Archive for April 11, 2014

Scientists deemed ‘Jesus’ Wife’ papyrus fragment not forgery

 

Scientists report after carbon dating and examination of ink similar to that of fragments found from Gospel of John, the controversial papyrus fragment of ‘Gospel of Jesus’ Wife’ is not a forgery.

By Associated Press

 

Scientists who examined a controversial fragment of papyrus written in Egyptian Coptic in which Jesus speaks of his wife concluded in papers published on Thursday that the papyrus and ink are probably ancient and not a modern forgery.

The papyrus fragment is owned by an unnamed private collector, with bills of sale going back only to 1999. - Photo: KAREN L. KING

The papyrus fragment is owned by an unnamed private collector, with bills of sale going back only to 1999. – Photo: KAREN L. KING

The existence of the fragment, known as the “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife,” was made public at an academic conference in 2012. Continue Reading »

Talks continuing as Israel hits Abbas’ PA with punitive economic sanctions

 

U.S. State Department official reports gaps narrowing between Israel & Palestinian Authority, but reports of agreement are premature.

By HERB KEINON, KHALED ABU TOAMEH

 

 

 

Israeli and Palestinian officials did not reach an agreement on Thursday during their fourth session in a week to find a way out of the current impasse in the talks, but sources familiar with their discussions said they did agree to continue meeting in the days ahead.

Netanyahu and Abbas - Photo: REUTERS

Netanyahu and Abbas Photo: REUTERS

The sources’ comments came amid reports coming from Cairo – where Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met with Arab League officials – that there was a breakthrough in the talks that would enable a continuation of the talks past the April 29 deadline. Continue Reading »

Bus driver in Israel called Holocaust survivor a Nazi, closed door on his wife

 

The bus driver not only insulted a Holocaust survivor, he then violently shut the bus door on man’s wife, bruising her arm.

‘A Holocaust survivor, being called a Nazi in Israel! Every Israeli should be ashamed.’

By Margarita Erbach

 

A 74-year-old Holocaust survivor was told he was Nazi because he spoke Dutch while traveling on a bus to Tel Aviv.

Metropoline bus

Metropoline bus – Photo: Omni bus simulator

Martin Leeda moved to Israel after surviving three Nazi concentration camps. Today he divides his time between Israel and the Netherlands, where he works as a guide in the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam, and is an active part of the Jewish community there. Continue Reading »

Fleeing Palestinians from Syria seek refugee status in Thailand

 

A year after hundreds of Palestinians fled Syria for Thailand, the UNHCR has yet to grant refugee status. Too busy investigating Israel, perhaps?

By DPA

 

 

Dozens of Palestinians stranded in Thailand after fleeing war-torn Syria a year ago on Thursday petitioned the United Nations to speed up the process of granting them refugee status.

Civilians clean a street from rubble of damaged buildings at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk

Civilians clean a street from rubble of damaged buildings at the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, south of Damascus, February 12, 2014. – Photo: Reuters

The Palestinian petitioners, most of them children, gathered outside the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok in a bid to draw attention to their increasingly desperate plight in the kingdom.

Continue Reading »

Ramallah Gloats: ‘State of Palestine’ accepted into UN conventions & agreements

Palestinian ‘foreign ministry’ having been accepted into UN convention will herald in ‘right of return’ for ‘refugees’.

By Dalit Halevy

 

The Palestinian Authority’s “foreign ministry” announced Thursday that it had received a message from the UN Secretary General confirming the acceptance of the “State of Palestine” into the conventions and agreements signed early April by Mahmoud Abbas, “the President of the State of Palestine.”

The acceptance of the “State of Palestine” is immediately valid in the following treaties: the UN Convention against Torture; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racist Discrimination; the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child that deals with the involvement of children in armed conflicts. Continue Reading »

Israel Customs Officials Nab Tourist From India with Diamond Laden Underwear

In their tireless efforts to perform their duties, officials of the Israel Tax Authority allow nothing to hinder the collection of taxes – not even a pair of underwear.

By Yaakov Levi

 

In their efforts to collect taxes due the government, workers of the Israel Tax Authority allow nothing to stand in their way – not even a pair of underwear, which is where they discovered a stash of undeclared diamonds earlier this week.

It should be noted that the diamonds were discovered in the underwear – as it was being worn by its owner. The diamonds were estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Continue Reading »

Are multiple lawsuits an organized campaign to politically damage the PM?

 

Associates of the Netanyahu family are publicly speaking out against a recent lawsuit against the Prime Minister’s Office, which claimed damages for “harmful” & “abusive” environment at the Prime Minister’s Residence.

By Edna Adato

 

 

Continue Reading »

Israel’s High Court of Justice issued Netanyahu’s gov’t ‘a yellow card’

High Court gives Knesset until May1 to name FADC chair since Netanyahu & Lapid could not agree over who would take the position first.

 

 

 

The Knesset must appoint a chairperson for its sensitive Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by May 1, the High Court of Justice ruled on Thursday.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. – Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

In a rare move, the court issued an interim order compelling the parliament to name a chair for the committee after a petition on the matter was filed by jointly by Labor Party chairman and opposition chief Isaac Herzog and the transparency NGO Movement for Quality in Government. Continue Reading »

Israel not worried about its water supply after dry winter

With 4 water desalination plants currently in operation, Israel is meeting much of its water needs by purifying seawater from the Mediterranean.

Some 80% of domestic water use in Israeli cities is desalinated water, according to Israeli officials.

 

Israel has gone through one of the driest winters in its history, but despite the lean rainy season, the government has suspended a longstanding campaign to conserve water.

Illustration: The Israel Project

The familiar public messages during recent years of drought, often showing images of parched earth, have disappeared from television despite weeks of balmy weather with record low rainfalls in some areas.

Continue Reading »

UN’s Under Sec-Gen Rima Khalaf, Promotes & Advances Antisemitism

Trying to halt the UN’s promotion of antisemitism, Israel’s envoy to the United Nations, Ron Prosor sends his second letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to address the latest example.

By Israel and Stuff

 

Below is the second letter addressed to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the subject of UN’s official propagation of myths, revisionist history, and antisemitism.

Ron Prosor

At the UNITED NATIONS — Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor – Photo: Shahar Azran

https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/1503889_621943027894994_1243409336973588890_n.jpg Continue Reading »

Casino tycoon Adelson donates $16.4 million for Israel space project

 

SpaceIL, reports to building the world’s smallest spacecraft, is participating in the prestigious Google Lunar X Prize competition.

 

 

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife have donated $16.4 million to SpaceIL, a nonprofit organization aiming to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the moon.

SpaceIL

SpaceIL is participating in the Google Lunar X Prize competition. – Photo: Screenshot

SpaceIL, a participant in the prestigious Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP) competition, announced the donation in a press release on Wednesday.

“Sheldon and I are very excited to be supporting SpaceIL in an effort to land the first Israeli spacecraft on the Moon,” said Dr.

Continue Reading »

Israel Launched ‘Ofek 10’ Spy-Satellite into Space

Israel’s “Ofek 10” spy satellite is an observation radar-based satellite, with advanced photo capabilities in both day & night and in all weather conditions. The satellite will be helpful in monitoring sites across the world.

By Hagai Huberman and Elad Benari

 

Israel launched the spy satellite “Ofek 10” into space on Wednesday evening.

The launch was conducted by the Ministry of Defense at the Palmachim Air Force Base in central Israel.

Upon entering orbit, “Ofek 10” will conduct a series of tests to verify that it is up to the excepted levels of performance.

“Ofek 10” is an observation radar-based satellite, with advanced photo capabilities in both day and night and in all weather conditions. Continue Reading »

An Israeli 1st: Young boy saved by rare robot surgery for congenital defect

 

Robotic surgical procedure successfully performed on 13 yr-old boy with a serious defect in his digestive system at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center.

 

 
A rare and complicated operation has been successfully performed with a robot at Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center on a 13-year-old boy born with a serious defect in his digestive system. The hospital promises that the technique will soon be used to perform such surgery on toddlers.
Dr. Ran Steinberg with robot - Photo PIOTR FLITR

Dr. Ran Steinberg with robot – Photo: PIOTR FLITR

The operation, which has rarely been performed in the world and never before in Israel, was carried out at the Haifa hospital last Thursday.

Continue Reading »

Bennett Calls on Gov’t to Annex ‘Settlement Blocs’ like Jerusalem & Golan

Economics Minister drafts letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu demanding gov’t take legal sovereignty over settlement blocs, after PA scrubbed negotiations.

By Hezki Ezra

 

Economics Minister and Jewish Home party Chairman Naftali Bennett has drafted a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday night, demanding that Israel establish full sovereignty over “settlement blocs” in Judea and Samaria.

Bennett explained that the demand comes now – not earlier – due to the fact that the Palestinian Authority has violated the Oslo Accords by taking unilateral action in international fora by applying for membership in fifteen different international organizations.

“These days we have witnessed the decline of the peace process,” Bennett wrote to the Prime Minister, “and the Palestinians broke a new record of extortion and disobedience. Continue Reading »

Jerusalem ‘deeply disappointed’ by Kerry’s biased remarks on peace talks

 

In 1st response to Kerry’s pointing blame only on Israel for talks failure, Jerusalem says, ‘remarks hurt the negotiation’ process.

By i24news

 

Israel said on Wednesday that it was “deeply disappointed” by Secretary of State John Kerry’s remarks Tuesday, placing the blame for derailing the negotiations on Israel’s approval of more Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, The New York Times reported.

Israeli protestors hold signs during a demonstration outside US Secretary of State John Kerry's hotel in Jerusalem, against the release by Israel of Palestinian prisoners, on March 31, 2014 ( Ahmad Gharabli  (AFP) )

Israeli protestors hold signs during a demonstration outside US Secretary of State John Kerry’s hotel in Jerusalem, against the release by Israel of Palestinian prisoners, on March 31, 2014 – Photo: AFP/Ahmad Gharabli

Israel responded that it was the Palestinians who had “violated their fundamental commitments” by applying last week to join 15 international agencies of the UN. Continue Reading »