Gov’t agency ready to build 10,000 new homes

Housing Minister Uri Ariel, urges Netanyahu to solve housing crisis by approving the 10,000 units planned over the pre-1967 lines.

 

 

 

Plans for 10,000 homes over the pre-1967 lines were ready to be marketed in Jerusalem and West Bank settlements, the Minister for Construction and Housing Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) said on Wednesday as he called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to solve his housing crisis by approving the projects.

File:East Jerusalem.jpg

East Jerusalem – Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

 

“We have the ability to market 10,000 housing units in [east] Jerusalem and the settlement blocks in Judea and Samaria,” Ariel told the Knesset Finance Committee during a meeting on the housing budget for 2013-2014.

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Hundreds of ancient Jewish tombstones discovered in Vienna

Community leaders says trove of Jewish tombstones date back to 16th century.

Vienna city officials estimate up to 800 headstones.

Vienna’s Jewish community says a historically important trove of hundreds of ancient Jewish tombstones have been recently unearthed, including some dating back to the 16th century.

Tombstones at a small Jewish Cemetery in Vienna, Austria, July 10, 2013.

Tombstones at a small Jewish Cemetery in Vienna, Austria, July 10, 2013. – Photo: AP

Senior Jewish community official Raimund Fastenbauer said Wednesday that the headstones have “high historical value.” He describes their significance as comparable to that of the ancient Jewish cemetery in Prague, the oldest known graveyard of its kind and one of the Czech capital’s most visited tourist sites. Continue Reading »

Pro-Palestinians Threatened to Kill Paul McCartney if he Played in Israel

When Artists announce they’re going to perform in Israel, they aren’t worried about selling tickets as they are about their personal safety, because then they are targeted by BDS groups.

By David Lev

 

When rock legend Paul McCartney came to Israel in 2008, he was, at least to some extent, taking his life in his hands. Not because of Israel’s sometimes precarious security situation, but because he was threatened by BDS (boycott, divest, and sanction) anti-Israel groups. “I got death threats, but I’m coming anyway,” the singer was quoted as saying by Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs researcher Adam Shay. Continue Reading »

Like Gaza & Iran, the Egyptian Islamists abused their power

 

Analysis: Israeli media expert reports on how Western-style democracy does not always work in an Arab Muslim state.

By Uri Dromi

 

 

Once again, the American administration finds itself in the situation where it doesn’t really know exactly how to deal with an enigmatic Middle East. This time, it’s Egypt that is teaching Americans how complex this turbulent region is.

Islamists in Egypt abused their power

Islamists in Egypt abused their power – Israel Today

 

From the standpoint of Washington, something good must have happened in Egypt in the last two years. After decades of dictatorship, it seemed that democracy had eventually prevailed. The many Egyptians who took to Tahrir Square in January 2011 chanting, “Enough is enough,” finally got , in the eternal words of President Lincoln, “a government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Continue Reading »

Netanyahu shows FIFA President how Hamas shot rockets from soccer fields

 

View video clip of Prime Minister Netanyahu showing FIFA President Sepp Blatter enlarged aerial photographs of FIFA built soccer stadium in the Gaza Strip and how it was used by Hamas to launch rockets at Israeli cities.

By The Associated Press & Israel Hayom Staff

FIFA President Sepp Blatter says Israel has promised to help solve one of Palestinian soccer’s biggest problems: Traveling into and out of the Palestinian territories.

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Egyptian Sphinx Discovered in Northern Israel

Archaeologists discovered a sphinx which bears a dedication to the Egyptian ruler Mycerinus, who ruled circa 2500 BCE & built one of the 3 Pyramids at Giza.

By JTA

 

Archaeologists in northern Israel discovered an Egyptian sphinx thought to date back at least three millennia.

Sphinx, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY - Photo courtesy to Wikimedia Commons

Sphinx, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY – Photo courtesy to Wikimedia Commons

The sphinx was unearthed Tuesday, according to the French news agency AFP, and bears a dedication to the Egyptian ruler Mycerinus, who ruled circa 2500 BCE and built one of the three Pyramids at Giza. Researchers estimate that the sphinx arrived at its location in the town of Tel Hazor in around 1500 BCE as a gift from a later ruler. Continue Reading »

Did Mossad snatch Gazan from Egypt to be arrested in Israel?

 

Did Mossad arrest Palestinian terror suspect in Egypt a month ago? News of his arrest was only just cleared for publication when Court extended Abu Rida’s remand for still unknown alleged security offenses.

By REUTERS
 

 

A gag order was eased on Wednesday confirming the detention of Wael Abu Rida, a Palestinian man from the Gaza Strip suspected of as-yet unpublishable alleged security offenses.

Wife of Palestinian Wael Abu Rida holding his picture.

Wife of Palestinian Wael Abu Rida holding his picture. – Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Abu Rida, 35, vanished while visiting Egypt last month. His family and Israeli lawyer told Reuters that they did not know how he ended up in Israel.

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New Haredi ‘tourist spot’: IKEA’s summer sale

 

Ultra-Orthodox institutions offer special stop after trips to burial places of biblical figures and rabbis’ tombs, to the Swedish home furnishing store in Rishon Lezion.

By Moshe Heller

Home furnishing stores in Jerusalem’s Mea Shearim neighborhood are in for some bad news: Ultra-Orthodox institutions have begun offering special trips to IKEA’s summer sale in the central city of Rishon Lezion.

File:903. Ikea Israel near Nethanya.jpg

IKEA in Israel – Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

A local bus company recently organized a trip from Beit Shemesh to Rachel’s Tomb, the Western Wall and the IKEA store in Rishon Lezion, which is in the midst of its summer sale. Continue Reading »

FOUND: Remains of rocket fired from Egypt last week

The rocket attack last Thursday had been the 1st to hit near Israel’s southern tourist city since a similar attack back in April.

By Reuters

 

 

Israeli troops found the remains on Tuesday of the first rocket to be fired from Egypt since the July 3 overthrow of the Islamist government there, a military official said.

A rockets fired at Eilat in April.

A rockets fired at Eilat in April. – Photo courtesy: Eilat Police

 

Both Israelis and Egyptians reported hearing several explosions in the southern city of Eilat on Thursday, the day after President Mohammed Morsi was toppled from power in Egypt.

Israel detected no signs of any cross-border shooting, but found the remains of a rocket on Tuesday, an official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Continue Reading »

FOUND: Earliest alphabetical written text ever uncovered in Jerusalem near Temple Mount

Hebrew University Archaeologist: This is the earliest alphabetical written text ever discovered anywhere in Jerusalem.

By Gil Ronen

 

Working near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar has unearthed the earliest alphabetical written text ever uncovered in the city.

The shard- Courtesy of Dr. Eilat Mazar – Photo: Noga Cohen-Aloro

 

The inscription is engraved on a large pithos, a neckless ceramic jar found with six others at the Ophel excavation site. According to Dr. Mazar, the inscription, in the Canaanite language, is the only one of its kind discovered in Jerusalem and an important addition to the city’s history. Continue Reading »

New Christian Arab party recognizes Israel as the home of the Jewish people

“The New Alliance” supports national service, entering the IDF & recognizes Israel as the home of the Jewish people.

“We are completely Israeli, and then comes religion,” says party founder Bashara Shlayan of Nazareth.

By Dror Eydar

 

The events in the Middle East have unleashed deep sociological and ideological processes, of which we are only seeing the beginning. It is not only political Islam in the eye of the media storm. Throughout the various Arab countries in the region, the bruised and battered Christian community is raising its voice. Israel appears to be the only country in the region whose Christian community does not have a negative emigration ratio as its members flee West in pursuit of a more promising life.

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ICC looks into war-crimes lawsuit against Israel

The Int’l Criminal Court prosecutor said  that she would open a preliminary examination into the Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound flotilla, which left 9 Turkish peace activists dead.

By JTA

 

 

The president of the International Criminal Court has taken the first steps toward an investigation of a war crimes lawsuit against Israel over the 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara.

Original Photo Published by Hurriyet

Original Photo Published by Hurriyet shows hand holding knife above stabbed and bloody IDF soldier.

Sang-Hyun Song of South Korea appointed a three-judge panel to study the procedural requirements for the suit. The appointment puts in place the legal apparatus for an investigation but does not actually launch a probe, The Associated Press reported.

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Haredi attack on Haredi soldier in Jerusalem summons political outrage

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned the attack, vowing to “take a hard stand against those who attempt to strike fear in citizens fulfilling their duty to the state.”

 

 

A haredi soldier was attacked by dozens of haredi men on Tuesday night in the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea She’arim.

Haredi combat soldiers – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem

Haredi combat soldiers – Photo: Marc Israel Sellem

According to the police, at approximately 7:30 p.m., the soldier, who was in uniform, was surrounded and threatened by approximately 100 haredi men on Gimzo Street in the heart of Mea She’arim, but managed to flee to a nearby building and alert the police.

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Canadian and European activists instigating another flotilla from Gaza

Gazans & outside activists plan to sail to Europe in September from Gaza carrying local produce.

 

Organizers say flotilla’s goal is to raise awareness on Gaza naval blockade. 

By Ahiya Raved

Canadian and European activists staying in Gaza are planning to launch a flotilla which will carry Gazan produce and textiles from the strip to Europe. The vessel, currently a fishing boat, is being converted to a cargo ship, and organizers are planning to set sails in the near future.

תעשה את כל הדרך מעזה לאירופה? ספינת הפעילים

Converted to cargo ship

The project’s goal, the activists say, is to raise public awareness to the strife of the maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip. Continue Reading »

Israeli Company Finds Way To Treat ‘Lazy Eye’ In Children

A more comfortable solution, far less stressful on the children & it’s also quite cool.

 

 

For children suffering from amblyopia (“Lazy Eye”) treatment options are limited. They can either wear an eye patch all day or apply stinging atropine drops each morning.

Amblyz - The Cool Way To Treat 'Lazy Eye'Israeli company XPAND has a solution that is not only more comfortable – it’s also quite cool.

XPAND’s product, the Amblyz eyeglasses, works on the same principle as other methods of treatments: obstructing the stronger eye in order to “force” the weaker eye to develop.

The glasses obstruct the strong eye in automatic, intermittent intervals using an electronic shutter attached to one of the lenses, creating a black lens. Continue Reading »