WATCH: Israeli Minister Katz Proposes Plan to Build Gaza Airport/Seaport Island

 

view videoThe ambitious Israeli project, originally proposed in 2011, would greatly ease Gaza’s economic situation, while maintaining Israel’s security with NATO, or an alternative foreign force.

By Israel Today Staff

 

Israeli Minister of Transportation Israel Katz (Likud) this week presented to foreign media outlets his ambitious plan to create an artificial island just off the coast of the Gaza Strip to provide the area’s residents with a modern airport and seaport.

Israeli plan for a Gaza offshore seaport-airport – Drawing: Ministry of Transportation and Israel Ports

Katz noted that the project would significantly ease the difficult economic situation in which Gaza finds itself without harming Israel’s security. Continue Reading »

MIT Tech Review: Israel’s Mobileye ranked 6th, on a list of the world’s top 50

 

view videoIsrael’s Mobileye technology company, which makes vision systems for mobile vehicles, was ranked 6th on list of the world’s 50 “smartest” companies, by the prestigious MIT Technology Review.

By Ilan Gattegno and Israel Hayom Staff

 

Israel’s Mobileye technology company was ranked sixth on a list of the world’s 50 “smartest” companies published on Tuesday by MIT Technology Review.

The Mobileye logo – Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The first five spots were taken by Amazon, Baidu, Illumina, Tesla Motors, and Aquion Energy.

Describing Mobileye, MIT Technology Review wrote: “How can automakers compete with companies developing self-driving vehicles, such as Google parent Alphabet? Continue Reading »

Hamas: ‘Normalization with Israel serves Turkey’s interest, Gaza siege doesn’t’

 

Hamas official tells an Arab London-based newspaper: “Erdoğan told the leadership that he must make progress on the normalization deal with Israel in order to serve Turkey’s interests, …but the Israeli gov’t stubbornly rejected his attempts,” to lift the siege.

By MAAYAN GROISMAN

 

Amid reports about an approaching normalization deal between Israel and Turkey, Hamas claims that Turkey has renounced the condition that Israel lift the siege on Gaza that it has defined as a prerequisite for reconciliation.

Erdoğan and Mashaal – Photo: REUTERS

In a conversation with the daily-Arab London-based newspaper Rai al-Youm, unnamed Hamas officials said: “Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced to Hamas’s leadership that he has done everything possible to lift the siege or ameliorate it, but the Israeli government stubbornly rejected his attempts.” Continue Reading »

Israel turns to Putin to assist in halting publication of Quartet report

 

The political report, intended to be published in the coming days, will place inequitable blame for the moribund peace process unfairly on Israel, where it is then expected to be endorsed by the UN Security Council.

By Itamar Eichner

 

Israel has launched diplomatic efforts aimed at halting the publication of a report by the Quartet (an international diplomatic body comprised of the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, and Russia. Its purpose is to oversee the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and attempt to end the conflict), which is expected to blame Israel for the current impasse in the peace process with the Palestinians.
Continue Reading »

HISTORIC EVENT: Israel receives first F-35 Lightning II fighter jet

 

view videoIDF will not only take possession of the first F-35 exported from the US, but all classified communications systems used in the jets will be produced in Israel, and the IAF will use its own electronic warfare systems, making the fighter-jet uniquely ‘Jewish’.

By Kobi Finkler

 

The IDF will become the first country outside of the United States to possess the groundbreaking F-35 Lightning II fighter jet, which it will call the Adir.

F-35 Lightning II – US Air Force

The first two planes will reach Israel in about six months, with another 17 arriving by the end of 2017.
Continue Reading »

BDS, more smoke that fire, US Jews still maintain connection to Israel

 

REPORT: Contrary to Israeli perception, two professors asserted that BDS is only present on certain campuses & does not deter Jewish students from engaging with Israel.

By LIDAR GRAVÉ-LAZI

 

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement is not widespread and is only a major issue on some campuses in the US, according to prof. Theodore Sasson and prof. Leonard Saxe from Brandeis University.

BDS logo – Photo: BDS

Speaking about the changing demographics and politics of American Jewry during a session at the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee, the two professors aimed to dispel common perceptions about US Jews and their relationship with Israel. Continue Reading »

Private security firm employs drones to retrieve stolen cars

 

After Israel Police allowed Ituran, a local car tracking & security company, to use drones to track stolen cars, the firm successfully carried out an operation to locate & retrieve a stolen Israeli car in Tulkarem, a major Palestinian city.

By Udi Etzion

 

Authorities have now permitted private security companies to operate drones. Mamon, Ynet’s sister publication, learned that Ituran, a company that provides tracking and protection services for vehicles, has successfully employed drones to locate stolen car in the past few weeks.

Drones are now providing the largest stolen car tracking companies in Israel with capabilities that had been previously limited to the security forces. Continue Reading »

UK PM Cameron: ‘Brexit’ would be bad for Israel, ‘we need to be in the room’

 

view videoWATCH: Prime Minister Cameron tells Jewish constituents the UK won’t be able to push back against anti-Israel sentiment in the EU if voters decide to leave this week.

By Ari Soffer

 

As the United Kingdom’s fateful referendum on whether to leave the European Union draws nearer, Prime Minister David Cameron is making his final push to convince voters to reject a “Brexit” – or British exit from the EU.

While the most prominent arguments for and against have centered on the economy, as well as questions of British sovereignty and the EU’s eye-watering (and expensive) bureaucracy, some within the Jewish community – particularly in Israel but also in the UK itself – have been weighing what a Brexit would mean for Israel. Continue Reading »

WATCH Iraqi cleric: ‘Netanyahu, gives orders to ISIS, rulers of America, Europe’

 

view videoIn a TV interview translated by MEMRI, Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmad Al-Kubeisi said Netanyahu “holds the remote control” and “gives orders to all the rulers of America, Europe, and elsewhere.”

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

A prominent Iraqi cleric has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being the driving force behind the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group.

In a recent TV interview translated by MEMRI, Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmad Al-Kubeisi said that ISIS was an asset in the hands of Netanyahu, who “holds the remote control” and “gives orders to all the rulers of America, Europe, and elsewhere.”

He also said that the Jews are the masters of the land today and that none of the ISIS fighters “are even circumcised.” Continue Reading »

Turkey, Israel end 6-year diplomatic crisis

 

With the final reconciliatory talks scheduled for June 26, Turkey & Israel agree to restore diplomatic relations, six years after Mavi Marmara provocation left 10 attacking Turks dead.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

Turkey and Israel will this weekend announce a deal on normalizing ties, ending a six-year diplomatic crisis sparked by a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in which 10 Turkish nationals died, a report said Tuesday.

The Hurriyet daily said the two sides would make the announcement during final talks on June 26 after intensive diplomacy resulted in a compromise agreement on the partial lifting of Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip.
Continue Reading »

Palestinian boy killed, 3 others injured after firebombs hurled at passing cars

 

IDF accidentally killed 15 yr-old Palestinian, wounding three others who were believed to be involved in a rock and firebomb attack on cars traveling Route 443, that left an Israeli & two foreigners injured, then taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
– In separate operations, security forces demolish home of Taylor Force’s murderer, and arrest 12 other wanted terror-suspects.

By Elisha Ben Kimon

 

IDF forces shot and killed a young Palestinian boy overnight Monday in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity, following a terrorist attack which wounded two foreigners and one Israel on Route 443.

Passengers hospitalized after car was attacked by Palestinian rock-throwing terrorists

An Israeli and two foreigners in their twenties were lightly injured and taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center when rocks and Molotov Cocktails were hurled at a passing vehicle on the main highway.

Continue Reading »

Obama frustrated over necessity of Israel’s qualitative military edge

 

Frustrated over snags in Saudi arms deal, Obama showed his anger over a US law, requiring Defense Department’s guarantee that weapons sales to Mideast nations must comport with the US’s pledge of keeping Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region.

By MICHAEL WILNER

 

WASHINGTON — Frustrated over a stall in an arms sale to Saudi Arabia, Obama once questioned the necessity of maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday.

US President Barack Obama speaks at the Righteous Among the Nations Award Ceremony, organized by Yad Vashem, at Israel’s Embassy in Washington January 27, 2016.

Continue Reading »

Israel’s Rhythmic Gymnastics Team Brings Home European Gold Medal

 

The Israeli gymnastics team won 4 medals at the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship, 1 gold, 2 silvers, and 1 bronze, guaranteeing the team’s presence at the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

By Michael Zeff/TPS

 

(TPS) – The Israeli gymnastics team won gold at the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship on Sunday in the clubs and hoop event and also won silver in the ribbons event.This year’s European championship was held in the team’s own home court of Holon, a coastal Israeli city.

“I felt extreme exhilaration, especially since this is the first European championship ever held in Israel.

Continue Reading »

Palestinian renew campaign to target Arabs selling property to Jews

 

Anti-Israel activists operating under the banner of the “National Work Commission,” backed by the Palestinian Authority, are promoting throughout the Arab neighborhoods, a new push to stop Jewish acquisition of land or property in Jerusalem.

By Ari Soffer

 

A group of Muslim activists in Jerusalem, backed by the Palestinian Authority, have launched a new campaign to deter Muslims from selling property to Jews in the Israeli capital.

Poster: elderofziyon.blogspot.com

Activists operating under the banner of the “National Work Commission” declared the campaign last week at a public press conference, and have since been promoting it throughout Arab neighborhoods.

Their campaign, first reported by veteran Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu-Toameh, has raised fears that the PA and other Arab terrorist groups may resume a policy of extrajudicial executions of Arabs accused of engaging in real estate transactions with Jews. Continue Reading »

Report: US-Israel 10-yr military aid package deal near agreement

 

Newly appointed Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman met with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in Washington Sunday to discuss “regional security challenges in the Middle East and areas of mutual defense cooperation.”

By i24news

 

A new 10-year US military aid package to Israel is on the verge of completion after a year of stuttering, back-and-forth negotiations between the two countries, the Jerusalem Post reports.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter meets with Israel’s Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman June 20, 2016- Photo: U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Clydell Kinchen/DOD

Citing a senior Israeli official in Washington, the Post reports that Monday’s meeting between new Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his US counterpart Ashton Carter went well, and that Israel does not want to wait until President Barack Obama has left office, as had been previously reported. Continue Reading »