Monday, October 14, 2013
The Diplomatic Bonus of Gaza's Offshore Natural Gas
Despite its location, the field belongs to the PA rather than the Hamas regime in Gaza. It was discovered by a British company, BG (formerly British Gas), which continues to hold the license. The PA, seeking a greater share of the revenues, is now negotiating a revised concession agreement with BG and another investor, Consolidated Contractors Company, a Palestinian-owned, Greek-based engineering group. Israeli acquiescence is needed for security reasons, since the gas lies in an area patrolled by the Israeli navy. Yet former prime minister Ehud Barak conceded ownership of the field to the Palestinians in 2001 as a goodwill gesture, adjusting the notional maritime boundary in the area so that the whole of Gaza Marine lies in Palestinian waters rather than crossing into Israel's Exclusive Economic Zone.David Singer: World Bank Exposes PLO’s Disastrous Miscalculations
Regrettably those affected by the PLO’s political stance – the West Bank Arab population – are denied any say in determining whether changes need to take place that would improve their economic and political fortunes.Bedouin Myth No.1 – Indigenous?
PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas refuses to hold elections in the West Bank – preferring to continue with failed policies that threaten the future aspirations of the people he claims to represent – so clearly exposed in this damning World Bank Report.
Abbas continues to travel the world’s capitols unsuccessfully seeking financial support whilst an ailing economy collapses before his very eyes – as the World Bank Report makes ominously clear:
Professor Ruth Kark of the Geography Department of the Hebrew University, considered an expert on conceptions of land ownership in traditional and pre-modern cultures, in an article that appeared in the “Middle East Quarterly,” enumerated the generally accepted parameters of the term “indigenous,” and explains why the Bedouins cannot be included in this category. Here is the synopsis of her conclusions.The EU’s misguided singling out of Israel
Instead of being one-sided in their criticism, the EU should redouble its efforts to promote economic development in the West Bank as opposed to taking punitive steps against one side. Perversely, a ban such as this would hurt struggling Palestinians more than it would hurt Israel.Not accurate, not impartial: BBC report on murder in Brosh HaBika’a
Economic progress on both sides will do more to bring about the kind of solution the EU so wants. A true peace will only be decided in bilateral peace talks that both sides buy into.
Towards the end of the report we find a paragraph which is phrased in such a way as to imply to readers that there is reason to question Israeli definitions of terror attacks – including the murder of Tomer Hazan, which the perpetrator admitted was intended to extort the release of a relative imprisoned for terror offences.BBC template response to audience complaints about Psagot
“The dead man is the third Israeli to be killed in what Israel characterises as “terror attacks” in the last month in the West Bank. Two serving soldiers have also died.”
Several readers have informed us of responses they have received from the BBC in reply to complaints regarding the fact that the attack in Psagot on October 5th did not receive any coverage from the BBC until four days after the event when two suspects were arrested in Al Bireh.The paper which hates Britain? Guardian leaks ‘worst blow to British intel ever’
All those readers received the exact same reply from the BBC News website’s Middle East desk, the body of which reads:
The Guardian’s editor Alan Rusbridger, typifying the vitriol directed against the West by many within the leftist intelligentsia, in defending his paper’s right to publish classified documents, referred to George Orwell’s book ’1984' and argued that US and British intelligence gathering went “beyond Orwell’s imagination”. However, Orwell understood the advantages of even flawed democracies over totalitarian regimes and realized the danger of an intellectual elite which doesn’t understand such stark moral differences.Al-Hiwar TV: Islamists' Loudspeaker in Europe
In 1945, Orwell published “Notes on Nationalism” which argued that within the leftist intelligentsia there is “a derisive and mildly hostile attitude towards Britain [that] is more or less compulsory”, and that that, to such intellectuals, political outrage is inevitably directed not towards truly totalitarian regimes, but “almost entirely against Britain and the United States.”
The Muslim Brotherhood, despite having officially renounced violence, has been known for inciting often-violent political and social instability; it also openly claims responsibility for the installation of Hamas, a terrorist organization committed by its charter to the destruction of Israel.Holocaust-denying Romanian minister attends memorial
Ofcom, in 2009, found Al-Hiwar in breach of British broadcasting regulations after the Tunisian Muslim Brotherhood leader, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, used the channel to praise Hamas's military operations and "the use of bombs." In explaining its decision, Ofcom said Al-Hiwar's fault was to be guilty of "not challenging" Al-Ghnnouchi's statement. Al-Ghannouchi nonetheless remained a regular guest on Al-Hiwar TV, delivering his messages to millions of viewers.
Dan Sova, Romania’s minister for national projects and infrastructure, addressed a crowd of dignitaries on October 9 in the Romanian capital at a ceremony held on Romania’s national Holocaust Memorial Day — a date marked officially for the third time since its introduction in 2010.Clinton Foundation Received Millions from Saudis, Qatar, Iran
Earlier this year, Sova apologized for statements he made during a 2012 television interview in which he said that “no Jew suffered at the hands of Romanians” during the Holocaust.
A senior Muslim Brotherhood operative recently arrested in Egypt worked for years at the William J. Clinton Foundation. The Clinton Foundation has also received millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and a foundation that is an Iranian regime front.Czech President: My Kotel Wish Came True
The current Egyptian government, which was put in power after the military overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood, has launched a sweeping crackdown on the Brotherhood and calls it a terrorist organization. One of the senior officials arrested is Gehad (Jihad) el-Haddad.
From 2007 to 2012, el-Haddad was the Egyptian director for the Clinton Foundation. El-Haddad’s father is Essam el-Haddad, a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau.
Zeman placed a new note with a new wish on it in the cracks between the stones on Sunday's visit as well.Does Nobel winner Higgs support an Israel boycott?
"I am excited to stand here in front of the holy stones, this exalted place of worship, with the prayer books that accompany the Jewish people everywhere in the world. Here and in Prague, people pray from the same prayerbook,” he noted.
“It is very ironic that Israeli scientists are dominating the Nobel prizes yet again, and the British winner of the Nobel prize is, in effect, boycotting them,” Middle East commentator Tom Gross said, after writing on his site last Wednesday that Higgs “is calling for an academic boycott of Israel.”Facebook buys Onavo
But how much evidence is there to support the charge?
The most substantive allegation revolves around an Israeli prize Higgs refused to accept.
Israeli mobile analytics company Onavo has announced its sale to Facebook. The deal is being reported to be worth between $100 million-$200 million.Security control room in a smartphone
Onavo is one of Tel Aviv’s hottest startups. It developed the award-winning Onavo mobile utility app and Onavo Insights, the first mobile market intelligence service based on real engagement data.
When a baby is choking somewhere inside the winding cobblestoned streets of Jerusalem’s Old City, or in any Israeli neighborhood, locals powering motorcycles with ambulance gear give help before the paramedics arrive. This is thanks to Israel’s one-of-a-kind volunteer emergency response organization United Hatzalah.70 years after revolt, Sobibor secrets are yet to be unearthed
To maximize response time, Hatzalah contracted local developers to create a smartphone app to help deploy volunteers closest to the emergency –– or to send mission alerts to doctors with certain specialties.
It was the most successful prisoner revolt during World War II, but the Sobibor uprising never became a primary symbol of the Holocaust. Seventy years later, archeologists at the former death camp are rewriting what’s known about Sobibor’s design, and unearthing haunting glimpses of its Jewish victims.Ingathering and digitizing the Diaspora’s rare Hebrew books
Their work, however, is now in jeopardy, as bureaucratic tensions and a stymied struggle on the part of the lead Israeli archeologist Yoram Haimi to protect the site’s integrity have delayed authorization from Polish authorities to open a new excavation season at Sobibor.
In a project as ambitious as the Great Library of Alexandria — which, starting in the 3rd century BCE under the Ptolemies, endeavored to copy all scrolls that entered the port — Israel’s National Library is seeking to digitize and store all of the world’s Jewish texts.IDF Blog: 40 Years Since the Yom Kippur War No.2: The Counterattack
Last week, the National Library, located on the campus of the Hebrew University at Givat Ram, Jerusalem, took a major step forward in this quest by reaching an agreement to produce high-definition images of one of the world’s premier collections of Judaic manuscripts. The National Library and Italy’s Biblioteca Palatina in Parma signed a deal to convert centuries of parchment and paper Hebrew documents to high-quality digital files which will be available to Israeli scholars. A selection of those files will be uploaded to the Internet for general access.
After a surprise attack that sparks the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the IDF must regroup and act quickly against Egypt and Syria. The enemies’ anti-aircraft missiles overwhelm the Israel Air Force, forcing the IDF to rely almost completely on its ground and naval forces. The proximity of Israeli villages and towns to the Syrian border poses an urgent challenge, pushing the IDF to confront enemy forces in battle.
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