Archive for Israel News

Israel accepts UN protocol on air pollution standards

Israel permits granting public access to transparent emissions data in acceding to protocols on air pollution released and  monitoring.

By SHARON UDASIN, MICHAEL WILNER IN NEW YORK

 

In a commitment to grant the public access to transparent emissions data, Israel acceded this week to a UN protocol on air pollution release and monitoring.

Haifa industry

Haifa industry – Photo: Ariel Jerozolimsky

The Kiev Protocol – also known as the Protocol on Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTR) – was first adopted at the Aarhus Convention on May 21, 2003, within the framework of the fifth Ministerial Conference “Environment for Europe” in Kiev.

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30 Countries Dispatch Officials to Attend IMTM Tourism Fair in Israel

Representatives from Taiwan & the Philippines to participate in Int’l Mediterranean Tourism Market for 1st time this year. At least 150 travel agents from abroad are expected to arrive.

By Danny Sadeh

 

Tourism Ministry Director-General Noaz Bar Nir will be named Person of the Year in Tourism during the International Mediterranean Tourism Market (IMTM) event scheduled to open in Tel Aviv on February 5-6.

Tourism Fair

IMTM event to be held for 19th time in February Photo: Rami Hacham

Bar Nir will be given the title as a show of appreciation for the committee he chaired, whose recommendations for reducing vacation prices in Israel were adopted by the government recently. Continue Reading »

University Professors to State: Permit Terrorists Free College Courses

A group of lecturers from the Open University call on the State of Israel to allow terrorists to study in university program while incarcerated in prison.

By Elad Benari

 

Dozens of lecturers from the Open University have signed an ad calling on the State of Israel to allow terrorists serving time in Israeli prisons to study in universities while in prison.

In the ad, which is entitled “Opinion on the studies of security prisoners”, the lecturers and a number of employees of the Open University protest the State’s preventing what they term is “the right of inmates to academic studies”. Continue Reading »

Abbas has always played both sides

 

In his new book, Dr. Shaul Bartal explains in detail how Fatah & the other Palestinian groups have a common goal — Israel’s destruction. The difference between terror organizations & “moderate” Abbas, as shown by Palestinian Media Watch, is only in the way they speak, but not in the way they think, nor in their actions.

By Nadav Shragai

 

Although the scene I am about to describe was watched by viewers of Palestinian television 33 times over the past 22 years, Israeli viewers never saw it even once. A Palestinian singer in a suit and tie performed in a packed auditorium for a Fatah event, sweeping the audience with enthusiasm as he sang a song that promised “to stand behind Abu Mazen [PA President Mahmoud Abbas] until Judgment Day and return to our pure soil from Rafah to Rosh Hanikra and Beit She’an, from Haifa to Tantura [Dor Beach] and the borders of the Jordan Valley.”

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Palestinians Foresee an Apartheid state if Netanyahu wins upcoming election

Palestinian president Abbas’ aides say PM is ‘killing’ 2-state solution and hope Obama will ‘get tougher with Netanyahu on the settlements’

Associated Press

 

Mohammed Ishtayeh, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told The Associated Press on Friday that his boss has been warning that ensuring Israel’s future as a democracy with a Jewish majority will not be possible if settlement building continues and that Israel could end up with a Jewish minority ruling over an Arab majority.

Abbas, NetanyahuIshtayeh warned Israel could end up with “an apartheid style state, similar to the one of former South Africa.”

“In the long run it will be against the Israeli interests because … we Palestinians will be the majority and will struggle for equality,” he said, adding that Abbas had met repeated this message in meetings with several Israeli leaders in the past year. Continue Reading »

View BBC ‘Hardtalk’ With Dani Dayan: ‘The 2-state solution is a mirage’

Former settler council head says Netanyahu paying lip-service to 2-state solution, saying annexation of Judea & Samaria will be ‘natural outcome.’

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Dani Dayan, former head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip on Friday said the two-state solution “never existed.”

Dani DayanSpeaking to Stephen Sackur on the BBC news show “Hardtalk,” Dayan said the views of the ultra-Right are “quite realistic, as Israel is beginning to understand that the two-state solution never existed, it was a mirage…you get closer to it, you reveal that it was just hot air.”

Continuing, Dayan blamed the failure not on Israel, or the settlers, but on the “refusal of the Palestinians to accept it.”

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Meet Israel’s 1st illegal immigrant to become an officer of the IDF

After his illegal entry into Israel in 2005, Avi Bari overcame all obstacles and achieved his goals, one after the other.

 

Arriving illegally from the Republic of Guinea to Israel in 2005, Avi Bari overcame all obstacles that once stood in his path and became an officer in the IDF. He tells of his journey passing through Morocco to the Egyptian Sinai desert, to a brief stint in prison, to Tel Aviv and finally to an IDF base.

Second Lt. Avi BariSecond Lieutenant Avi Bari, known to his family who all remain in Guinea as Ibrahima, already enjoys a certain notoriety that he owes to his self-proclaimed status of “the first illegal immigrant to become an officer of the IDF.” Continue Reading »

Original Thinking: Recognizing Israeli diplomatic incompetence

Saving Israel from a global delegitimization campaign that has a significant diplomatic impact on our country is sufficient grounds for influential & powerful people to rally around the Jewish state and protect it from our enemies, AND and from the incompetence of our gov’t’s politicians & officials.

By BARRY SHAW

 

How is it possible for Israel to effectively present its positions to the world when its government PR organs are in such a state of disarray? Not only are they in shameful condition, they have become incapable of addressing the most basic elements of our legitimacy and policy.

Mavi Marmara incident -  Photo by Stringer Turkey, Reuters

We hear the most outlandish criticisms and resolutions used against us that go unanswered by the government. Continue Reading »

IDF to begin using its new ‘Advanced Missile Detection System’

The IDF’s Air Defense Formation’s new defensive system will operate more efficiently, detecting 99% of incoming missiles, being far more precise than the current systems, while minimizing false alarms.

By Shir Aharon Bram, IAF Website

 

Two months after the end of operation Pillar of Defense, the Air Defense Formation continues to advance its capabilities in defending Israel against missile threats. In one such development, the existing missile detection systems will soon be replaced with a newer version incorporating innovative changes.

A first successful experiment for the “David’s Sling” defense system. Minister of Defense: “The tremendous success of the Iron Dome during Operation Pillar of Defense demonstrates the immense importance of anti-missile systems” – Photo Courtesy: Israel Air Force

The new system will allow a detection of 99% of the rockets and missiles launched towards Israel and will scan the attacked area in detail, resulting in fewer false alarms interrupting citizens’ daily life. Continue Reading »

FACEBOOK VIOLATES ITS OWN PRINCIPLES with Arab Israeli Journalist’s Page

Arab Israeli journalist Khaled abu Toameh told The Jewish Press in a lengthy interview about Facebook’s bizarre treatment of his Facebook page.

Facebook has yet given a word of explanation to abu Toameh, why his page was shut down, parts of it were deleted, and then put back up.

 

 

“Fatah couldn’t stop me, Hamas couldn’t stop me, not even Facebook will stop me from continuing my work,” is what Arab Israeli journalist Khaled abu Toameh told The Jewish Press Tuesday morning, January 15, in a lengthy interview about Facebook’s bizarre treatment of his Facebook page. Continue Reading »

2 Years Later, Israel’s Carmel Forest Begins to Rejuvenate

The authority plans to introduce more Jerusalem pines as well as oak, almond, olive & carob trees — all native to Israel and thus, in better sync with the environment. A wider range of trees will attract a wider range of wildlife to the forest.

 

By Ben Sales

 

CARMEL FOREST, Israel (JTA) — The rabbi’s yarmulke fluttered in the wind, his hand holding it to his head, as he recited El Malei Rachamim, the traditional prayer for the deceased.

A view of part of the scorched area of the Carmel Forest, burned in the 2010 Carmel Fire, with an intact area of the forest in the background, Jan. 2013.  (Ben Sales)

A view of part of the scorched area of the Carmel Forest, burned in the 2010 Carmel Fire, with an intact area of the forest in the background, Jan.

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Netanyahu rebuffs Obama; White House spooked by the nationalist parties

Past prime ministers who succumbed to American pressure left Israel with devastating results. For instance, Ehud Barak was convinced by Bill Clinton to meet nearly all of Yasser Arafat’s demands, only to be thanked with the outbreak of the “Second Intifada.”

By Ryan Jones

 

The Obama White House appears to be engaging in a very thinly veiled effort to influence next week’s Knesset election by suggesting to Israelis that voting for right-wing parties will further strain US-Israel relations and isolate the Jewish state.

NetanyahuOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu politely suggested that the American administration butt out.

“Only the Israeli people will determine who best represents the State of Israel’s vital interests,” Netanyahu said during a tour of the Gaza security fence. Continue Reading »

Sen. Paul: Cuts to Israel’s assistance would not be ‘immediate or dramatic’

Something I would be in favor of would not be immediate, dramatic or draconian, it would be evolving…. I’m for an independent, strong Israel that is not a client state and not a reliant state.

By JTA

 

WASHINGTON  — Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he does not favor immediate cuts to defense assistance to Israel and favors intelligence and development cooperation, but he believes that Israel would ultimately benefit from economic independence from the United States.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul in JerusalemPaul, in a conference call Wednesday marking his return from a week-long visit to Israel, said his first priority in targeting foreign assistance would be those nations where people “burn the American flag and say death to America.” Continue Reading »

Video: 8 IDF soldiers were killed in accidents during 2012

Army data for 2012 shows a rise in casualties in accidents with decline in deaths of soldiers on leave.

Unfortunately, dozens were injured in training accidents.

Yoav Zitun

 

An IDF report revealed that 2012 saw an increase in the number of soldiers killed in accidents and a decline of in deaths of soldiers on leave.Overturned jeep

According to the security branch of the Israeli Ground Forces, eight soldiers were killed in accidents last year, compared to only one in 2011 and 20 in 2010

The accidents include a jeep crash in the Golan Heights that killed an Artillery Corps soldier, a lighting fixture collapse in Mount Herzl that killed an officer,  a car accident that claimed the lives of two Navy officers, a bus crash that claimed the life of a military police officer and an incident in which a tank ran over a soldier while training in the Golan Heights, among others. Continue Reading »

Licensed U.S. Doctors can now practice in Israel without retaking medical exam

Israeli citizens who went to the U.S. for school and immigrant American doctors will no longer be required to retake medical licensing exam.

 

The Knesset Labor, Welfare and Health Committee voted Wednesday to exempt Israelis who studied medicine abroad, as well as immigrant physicians, from the Israeli medical licensing exam if they have passed the U.S. licensing exams.

Medical students at Hadera’s Hillel Yaffe hospital

The committee also approved the retroactive licensing of any physician who has passed the U.S. exam, the USMLE, during the past 10 years. However, the committee also ruled that candidates who failed the Israeli medical exam cannot take the USMLE instead. Continue Reading »