US c’tee moves to control Egypt, PA money

Palestinians would see funding withheld if they made any agreement with Hamas, didn’t actively work to end incitement.

WASHINGTON – A congressional subcommittee approved a foreign aid budget tightening control over money to Egypt and the Palestinians Wednesday following some members’ concern over developments in the region.

The House foreign operations appropriations subcommittee passed by voice vote the $40.1 billion foreign operations budget for 2013, which includes fully funding the $3.1b. US commitment to Israeli military assistance as part of the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries.

US Congress - Photo by REUTERS
US Congress – Photo by REUTERS
However, the legislation cut funding for UNESCO, after the UN body voted to recognize Palestine as a member state.
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Essay by Giulio Meotti: World’s checkpoint hypocrisy

Op-ed: While fences exist worldwide, only Israel’s life-saving barriers face harsh condemnations

Today there are some 50 barriers and fences in the world. Bill Clinton, who came to power promising “a bridge to the 21st century,” gave the US the wall with Mexico; Spain built fences to keep out Moroccans; India is walling off Kashmir and Bangladesh; South and North Korea share the most heavily fortified border in the world.

Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia has an epic wall project; the glitz, wealthy Arab sheikhdoms are closing the border with dirt-poor Oman; Russia is considering walling off Chechnya; Western Sahara has “the Wall of Shame”; Cyprus is entirely divided by walls; Belfast is a fenced city of brick, iron and steel barriers, and even the ultra-liberal Netherlands built a fence around the Hook of Holland. Continue Reading »

Claire Danes arrives in Israel to film second season of Homeland

Danes and Mandy Patinkin arrive in Israel on Wednesday, ahead of scheduled filming; acclaimed Showtime series is based on Israel’s ‘Hatufim.’

 

Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin, the stars of the Showtime series Homeland, arrived in Israel on Wednesday, where the hit show will film parts of its second season.

Claire Danes

Claire Danes

The Showtime series is based on an Israeli television series called “Hatufim” (Kidnapped), which chronicles the lives of IDF soldiers held in enemy captivity.

In it, Claire Danes plays a CIA operations officer who follows a U.S. Marine suspected of spying for al-Qaida.

The show’s first season earned glowing reviews from critics.

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Israeli Scientists Breakthrough in Treating Auto-Immune Diseases

A team of Israeli scientists may have achieved a breakthrough in treating autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn’s, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis.

A team of Israeli scientists from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot may have achieved a breakthrough in treating autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn’s, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue rather than invading germs.

Weizmann Institute in Rehovot

The scientists managed to “trick” the immune systems of mice into targeting an enzyme known as MMP-9, one of a family of proteins essential for processes including healing wounds. When the enzyme gets out of control, however, MMP-9 facilitates autoimmune diseases as well as the spread of cancer. Continue Reading »

For universal draft lawmakers, challenge will be getting buy-in

A large Zionist-majority coalition is in place and Kadima is eager for an achievement to take to the polls. But getting the ultra-Orthodox to sign on may prove an enigma worthy of the Talmud

Ultra-Orthodox leaders say any new bill attempting to impose a mass military or national service draft upon their community will fail, even though such a measure is a centerpiece of the new Knesset unity deal between the Kadima and Likud parties.

A legislative group headed by Kadima will draft the new national service law by the end of July, which will replace the current law, known as the Tal Law, which allows for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to obtain deferments. Continue Reading »

UN seeks upgrades for Palestinian refugee camps

UN says the time has come to add more permanent structures for the growing populations of camp residents.

 

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Three generations of Palestinians displaced by the founding of Israel in 1948 know only life in UN refugee camps, going to schools beneath the blue-and-white UN flag and drawing their food stocks from UN warehouses.

UNRWA
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees

For these Palestinians whose long-cherished goal is “right of return” to the lands they lost 64 years ago, the camps must be seen as temporary no matter how permanent they might seem to others.

Which explains why the latest program by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) to upgrade the camps’ dilapidated facilities is such a delicate operation.

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Palestinian Airlines renews operations

Seven years after being grounded by Israeli offensive, airline is back in business with weekly flight to Amman

 

Seven years after grounding is planes, Palestinian Airlines was back in business on Wednesday, with an inaugural flight that travelled between the Egyptian town of Arish and Jordan’s capital, Amman.

Illustration Photo

Illustration Photo

The renewal of the air carrier’s business was facilitated by an agreement reached between the Palestinian Transportation Ministry and the authorities in Egypt and Jordan.

The company was founded in 1995, and operated flights that shuttled travelers between the Dahania Airport in Rafah and various destinations in the Middle East and North Africa. Continue Reading »

New Hamas force in Gaza is foiling rocket attacks against Israel

The new 300 men anti-rocket force operates day and night, but will not act if Israel is the first to strike.

 

The Hamas government in Gaza has been operating a force over the past few months whose sole task is to prevent the firing of rockets into Israel.

Palestinians from Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements rallying in Gaza City, Friday, April 27, 2012.

Palestinians from Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements rallying in Gaza City - Photo by AP

Hamas, which has always championed jihad against Israel, is now using its authority to foil the firing efforts of cells from other organizations such as the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees.

The new force was formed by and is under the direct command of Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad, who in the past has been considered an extremist in regard to Israel.

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Israel’s Proven Gas Revenues: NIS 20b

This year’s state financial report includes an estimate of Israel’s rights to oil and gas discovery revenues. Amount: NIS 20.3 billion.

This year’s state financial report includes for the first time an estimate of Israel’s rights to revenues from oil and gas discoveries. Amount: NIS 20.3 billion. The estimate, made by the office of the Accountant General at the Ministry of Finance, is based on proven oil and gas discoveries.

Gas Pipeline

Gas Pipeline - photo by Reuters

These include the well at the Tamar gas field in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, but do not include the more recent Leviathan drill site, since that well is not defined as a discovery. Continue Reading »

Turkey Bails Out Iran with Gold

Turkey is bailing out Iran and Arab Spring countries with huge amounts of gold exports that have boosted its trade balance.

 

Turkey is bailing out Iran and Arab Spring countries with huge amounts of gold exports that have boosted its trade balance.

 A local gold trader shows two pieces of gold weighing 500 grams (1.1 pounds)

A local gold trader shows two pieces of gold weighing 500 grams (1.1 pounds) - Reuters

Iran and countries facing Arab Spring rebellions have bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold from Turkey as they try to protect their wealth from depreciating currencies. The Iranian rial has plummeted following tighter sanctions posed by the United States. Continue Reading »

Essay By Caroline Glick: War with Egypt approaches (with video)

War with Egypt approaches

One of the achievements of his government that Prime Minister Netanyahu took pride in during a recent speech was the tall fence we’re building along the 220KM border with Egypt. Only problem is that from the video below, it is pretty clear that we might want to have a clear path to the Sinai so that we can preempt the millions of Egyptians that are planning on marching to Jerusalem.
Caroline Glick, Blog Photo

I have said for years that our defensive strategy has got to stop being based on defensive military systems.

Our enemies are on the march. We must embrace the only military doctrine that has ever really worked — preempt them by initiating the war on their territory.

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No. 1 song in the world — in Hebrew

Israeli band Roi Lavi & the Good Guys covers the Gotye smash ‘Somebody That I Used To Know’

In case you haven’t heard it enough times in English, it’s now possible to listen to the world’s No. 1 song in Hebrew.

Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know,” which has topped the charts in nearly 20 countries, has been re-recorded by an Israeli band called Roi Lavi & the Good Guys, attracting over 115,000 YouTube hits as of this posting.

 

Click to Play

Click to Play

Featuring rewritten lyrics and a singer wearing a yarmulke, the new “Somebody” follows a rendition performed on “Glee,” not to mention an ever-growing set of additional covers and remixes. Continue Reading »

PM to Ashton: Iran must halt all uranium enrichment

Netanyahu meets with EU foreign policy chief along with FM, Barak, and newly-minted Vice Premier Mofaz ahead of upcoming round of nuclear talks between the P5+1 and Tehran.

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday told EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton that Iran must halt all uranium enrichment, after Iran preemptively rejected the EU’s own request to do so.

During the meeting, in which the prime minister and Ashton discussed the new round of upcoming talks between Western nations and Iran, Netanyahu also requested that Iran remove all enriched uranium currently in its territory, and cease work at the Fordow nuclear facility, which is located deep inside a mountain near the holy city of Qom. Continue Reading »

Finance Minister Steinitz: 44,300 new jobs created in March

Finance Minister presents government with data that some 44,300 new job opportunities opened in March, could Indicate period of economic growth

 

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz on Monday presented the government with data that stated that some 44,300 new job opportunities opened in March. This after the number of jobs on the market decreased by 16,200 in February.

According to the minister, some 270,000 new jobs were created over the past three years. He added that it was possible to see that over the last few years the Israeli market was creating jobs at a higher rate than the rate of employees joining the market, which may indicate that the drop in unemployment in Israel comes as a result of growth rather than a low percentage of participation in the workforce. Continue Reading »

Like Ariel Sharon, Netanyahu has been pushed to the center

Finally we have a government representing the Israeli majority, a government that no niche party can extort. Finally we have a government with a clear Zionist majority.

 

There’s one thing Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t like being, and that’s a Thanksgiving stuffed turkey. On Sunday night, at the Likud convention, Netanyahu started to feel like a stuffed turkey. The disruption by the right-wing lunatic fringe at the central event of the ruling party made the prime minister realize what he should have understood long ago: Likud has lost its mind.

And since Likud has lost its mind there was a real danger that it would do poorly in an election and he would be unable to put together a strong government afterward. Continue Reading »