Jewish Agency brings 17 Yemeni Jews to Israel in secret mission

 

10 Jewish Yemenite children who were brought to Argentina in 2011, arrive in Israel Wednesday, to reunite with their families just as their parents land from Yemen in covert operation.

By Omri Efraim

17 Yemenite Jews landed in Israel Wednesday, in a Jewish Agency operation that brought about the bonding of two families, both of which were divided in August 2011 when several of their members were brought to Argentina by Satmar Hasidim and the rest remained in Yemen.

New Yemenite arrivals – Photo: Moshik Br

The families are to reside in one of the agency’s centers in Israel’s south until they move to permanent housing. Continue Reading »

1st Israel-PA Meeting in Jerusalem Ends After 5 Hours

First meeting in this round of Kerry’s peace initiative described as “long and serious”. Israeli newspapers & television reported the meeting was held at an undisclosed location in Jerusalem.

By Elad Benari

 

Israeli and Palestinian Authority negotiators met for around five hours on Wednesday evening.

US State Dept. Briefing on Israel-PA Talks

Israeli media reported that the meeting began shortly before 7:00 p.m. and ended just before midnight.

According to the reports, the talks were “long and serious” and the parties agreed to meet again within days.

Israeli negotiator Tzipi Livni’s office said earlier that there would be no statements or pictures from the meeting, reported AFP. Continue Reading »

Syrian Palestinians are Being Displaced at best, or Slaughtered

Where are the Palestinian leaders? Where are the Palestinian representatives? Where are the  ‘pro-Palestinians advocates?

Where’s Abbas, Barghouti, Ashrawi, Haniya, Zoabi, Zahar, Erekat, Mashaal, or Ashrawi?

Thousands of Palestinians are suffering or butchered and the world is silent. No ‘flotillas’ of aid or rescue are on the drawing-board. No one cares only because they can’t demonize,  delegitimize or blame Israel.

Continue Reading »

UN rights chief urges Hamas to cancel prisoner executions in Gaza

 

Pillay “deeply concerned” after Hamas declares that men sentenced to death are to be executed as planned after Ramadan.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
 

 

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Wednesday urged Hamas in the Gaza Strip not to carry out planned executions.

Hamas forces executes Majdi Mikkawi [file]

Hamas forces executes Majdi Mikkawi [file] – Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

In a statement, Pillay expressed deep concern “at the possibility that executions might be carried out over the course of the next weeks in Gaza and urgently appeal to the de facto authorities there not to implement any death sentences.”

The attorney general in Gaza made several announcements during Ramadan that after the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, which have just ended, executions of people sentenced to death would take place. Continue Reading »

Islamist terror organization Hamas getting closer to Iran

 

 

Resumption of peace talks only intensifies internal disagreements between Palestinian factions.


Most Palestinians are still skeptical about results of peace negotiations.

By The Media Line

The Islamist Hamas movement has sharply criticized the Palestinian Authority for resuming peace talks with Israel, saying that President Mahmoud Abbas is giving in to American pressure. The criticism comes as Hamas moves toward a rapprochement with Iran, despite differences over Syria.

Members of Hamas police take part in a graduation ceremony in Gaza City, Dec. 17, 2012. - Photo REUTERS-Suhaib Salem

Members of Hamas police take part in a graduation ceremony in Gaza City,. – Photo REUTERS-Suhaib Salem

“The (Israeli-Palestinian) negotiations will not lead to anything – it’s just wasting time,” Hamas deputy foreign minister Ghazi Hamad told The Media Line. Continue Reading »

End of an Era: Mercury Thermometers Banned in Israel

 

The Health Ministry in Israel, has banned the use of  sphygmomanometers (blood pressure monitors) & thermometers that use mercury.

By Chana Ya’ar

 

Remember when the glass thermometer your mother would use to figure out if you could stay home from school would be drop for some reason, and break — and and the little silver droplets of mercury would roll around the floor?

An Israeli health fund clinic

An Israeli health fund clinic – Photo courtesy

Those days are over.

In Israel, the end of an era has arrived: The Health Ministry has banned the use of thermometers and sphygmomanometers (blood pressure monitors) that use mercury, also known as “quicksilver” 

The directive was prompted by a decision issued earlier this year by the World Health Organization to minimize use of the elemental metal – mercury – which is poisonous when ingested. Continue Reading »

Miraculous recovery: 15 yr-old Syrian girl amazes Israeli doctors


 

Israeli doctors, after having treated dozens of wounded Syrian civilians in northern Israeli hospital, were shocked when a 15-year-old female shrapnel victim, gets up and walks about her room day after surgery.

By Tommy Mueller

 

A 15-year-old Syrian girl critically wounded in her nation’s ongoing civil war has made a miraculous recovery at a hospital in northern Israel.

Doctors at Ziv Hospital in the Galilee town of Safed (Tsfat) were shocked when the girl got up and walked around just one day after having her leg amputated as a result of massive shrapnel injuries.

The young girl had been hit by shrapnel all over her body. Continue Reading »

Israeli Bedouin: “Yes, this is my country, and I want to serve it.”

Marzuk Suaed, Master-Sgt., a Bedouin father of three, “Mostly, I want the Bedouin/Arab sector to understand and internalize that military service will only do our society good. Social distancing and separation will lead us nowhere.”

Gadi Golan

 

Master Sgt. Marzuk Suaed, 37, a Bedouin father of three residing in northern Israel, sees his job as a recruiter of Bedouin, Arab, Christian and Muslim youths to the Israel Defense Forces as a personal and Zionist mission.

Continue Reading »

2 Hebrew U. of J’lem grads on “AI’s 10 to Watch” list

 

 

Dr. Ariel Procaccia & Dr. Aviv Zohar of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, have just been named among Artificial intelligence’s 10 to Watch by IEEE Intelligent Systems magazine.

 

Published biennially, the list chooses 10 researchers who are rising stars in the field.Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that studies and develops intelligent machines and software. First coined as a term way back in 1955 – before computers – AI is defined as the study and design of intelligent agents, which are systems that recognize where they are and make moves to maximize their chances of success.

Continue Reading »

Report: No. 2 city for tech startups is Tel Aviv

 

 

Boston Globe names Israel’s metropolis as 2nd best city for technological startup entrepreneurs after the United States’ Silicon Valley.

Itamar Eichner

VIDEO – The Boston Globe, one of the most important newspapers in the United States, has named Tel Aviv the world’s second best city for tech startups, after Silicon Valley in California.

File:Flickr - Israel Defense Forces - IAF Flight for Israel's 63rd Independence Day.jpg

Israel Air Force Flight for Israel’s 63rd Independence Day over Tel Aviv – Photo Courtesy Israel Air Force

Startup Genome, a resource for tracking and building startups, formed a list of the world’s leading high-tech cities for startup entrepreneurs. Tel Aviv precedes New York, which only made it to the fifth place, Los Angeles (3) and London (7). Continue Reading »

Israel Air Force Hits Terrorist Targets in Gaza Strip

An IAF aircraft  successfully targeted Hamas’ concealed rocket launchers in northern Gaza, in response to rockets fired onto Israel by local terrorists.

By Elad Benari

 

An IAF aircraft targeted concealed rocket launchers in northern Gaza on Tuesday night, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.

Directs hits were confirmed.

“The IDF air strikes were conducted in response to the rocket launched at the civilians living in the Sha’ar HaNegev regional council yesterday (Tuesday) evening,” said the statement. “This is an absurd situation that would not be tolerated anywhere else in the world.”

“The IDF is charged with, and will continue to operate in order to safeguard Israel’s civilians, and combat terror and its infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. Continue Reading »

26 Palestinian terrorist released from Israeli prisons as ‘offering’ for Peace

 

Hundreds, including President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed 26 prisoners that left Ayalon Prison in vans with tinted windows.

Abbas: ‘We won’t rest until all prisoners are released’, then rocket explodes in western Negev.

By Ynet reporters

 

After weeks of cabinet discussions, protests and High Court petitions, 26 Palestinian prisoners were released Tuesday night as part of an Israeli gesture to the Palestinian Authority in the wake of resuming peace talks.

Convoy leaves Ayalon Prison (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Convoy leaves Ayalon Prison – Photo: Motti Kimchi

Two convoys left the Ayalon Prison Tuesday night en route to the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The first convoy, carrying 15 prisoners, reached the Erez checkpoint and shortly after 1 am was allowed to cross into Gaza. Continue Reading »

America’s 1st Jewish congregation & oldest synagogue fight over sale of Torah finial bells

Synagogue sells Colonial-era bells to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts for $7.4m but congregation says both the synagogue & bells belongs to them.

 

Mediation has failed in lawsuits between the oldest U.S. synagogue and the country’s first Jewish congregation over ownership issues.

The Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island

The Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. – Photo: Swampyank at en.wikipedia

Lawyers for the leaders of New York City’s Congregation Shearith Israel and Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island tell The Associated Press they were unable to agree during mediation overseen by a federal judge. The lawsuits will now move forward.

The dispute started after leaders at Touro agreed to sell a set of Colonial-era Torah finial bells for $7.4 million to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. Continue Reading »

Dispite Public Outcries Abbas & Kerry Knew in Advance of Israel’s Building Plans

 

US Secretary of State admitted in a press conference in Brazil, that from the very start, Netanyahu had been “completely up front” about Israel’s building plans.

By Ari Soffer

 

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry revealed Tuesday that he and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas were fully aware that the Israeli government intended to continue building in parts of Judea and Samaria which “will not affect the peace map” when the decision was made to restart talks.

Kerry and Abbas – AFP photo

As such, despite the “outcry” by the Palestinian Authority, Abbas is still committed to talks with Israel over the next nine months, he said. Continue Reading »

Kerry warned Israel faces demonization campaign ‘on steroids’ should talks fail

 

 

 

Columnist Jeffery Goldberg criticizes Netanyahu’s ‘self-destructive West Bank settlement policy’.

He also claims Kerry believes Prime Minister is afraid of int’l isolation, telling him that if peace-talks fail, Israel would face a demonization campaign ‘on steroids’.

By Ynet

In a new article, Bloomberg columnist Jeffery Goldberg claims that despite Israel’s West Bank settlement construction, US Secretary of State John Kerry managed to grab Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s attention by highlighting growing isolation Israel would face should peace talks fail.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - Photo: AP

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – Photo: AP

In his op-ed, Goldberg slammed Israel’s self-destructive” West Bank construction” and quoted a source close to negotiations as claiming Kerry believes Netanyahu fears delegitimization as much as he fears the Iranian threat and wants nothing but to remain in power. Continue Reading »