Yemen charges Israeli with espionage

Yemeni official claims man arrested in December had made contact with Israeli security agencies and that such communications were found on his laptop.

By The Associated Press

 

Yemeni security officials said an Israeli who holds Yemeni citizenship will face trial on charges of espionage.

laptop illustrative: Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

laptop illustrative: Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

There were few details of the case. The officials said Thursday the man, in his 30s, was arrested in the southern city of Taiz in late December and accused of spying for Israel. He was transferred to a prison to the port city of Aden this week before his trial. Continue Reading »

Fatah supporters in Gaza rally for 1st time in years

Several of Abbas’ senior advisers attended parade marking 48 years since the secular Fatah’s founding as the leader of the Palestinians’ fight against Israel.

By Reuters

 

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians joined a rare rally staged by President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah group in Gaza on Friday, as tensions ease with rival Hamas Islamists ruling the enclave since 2007.

Fatah supporters wave flags during a rally marking the 48th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah

Fatah supporters waving flags during a rally marking the 48th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement in the West Bank town of Bethlehem December 31, 2012. Photo by Reuters

A long hiatus in peace talks between Abbas’s administration and Israel has narrowed ideological differences between the two main Palestinian factions. Continue Reading »

Defiant Morsi on TV: No Negotiations with ‘Descendants of Apes’

MEMRI reveals Egypt’s presidential candidate Morsi rejected negotiations between Israel and the PA.

By Elad Benari

 

Long before he was elected as Egypt’s president, Mohammed Morsi rejected negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and referred to Jews as “apes and pigs”.

Mohammed Morsi

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has translated and uploaded comments by Morsi, a member of Hamas’s parent movement the Muslim Brotherhood, which he made in 2010 and were posted to the internet. In the comments, Morsi also called to boycott products made in the United States because of its support for Israel.

“These futile [Israeli-Palestinian] negotiations are a waste of time and opportunities,” Morsi is shown saying. Continue Reading »

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 »

Kocaman reports: Suicide Bombers Are Spreading False Islam

The problem is this : People who do not know their own religion are being diverted toward nonsense. And unless they learn their own religion and the true love in the Koran, there will continue to be suicide bombers and those who honor them.

By Aylin Kocaman

In October, the Palestine Committee of the Arab Lawyers Union honored a suicide bomber. A law student who entered a restaurant in Israel in 2003 and blew herself up, killing herself and 21 people, was honored by the lawyers’ union. The 21 people she killed included a pregnant woman and three children.

This honor is thought-provoking.

Continue Reading »

Israel & Germany to fund Jerusalem brain research center

Hebrew University of Jerusalem & the Max Planck Society agree to build a new brain research center to serve as top teaching and research facility in the field.

 

 

A brain research center costing 3 million euro during its first five years of existence will be established by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Max Planck Society, an independent non-governmental and nonprofit association of German research institutes publicly funded by Germany’s federal and state governments.

It will be established on the the university’s Givat Ram campus in the capital, where the signing ceremony will be held on January 9.

Continue Reading »

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 »

Nasrallah: Syrian Civil War Could Partition Lebanon

Hizbullah chief blames the West, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, & Turkey, for the influx of  thousands of Syrian refugees into Lebanon.

By Gil Ronen

 

Hizbullah head Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday against “schemes of division and partition along sectarian and ethnic lines” in-war torn Syria and the entire region.

A campsite in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley

A campsite in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley – AFP/File

A key ally of the embattled Syrian regime, Nasrallah made a televised appearance via video link and proclaimed: “We hereby underscore our rejection of any plan for partitioning or dividing any Arab or Islamic country in the entire Middle East region.

“We hereby confirm our commitment to the unity of Lebanon as a people, a nation and institutions,” he said, adding that “Lebanon is too small to be divided or partitioned.” Continue Reading »

Apple seeking to acquire Israeli application Waze

 

Apple is in talks to buy the Israeli mapping & navigation application Waze for up to $500 million.

Technology industry sources say Waze is worth closer to $1 billion, but neither Waze nor Apple are commenting on reported negotiations.

Ilan Gattegno

 

 

Computer giant Apple is apparently involved in initial talks to acquire the Israeli mapping and navigation application Waze for between $400 million and $500 million.

Waze to go: The company may soon become part of the Apple empire.

Technology industry sources estimate that Waze is worth around $1 billion, meaning that it is likely Waze would try to get Apple to increase its offer.

Continue Reading »

IDF arrest raid in Jenin turns into riot

Attempt by IDF to arrest wanted militant in Jenin leads to some 500 Palestinians rioting in the streets hurling firebombs, rocks & burning tires.

IDF dog bites Palestinian woman & 23-year-old shot in leg

By Gili Cohen and

 

An Israel Defense forces arrest raid in the West Bank early Thursday turned into a violent confrontation with local Palestinians, for the second time this week.

Border Police officers entered the Jenin refugee camp before dawn to arrest a wanted Palestinian militant suspected of involvement in terrorist activities.

Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers in West Bank village of Tamoun

Palestinians throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers in West Bank village of Tamoun – Photo: AP

A demonstration broke out during the raid, the IDF said, with some 500 Palestinians hurling stones, firebombs, and burning tires in the streets. Continue Reading »

BGU Study: Hamas Rockets Worse on Bedouin Youth Than Jewish Youth

A Ben-Gurion University study shows Bedouin kids were more psychologically distressed than Jewish kids by the rocket fire during Operation Pillar of Defense

By David Lev

 

Bedouin youth were angrier and more psychologically distressed than their Jewish counterparts by the rocket fire in November, according to a new Ben-Gurion University of the Negev study. It is the first follow-up study after the two weeks of rocket fire and subsequent Operation Pillar of Defense.

Prof. Shifra Sagy, Dr. Sarah Abu-Kaf and Dr. Orna Braun-Lewensohn of the Conflict Management and Resolution Program interviewed 78 Jewish youths and 91 Bedouin youths from the South of Israel about their reaction to the barrage of rockets fired at the South by Hamas in Gaza. Continue Reading »

FIFA cries foul over Israel’s red card of ex-terrorist turned sports head

 

FIFA, football’s global body asks Israel Football Association to help secure Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub’s “freedom of movement”.

Israeli defense official explains that Rajoub’s status was changed because he “incited to violence against Israel.”

By The Associated Press

 

 

The Federation of International Football Associations, the Zurich-based global soccer governing body, is asking Israel to return VIP status to Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub and allow him to enter Israel without security checks.

Political football: Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub. – Photo: AP

FIFA said Wednesday that it had asked the Israeli Football Association to help secure Rajoub’s “freedom of movement.”

Continue Reading »

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 »

Bulgaria police ID bombing accomplice of July’s Burgas tourist-bus

Bulgarian authorities are seeking man who helped suicide bomber cause the deaths of 5 Israeli tourists in July, Bulgarian media reports.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Bulgarian authorities have discovered the real identity of one of several men involved in the July bombing of a bus in the city of Burgas, in which five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed, Bulgarian news agency Novinite reported on Thursday. This marks the first instance of a real identity being discovered in the case. The bomber and an additional accomplice are thus far known by their aliases only.

Burgas accomplice – Photo: Courtesy Bulgaria Foriegn Ministry

Bulgarian authorities were searching for the suspected accomplice to the bomber, whose name they did not release.

Continue Reading »

Mideast Christian persecution

Analysis: The process of Islamization has become an assault on the region’s Christian communities

By Professor Yossi Shain

 

The Middle East’s Christian population has been gradually dwindling and is on the defensive with respect to its identity – and even its very existence. In the early 20th century Christians made up some 20% of the Middle East’s population. Today they amount to less than 5% of the population.

Coptic Christian church in Egypt – Photo: Ido Becker

The reasons for the Christians’ crisis in our region are related to their success as a modern group with low growth rate and free immigration to Western countries. Continue Reading »