Archive for Israel News

Congratulations! 3 Israeli youths win 4 gold medals at World Championships in Poland

Over 130 participants from 28 countries competed at the 2015 Windsurfing Youth World Championship, but 3 Israelis claimed the gold in all 4 competitions.

By JERUSALEM POST SPORTS STAFF

 

Israel’s Noy Drihan and Yoav Omer returned home to a hero’s welcome after winning the girls and boys events, respectively, at the 2015 windsurfing Youth World Championship over the weekend in Gdynia, Poland.

Israeli youth windsurfing Worlds medalists  – Photo Courtesy

Over 130 sailors from 28 countries and five continents competed for the titles, but it was Israel’s windsurfers who claimed the gold medals in all four competitions, with 15-year-old Drihan of Eilat winning the Under-17 as well as the U19 event, while Kfir Azulay, also of Eilat, finished in first place in the boys U17’s and Omer triumphed in the U19’s. Continue Reading »

#BDSfail: After Quiet Visit To Israel, Mariah Carey Announces Concert On August 18

view videoSuperstar pop singer, Mariah Carey announces a few weeks after a quick, private visit to the Holy Land, that she’ll be performing in Rishon LeZion on August 18. 

By Ami Friedman

 

Mariah Carey, one of the most famous pop singers in the world, announced Monday that she will perform in Rishon LeZion’s Live Park on August 18.

Mariah Carey – Photo: Getty Images

 

The announcement came less than a month after Carey’s private visit to Israel, on which she was accompanied by her partner, Australian billionaire James Packer, and her two young twins.

The singer, who has sold more than 200 million records worldwide, is celebrated for her rare five-octave vocal range, and is currently performing a residency in Las Vegas. Continue Reading »

Israeli Water Experts Invited to India to Help Clean Polluted Ganges River

India accepts Israel’s offer to assist in cleaning up world’s fifth most polluted river, worshipped by almost 900 million Hindus.

By i24news

 

An Israeli delegation of water experts has been invited to India next week to meet with officials and gain a first hand impression of the polluted Ganges river worshipped by close to 900 million Hindus worldwide.

Narendra Modi (4th R) performs the “Ganga Puja” religious ritual with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh (C) and senior BJP leader Amit Shah (4th L) at the banks of the River Ganges in Varanasi on May 17, 2014 – Photo: Roberto SchmidT/AFP

The Ganges, which provides water to more than a third of India’s vast population is considered to be the fifth most polluted river in the world. Continue Reading »

Last minute added clause has world powers protecting Iran’s nuclear facilities

Officials at Israel’s PM Office were outraged to learn of ‘last minute’ added clause on Page 142 stipulating that world powers will actively help Iran thwart attempts to undermine its nuclear program.

By Shlomo Cesana

 

One of the clauses in the nuclear deal reached between world powers and Iran last week guarantees that the world powers will assist Iran in thwarting attempts to undermine its nuclear program, Israel Hayom learned Sunday.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna, last week – Photo: Reuters

Article 10 of the deal, included in a section titled “Reactors, Fuels, Facilities, and Processes,” stipulates that world powers and Iran will foster “cooperation through training and workshops to strengthen Iran’s ability to protect against, and respond to, nuclear security threats, including sabotage, as well as to enable effective and sustainable nuclear security and physical protection systems.” Continue Reading »

Is IDF’s planned metamorphosis a sign of future Iranian action?

Senior defense source says coming years represent opportunity for the  IDF to adapt to future challenges, but says Israel’s military establishment will need $16.05-$16.84 billion a year to do it.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

 

The IDF is seeking government commitment to a multi-year defense spending plan – a commitment that has been absent for the past several years – as it prepares to deal with the possibility of a covert Iranian attempt to break through to nuclear weapons production, a senior defense source said on Sunday.

A SATELLITE view of the Fordow nuclear plant. The plant will not be shut down under the Vienna agreement, but no enrichment will be allowed there.

Continue Reading »

Report: Microsoft Pays $320mil to Acquire Israeli Tech Security Adallom

Calcalist reports software giant closes its largest Israeli acquisition that will serve as basis of Microsoft’s upcoming cyber center in Israel.

By Meir Auerbach

 

Software giant Microsoft has bought Israeli cloud security company Adallom for $320 million, making it the largest acquisition made by the company in the country, according to Ynet’s sister publication Calcalist. 

 

Until now, Adallom has raised 50 million dollars from venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures, Zohar Zisapel, EMC Corporation and HP. According to estimates, Adallom is expected to serve as a basis for the establishment of Microsoft’s cyber center in Israel.

This is the second cyber company Microsoft has bought in the last year: at the end of 2014 it acquired the cyber security firm Aorato for 200 million dollars and has since bought N-trig for several tens of millions of dollars and Equivio for 50 million dollars. Continue Reading »

Palestinian Laborers Living Under PA Rule Go To Court Demanding Israeli Law

Arab workers go to court demanding Israeli law be applied to a factory where they work in Samaria that’s under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction, but Israeli courts reject their petition.

By Shimon Cohen

 

A group of Arab residents of Samaria living under the administration of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has submitted a legal demand asking that Israeli employment laws be implemented in the area where they work – the industrial region of Nitzanei Shalom, just over the 1949 Armistice lines to the east of Netanya.

The reason for the suit is a desire on the part of the Arab workers to receive various social rights enshrined in the Israeli laws, benefits they currently do not enjoy under the PA. Continue Reading »

Greek Defense Minister signs status of forces agreement with Israel

Visiting Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos signed a status of forces accord with Israel that up until now has only been afforded to the United States.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

 

Israel and Greece signed a status of forces accord in Tel Aviv on Sunday that offers legal defense to both militaries while training in the other’s country.

Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos visited his Israeli counterpart Moshe Ya’alon at the Defense Ministry, where the accord was signed. Israel has only ever signed a similar accord with the United States.

During their meeting, Kammenos and Ya’alon discussed continued bilateral defense ties, and the latest regional situation. Continue Reading »

U.S. Just Allowed Assad Regime Continue Fighting & Rearmed Hezbollah Worldwide

Analysis: The US led agreement with the Ayatollah allows Assad to continue the fighting and receive all the military aid & everything required for his regime’s survival, as long as Iran does not produce a bomb.

By Smadar Perry

 

Bashar Assad is the only Arab leader (leader?) who commented on the nuclear agreement. In the flattery letters he sent to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and to President Hassan Rouhani, he praises the “great achievement” and offers his own evaluation of the situation: This agreement, he states, will actually contribute to peace and stability in the Middle East. 

Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Continue Reading »

6th Israeli Murdered So Far by Imprisoned Terrorists Freed in ‘Shalit Swap’

The latest murder in Israel brings to six the number of Israelis ambushed & brutally murdered by terrorists that were freed from incarceration is a trade for a single soldier in 2011.

By Gil Ronen

 

Opponents of the 2011 deal that freed captured soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for 1,070 terrorist prisoners are experiencing a sad vindication as more and more Israelis are being murdered by terrorists freed in that deal.

News of the arrest of the terror ring that was responsible for the recent murder of Malachi Rosenfeld includes the information that the cell was directed from Gaza by Ahmed Najar, who was freed in the Shalit deal. Continue Reading »

Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science Makes Top 10 in CWTS ranking

Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University in the Netherlands ranked Weizmann Institute 10th in world for scientific research quality.

By i24news

 

An Israeli science institute has been ranked in tenth place in a list of international research institutions and universities.

Weizmann Institute of Science in the central Israeli city of Rehovot – Photo: Weizmann Institute of Science website

The Weizmann Institute of Science in the central city of Rehovot was the only institute located outside the US to be included in the ranking conducted by the Center for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University in the Netherlands. Continue Reading »

Students return after evacuation because of huge fire in Northern Israel

4 firefighting aircraft were called in to protect the homes & dormitories adjacent to Tel Hai academy and extinguish the wildfire that engulfed the hills surrounding Kiryat Shmona. 

By Ahiya Raved

 

A huge fire erupted Sunday afternoon near Kiryat Shmona, leading authorities to begin evacuations in the city’s Bimat Tel Hai neighborhood and the campus of the Tel Hai academy.

The blaze on the hills from Kiryat Shmona. – Photo: Zar Ohayoun

Seven firefighter teams were active at the scene from the upper-Galilee-Golan station and four firefighting aircraft operating out of the Carmiel station.

Heavy smoke led to the closure of Highway 9977 in the area. Continue Reading »

WATCH: Netanyahu Blasts Shirking of Open Iranian Threats After Nuclear Deal

view videoIsrael’s PM voices his amazement at the indifference to the Ayatollah’s public promise to use newly acquired $billions to reequip ‘their terror machine.’ 

By Tova Dvorin

 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s latest speech mocking the US and declaring “Death to Israel” proves the futility of the Iranian nuclear deal with the West, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated at the opening remarks to his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – Photo: Kobi Gidon/GPO

“If anyone thought that the far-reaching concessions to Iran will change its policy, they received an overwhelmingly aggressive response from the speech from the ruler of Iran, Khamenei, over the weekend,” Netanyahu said. Continue Reading »

Facebook set to acquire Pebbles, another Israeli high-tech firm

With the purchase of an Israeli firm pioneering the field of virtual reality, Facebook will follow Apple, Intel & Microsoft who are already operating VR R&D capabilities in Israel.

By Assaf Gilad, Calcalist

 

Facebook is negotiating the acquisition of Israeli Pebbles Interfaces, which deals in one of the social network’s most promising current fields of activity – virtual and enhanced reality. Ynet’s sister publication Calcalist learned that after having acquired Oculus VR, Facebook now wants to buy Emil Alon and Nadav Grossinger’s company which develops gesture recognition technology.

Seeing reality… virtually. – Photo: Archive/Shahar Shoshan

While other pioneers in the field such as PrimeSense and Microsoft focus on body gesture recognition, Pebbles’ technology works with finger gestures, aimed primarily at gamers, but also has applications for TV, computers, or smartphone operation while driving. Continue Reading »

US warns Israel against demolishing illegal Palestinian ramshackle structures

US State Department says carrying out Israeli court order to demolish the illegal encampment of Sussiya could have ‘negative impact on the region’

By i24news

 

The United States cautioned Israel against plans to demolish a Palestinian village in the West Bank, warning that such action could have a negative impact on the region.

View of the ramshackle village of Susya on state land near the West Bank town of Hebron – Photo: Hazem Bader/AFP

Israel’s military ruling authority in the West Bank claims the Palestinians built their homes in the village of Sussiya without permission and lack necessary infrastructure.

Residents of the village in the south Hebron Hills insist that they have been forced to build illegally because permits are never granted and they accuse the Israeli authorities of deliberately denying them access to facilities. Continue Reading »