Israel News

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 »

Category: Israel News | Tags: blood diamond, Customs agents, Tax Authority

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

Confidants of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family on Tuesday criticized a former Prime Minister’s Residence employee who is demanding financial compensation from the Prime Minister’s Office over work-related damages, saying the man was a part of a larger smear campaign seeking to damage Netanyahu politically.

Sara Netanyahu – Photo: Yonatan Zindel

“This is an orchestrated and organized campaign of rounding up embittered former employees from the Prime Minister’s Residence.

Category: Israel News | Tags: court, lawsuit, PMO, Sara Netanyahu

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.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB

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. – 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 »

Category: Israel News | Tags: High Court, Israel Politics, Knesset

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.

By Joel Greenberg

HADERA, Israel — 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.

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: water desalination, water technology

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.

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

Category: Israel News | Tags: antisemitism, Ban Ki-moon, Rima Khalaf, Ron Prosor, UN

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.

By Haaretz

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 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.

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: GLXP, Israel Space Agency, Science & Technology, SpaceIL

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 »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Ofek 10, satellite

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 »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Area C, Binyamin Netanyahu, Judea and Samaria, Naftali Bennett, Palestinian Authority, Sovereignty

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Meet Israel’s Hackers Who Struck Back

Israelis hit back at anti-Israel hackers by breaking into their computers, snapping mugshots of some of the ill-prepared hackers using their own webcams, then publishing their photos & names.

By Israel Today Staff

Israel this week has faced a heavier than usual amount of cyber-attacks, but local hackers are doing their bit to fight back. And you can follow their progress in near-real time thanks to the magic of Twitter.

Meet the Israeli Hackers Who Are Striking Back

Israel on average defends against tens of thousands of cyber attacks every day. But international hacker group Anonymous, or a branch thereof, sought to truly overwhelm the Jewish state this week with its annual #OpIsrael campaign, during which anti-Israel hackers seek to crash or penetrate Israeli websites and networks. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Anonymous, anti-Israel, cyber warfare, cyber-attack, Israel high-tech

IMF Predicts Israel’s Economic Growth at 3.5% for 2015

The International Monetary Fund forecast at 3.5% is more optimistic than Bank of Israel’s, which predicts the economy will grow 3% for 2015, but Bank of Israel predicts a lower unemployment rate.

IMF forecast a 1.6% inflation rate in 2014 & even less than 2% for 2015.

By Zeev Klein

The Israeli economy will grow by 3.5 percent in 2015, up from 3.2% in 2014 and 3.4% in 2013, the International Monetary Fund said in its World Economic Outlook mid-year report.

The Bank of Israel predicts growth of 3% for 2015 – Photo: Contact

The IMF outlook is more optimistic than that of the Bank of Israel, which is predicting growth of 3% in 2015, or 2.8% without production from the Tamar natural gas reserve.

Category: Israel News | Tags: Bank of Israel, economy, IMF

Finance Minister: Settlement freeze preferable to release of imprisoned murderers

Israel’s Finance Minister Lapid calls for ending the Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly over Jewish marriage & conversion, and for an end to all forms of religious coercion.

By Ben Sales

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said he supports freezing settlement growth to help jump-start peace negotiations and vowed that his centrist Yesh Atid party would leave Israel’s governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were responsible for the collapse of the peace process.

Yair Lapid says he would leave the coalition if the Israeli government did not “exhaust all options” in its peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

Category: Israel News | Tags: construction freeze, prisoner release, religion, Yair Lapid

3,300 yr-old Egyptian clay coffin with gold scarab found in Jezreel Valley

Rare gold scarab bearing seal of Pharaoh Seti I was found with late Bronze Age Egyptian coffin, of past ruler of what is now Israel.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

A 3,300-year-old coffin was uncovered during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority near Kibbutz Sarid in the Jezreel Valley.

3,300 year old clay Egyptian coffin found in Jezreel Valley – Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority

The coffin dates back to the Late Bronze Age, and contained the personal belongings of a wealthy Canaanite believed to be an Egyptian army official, according to the IAA.The cylindrical clay coffin featured a lid in the shape of a person, and was surrounded by a variety of pottery, including food storage vessels, tableware and animal bones.

Category: Innovations & Discoveries, Israel News | Tags: archaeology, Israel Antiquities Authority, Pharaoh

Jerusalem Cutting Most Ties with Abbas’ Government

PM Netanyahu forbids meetings with Palestinians and all cooperation with the Palestinian Authority.

By Gil Ronen, Ari Yashar

Prime Minister Binyamin has issued instructions to government ministries forbidding meetings with Palestinian officials, and halting all civilian and economic cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (PA), following the collapse of negotiations with the PA.

“In response to the Palestinian violation of their commitments under peace talks… Israel government ministers have been told to refrain from meeting their Palestinian counterparts,” the official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The new instructions do not include the Defense Ministry or talks carried out as part of the Israel-PA negotiations. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Palestinian Authority, peace talks

Abbas worried Israel will freeze tax revenues to PA in retaliation to unilateral moves

PA official says Abbas will ask the Arab League for financial support in the event of Israeli economic sanctions.

By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF

Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Tuesday that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will appeal at an Arab League meeting in Cairo on Wednesday for political and economic support in the event of Israeli punitive measures.

Abbas at Arab League summit – Photo: REUTERS

Malki’s comments came after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu earlier this week issued a stern warning to the Palestinians about their application to join 15 international treaties and conventions and any future steps the PA might take outside the negotiating process to shore up legal standing as a state. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: Arab League, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority, Peace Process