Archive for October 31, 2014

IN PICTURES: Rain pours in Israel

 

First massive rain & storm front covered most of Israel, ahead of what may be seen as a rainy weekend. Flooding reported in parts of central & northern Israel.

By Michal Margalit

 

 

Rain began to fall heavily Thursday evening, hitting the north and coast line, and is expected to continue with thunderstorms throughout Friday and Saturday in the Sharon region and Negev, as October comes to an end.

 

Tel Aviv – Photo: Yaron Brenner

 

Photo: Yair
Photo: Yair

 

Rain suprises beachgoers (Photo: Yaron Brenner)
Rain suprises beachgoers (Photo: Yaron Brenner)

 

Flooding in Ganey Tikvah (Photo: Naftali Yahlentzik)
Flooding in Ganey Tikvah (Photo: Naftali Yahlentzik)

 

Photo: Yair Yam Potzker
Photo: Yair Yam Potzker

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: Motti Kimchi
Photo: Motti Kimchi

 

 

Photo: Motti Kimchi
Photo: Motti Kimchi
Continue Reading »

Rare Hebrew Bible bought on eBay for $7,000 lost in mail

A rare 16th-century Bible written in Hebrew was sold to a New York man who reports it never arrived, despite contrary information from postal authorities alleging it was delivered.

From Haaretz

 

A rare 16th-century, eight-volume Hebrew Bible sold on eBay earlier this month for $7,000 has gone missing.

Hebrew Bible

Hebrew Bible (illustrative).- Photo: Rangreiss/Dreamstime.com

Gene Albert, a Virginia artifacts dealer sold the bible to Jacob Gestetner, a resident of Monsey, New York, home to a large Orthodox Jewish population. Gestetner claims he never received it despite postal tracking information showing it was delivered Oct. 10, according to the Journal News.

The bible set dates to the 1540s and was part of the collection of Andrew Fletcher, a 17th-century Scottish politician renowned for his private library, according to the paper. Continue Reading »

PA Calls Assassin Terrorist That Shot ‘Freedom of Religion’ Activist, ‘Hero Defending Freedom’

PA Prisoner Affairs Minister hails shooter of prayer rights activist in Jerusalem, Yehuda Glick, lauding the terrorist’s history of arrest and assault on (Jewish) prison guards.

By Ari Yashar

 

Palestinian Authority (PA) Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqa on Thursday lionized Mu’taz Hijazi, the Islamic Jihad terrorist who tried to assassinate Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick in Jerusalem on Wednesday and was later killed in a shootout with police.

“Hijazi was one of the heroes of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement who defended freedom and dignity,” Qaraqa wrote in a statement published by the Palestinian Arab Ma’an News Agency.

Calling Hijazi a defender of “freedom and dignity” is particularly ironic, given the fact that he shot Glick who has championed the effort to gain Jewish prayer rights on the Temple Mount – the holiest site in Judaism – where the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic trust) has banned Jewish prayer and discriminated against Jewish visitors. Continue Reading »

Israel Police Open Temple Mount for Limited Worship on Friday

Israel’s PM Netanyahu urges restraint following an assassination attempt by an Islamic terrorist on Yehuda Glick, a  right wing Jewish activist.

By i24news

 

 

The Temple Mount will be open Friday to Muslim men over the age of 50 and to women of all ages, the Israeli police announced Thursday evening after on Wednesday it decided to close the compound until further notice amid the recent escalation in violence in east Jerusalem and Wednesday night’s attempted assassination on a Jewish right wing activist.

Ahmad Gharabli (AFP/File)

“Israeli soldiers walk in front of the Dome of the Rock in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, in Jerusalem’s old city on October 19, 2014” – Photo: Ahmad Gharabli /AFP/File

“It was decided to restore [the compound] to normal… effective immediately,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP. Continue Reading »

Israel Shows Seriously Parched California How to Deal With Catastrophic Drought

California’s Gov. Jerry Brown signed a strategic cooperation Agreement with Israel’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu to receive aid from Israel, the world’s acknowledged expert on irrigation & water use.

By Israel Today Staff

 

California has been going through a catastrophic drought for three years now, which has cost the state’s economy at least $2.2 billion and left 500,000 acres of what was once rich, productive farmland fallow.

Prof. Eilon Adar (r), director of the Negev’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research with colleagues at Ben-Gurion University. - Photo:  Dani Machlis/BGU

Prof. Eilon Adar (r), director of the Negev’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research with colleagues at Ben-Gurion University. – Photo: Dani Machlis/BGU

So where did California turn to for help? Not the Obama White House, but to Israel, the world’s acknowledged expert on irrigation and water use.

Continue Reading »

Peruvian Police arrest Hezbollah agent planning terrorist attacks on Jews, Israelis

Police in Lima confirmed arrest of man with unconfirmed identity who is suspected of having links to an unnamed “int’l terrorist organization,” after uncovering evidence of military-grade explosive materials in his home.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS

 

Authorities in who is suspected of having links to an unnamed “int’l terrorist organization.” have reportedly arrested a Hezbollah member who was allegedly planning to carry out attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets in the South American country, Channel 2 reported Thursday night.

peru

The ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru. – Photo: Wikimedia Commons

According to the report, the arrest was made after intelligence information identified targets associated with Israelis and Jews in Peru, including areas popular with Israeli backpackers, the Israeli Embassy in Lima and Jewish community institutions.

Continue Reading »

UN watchdog tells Israel stop building, defending & probe possible Gaza war crimes

The UN Human Rights Committee urges Israel stop violence against Palestinians, halt Jewish construction in the West Bank, stop confiscating land for settlement expansion, and take measures to withdraw all settlers (Jews) from West Bank.

By Reuters

 

GENEVA – UN human rights watchdog said Thursday that Israel should investigate all alleged violations committed by its forces during three recent wars in Gaza and ensure military commanders are brought to justice for any crimes.

Gazan children in wreckage left by IDF attacks (Photo: EPA)

Gazan children in wreckage left by IDF attacks – Photo: EPA)

A panel of independent experts urged Israel to halt construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, stop confiscating land for their expansion, prevent violence against Palestinians and take measures to withdraw all settlers. Continue Reading »

J’Post Exclusive: 2 Palestinian minors indicted for IDF courthouse suicide bombing attempt

 

The indictments: In revenge for Palestinians killed by the IDF, the 2 minors met on 21 September ’14 & decided to carry out a terror attack against high ranking IDF personnel.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB

 

Two Palestinian minors were recently indicted for trying to carry out a suicide bombing on an IDF military courthouse on September 22, in order to murder high ranking judges, prosecutors and others inside with seven explosives, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

IDF soldier

IDF soldier binds Palestinian man’s hands – Photo: REUTERS

Although the indictment was filed last week, the Post‘s report is the first disclosure of the event which is sending ripples through the defense establishment both in terms of the audacity of the target and the young age of the intended suicide bombers. Continue Reading »

Sweden’s new center-left gov’t officially recognizes a Palestinian state

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s Foreign Minister described Sweden’s official recognition as “a miserable decision that strengthens the extremist elements & Palestinian rejectionism.”

AP, Reuters

 

 

STOCKHOLM – Sweden’s center-left government on Thursday officially recognized the state of Palestine, becoming the first major European country to do so.

The new center-left Swedish government (Photo: AP)

The new center-left Swedish government – Photo: AP

The EU member country joined only two other Western European countries — Malta and Cyprus — that have officially recognized a Palestinian state.

Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said the Scandinavian country had decided on the move because the criteria of international law required for such recognition had been fulfilled. Continue Reading »

SodaStream consolidates and moves to large new site in Israel’s Negev

SodaStream said move to new factory in southern Israel is not because Palestinian activists launched a campaign boycotting the company because the factory was located in an Israeli town in the West Bank.

By Dror Reich, Reuters and

 

SodaStream is shuttering its controversial West Bank plant next year as part of a plan to boost growth, the company said Wednesday.

The SodaStream plant in Mishor Adumim.

The SodaStream plant in Mishor Adumim. – Photo: Bloomberg

The plant in the Ma’aleh Adumim industrial zone, which employs Palestinian workers, has made the at-home soda machine maker a target of the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, and put the company at odds with European policies blocking the import of products made in West Bank settlements.

Continue Reading »

Palestinian terrorist who shot & wounded Yehuda Glick shot dead by Police

Israel Police commander Yochanan Danino praises Shabak security service, and Magav’s Yamam special forces for tracking down & eliminating the terrorist who shot Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehuda Glick.

Watch: Rabbi Glick’s inspirational speech just moments before the shooting

By Yaakov Levi

 

Israel Police commander Yochanan Danino on Thursday praised his forces for tracking down and eliminating the terrorist who shot and seriously wounded Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick Wednesday. Security forces on Thursday killed an Islamic Jihad terrorist, a resident of Abu Tor in East Jerusalem, whom it is believed was the shooter who targeted Glick.

Danino said that the quick elimination of the terrorist was a signal to others who were considering such actions that they would not escape. Continue Reading »

Jordan presents PLO resolution to UN Security Council for ‘Ending Israel’s Occupation’

 

 

Jordan, the only Arab nation on the UN Security Council, cited Palestinian worries of “the dangerously escalating tensions” in Jerusalem, as catalyst for seeking to introduce PLO resolution to council.

By MAYA SHWAYDER

 

 

NEW YORK — PLO ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour told the Security Council on Wednesday that, at the request of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, he would present a draft resolution that “contain[s] elements of parameters [of withdrawal] with a time frame to end the occupation.”

a United Nations Security Council meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York

A United Nations Security Council meeting at UN headquarters in New York. – Photo: REUTERS

Jordan called the emergency session to discuss the Middle East and the “question of Palestine,” following a letter from the Palestinians addressed to the Security Council and the UN secretary-general, to meet and discuss the plans to build over the Green Line approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. Continue Reading »

Rabbi Yehuda Glick, right-wing Temple Mount activist shot in assassination attempt in Jerusalem

Rabbi Yehuda Glick was taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in critical condition after multiple shots to upper body at close range during conference at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center.

By Noam (Dabul) Dvir

 

Rabbi Yehuda Glick, a prominent right-wing activist, was shot at point blank range outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Wednesday night.

Rabbi Yehuda Glick – Photo courtesy Temple Institute Heritage Foundation 

Glick, 50, was shot in his upper body by a motorcyclist during an annual event organized by the Temple Mount and Eretz Yisrael Faithful Movement.

Magen David Adom paramedics evacuated him to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in critical condition with injuries to his chest and abdomen. Continue Reading »

Egyptian families flee homes on Egypt’s Gaza border as army begins buffer zone moat

The attack that left 31 Egyptian security personnel dead, believed by Cairo to have been assisted by Hamas, was the last straw leading to the decision of a ‘tunnel free’, 13-kilometer (8-mile) buffer zone with Gaza.

 

Hundreds of Egyptians living along the border with the Gaza Strip evacuated their homes on Wednesday, after the army ordered them out to make way for a planned buffer zone meant to stop militants and smugglers, officials said.

Egyptian side of Rafah.

Egyptian security forces secure houses which were destroyed by the Egyptian army on the Egyptian side of the border town of Rafah, October 29, 2014.

Continue Reading »

Nobel Peace Prize laureate gives $50K to rebuild UNRWA schools that stored Gaza rockets

Huge sum donated by Nobel Peace Prize winner to refurbish UNRWA schools in Gaza – the same buildings which harbored rockets and then returned to Hamas when ‘discovered’.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is to donate $50,000 (39,000 euros) to help rebuild
United Nations schools in Gaza, the UNRWA said Wednesday.

Malala Yousufzai,

Malala Yousufzai, – Reuters

The 17-year-old Pakistani children’s rights activist won the World Children’s Prize in Stockholm on Tuesday, and said she would donate all of that prize money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA said in a statement. Continue Reading »