Archive for April 25, 2014

| April 25, 2014
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Unlike the U.S., Belarus to Soon Drop Visa Requirements for Israelis

As the 2 countries expand their relationship, very soon Israeli visitors to Belarus are likely to be excused from visa requirements. 

By Moshe Cohen

 

While the waiving of the requirement for a visa for Israelis visiting the US remains a dream – or a rumor – Israeli visitors to Belarus are likely to be exempted from a visa requirement soon. On Wednesday, Interior Minister Gideon Saar authorized the opening of negotiations with Belarussian officials on a mutual visa exemption for travelers to either country.

Belarus Visa for Israeli Passport - Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Belarus Visa for Israeli Passport – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Saar decided on the move after consulting with senior government officials, including officials of the Population Authority, the Justice Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the Public Security Ministry, and Israel Police. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| April 25, 2014
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SodaStream stocks jump with talks of merger with Starbucks

 

2 months after Keurig Green Mountain announces joint venture with Coca Cola, SodaStream stocks rally after Israeli daily reports brewing deal with Starbucks.

Starbucks &  SodaStream declined to comment.

By Hili Yacobi-Handelsman, Reuters & Israel Hayom Staff

 

SodaStream International Ltd. shares rose as much as 17 percent on Wednesday in the wake of a Globes report that the coffee giant Starbucks was in advanced talks to buy 10% of the Israeli-based home soft-drink maker.

SodaStream and Starbucks may be close to a partnership deal, a new report claims – Photo: AP

“There are always rumors surrounding the company.

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Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| April 25, 2014
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US Congresswoman Lowey plans to stop funding Palestinians

Rep. Nita Lowey said she is ready to launch steps to stop the $400 million the Palestinians receive annually.

It would be illegal to fund Hamas, a designated terrorist group.

By JTA

 

WASHINGTON — Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), a top congressional appropriator, said she is ready to launch steps to defund the Palestinian Authority in the wake of its unity agreement with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) - Photo: NY Daily News

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) – Photo: NY Daily News

“I’ll be working with the State Department on the logistics of suspending assistance,” Lowey told JTA on Thursday, after the Israeli government said it was formally suspending peace talks because of the agreement.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| April 24, 2014
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Gaza detonates improvised explosive device on border in failed attack on IDF

—- SPECIAL SECURITY REPORT —-

No injuries reported as IDF returned fire.

Current data released by IDF show over 100 rockets fired from Gaza at Israel this year, compared to the 9 rockets fired in 2013.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
 

 

Palestinian terrorists detonated an explosive device in a failed attempt to attack soldiers carrying out routine security work along the northern border with Gaza on Thursday evening.

Gaza

IDF on Gaza border, March 13, 2014.- Photo: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM

The army fired back at the source of the blast, an IDF spokesperson said. There were no injuries reported in the incident.

Earlier, the IDF uncovered two bombs planted on the border in southern Gaza. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| April 24, 2014
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IDF Bedouin soldier ‘Exiled’ from his village finds new home on kibbutz

 

Having been attacked in his home village & unable to return for volunteering for the IDF, Sergeant Adham Saab found comfort & safety on a kibbutz in Southern Israel.

By Israel Moskovitz

 

Twenty-one-year-old Sergeant Adham Saab dreamt of volunteering to serve in the IDF since the age of 10, but it was just two years ago, one month after beginning his service, that his dream became a nightmare when he was attacked in his village by more than 10 men who disapproved of his choice to serve.

Sergeant Adham Saad (Photo: Chayam Hornstein)

Sergeant Adham Saad – Photo: Chayam Hornstein

Saab is a member of Israel’s Bedouin community. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| April 24, 2014
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Possible deadly pandemic from Saudi Arabia threatens the planet

With no vaccine or anti-viral treatment for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS),  Saudi health authorities say the disease, which originated in camels, may simply die out.

By

 

A deadly virus that is spreading at record speed through Saudi Arabia could go global later this year when the 2014 haj (Muslim pilgrimage) begins, according to an article published by BuzzFeed.

Health workers

Health workers wear face masks at the General Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this week. – Photo: AFP

The total number of confirmed infections of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) has jumped by a third in the kingdom in the past week. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , ,
| April 24, 2014
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Israel Court Rules: Arab Stone Thrower to Pay Jewish Victim $750,000

Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court orders Arab rock-throwing attacker to pay his ultra-Orthodox Israeli victim NIS 2.5 million compensation ‘as an example’ for brutal assault.

By Moshe Cohen

 

A Jerusalem court on Thursday ordered a Jerusalem Arab to pay a haredi Israeli NIS 2.5 million (over $750,000) as compensation for an attack he carried out against a Jewish worshipper.

The incident took place in 2008, when the victim was on his way to pray at the Tomb of Shimon the Righteous (Kever Shimon HaTzaddik), a Talmudic sage. The Tomb is located in a predominantly Arab area of Jerusalem, although there is a Jewish community there. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , ,
| April 24, 2014
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Palestinian unity agreement may be ruse to terminate duplicitous negotiations

 

Officials in Jerusalem were not convinced that the reconciliation effort was sincere, said one Israeli source. “We have seen such moves in the past; it may all be a charade.”

By Elior Levy

 

Even as Palestinian officials protested that the reconciliation with Hamas did not doom the negotiations with Israel, sources in Jerusalem cast doubt Thursday on the sincerity of the historic unity agreement.

Photo: AFP

Photo: AFP

A senior Palestinian official said Wednesday that the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas does not signal an end to the peace process and that “any agreement signed between the Palestinian Authority and Israel will include the Gaza Strip.” Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| April 24, 2014
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As anti-Semitism escalates in Ukraine, Jewish immigration to Israel rises

 

U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden gave a sharp warning during his visit to Ukraine as anti-Jewish incidents continue to plague the country.

By

 

In the past week alone, there have been reports of a synagogue being fire-bombed in the south-eastern city of Nikolayev, the desecration of the tomb of Dov Ber Schneerson, brother of the late Lubavicher Rebbe, in Dnepropetrovsk and the vandalizing of the Holocaust memorial in Sevastopol.

Pro-Russian activists

Pro-Russian activists at the barricades in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. – Photo: AP

Those incidents followed the distribution in Donetsk of a leaflet calling on all Jews to register with the self-declared, pro-Russian authorities. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , , ,
| April 24, 2014
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U.S. Supports Israel’s Decision to Discontinue Peace Talks with Palestinians

State Department spokeswoman agrees that Israel can’t be expected “to negotiate with a gov’t that does not believe in its right to exist.”

By Elad Benari

 

The United States on Wednesday expressed support for Israel’s decision to cancel a planned session of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, in the wake of an announced Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal.

John Kerry with Jen Psaki at right -Photo: Reuters

“It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, according to AFP. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , , , ,
| April 24, 2014
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US to provide Cairo with 10 Apache helicopters

 

 

Egypt’s foreign minister Nabil Fahmy was traveling to the United States on Wednesday, his ministry said, a day after Washington decided to provide Cairo with 10 Apache military helicopters.

Washington had imposed a temporary freeze on the delivery of major weapons to Egypt, including the Apaches, following the military-installed authorities’ brutal crackdown on supporters of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi since his ouster last July.

Fahmy is expected to meet officials in Washington and UN chief Ban Ki-moon during his visit.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| April 24, 2014
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Spanish town with ‘Kill Jews’ in its name votes to change it

 

 

The Spanish village’s 56 registered voters have marked May 25 as the day to decide whether to keep the name or revert to its original name.

Researchers believe Jewish residents that converted to Catholicism, changed the name to convince Spaniards they opposed Jews.

The Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

 

The tiny Spanish village of Castrillo Matajudios, the second word of which means “Kill Jews,” will hold a referendum next month to decide if it should change its name, which offends outsiders and embarrasses some residents, its mayor said Tuesday.

The Castrillo Matajudios flag – Photo credit: Wiki Commons

The village’s 56 registered voters will be asked on May 25 whether they want to keep the name or change it to the similar but non-offensive name it once had, Mayor Lorenzo Rodriguez Perez said.

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Category: Jewish News | Tags: , ,
| April 24, 2014
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Analysis – Abbas sends message to US & Israel: ‘Meet my demands, or else…’

 

Just a week before the Israel-PA peace talks deadline of April 29, PA president Abbas has clearly tried every possible maneuver to exert pressure on the US & Israel to get what he wants.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
 

 

Wednesday’s “historic” agreement between Hamas and Fatah should be seen in the context of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s efforts to send a message to Israel and the US concerning the crisis in the peace talks.

Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh - Photo: REUTERS

Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh – Photo: REUTERS

Abbas’s message: Look what I’m capable of doing if you don’t comply with my demands.

The timing of the Fatah-Hamas accord is not coincidental. Continue Reading »

Category: Jewish News | Tags: , , , ,
| April 23, 2014
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Israel’s psychic spoon-bender to assist Israelis defy disasters

 

Spoon-bending Uri Geller will participate in a new Home Front Command commercial to educate the Israeli public on how to find shelter during a rocket attack.

By Reuters

 

Celebrity psychic Uri Geller is the beaming new face of Israeli disaster-readiness, starring in army-sponsored TV and Internet advertisements on how to take shelter from missile attacks or earthquakes.

Uri Geller - Photo: UriGeller.com

Uri Geller – Photo: UriGeller.com

Launched on Wednesday, the campaign marks Geller’s return to his native country from Britain and aims to keep Israelis vigilant, though public fears of any imminent war with Iran, Syria or Lebanese and Palestinian guerrillas have receded. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| April 23, 2014
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Was Tony Blair’s speech: ‘Why the Middle East matters’, written by Netanyahu?

 

Full text of Blair’s speech to Bloomberg London headquarters on April 23, 2014.

This will of course be seen as great news in the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem.


 

The inescapable conclusion from reading the text of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s speech on Islamic extremism on Wednesday in London is that it could have been an address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Tony Blair

Tony Blair. – Photo: Bloomberg

 

Text of speech Tony Blair to be deliver at Bloomberg London HQ on April 23, 2014

From The Office of Tony Blair:

It is unsurprising that public opinion in the UK and elsewhere, resents the notion that we should engage with the politics of the Middle East and beyond.

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