Palestinian Power Company Reneges on Israel-Palestine Natural Gas Contract

After delays by Israel’s Antitrust Authority to make decisions, Palestine Power Generation Co decided to cancel its $1.2-billion Leviathan contract with the Delek Group & Noble Energy.

By Arutz Sheva Staff

 

An Israeli partner in the Leviathan offshore gas field said on Wednesday a Palestinian Arab company had cancelled a $1.2-billion supply contract, citing delays by Israel’s Antitrust Authority.

Delek said it had informed the Tel Aviv stock exchange that a 20-year contract it had signed with the Palestine Power Generation Co was cancelled by the Arabs on Tuesday, reports AFP.

Delek said this was because of “non-fulfillment of the conditions precedent set forth in the agreement, and essentially non-receipt of the approval of the Antitrust Authority, the delay in approving the development plan of the Leviathan project as well as other regulatory approvals required by law.”

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Report: Islamic Jihad-mediated reconciliation between Egypt and Hamas

According to the report, Egypt agreed to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza twice weekly under PA control & Hamas agrees to refrain from inciting against Egypt or interfere in Egyptian affairs, especially in the Sinai.

By i24news

 

Egyptian authorities on Wednesday agreed to an Islamic Jihad-mediated reconciliation with the Islamist group Hamas, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.

Young Palestinians waving Hamas flags February 5, 2015 – Photo: Said Khatib/AFP/Archives

“Egypt has called on Hamas to renege on its ideology that comes from the Muslim Brotherhood,” senior Egyptian security officials told Ma’an.

According to the report, as part of the agreement Egypt agreed to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza twice weekly to start with before opening it on a permanent basis. Continue Reading »

EU foreign policy chief praised for supporting EU task force on anti-Semitism

ADL president applauds Federica Mogherini & leading Italian parliamentarians for taking steps to ‘help Europe’s Jews to truly feel more secure.’

By Ynet news

 

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has expressed support for the creation of a European Union task force on anti-Semitism.

Jewish graves desecrated in Hungary. ‘Anti-Semitic assaults, hate speech, harassment, and vandalism are severely impacting Jewish communities across the EU’ – Photo: Feher Gabor

Mogherini, vice president of the European Commission and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, announced her support in a statement published in Italian newspaper La Repubblica and indicated that she had sent a proposal to Frans Timmerman, the European Commissioner whose portfolio includes human rights and non-discrimination. Continue Reading »

IDF Brings ‘Google Glass’ Type Technology to the Battlefield

The Israeli combat soldiers will be equipped with glasses allowing them record & send data back to a command center, allowing them to receive real-time updates from those with a broader overview of the battlefield.

By Israel Today Staff

 

Taking inspiration from Google Glass and similar technologies, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are busily developing the battlefield command and control platforms of the future.

IDF combat soldiers in training exercise.

The IDF Spokesman on Tuesday announced that the Israeli army’s own version of “Google Glass” had been successfully tested using a homegrown logistics app.

“We have completed our first application that works on a mobile platform – mobile logistics transportation,” said Capt.

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Ex-CIA official says former Mossad chief Dagan contradicts his official 2010 assessments

Ex-CIA analyst Fred Fleitz writes former Mossad chief Meir Dagan is ‘playing politics with security.’ “His criticism of Netanyahu’s statements about the Iranian nuclear program don’t hold up.” & in a 2010 security briefing “sang an entirely different tune.”

By Yoni Hersch & Israel Hayom Staff

 

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High Court of Israel rules on racial profiling at Ben Gurion International Airport

After many years before Israel’s High Court of Justice, the current civil rights case was dismissed, but allows future petitions if necessary.

 

The High Court of Justice on Wednesday carved out a middle ground in one of the most important recent cases to be decided on the issue of racial profiling, with the particular case relating to security at Ben-Gurion Airport.

Entry into security check at Israel’s Ben Gurion Int’l Airport – Photo: REUTERS

On one hand the court dismissed the petition which had an ultimate goal of complete elimination of racial profiling and partially accepted the state’s argument that it could not completely change without heavily burdening all travelers, a change which would have been disproportionate. Continue Reading »

New Israeli app streams live video feed to Twitter followers from iPhone

Meerkat, originally a side project by Israeli high-tech ‘Life on Air’, is becoming a massive success on Twitter since its release.

By Sagi Cohen

 

Meet Meerkat, the new Israeli app that has achieved almost overnight success, has taken Twitter by storm, and has earned widespread coverage in the media and on websites around the globe.

Meerkat

Meerkat allows Twitter users to stream video of themselves or their surroundings to their followers with just the touch of a button. How does it work? You download the app to your iPhone and begin filming a video clip. At the same time, your Twitter account will automatically post a Tweet with a special link.

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IDF to Have Gaza Belt Residents in Bombshelters Longer in Next War With Gaza

IDF is shortening the warning times for incoming Gaza rockets, saying the 15 seconds given was not enough time to find safety: Gaza Belt residents will be instructed to live in, or next to, protective shelters during future conflicts with Gaza.

By Tova Dvorin

 

Guidelines during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza gave a 15-second window to Gaza Belt residents to run to shelters in the event of a “Code Red” alarm – a short time to find safety.

Israelis find shelter from Gaza’s deadly rockets in a ‘converted’ sewage pipe – Reuters

But even 15 seconds is insufficient, a senior Home Front Command official revealed Wednesday – and during the next war, Gaza Belt residents may be instructed to live out of their shelters for the duration of the conflict.

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Syrian gunfire lightly wounds IDF officer in Golan Heights

The IDF did not return fire following the slightly wounding of an officer, part of an Engineering force attempting to extricate a stuck bulldozer.

By BEN HARTMAN, NOAM AMIR/MAARIV HASHAVUA

 

An IDF officer was lightly wounded by a gunshot fired from Syria on Tuesday evening. The officer was treated at the scene in the northern Golan Heights and did not need to be evacuated from the scene.

An IDF soldier stands atop a tank near Alonei Habashan on the Golan Heights, close to the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria. – Photo: REUTERS

The gunshot came from an area near Quneitra under the control of government troops. Continue Reading »

Israel demolishes illegal EU structures also built in violation of Oslo Accords

EU condemns demolition of prefab buildings illegally erected on outskirts of Arab neighborhood of Issawiya, inhabited by Bedouin communities on state land.

By AFP

 

Israeli authorities on Tuesday demolished an EU-funded shelter in Arab east Jerusalem, the European Union said, denouncing the move.

The blue EU logo seen on new modular structures in an illegal Bedouin encampment in the Judean hills outside the Ma’alen Adumim settlement.

“We condemn today’s demolition of temporary shelters funded by the European Union… as part of its response to the needs of the affected communities,” an EU statement said.

RELATED:

EU funds have helped to pay for some 200 temporary buildings used as shelters in villages inhabited by Bedouin communities in the West Bank, just outside Arab east Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

WATCH: The Jewish Mount of Olives Ancient Jerusalem Cemetery Desecrated Again

Jerusalem councilman King blames government for not ordering police to stop Arabs from destroying the headstones & desecrating Jewish graves at the Mount of Olives cemetery.

By Ari Yashar

 

While Arab assailants have long been desecrating the Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery in Jerusalem, said to be the oldest still-in-use cemetery in the world, shocking video footage reveals that for the Jewish holiday of Purim last Friday (in Jerusalem) they went farther than usual in trashing Jewish graves.

Jerusalem, Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery – Photo: Wikipedia

Jerusalem Councilman Arieh King on Tuesday posted video documenting the damage, which was filmed by Joshua Wander, a dual Israeli and American citizen who has run as a republican candidate for mayor of Pittsburgh.

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Argentinian biographer sues Yad Vashem Holocaust museum over Oskar Schindler’s papers

Israel’s national Holocaust museum is being sued by an Argentinian woman over the ownership of a suitcase containing copies of the lists of Jews Oskar Schindler saved from certain death.

By i24news

 

Forty years after his death, a legal battle is playing out in Jerusalem over documents belonging to Oskar Schindler including personal copies of the lists of Jews he saved from the Holocaust.

Gali Tibbon (AFP)

A woman looks at copies of facsimiles of Oskar Schindler’s lists displayed at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, on March 4, 2015 – Photo: Gali Tibbon (AFP)

The case, which is expected to go to court next month, sheds unusual light on Schindler’s personal life after he saved some 1,200 Jews from the Nazis during World War II, and the battles over his estate. Continue Reading »

Huge Tel Aviv Rally Against Netanyahu, While Polls Predict He’ll Be Next Prime Minister – Again

50,000 rally in Tel Aviv for new government, but polls show most Israelis admit Netanyahu is still the best candidate.

By Israel Today Staff

 

A weekend rally calling to replace Benjamin Netanyahu as Israel’s leader in the upcoming elections drew an estimated 50,000 participants. At the same time, a national survey showed that a majority of Israelis accept that Netanyahu will remain their prime minister.

The Saturday evening rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square featured a lineup of speakers denouncing Netanyahu over the difficult economic situation in which most Israelis find themselves and the collapse of the peace process with the Palestinians. Continue Reading »

Jewish exodus could trigger economic crisis in Europe

Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor, the European Jewish Congress head says continent’s spike in violent anti-Semitism has every Jewish family considering whether to “leave or stay,” so European authorities will need to “deliver some real gestures” to keep them.

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Israel sends 4 truckloads of cement to Gaza as Qatar begins rebuilding 1,000 homes

Qatari official begins project to rebuild 1,000 homes as part of their $1 billion aid pledge, saying little of the world’s $5.4 billion that was pledged, has reached Gaza.

 

A Qatari official visiting a Gaza neighborhood heavily bombed in last summer’s war with Israel said on Tuesday the Gulf Arab state had begun a project to rebuild 1,000 homes as part of a $1 billion aid pledge.

Trucks at the Kerem Shalom Crossing in Gaza [file]- Photo: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa-Reuters

Mohammad al-Amadi, head of the Qatari Committee to Rebuild Gaza, said that earlier in the day Israel had allowed four truckloads of cement into the Gaza Strip so that the planned construction of the dwellings could begin. Continue Reading »