Archive for December 11, 2013

Dutch Water Company Kills Deal with Israel After UK Threat

Vitens water provider cuts ties with Israeli water company Mekorot over UK objections to presence in Judea & Samaria.

The British gov’t sent letter of warning against business involvement.

By Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva Staff

 

Vitens, the largest drinking water company in Holland, announced on Tuesday it would cut business ties with the Israeli water company Mekorot due to its presence in Judea and Samaria. Meanwhile the British government has similarly raised tensions with Israel through financial sanctions.

The announcement by Vitens, published by the company’s management, noted that the decision was reached after consultation with Holland’s Foreign Ministry. Continue Reading »

Jerusalem anticipates snowfall for third year in a row

Barkat says Israel’s capital prepared for snowfall, that may fall as early as Thursday; snow to also fall on Golan & Galilee mountain peaks.

 

 

After two winters in a row that did not disappoint, the capital’s residents are waiting in anticipation for a potentially snowy end to their week.

Snow in Jerusalem last year  - Israel Today

Snow in Jerusalem last year – Israel Today

“Snow in Jerusalem is a celebration for Jerusalemites and the many visitors who come to see the most beautiful city in the world painted white,” said Mayor Nir Barkat. “We hope the snow does not disappoint – especially the children of Jerusalem who are waiting and excited.” Continue Reading »

Al-Hayat Report: White House draft includes a 15-year IDF presence in West Bank

 

 

Arabic-language media reports content of US security suggestions for Israel-PA. (PA leak?)

American proposal includes radar posts in mountains, IDF in Jordan Valley, joint patrols at border crossings.

By Elior Levy

The US security outline for any proposed peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority will include a 15-year interim agreement, Israeli military presence in the Jordan Valley, and radar posts on West Bank mountains, the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported Tuesday.

 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, June 30, 2013.- Photo: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, June 30, 2013.- Photo: Reuters

The report noted the US administration shared its security proposals with PA President Mahmoud Abbas. Continue Reading »

Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded to Two Israeli-Americans

To Israelis Michael Levitt, and Professors Arieh Warshel, also American citizens, share Nobel with colleague Martin Karplus.

 

 

Two Israeli scientists who emigrated to the U.S. on Tuesday were awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, in a ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden.

Professor Arieh Warshel receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Stockholm, Oct. 10, 2013.

Professor Arieh Warshel receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Stockholm, Oct. 10, 2013.

Professors Arieh Warshel and Michael Levitt, who completed their Ph.D.s at Israel’s Weizmann Institute, are sharing the prize of 8 million crowns ($1.25 million) with Prof. Martin Karplus for their development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems.

All three winners are American citizens, but also hold dual citizenship. Continue Reading »

Israeli Doctors Warn: Don’t use Vaporizers

Israeli pediatricians have come out and began a campaign to warn parents against humidifiers & vaporizers as ineffective & potentially deadly.

By Maayana Miskin

 

The Israel Pediatric Association has issued a strong warning against the use of vaporizers (humidifiers) in children’s bedrooms, Kikar Hashabat reports.

Many parents use such machines during the winter in hopes of easing or preventing coughs and other respiratory illness.

Doctors warned that not only is there no proof that the machines are effective, but they can actually pose a health risk – and at times, can even prove fatal.

The threat that has pediatricians worried is Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially fatal illness caused by a bacteria carried by amoeba that grow in stagnant water. Continue Reading »

Apple Locates Western Wall (Kotel) as in Palestine

 

People were shocked to find their iPhone 5 identifying Jerusalem’s Western Wall (Kotel) in the Palestinian Territories.

By David Lazarus

 

Apple is often first in breaking new ground with the latest hi-tech gadgets. Now the company has introduced yet another brand new notion: Jerusalem‚Äôs Wailing Wall (known as the Kotel) is in “Palestine.”

Apple's Wailing Wall is in Palestine

Apple identifies location of the Kotel (Wailing Wall): The West Bank, East Jerusalem.

The company that brought us the innovative iPhone now offers the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while the rest of the world, led by the Americans, still try to broker a shaky final status. Continue Reading »

US defense bill allocates additional funding for joint U.S-Israel projects

 

Congressional Bill includes $173 million in additional funds for joint U.S.-Israel missile defense programs, including the Arrow project & David’s Sling.

This bill accommodates U.S. President Obama’s request of $220 million for additional Iron Dome batteries.

By Reuters & Israel Hayom Staff

A compromise defense bill proposed on Monday by U.S. lawmakers would boost spending on missile defense by $358 million to $9.5 billion, mandating an additional homeland defense radar and increasing funding for U.S.-Israeli cooperative efforts.

The David’s Sling anti-missile system during a test – Photo Courtesy: Israel Defense Ministry

Leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives Armed Services committees released details of a slimmed-down defense authorization bill for fiscal 2014 late on Monday, calling for a final vote on the measure before Congress leaves for the year. Continue Reading »

Former ambassador to South Africa: Netanyahu not welcomed

 

Israel’s former ambassador to South Africa, Alon Liel, said PM Netanyahu made right decision by not attending Mandela memorial service, but not for high travel costs excuse.

Ynet reporters

Nearly 100 heads of state are taking part in the memorial service for Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Israel’s leaders are not among them.

Liel with Mandela and former President Ezer Weizman – Photo Courtesy

Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres did not travel to Johannesburg, each for their own reasons, leaving Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and five Knesset members to represent Israel. Netanyahu said travel costs were too high, while Peres said he was suffering from the flu. Continue Reading »

Pro-Israel orgs stepping back from confrontation with White House over Iran

AIPAC’s executive director calls for pro-Israel organizations & groups to focus on passing new & stricter sanctions as a means of shaping a final anti-Nuclear deal with Iran.

By

 

 

When it comes to the deal between Iran and major powers, Israel and the pro-Israel community are retreating from a strategy of confrontation and working instead to influence the contours of a final agreement.

U.S. President Obama speaking at the 2011 AIPAC convention.

U.S. President Obama speaking at the 2011 AIPAC convention. – Photo: AP

In a conference call last week, Howard Kohr, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s executive director, advised pro-Israel activists and leaders not to confront the Obama administration directly over the “difference of strategy” between the United States and Israel on Iran. Continue Reading »

PLO: No ‘Deals’ With Israel, Unless All Demands are Fulfilled

The PLO hierarchy remains adamantly opposed to anything short of the effective elimination of Israel as its condition for a “peace” agreement.

By Dalit Halevy

 

John Kerry has been proposing ideas and programs aimed at encouraging Israel and the Palestinian Authority to enter into a final-status agreements, and Israeli politicians on the left and right debate whether Israel can trust PA chief Mahmoud Abbas – not to mention Hamas – in a “land for peace deal.”

But the PLO, the political body led by Abbas, remains adamantly opposed to anything less than the effective destruction of the State of Israel as its price for a “peace” agreement. Continue Reading »

Al-Jazeera Sacks its Reporter for Questioning Arafat ‘Assassination’

One of the original authors of the network’s coverage of Swiss investigation, Ken Silverstein was reportedly fired after citing media bias.

By Tova Dvorin

 

An Al-Jazeera reporter was fired last week for questioning the objectivity of the investigations surrounding the death of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, according to The Washington Free Beacon. The reporter was part of the network’s investigative team into the death, which was controversially declared a “poisoning” by Swiss officials in October.

Yasser Arafat

Yasser Arafat, not yet dead

 

Al-Jazeera has been one of the prime networks advocating the theory that the PLO leader was poisoned by polonium in 2004, and has been actively presenting the story with that bias since 2012. Continue Reading »

Jordan & U.S. Agree: Israel Needs to Control Jordan Valley

Palestinians steaming after Kerry reported the US backs Israel’s demand to maintain full IDF presence in Jordan Valley.

By Ryan Jones

 

The Obama Administration and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan have both reportedly sided with Israel in its demand to retain control over the Jordan Valley in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians.

US, Jordan Agree: Israel Should Control Jordan Valley

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Benny Gantz look out over the strategic Jordan Valley. – PHOTO Courtesy

In a new proposal to both Israel and the Palestinian Authority last week, US Secretary of State John Kerry is said to have suggested that the Jewish state be permitted to maintain a military presence in the strategic Jordan Valley. Continue Reading »

Zahar: Following Rouhani election, Hamas renewed ties with Iran

A senior Hamas official reports his organization will not be bound by “Oslo 2″and goes further claiming Fatah’s Abbas does not represent the Palestinian people.

By YASSER OKBI
 

 

Hamas announced Monday that the government in the Gaza Strip renewed its ties with Iran following the election of Hassan Rouhani as Iranian president.

Mahmoud Zahar

Mahmoud Zahar- Photo: Courtesy of Channel 1

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar sad that relations had never been completely severed, but were affected by events in Syria.

According to Zahar, Hamas made clear that it was not involved in the Syrian conflict and would not claim allegiance to either side in the country’s civil war. Continue Reading »

American Professors call on Students Association to vote against Israel boycott

 

 

The American Studies Association said that it will withdraw the resolution if a majority of the ASA’s voting members do not vote to endorse the boycott resolution by December 15.

By

 

 

The American Association of University Professors called on members of the  to vote down a resolution endorsing an academic boycott of Israel.

Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.

Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.- Photo: AP

In an open letter to American Studies Association members published Dec. 6, two days after the ASA’s 20-member national council approved the boycott resolution, the American Association of University Professors, or AAUP, which says it opposes academic boycotts as violations of academic freedom, wrote that it “recognizes the right of individual scholars to act in accordance with their own personal consciences.” Continue Reading »

IDF’s new emergency field hospital will treat 250 patients per day

Nice to know the IDF is a step ahead…

 

In times of national disaster, war or even a shutdown of ordinary hospitals, the IDF’s new emergency field hospital will provide assistance & medical care to those injured in field by using the newest & most advanced medical gear.

By Yoav Zitun

According to Kryce, “during the Yom Kippur War, a third of the deaths were injured for a period of time before they were treated. During Operation Peace for Galilee the figure stood at 22% and in the Second Lebanon War – 15%. Our target, similar to what the Americans achieved in Afghanistan and Iraq, is to lower the figure to single-digit. Continue Reading »