Archive for December 5, 2013

1st Israeli Gov’t Minister Enters Turkey Since 2010

 

Israeli Minister Amir Peretz flies to Turkey to attend the United Nations sponsored conference about Mediterranean marine & coastal environmental issues.

By REUTERS
 
Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz flew to Istanbul on Wednesday, becoming the first Israeli cabinet minister to visit Turkey since ties ruptured in 2010 over a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.
Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz - Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Environmental Protection Minister Amir Peretz – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters Peretz was attending a four-day UN sponsored conference about Mediterranean marine and coastal environment issues.

Confirming a report on Israel’s Channel 2 television, the official said Peretz was the highest-ranking Israeli in Turkey since ties soured after IDF commandos killed nine Turkish activists three years ago when their vessel violated an Israeli blockade on Hamas Islamist-ruled Gaza.

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John Kerry has Returned to Jerusalem

What pearls of wisdom will we hear this time?
On his last trip to Israel, Kerry made a number of threats – including a “3rd intifada” if talks failed – & declared Israel’s presence in Judea & Samaria as “illegitimate.”

By Elad Benari

 

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel on Wednesday for the first time since world powers struck a nuclear deal with Iran that angered the Jewish state, and amid renewed efforts to broker Israeli-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace talks, reports AFP.

The two issues are expected to dominate Kerry’s meetings on Thursday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas when Kerry travels to Ramallah. Continue Reading »

Israel’s El Al Airlines posts record profits

 

Israel’s national flag carrier’s profit rose to record $57.9 million from $37.5 million the year before.

El Al’s chief executive complains gov’t boosts Turkish airlines expansion at expense of Israeli carriers.

Reuters

Net profit at Israel’s flag carrier rose to a record $57.9 million from $37.5 million a year earlier, El Al said on Wednesday. Revenue increased 6.2 percent to $643.3 million – the highest in five years – as passenger revenue grew 6.1 percent while cargo revenue dipped 0.8 percent.

File:El Al Boeing 737-8HX.jpg

El Al 737 – Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons.

Chief Executive Elyezer Shkedy said the airline faced increased competition in the quarter as foreign airlines increased the number of seats offered by 14 percent. Continue Reading »

Nearly Bankrupt, Hadassah Hospital is on its Last Leg

Having fallen victim in the Madoff scheme & internal disputes that followed, Hadassah Medical Center can’t eliminate its growing monthly debt.

By & Nathan Guttmanzz

 

 

In the past few years, Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, has struggled with a multimillion-dollar loss from the Bernard Madoff scandal and downsized its operations. Now it faces its greatest challenge yet: saving its flagship program — the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Hadassah Ein Kerem.

Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center, Jerusalem – Photo Courtesy

The group’s famous hospital is on the brink of financial collapse.

The medical center has been bleeding tens of millions of dollars in the past few years, and efforts by the American women’s organization to save it have resulted in a rupture with the hospital’s Israeli leadership. Continue Reading »

Video: Israel’s elite Yamam unit perform rooftop rescue

 

Mentally disturbed man takes niece hostage, and locks himself in his apartment. After 2 hours of failed negotiations to secure niece’s release, Magav’s elite counter-terrorism unit members rappels down side of building and performs dramatic rescue operation.

By Matan Tzuri

A 25-year-old Ashkelon resident, who according to initial estimates suffers from mental issues, kidnapped his niece and locked himself in an apartment.

Israel's elite SWAT team performs rooftop rescue - Screenshot

Israel’s elite SWAT team performs rooftop rescue – Screenshot

After two hours of negotiations failed to secure the little girl’s release, Israel‘s Special Central Unit (Yamam) – an elite counter-terrorism unit – rappelled down the side of the building and performed a daring rescue. Continue Reading »

Rockefeller initiative to aid Israeli city become ‘calamity-proofed’

 

Ashkelon accepted in New York’s Rockefeller program devoted to assisting cities become more crisis-resilient.

 

The Rockefeller Foundation in New York announced Wednesday that the Israeli city of Ashkelon will be one of the first 33 cities to be part of its 100 Resilient Cities Challenge.

The beach near Ashkelon National Park.

The beach near Ashkelon National Park. – Photo: Moshe Gilad

The challenge, launched after superstorm Sandy devastated New York in 2012, is a $100 million initiative aimed at making cities around the world more resistant to both natural and man-made calamities.

Selected out of hundreds of applicants, Ashkelon will have to instate its own “chief resilience officer” who will work with the Rockefeller team to conceive and implement a broad plan to shock-proof the city from myriad threats, according to media reports. Continue Reading »

Canadian Arrested for ‘Insulting Abbas’

Mohammed Al Sabawi, the father of a Canadian businessman was arrested & held for 9 hours after calling for PA Chairman’s downfall. ‘Hurt his feelings and he’ll arrest you’.

By Ari Soffer

 

The father of a Canadian businessman was detained for nine hours by Palestinian Authority security forces after calling for the ouster of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday.

Khaled Al Sabawi said his 68 year-old father, Mohammed Al Sabawi, was arrested after PA police accused him of insulting Abbas when he refused to allow PA security forces to use his roof during the recent visit by French President Francois Hollande. Continue Reading »

Every day delayed to initiate P1+5 nukes deal gives Iran time to acquire bomb

“Every day that goes by where Iran is not bound to roll back its nuclear program, but still can benefit from a shift in the market psychology, from fear to greed, puts money in the regime’s pocket, without doing anything to address their growing nuclear weapons capacity,” said the executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

 

Under the terms of an agreement reached last month, Iran has vowed not to make “any further advances of its activities” at its reactor in Arak.

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New Knesset bill: Public can petition Knesset to discuss issues

 

The newly proposed legislation, which allows in the Knesset a similar practice from the European Parliament, passed its preliminary reading today.

 

 
The public will be able to more actively participate in the Knesset’s work, as a bill proposed by MK Hilik Bar (Labor) allowing people to sign petitions on the Knesset’s website, is on its way to becoming law.
Labor Party MK Hilik Bar

Labor Party MK Hilik Bar – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The J’lem Post

The legislation, which brings a practice from the European Parliament to the Knesset, passed its preliminary reading Wednesday with 40 in favor and one opposed.

“This is an unprecedented, historic bill that changes the way we relate to the citizens who sent us to the Knesset to represent them and their involvement in our work,” Bar explained.

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3 Palestinian Arabs hijack car with baby in back

 

After mother is forced out of car she calls husband. Then father with friend enter hostile Arab village, finds his car abandoned with daughter sitting safely inside.

Father: ‘I wasn’t scared. I was only thinking about one thing – my daughter’s life’.

By Akiva Novick

Three Palestinian men hijacked a Dolev resident’s car Tuesday, when in the back seat sat her three-month-old daughter.

The car that was hijacked (Photo: Police Spokesperson)

The car that was hijacked – Photo: Police Spokesperson

The baby’s life was saved due the father’s resourcefulness, who found his daughter in the car, abandoned, between two hostile villages.

The incident happened in the Binyamin Hills Tuesday afternoon, around 4 pm. Continue Reading »

Hezbollah: Israel assassinated terror group’s arms chief outside his home

The hit on terrorist Hassan al-Laqis marks biggest blow to Shiite terror group Hezbollah, since the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh.

Official Hezbollah statement: ‘Israel automatically held responsible for the crime.’

 

 

The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said Wednesday that one of its commanders has been “assassinated” outside of his home in southern Beirut. It blamed Israel for his killing, something an official there quickly denied.

Scene of assassination of Hezbollah arms chief - AP

A Hezbollah flag hangs on yellow police tape sealing off the scene where Hassan al-Laqis, a senior commander for Hezbollah, was gunned down outside his home, near Beirut, Lebanon, Dec.

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Victory in Court: Iran to pay $9 Million to Israeli Terror Victims

US federal court awarded families of victims to a 1997 Jerusalem terror attack, $9 million from frozen Iranian assets, in a ‘Chanukah miracle’ verdict.

By Ari Yashar

 

On Wednesday an unprecedented US court victory awarded $9 million in frozen Iranian assets to the families of 5 terror victims murdered in a triple suicide bombing in Jerusalem back in 1997.

The bombings, which took place in the capital’s busy Ben Yehuda street, was carried out by Hamas. Among the 5 murdered were three 14 year old girls.

Shurat HaDin (Israeli Law Center) began the petition in 2001 against Iran, which it claimed provided material and financial support to Hamas in conducting the attack. Continue Reading »

NYT displays Israeli woman’s breast for cancer photo

American readers were offended by the paper’s controversial front page photo citing partial nudity & Jewish tradition as cause.

By

 

 

An unnamed Israeli woman pictured in a controversial photo on the front page of The New York Times on Wednesday spoke out in response to critics of the paper’s choice of images.

NYT nipple photo

The front page of The New York Times Wednesday.- Photo Courtesy NYT

An image of the woman’s upper body – including an incision scar, a portion of her areola and a Star of David tattoo – was featured as the lead photo in the paper that day to illustrate a story about breast cancer screening in Israel. Continue Reading »

Ex-US & Israeli Intel Chiefs: Obama Let Iran become Nuclear

 

 

Both former American and Israeli intel chiefs agree: The P5+1 Geneva agreement has allowed Iran to become a nuclear power.

By Ryan Jones

 

 

Former Israeli and American intelligence chiefs this week said the deal US President Barack Obama and other Western leaders struck with Iran last week in Geneva had essentially allowed the Islamic Republic to become a “nuclear threshold state.”

fox

More accurately, former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin said that the West had failed for decades to adequately confront the Iranian nuclear threat, and so had finally given up and signed a bad deal.

“The fact that Iran is a nuclear threshold state does not derive from this agreement, but because the Iranians have developed capabilities for years, and no one can stop them,” Yadlin said at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. Continue Reading »

1st ever Hasmonean-era home unearthed in City of David, Jerusalem


Large treasure of coins discovered on the site, dating back to the period of Antiochus II through  Antiochus VII.

 

 

The first-ever Hasmonean structure to be found in Jerusalem has been uncovered in recent months in the City of David area. The large structure Hasmonean-period is located in the Givati parking lot, across from the entrance to the City of David National Park and only a few dozen meters from the Temple Mount.

Hasmonean-era structure.

Hasmonean-era structure uncovered in Jerusalem archaeological digging.- Photo: Emil Salman

Hasmonean-era Jerusalem is well known from the historic descriptions of Josephus and small archeological finds, including pottery and coins, from the period. Continue Reading »