Archive for June 11, 2015

1,500 yr-old church unearthed near Israel’s main highway

Byzantine Empire period church discovered during road work aimed at linking Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

By i24news

 

A 1,500-year-old church was discovered during work to broaden Israel’s main highway, which links Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, archaeologists said Wednesday.

Ancient church discovered in Israel in June 2015 – Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority

The church stems from when the Byzantine Empire ruled over what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories between 324 and 638 after Christ. The Byzantine Empire, spreading Christianity, was the mostly Greek-speaking continuation of the eastern parts of the Roman Empire during late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
Continue Reading »

EU preparing guideline demands of Israel to label Judea & Samaria products

Israeli officials: Demanding Israel to label products made in Judea & Samaria rewards and emboldens the Palestinians, discouraging their leaders from returning to peace talks.

By The Associated Press & Israel Hayom Staff

 

Israel would be required to label products that are made in Judea and Samaria and exported to Europe under guidelines being prepared by the European Union.

A sign promoting the boycott of Israel – Photo: Reuters

The move is the latest sign of international discontent with Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria, as well as frustration over the bleak state of Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.

It also comes as a grassroots movement promoting boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel appears to be gaining steam. Continue Reading »

WSJ report thinks Israel spied on hotels which hosted P5+1 nuclear talks

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Cybersecurity experts believe that Israel is most likely the party responsible for a wave of espionage targeting hotels used by negotiators in the P5+1-Iran nuclear talks, The Wall Street Journal is reporting on Wednesday.

Cyber hackers [illustrative] – Photo: REUTERS

According to counterhacking experts quoted by the Journal, analysts at a cybersecurity firm discovered traces of a viral software that is widely believed to have been used by Israel in the past to conduct sophisticated digital espionage.

The company, Kaspersky Lab ZAO, conducted an investigation which revealed that it had been targeted by an “improved version” of Duqu, a spyware that American officials believe has been used by Israel in the past to hack into computer systems. Continue Reading »

What’s Israel’s internet porn consumption compared to global average?

SURVEY: With the global average of 4.21%, Israelis spend 4.16% of their Internet traffic time to pornographic sites. Iraq, at 10.27%, leads the world in traffic dedicated to porn.

By Sagi Cohen

 

Israelis are in a good place in the middle in terms of online porn consumption compared to the global average. According to figures compiled by Israeli information technology company SimilarWeb, an Israeli spends 3:29 minutes in each porn site he visits – slightly higher than the global average of 3:16 minutes. During that time, he enters an average of 4.27 different pages.

Porn sites are less popular than news and shopping sites, but more popular than game and travel sites – Photo: Shutterstock

 

About 4.16% of the Internet traffic of adult Web surfers in Israel is to pornographic sites – less than news websites, shopping sites, social networks and search engines, but more than the traffic to other popular sites. Continue Reading »

Arab Terrorist Shot While Hurling Explosive Device at Israel Border Police

Terrorist dead after being shot as he targeted Magav force with an improvised explosive device, as they were conducting a routine arrest in Jenin.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

An Arab terrorist was killed while attacking Israeli forces in Jenin located in northern Shomron (Samaria) early Wednesday, medical and security sources said.

Magav Police in Hevron - Photo courtesy: IP Spokesperson's Division

Magav Police in Hevron – Photo courtesy: IP Spokesperson’s Division

A statement from the police said a Border Patrol force was in Jenin to conduct arrests of terror suspects, reports AFP.

“Upon leaving the camp, the force identified a suspect trying to throw an explosive device at them,” it said. Continue Reading »

Hamas terror government being terrorized by ISIS in Gaza

Gaza-based expert says local population exposed to the views of Salafi groups that embrace a more radical version of Islam, but offer an alternative to Hamas’ corruption.

By Elizabeth Blade

 

Earlier this month Hamas “police” stormed the Gaza home of Yunis Hunnar, believed to be a member of a Salafi group linked to ISIS. A Hamas spokesman later said Hunnar had carried out attacks against the ruling group in May. Nor was it the first time Hamas’ rule had been challenged by Islamists more radical than itself.

In 2006 – in tight cooperation with Hamas’ military wing – a Salafi cell called “Soldiers of Allah” kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Continue Reading »

UK’s new business minister blasts BDS promoters & promising to expand trade with Israel

 

LONDON – Newly appointed Business Secretary Sajid Javid condemned Britain’s National Union of Students on Monday for supporting a boycott of Israel, declaring bluntly that the group’s recent move to join the BDS movement was not only an isolated view, but one that the government and most of the country did not share.

UK BUSINESS SECRETARY Sajid Javid speaks at the UK Israel Business annual awards dinner on Monday.

Continue Reading »

Google chief: Israelis succeed because you challenge authority & question everything

Google boss tells students & researchers at the Weizmann Institute that, ‘I’m here because the impact Israelis are having on science & technology is immense.’

By Sagi Cohen

 

“Israel is booming in terms of entrepreneurship because you have a culture that allows you to challenge authority and question everything. You don’t follow the rules,” Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said on Sunday in an address to hundreds of students and researchers at the Weizmann Institute. Schmidt is currently on a short visit to Israel.

Eric Schmidt. Israeli culture ‘allows you to challenge authority.’ – Photo: Reuters/Archive

Schmidt was accompanied on his visit to the Weizmann Institute by Yossi Matias, vice-president for engineering and chief executive for R&D of Google Israel, as well as executives from the investment fund he heads, Innovation Endeavors, one of the most active funds in Israel in recent years. Continue Reading »

Int’l Legal Experts Criticize IDF For Exaggerated Steps In Warning Gazans Before Strikes

Military law experts from Germany & US say IDF’s worries over automatic int’l condemnations based on double-standards, sets impossible yardstick for democracies fighting future asymmetric wars against terrorists.

By Ari Yashar

 

The IDF went to extraordinary lengths last summer to prevent civilian casualties while fighting Hamas terrorists in Gaza, achieving a remarkable 1:1 civilian to combatant ratio, but according to international legal experts it went too far in avoiding casualties among the enemy population.

IDF (illustration) – Photo: IDF Spokesperson Unit

Willy Stern of Vanderbilt Law School, in an article to be published next Monday in the Weekly Standard, details what he found while spending two weeks with attorneys in the IDF’s international law department dubbed “Dabla” as well as front-line commanders, and documents the IDF’s “legal zeal” which as he notes has not stemmed the deluge of international criticism against it. Continue Reading »

Survey: Most Gazans dissatisfied with Hamas

By i24news

 

Gaza residents are unhappy with Hamas regime and with its war with Israel last summer, a new Palestinian poll released Tuesday shows.

A Palestinian shepherd rides a donkey as he herds livestock past residential buildings, that witnesses said were heavily damaged by Israeli shelling during a 50-day war last summer, in Beit Lahiya town in the northern Gaza Strip May 25, 2015. – Photo: REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

According to The Associated Press the poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research shows that 50 percent of Gaza residents want to emigrate, compared to 25 percent in the West Bank. Continue Reading »

Survey: 71% of Israeli Jews feel the world unjustly condemns Israel by double standards

IDI & Tel Aviv University’s latest report shows Israelis feeling more isolated and “The countries of the world make moral demands of Israel that they do not make of other countries.”

By Ynet

 

The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) and Tel Aviv University have released the monthly Peace Index poll which has a primary focus on three major issues: attitudes toward Jewish settlement in the territories, the diplomatic arena, and the distribution of cabinet posts in the government.

Israeli youth at a concert (Photo: Yaron Brener)
Israeli youth at a concert – Photo: Yaron Brener

According to the report’s findings, the Jewish public is aware of the deterioration that has occurred in Israel’s international status, which seems to stem from the intensification of voices calling to boycott Israel and its institutions. Continue Reading »

Visiting Czech FM tells Netanyahu: Expect isolation if no change on West Bank, Gaza policies

 

The Czech Republic’s foreign minister warned Monday that it will become increasingly difficult for his country to maintain its pro-Israel position if Israel fails to take viable steps toward establishing a Palestinian state.

Czech Republic’s foreign minister Lubomír Zaorálek – Screenshot

Lubomír Zaorálek said that Israel risks suffering international isolation if it doesn’t change its policies in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

“As a close friend of yours, it is important for the Czech Republic to say that if the situation does not change it will be hard to maintain our position,” Zaorálek said in an interview with the Walla news site during a trip to Israel. Continue Reading »

WATCH: Israel’s Ancient Nabatean Village of Shivta

Aerial video shows a well-preserved Nabatean farming village, well off the beaten tourist track in the Negev, again shows the richness of Israel’s archeological history.

By Israel Today Staff

 

The following video offers stunning aerial footage of the ruins of Shivta, a Nabatean farming village situated along the portion of the ancient Spice Route that passes through Israel’s southern Negev region.

The outlines of the village, its houses, markets and large Byzantine-era church remain well preserved, and some of the community’s terrace farms have been recreated to give a more accurate look at desert life in that time.

Shivta lies far off the typical Holy Land pilgrimage route, and is just one more example of how saturated Israel is with tangible ancient history. Continue Reading »

White House Supports Israel Over IAF Retaliatory Airstrike in Gaza

White House spokesman throws in support saying: “Clearly the U.S. stands with the people of Israel as they defend their people & their nation against these kind of attacks.”

By Reuters & Israel Hayom Staff

 

The White House on Sunday reaffirmed its support for Israel’s right to defend itself after Israeli aircraft struck the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a series of Palestinian rocket attacks.

An Israel Police explosives expert surveys site where a rocket exploded near Ashkelon over the weekend – Photo: Reuters

Late Saturday, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in an open area in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council in southern Israel. Continue Reading »

UN’s Ban slams the IDF but leaves Israel & Hamas off children’s rights blacklist

United Nations chief condemns Israel over IDF’s impact on Gaza’s children of last summer’s Operation Protective Edge but doesn’t mention how Hamas “obstruct humanitarian aid, fire from civilian population centers and use innocents as human shields.”

 

Israel on Monday welcomed a United Nations decision not to place Israel on a black list that included organizations such as ISIS, but criticized it for going easy on Hamas.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon – Photo: REUTERS

UN special envoy for children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui of Algeria, had placed the IDF and the terrorist organization Hamas on a blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children’s rights during conflicts. Continue Reading »