Friday, February 03, 2012
7-year anniversary of teen killed by Gaza rocket
A memorial service was held Thursday (2nd) for Ella Abukasis, a 17-year-old who was killed in Sderot when Gaza forces shot a rocket into the city in January 2005. According to one eye witness, Abukasis was shielding her 10-year-old brother from the rocket attack.
The memorial service was held in the city street where the attack occurred and later in the Sderot cemetery where Ella Abukasis is buried.
(israelnationalnews.com)
MI chief: Our enemies have 200,000 rockets
“Ammo, missiles, and rockets are substantially growing against us. Our enemies have 200,000 rockets and missiles which are capable of hitting the State of Israel,” Director of Military Intelligence Major General Aviv Kochavi said Thursday (2nd).
Kochavi made a rare appearance at the 2012 Herzliya Conference, where he reviewed regional changes, the effects of the Arab Spring and the Iranian threat.
(ynetnews.com)
PFLP member slams Arab attendance at Israel conference
On Wednesday (1st) a Popular Front official in Lebanon condemned the participation of Arab and Palestinian delegations in a conference held by an Israeli policy institute.
PFLP official, Marwan Abdul Al described the decision by Palestinian and Arab groups to participate in the Annual Herzliya Conference as “shameful.”
This year’s conference was entitled “In the Eye of Storms: Israel & the Middle East.
PLO official Saeb Erekat was listed as a speaker at the conference together with Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. Qatar also took part.
“The goal of the annual conference is to enhance and protect Israeli interests and Arab participation amounts to normalization as it neglects the suffering of the Palestinian people,” Abdul Al added.
(maannews.net)
More Arabs proud to be Israeli
If one were to listen only to the mainstream media and Israel’s many antagonists, one would be led to believe that the Jewish state is a horrible and oppressive place for Arabs to live, and that said Arabs desire nothing more than to replace Israel with their own “Palestinian state.”
But if one bothers to listen to those Arabs themselves (something the media does its best to avoid), a completely different picture emerges. According to the Democracy Index 2011 survey conducted recently by the Israel Democracy Institute, nearly 53% of Israeli Arabs are “proud to be Israelis.”
Only 28% responded that they are “not at all proud” to be Israelis. Those figures would seem a stark contrast to all those criticisms about Israel being an apartheid state that discriminates against and oppresses its Arab population.
Unfortunately, the only Israeli Arabs who receive any press coverage are those who attack the Jewish state with accusations of human rights abuses.
(israeltoday.co.il)
World’s largest Israeli flag flies in north
Upper Nazareth Mayor Shimon Gapso this week unfurled the world’s largest Israeli flag, proudly flying it over his home town. In an interview with the press, Gapso said that he considered it a great honor to be able to be the one to fly such a large flag. The flag’s presence in the Galilee town would make it clear that Upper Nazareth is a Jewish town, he said – in a part of the country where Jews were not necessarily the dominant group.
“Thanks to the flag, anyone who comes from the towns and villages in this area will see they have come to a strong and solid Jewish town,” Gapso said. “The Israeli flag is a unifying force, and there is nothing more important than flying it.”
The flag, flown for the first time on Wednesday (1st) is approximately 48 feet by 24 feet and is visible for miles around.
(israelnationalnews.com)
Ban Ki-moon calls on Palestinians to stop firing rockets at Israel
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday (2nd) called on Palestinians to stop launching rockets at Israel, Israel Radio reported. Indiscriminate killing of civilians is unacceptable under any circumstances, he said at a press conference in Gaza.
Meanwhile traveling through Gaza on Thursday (2nd) Ban’s caravan was pelted with shoes and rocks by angry mobs.
(israelradio.co.il)
Hershkowitz: Israel is not 51st star on U.S. flag
Israeli Minister Rabbi Daniel Hershkowitz, (chairman of “Jewish Home, Science, and Technology”) while voting to uphold Yesha housing benefits, said on Wednesday (1st):
“With all due respect to the Americans and our friendship with them, the state of Israel is not the 51st star on their flag. A sovereign state can independently decide preferred housing zones, without external intervention.”
(israelnationalnews.com)
9th anniversary of astronaut Ilan Ramon death
Wednesday (1st) marked the 9th anniversary of the Columbia space shuttle crash which took the life of Israeli Col. Ilan Ramon along with six others. Memorials were held throughout Israel including special sessions in high schools. Israel Space Agency also marked the occasion.
Ramon also participated in Operation Opera in 1981 which eliminated Iraq’s nuclear weapons capabilities.
(jpost.com)
Ya’alon: Iran was working on U.S.-range missile – Yaakov Katz
Iran was working on developing a missile with 10,000-km. range (over 6,200 miles) that would put America in reach of a potential Iranian attack, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Thursday (2nd).
According to Ya’alon, the missile was based on a solid-fuel propellant and would have been able to significantly increase Iran’s offensive capabilities.
Last month a mysterious explosion rocked an Iranian missile base near Tehran where Iran was working on developing this long-range missile.
(jpost.com)
Iceland’s Foreign Policy: alone and adrift – Abraham H. Foxman
The Icelandic parliament voted on November 29 to recognize Palestine “as an independent and sovereign state” based on the pre-1967 borders.
A report by the center-right minority on the Icelandic parliament’s foreign affairs committee assailed the reasoning behind the proposal as unfair both to Israel and to history. The minority also felt compelled to remind the Icelandic government:
“that the conflict is fundamentally about the mere existence of the state of Israel, that Hamas is a terrorist organization bent on Israel’s destruction, that the 1993 Oslo Accords specified no unilateral change in status of the territories and that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority refuse to recognize Israel as the Jewish state.”
(The writer is National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
(jewishpress.com)
Posted by
webmaster@foi.org at
8:32 AM
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Gaza rocket salvo targets Negev communities
Gaza terrorists on Wednesday evening (1st) launched a salvo of Kassam rockets at Israel’s southern communities. All the rockets landed in open fields in the western Negev with no injuries or damage reported.
The attacks are the latest in an upsurge of violence emanating from Gaza that began last Friday evening (1/27).
(israelnationalnews.com)
Shalit visits family of slain tank commander
Former captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit visited the family of his tank commander, who was killed in the same incident in which Shalit was captured.
Shalit visited the family of Hanan Barak at their home in Arad on Sunday (1/29), it was reported Tuesday (1st).
The family said the visit gave them “closure.”
Shalit’s parents regularly attend the annual memorial services for Hanan Barak.
(jta.org)
Israelis, Jews mourn late Czech President Vaclav Havel
On Wednesday (1st) the Knesset plenum marked the passing of former Czech President Vaclav Havel who died on Sunday (1/29) at age 75. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, and others spoke about the relationship between the Czech Republic and Israel.
Natan Sharansky, head of the Jewish Agency told the Jewish Telegraph Agency “Vaclav Havel was one of the few islands of intellectual freedom in a sea of totalitarian rule.”
(jta.org)
IDF drills mobilization under missile fire – Yaakov Katz
Amid predictions that Israel will come under massive missile fire in a future war, an IDF division held an exercise on Tuesday (1st) aimed at ensuring that the draft of reservists will not be disrupted by attacks. “In the past we fought wars that did not involve the home front. We understand that the next war will be different and that during the mobilization of reserves we will come under fire – in the cities and in the induction centers as well,” explained Brig.-Gen. Agay Yehezkel, commander of the division. The drill simulated a scenario involving missile attacks from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria.
(jpost.com)
Israeli Mossad chief in Washington last week for secret talks on Iran – Majid Asgaripour
Mossad Chief Tamir Pardo, the head of Israel’s intelligence service, paid a secret visit to Washington last week to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, CIA Director David Petraeus and Sen. Dianne Feinstein revealed at a congressional hearing Tuesday (1st).
(afp.com)
A warning on Iran – Editorial
According to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, not only is Iran prepared to use terrorism in retaliation for any military strikes against it, they’re also prepared to get their retaliation in first. “There is more to unfold here,” he said. “They’re trying to penetrate and engage in this hemisphere.” If the regime is prepared to stage terrorist strikes in America when they don’t have a bomb, what will they be capable of when they do have one?
(wsj.com)
Syrian protesters face regime crackdown with humor, creativity
Opposition Syrians are pouring contempt on Assad using whatever medium they can, with a humor that also helps them get through the death and destruction of the government’s crackdown.
“Top Goon: Diaries of a Little Dictator” is one of several new online shows. It uses finger puppets that impersonate Bashar Assad and his inner circle.
In one episode, Assad competes against Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Libya’s Moammar Gaddafi on the show “Who Wants to Kill a Million?”
(washingtonpost.com; ap.com)
The new defenders of Israel – David Suissa
Jarrod Jordan, an African-American activist from Atlanta, Georgia is neither a Christian evangelist nor Jewish. Yet his organization Vanguard Leadership Group (VLG), is a vigorous defender of the Jewish state.
Last year, for example, VLG took out full-page ads in campus newspapers to counter the accusation by Students for Justice in Palestine that Israel is an apartheid state. So, why did they do it?
“We just wanted to protect the truth,” Jordan said last week. “Our group deals with plenty of other issues, but this one struck a nerve.”
In fact the group was founded as an honor society to nurture future leaders in the black community.
Jordan visited Israel a few years ago as part of an AIPAC trip. (Los Angeles Jewish Journal)
(jewishjournal.com)
January was Israel’s wettest month ever
Rainfall in January 2012 broke all Israeli records. There were 29 days with some rain during the month, which broke the previous record of 25 wet days in January 1947, as recorded by the National Meteorological Service.
In most of northern Israel there were 26 wet days, but in Nahariyah and in the Galilee there were 29, leading to the record.
In addition the Sea of Galilee rose by 55 centimeters during the same period.
(israelweather.co.il)
Israel is the second most educated country in the world, study shows
Israel is the second most educated country in the world, says a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and development (OECD).
According to the OECD’s Education at a Glance 2011 Report, 78% of the money invested in education in Israel is taken directly from public funds, while 45% of Israel’s population has a university or college diploma.
According to the report, the ten most educated countries in the world are: Canada, Israel, Japan, the U.S., New Zealand, South Korea, Norway, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Finland.
(haaretz.com)
Posted by
webmaster@foi.org at
8:06 AM