Archive for Israel News

| January 8, 2013
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Israeli 2012 Tech bought out for record total of $5.5 Billion

2012 had 50 deals with an average deal size of $111 million, compared with 63 deals with an average size of $81 million in 2011.

By Ben Rooney

 

Israeli tech startups were bought out for a record total of $5.5 billion in 2012, according to a report published Monday. The report also suggests a maturity in the Israeli sector with fewer, but larger, deals transacted.

Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers

The report by analysts PricewaterhouseCoopers showed 2012 had 50 deals with an average deal size of $111 million, compared with 63 deals with an average size of $81 million in 2011. The report didn’t cover IPOs. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| January 8, 2013
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Photo Essay : Heavy Rains in Israel

Arutz Sheva’s readers sent in photos. Israel is flooded with welcome rains, which are also causing traffic congestion and power outages.

 pictures from Haaretz:
wn in both directio... Photo by Moti Milrod

Ayalon Highway shut down in both directions due to flooding. January 8, 2013
– Photo by Moti Milrod

Stormy weather

Railway station in Tel Aviv – Ofer Vaknin

 

Ayalon Highway shut down in both directions

Ayalon Highway shut down in both directions – Moti Milrod

Rainbow in the Hula Valley

Rainbow in the Hula Valley – Yaron Kaminsky

Stormy weather - AFP

Stormy weather – AFP

Stormy weather

Rainbow over Judean Desert – AFP

Stormy weather

Tel Aviv’s Ayalon River between train & highway – Moti Milrod

Stormy weather floods Mall in Modiin - Gil Coen-Mahar

Stormy weather floods Mall in Modiin – Gil Cohen-Mager

A car blocked by a fallen tree - Yair Etinger

A car blocked by a fallen tree – Yair Etinger

View original HAARETZ photographs at: http://www.haaretz.com/ Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| January 7, 2013
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Sen. Rand Paul in Israel: US foreign aid “would be a sale, not a grant”

Republican Senator tells Jerusalem crowd it’ll be harder to be a friend to Israel if the US is “out of money.”

 

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a fierce opponent of US foreign aid who is being touted already as a likely 2016 presidential candidate, said in Jerusalem on Monday that the United States is and always will be a friend of Israel, but thinks “it will be harder and harder to be a friend if we are out of money.”
Sen. Rand Paul

Speaking to the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, Paul said it is one thing if you are giving foreign aid out of your savings, but it is something completely different if you are “borrowing from one country to give to another.

Continue Reading »
Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| January 7, 2013
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Taglit-Birthright: Visiting Israel, our start-up-nation

Not many remember that when the flagship program 13 years ago was launched, it had many detractors. But today, few initiatives enjoy this much support from the Jewish world.

 

Some critics see Taglit-Birthright as nationalist and right-wing, but the former leader of Israel’s left and architect of the Oslo peace process isn’t worried at all.

Birthright group meets up with area security director and visit IDF outpost on the Israel-Lebanon border – IsraelandStuff/PP

Birthright group meets up with area security director and visit IDF outpost on the Israel-Lebanon border – IsraelandStuff/PP

 

“People say Birthright is right-wing but they’re wrong,” says Yossi Beilin, a former head of Israel’s justice, economics and religious affairs ministries. “I’m all in favor of a debate on Israel’s policies and don’t think Jews in the Diaspora should blindly support it, but this has nothing to do with visiting Israel.” Continue Reading »

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| January 6, 2013
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Israel braces for heavy rains, snow & strong winds

Meteorologists expect one of the rainiest weeks in recent memory, with showers falling from the Galilee to the Negev and 100 km/h winds.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Heavy rain fell from the North to the Negev overnight Saturday, with the stormy winter weather expected to continue on Sunday and throughout the week.

winter skies in the Galilee

Winter skies in the Galilee – IsraelandStuff/PP

Forecasters expect the coming week to be one of the rainiest in recent memory with some 100 millimeters of rain expected in central Israel and as much as 250mm. expected to fall in the North.

Mount Hermon is also expected to see continued snowfall throughout the week.

Continue Reading »
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| January 6, 2013
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‘The Gatekeepers’ an Israeli documentary, wins U.S. Film Critics’ Award

Dror Moreh’s film was named best documentary and it has also been selected for the Academy Awards’ short list, along with another Israeli entry, the film ‘Five Broken Cameras.’

By Reuters

 

 

Israeli documentary “The Gatekeepers” was awarded the nonfiction, or documentary prize by the National Society of Film Critics in the U.S. on Saturday.

The Israeli film 'The Gatekeepers'

The Israeli film ‘The Gatekeepers.’

The film by director Dror Moreh features interviews with six former Shin Bet directors, who speak about their service and the leaders they served. Each one returns again and again to a central question: Can basic values of universal justice and democracy be upheld in the face of frequent threats against the State of Israel? Continue Reading »

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| January 6, 2013
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‘Illegal Settlement’ Made Kosher, Thanks to the Left

An anti-Zionist lawsuit against the “unauthorized settlement” of Rachelim resulted in it decreed a legal Israeli town by the courts.

By Maayana Miskin

 

The Samaria (Shomron) town of Rachelim has finally become a fully authorized community, following a lawsuit from the far-left group Yesh Din.

Rachelim

The town, Rachelim – Samaria Regional Council website

Rachelim, a Jewish village built in honor of victims of terrorism, was established with the government’s full cooperation and assistance. The Housing Ministry even built many of the homes through the Amidar company.

The community had all the right paperwork and signatures as well – save for one. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| January 6, 2013
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The Muslim wakf: Discarding history at The Temple Mount

 

The Muslim wakf, responsible for The Temple Mount continues to damage antiquities & archeological artifacts as Israeli authorities remain helpless to prevent it. In the meantime, entire Christian, Jewish & Muslim histories are being brutally dumped in garbage sites.

By Nadav Shragai

 

 

On a high steel scaffold next to the southern area of the Temple Mount compound’s eastern wall, workers of the Muslim wakf have been working to repair the wall for quite some time. One after another, the stones are removed from the “diseased” area of this wall, which threatened to collapse some years ago, and replaced with new surfacing stones.

Continue Reading »
Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| January 5, 2013
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Arabs Injure 11 Jews, Damaging Vineyards at Esh Kodesh

250 Arabs attacked Jews at Esh Kodesh, near Shilo. Jews defend themselves with rocks as their security team fire in the air.

By Gil Ronen

 

About 250 Arabs rioted Saturday afternoon near Esh Kodesh, close to Shilo in the Binyamin region, injuring 11 Jews.

Border Police at Aish Kodesh

Border Police at Aish Kodesh
Israel news photo courtesy of Tazpit

According to the Tatzpit news agency, the rioters tore down the fences surrounding the Jewish residents’ vineyards, causing them serious damage.

About 30 Jewish residents from the Shilo area rushed to the location and at first had to use rocks to get the Arabs to back off. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News, Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| January 5, 2013
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Is annexation really a Foolish idea?

Op-ed: Electoral threat from Habayit Hayehudi is making the Likud come up with a few ludicrous ideas.

Yoaz Hendel

 

West Bank settlement – Photo: Ilan Arad, lowshot.com

The idea of annexing the territories has been living among us for 45 years. No rightist government has ever implemented it, and no leftist government has ever rejected it. In December 1981, six months after the withdrawal from Sinai, Menachem Begin tried to define the border. He annexed the Golan Heights and drew harsh criticism from the world. Reagan’s America created a crisis, but it is in the nature of crises to end. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags:
| January 4, 2013
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Ex-Security Chief Diskin: Netanyahu & Barak are too weak

Former Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin paints disconcerting picture of how Israel’s most sensitive decisions are made in his 1st interview since leaving office.

Dror Moreh

 

Yuval Diskin was once privy to top secret government discussions. As former Shin Bet chief, he sat in on meetings dealing with the Iranian threat, the Palestinian issue and Israel’s most grave security concerns.

Yuval Diskin in 'The Gatekeepers' Photo: Avner Shahaf

Yuval Diskin in ‘The Gatekeepers’ – Photo: Avner Shahaf

By the nature of his office, Diskin witnessed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak‘s conduct up close and personal. And by his own admission – he was horrified. Continue Reading »

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| January 4, 2013
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Obama’s grandmother treated in Israeli hospital in Equatorial Guinea

Israeli humanitarian aid groups and teams of doctors have for years been providing free and low-cost assistance to the poorer regions of Africa.

By Israel Today Staff

 

US President Barack Obama’s step-grandmother received emergency eye surgery from Israeli doctors in Equatorial Guinea last week, Israel’s Yediot Ahronot reported.

Sarah Onyango Obama is the third wife of President Obama’s Kenyan grandfather. She lives in a remote Kenyan village.

It was recently discovered that Sarah required surgery for an unspecified problem, and the nearest full-service hospital was the Israeli-operated Shalom Hospital in the Guinean capital of Malabo.

The elderly Obama was personally escorted by Guinean Health Minister Tomas Mecheba Fernandez, and after her treatment was quoted as saying, “All of Africa is talking about your [the Israeli] hospital and the fact that one doesn’t need to fly to Europe to get medical treatment.” Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| January 3, 2013
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Netanyahu to ambassadors: Iran hasn’t yet crossed nuclear red line

The Prime Minister meets envoys and warns Hamas could take control of the Palestinian Authority “any day.”

 

 

Iran has not yet crossed the red line that Israel set on its nuclear program, and Israel remains determined to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday.

NetanyahuNetanyahu was speaking at the last session of the annual year-end meeting in the foreign ministry for Israel’s ambassadors abroad.

During a speech at the UN in September, Netanyahu drew a red line on a picture of a bomb signifying when Tehran would be 90% on the way to development of a bomb, meaning before it had acquired enough enriched uranium to build a nuclear detonator if it so decided. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| January 3, 2013
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In August the I.D.F. is to Draft 3000 Haredim

IDF’s manpower unit finishes sorting haredi youths for their draft in 2013. ‘Army invested a lot in their enlistment,’ reports Major General Barbivai, the unit’s commander.

Yoav Zitun

 

Some 3000 haredi youths have been presented with draft notices and are set to be enlisted for military service in August 2013, said Major General Orna Barbivai, commander of the IDF Manpower Directorate, on Thursday.

Potential draftees (Illustration) – Photo: Tzvika Tishler

The IDF successfully finished sorting the 3000 youths, who were born on 1994 and 1995. Following the Tal Law‘s expiration, the IDF will draft for the first time thousands of haredim in accordance with the mandatory army service law. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| January 3, 2013
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Netanyahu advisor Ron Dermer brings American commonsense to Israeli politics

It would seem as if the surest way to get an op-ed published in the New York Times these days, no matter how obscure the writer or the viewpoint, is to attack Israel.

By JTA

 

TEL AVIV – Like many Israeli politicians, Ron Dermer is an unapologetic defender of Israel’s actions, even if it might mean being undiplomatic.

But like a seasoned diplomat, Dermer — senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — knows his way through Washington’s backchannels and has cultivated relationships with senior U.S. policymakers.

Most important, say those who know him, he has Netanyahu’s ear.

“Netanyahu likes him, respects him and listens to him,” said Uzi Arad, Netanyahu’s national security adviser until 2011. Continue Reading »

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