Panetta: Military option against Iran ready and available

US secretary of defense tells ABC news neither Washington nor international community will allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, adds preference for diplomacy over military intervention.

 

The military option against Iran is ready and available, US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said on Sunday in an interview with ABC News’ This Week.

“The fundamental premise is that neither the United States nor the international community is going to allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon,” Panetta said. “We will do everything we can to prevent them from developing a weapon.”

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta [file] - Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta - Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing

Panetta referenced recent comments made earlier this month by US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro that Washington has a military contingency plan, should diplomatic talks fail to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear program. Continue Reading »

Spain: If you restore it, Israelis will come

Seeking to attract more Israeli tourists, Spain is investing tens of millions of euros in restoring ancient synagogues and Jewish cultural sites. Yes, including a revival of kosher cuisine

 

Despite the economic crisis and the new austerity measures affecting Spain recently, more than a few of the country’s local authorities are ready and willing to allot funds for the restoration of the country’s Jewish past. With good reason – Spain has seen a consistent rise in the number of Jewish and Israeli visitors in recent years.

A busy plaza in Barcelona Photo: Gili Sofer

A busy plaza in Barcelona Photo: Gili Sofer

An article published recently in the Spanish newspaper “La Vanguardia” indicated that in six years, Israeli tourists have increased their spending in Barcelona by a factor of four. Continue Reading »

No gaps exist between the U.S. and Israel on Iran nuclear program, says official

Senior official involved in Baghdad talks says U.S. is pressuring Iran because it perceives it as a real threat to world security, not because of Israeli pressure.

 

“There are no gaps between the U.S. and Israel in anything related to talks between Iran and the six world powers over the future of Iran’s nuclear program,” a U.S. official told journalists during a briefing in Tel Aviv.

The U.S. official, who is intimately acquainted with the P5 + 1 talks which took place in Baghdad last week, asked to remain anonymous owing to the sensitive nature of the issue.

According to the official, the U.S. Continue Reading »

Carter: Egypt’s Brotherhood would keep Israel treaty‎

Former US president says Muslim Brotherhood has no intention of reneging on 33-year-old peace treaty with Israel

 

The Muslim Brotherhood may seek to modify, but will not annul Egypt’s 33-year-old peace treaty with Israel, former US President Jimmy Carter said on Saturday.

Carter, 87, was speaking after initial vote tallies put the Brotherhood’s candidate ahead in the first round of Egypt’s presidential election, which his Carter Center helped monitor.

The US statesman, who brought together Israeli leader Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat in 1978 to agree the Camp David accords which led to a 1979 treaty, said he had held long discussions with senior Brotherhood figures in Egypt this week. Continue Reading »

U.S. study: Iran has enough uranium for five nuclear bombs

ISIS analysis, based on IAEA report, finds Iran has significantly stepped up output of low-enriched uranium in the last five years; Iran reportedly downplays IAEA report.

 

Iran has significantly stepped up its output of low-enriched uranium and total production in the last five years would be enough for at least five nuclear weapons if refined much further, a U.S. security institute said.

The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a think-tank which tracks Iran’s nuclear programme closely, based the analysis on data in the latest report by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which was issued on Friday. Continue Reading »

Chag Sameach: The Torah’s Holiday Starts Saturday Night

The Jewish holiday of Shavuot will begin on Saturday night. Thousands will stream to the Western Wall.

 

The Jewish holiday of Shavuot is set to begin Saturday night adjoining the Sabbath – lasting for its one Biblical day (from sunset to the next sunset) in Israel, and two days in the rest of the world.

Shavuot (Pentecost, Feast of Weeks), as well as Pesach (Passover) and Sukkot (Tabernacles), are the three pilgrimage festivals on which Jews are bidden to visit Jerusalem. Tens of thousands of people are in fact expected to arrive at the Western Wall throughout Saturday night and Sunday morning, though the Biblical commandment to visit Jerusalem on these days applies fully only when the Holy Temple is built. Continue Reading »

Arab World: Warning signs in Lebanon

The spillover from the violence in Syria has escalated and grown more complex.

The situation in Tripoli in northern Lebanon is now calm after several days of fierce fighting. The clashes pitted Alawi supporters of the Assad regime in Syria against Sunni Islamist partisans of the rebellion against his rule. At least 11 people were killed in three days of violence. A few days after the Tripoli incidents, clashes also took place between pro and anti-Assad Sunnis in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

This followed the death, in unclear circumstances, of anti-regime cleric Sheikh Ahmed Abdul- Wahid at a Lebanese Army checkpoint in the north.

Continue Reading »

Israel’s Arava power to build 8 solar fields

Company secures $204 million in funding, largest financial closing in history of Israel’s solar power industry

 

Israel’s Arava Power said on Tuesday it secured 780 million shekels ($204 million) in funding to build eight medium-sized solar energy fields – the largest financial closing in the country’s solar power industry.

A solar facility in the Arava Photo: Yossi Dos-Santos

A solar facility in the Arava - Photo: Yossi Dos-Santos

Much of Israelis covered by desert with favorable conditions for harnessing the sun’s energy, and while Israeli firms have developed a number of pioneering technologies used around the world, the country has yet to invest heavily in solar fields at home. Continue Reading »

U.S. Senate unanimously approves E-2 visas for Israeli investors

Backers say passage of bill will spur job creation and economic growth.

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill allowing Israeli investors to reside there to oversee their businesses in the country, which backers say will spur job creation and economic growth.

The bill had unanimously passed the U.S. House of Representatives on March 19 and now heads to U.S. President Barack Obama for his signature.

U.S. Senate, 111th Congress.

U.S. Senate, 111th Congress. - Photo by Senate Photo Studio

 

The measure added Israel to the list of countries eligible for E-2 investor visas. Once signed into law by Obama, as expected, the bill will put Israel on a list with more than 79 other countries whose citizens are eligible for the visas. Continue Reading »

Nasrallah: Fences Won’t Ensure Israel’s Existence

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatens Israel (from his hiding place) as Lebanon marks 12 years since Israel withdrew its troops.

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel on Friday, saying the Jewish State is hiding behind walls and fences and that these cannot ensure its future existence.

Nasrallah addresses supporters via video in Bint Jbeil

Nasrallah addresses supporters via video in Bint Jbeil - Reuters

Nasrallah made the comments during a video speech which was broadcast during a rally in the Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, marking 12 years since Israel withdrew its troops from Lebanon.

“The Israelis withdrew from southern Lebanon, began to build a fence in the West Bank, and now they are talking about building a fence along the border with Egypt or building a fence along the border with Jordan,” Channel 2 News quoted Nasrallah as having said in the speech, which was recorded from his hiding place. Continue Reading »

US: Woman fired by haredim for being ‘too busty’

NJ resident Lauren Odes says ultra-Orthodox employers at lingerie warehouse fired her due to breast size, ‘provocative clothing’

 

A New Jersey woman said on Monday that she was dismissed from a temporary job at a New York lingerie warehouse because her male employers felt she was too busty and dressed too provocatively for the workplace.

Wearing a form-fitting sequined black dress and black leather, sequin-studded boots, Lauren Odes, 29, said her Orthodox Jewish employers at Native Intimates told her that outfit and others like it were “too hot” for the warehouse.

“We should not be judged by the size of our breasts or the shape of our body,” Odes said. Continue Reading »

Germany’s medical association apologizes over Nazi-era experiments

Association issues official apology over experiments on concentration camp inmates, as well as doctors’ roles in sterilization, euthanasia programs.

Germany’s medical association earlier this week adopted a declaration apologizing for experiments and other actions of doctors under the Nazi regime.

In the statement in Nuremberg, the association said many doctors under the Nazis were “guilty, contrary to their mission to heal, of scores of human rights violations and we ask the forgiveness of their victims, living and deceased, and of their descendants.”

SS officers outside of Auschwitz. Richard Baer, Dr. Josef Mengele, Josef Kramer and Rudolf Hoess.

Germany's medical association earlier this week adopted a declaration apologizing for experiments and other actions of doctors under the Nazi regime.

Continue Reading »

US Senate Redefines ‘Palestinian Refugee’

The State Department and Jordan are unhappy that US lawmakers want to know how many “Palestinian refugees” actually lived in Israel in 1948

 

The US State Department and Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan are trying to block a Senate bill that would require an accurate accounting of how many ‘Palestinian refugees’ receive American aid dollars.

Deheishe "refugee camp" in Bethlehem

Deheishe "refugee camp" in Bethlehem - Reuters

The push came after the US Senate Appropriations Committee approved on Thursday language that would distinguish between Arabs who fled Israel in 1948 and their descendants.

The new language, introduced by Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), seeks to distinguish between those “whose place of residence was Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948 and who were displaced as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict; and who are descendants” of those people. Continue Reading »

Guardian Downplays Jewish Connection To Temple Mount

The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent’s whitewashing of the significance of the Temple Mount to Jews echoes some of the worst propaganda by Palestinians seeking to discredit the notion that Jews have any historical ties to the area.

Jerusalem, as any bog-standard tourist guide will tell you, is revered as holy by adherents of three major faiths – Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Visitors to Israel’s capital are often struck by the sheer religiosity of the place, with the city looming so large in the collective consciousness that some people even come down with ‘Jerusalem Syndrome’ (note: a recognised medical condition) and believe themselves to be the reincarnation of some Biblical figure or other. Continue Reading »

Swastikas sprayed on ancient synagogue near Jericho

Worshippers discover Palestinian flags, ‘Palestine is ours’ slogans in synagogue in Naaran

 

Swastikas, Palestinian flags and “Palestine is ours” slogans were spray-painted on the ancient synagogue in Naaran near Jericho overnight.

Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein condemned the act and remarked it was no wonder the Palestinians desecrate an ancient synagogue “after destroying and desecrating Temple Mount remnants.”

The Minister added, “The incident reaffirms the belief that Jewish holy sites must be under Israel’s sovereignty.”

"הזדעזעתי לראות את ההרס הזה". בית הכנסת בנערן, הבוקר

Desecrated synagogue in Naaran

The ancient synagogue in Naaran was built in the Sixth Century and attracts both worshippers and pilgrims. The compound contains an ancient mosaic and archeological treasures. Continue Reading »