

IDF to produce ‘Jenin Jenin’ counter-film

IDF spokesperson chief Brig. Gen. Mordechai explains the media’s influence on warfare & reveals that the IDF is producing a film about Jenin, for internal educational use for it’s soldiers.

Yoav Zitun

During a conference held by the Israeli Lawyer’s Guild in the southern town of Eilat, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav “Polly” Mordechai spoke about the important role media and culture have on the workings of the IDF, focusing on the influence of hasbara on the IDF’s legitimacy.

הפצ"ר עפרוני ודובר צה"ל מרדכי, בכנס אילת (צילום: עידן מילמן)

Mordechai, Efroni – Photo: Idan Milman

“Hence, in an age when war is screened live, before the camera’s lenses, spokespersons and hasbara have an increasingly critical role and influence military operations’ legitimacy. Continue Reading »

Hagel to Finalize Mideast Arms Deal with Israel, UAE & Saudi Arabia

The $10 billion arms deal with Israel, the UAE & Saudi Arabia will see the U.S. providing troop transports, warplanes & missiles.

By Elad Benari, Canada

 

 

The U.S. Defense Department is expected to finalize a $10 billion arms deal with Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates next week that will provide missiles, warplanes and troop transports to help them counter any future threat from Iran, according to a Friday report in The New York Times.

HagelA week-long visit to the region by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will culminate a year of secret negotiations on a deal that Congressional officials said will be second only to the $29.5 billion sale of F-15 aircraft to Saudi Arabia announced in 2010, said the report. Continue Reading »

5 Palestinians planned to kill Jewish worshipers at Temple Mount

5 Arab residents of Jerusalem were arrested over plots to attack Jews praying at the Temple Mount, open fire on police, and kidnap & murder an Israeli hitchhiker.

By Ryan Jones

 

A Jerusalem court on Thursday heard charges against five Arab residents of the holy city who were accused of planning to attack Jewish worshipers at the Temple Mount and Western Wall.

Palestinian gang planned to kill Jewish worshipers at Temple Mount

Palestinian gang planned to kill Jewish worshipers at Temple Mount – Israel Today

 

The five men, all aged between 20 and 25, had contacted terrorist organizations in Judea, Samaria and Gaza in order to buy weapons and explosives and obtain arms training. Continue Reading »

Netanyahu: ‘Israel has the right to prevent WMDs from falling into the wrong hands’

 

Netanyahu: Nonconventional weapons in the hands of terrorists would be regional game changer. Stopping militants from obtaining such weapons is “in other countries’ interest as well.”

By Israel Hayom Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel “has a right to prevent weapons from falling into the wrong hands in Syria.”

Continue Reading »

Cal-Berkeley student senate accepts divestment measures against Israel

The resolution calls on the school to divest more than $14 million in university and Associated Students funds from Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Cement Roadstone Holding.

By JTA Staff

 

NEW YORK  — A student senate at the University of California, Berkeley narrowly passed a measure calling on the school to divest from three companies with dealings in the West Bank.

Cal-Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

Following 10 hours of sometimes heated debate, the Associated Students of the University of California senate early Wednesday morning passed the resolution in an 11-9 vote, the student newspaper, the Daily Californian, reported.

The resolution calls on the school to divest more than $14 million in university and Associated Students funds from Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Cement Roadstone Holding, saying they profit from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Jewish settlements there. Continue Reading »

ex-PM Olmert: Israel is covertly preventing a nuclear Iran

Former PM Olmert says Israel has done “many things quietly” to prevent Iran from going nuclear, but the effort must be led by the US.

Olmert, 2 ministers & envoy to US will address annual ‘Jerusalem Post’ New York conference on key issues next weekend.

 

Israel has been quietly active over a long period in preventing Tehran from achieving its nuclear aims, former prime minister Ehud Olmert revealed recently to The Jerusalem Post in an interview ahead of next weekend’s second annual Jerusalem Post Conference in New York City.

EHUD OLMERT

EHUD OLMERT – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

“We did many things quietly over a long period of time that certainly helped prevent the Iranians from achieving this capacity long ago, but the effort must be led with the United States and the international community,” said Olmert, who will be the keynote speaker at the conference on April 28, as he was at the inaugural conference last year. Continue Reading »