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Featured Stories With BP's spill in mind, Israel considers delivery of natural gas In early 2009, an energy exploration outfit in the Mediterranean Sea discovered a huge natural gas field about 50 miles off the Haifa coast. (Creative Commons/ Tsuda) More than a year after a massive natural gas find off the Israeli coast sparked hopes in Israel of a new era of energy independence, Israel is weighing how to deliver the gas safely. Read more » Bork turns Kagan process into fight over Israeli justice Like a ghost from confirmations past, failed Reagan nominee Robert Bork grabbed headlines last week when he spoke out against President Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court. At the top of his complaint list: As dean of Harvard Law School, Kagan once referred to former Israeli Chief Justice Aharon Barak as her "judicial hero." Read more » Gay pride parade used ruse to include anti-Israel group, critics charge Organizers of Toronto's annual gay pride parade backtracked from their decision to ban a group called Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from marching under that name, and critics say the original decision was a ruse to secure $120,000 in city funding. Read more » Jewish Agency makes it official: New focus is on identity building The new strategic vision calls for turning the agency's attention more squarely toward building global Jewish identity, and away from its traditional mission of bringing in and settling new immigrants to Israel. Read more » Jumping from hack to flack Haviv Rettig switches from covering the Jewish Agency as a reporter to defending it as its overseas spokesman. Read more »

Editors' Picks Deporting a Shin Bet collaborator (Washington Post) U.S. authorities are moving to deport Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas leader Sheik Hassan Yousef, from California after years of anti-terrorism assistance Yousef provided to Israel as a collaborator for its Shin Bet internal security service. Holland using decoy Jews (Digital Journal) Amsterdam police will be using decoy Jews to catch anti-Semitic assailants. Cantor's ambition (Politico) Is the House minority whip, Rep. Eric Cantor, a Jewish Republican from Virginia, interested in the party's ambitions -- or his own? Restoring Beirut's shul (Bloomberg News) Beirut's lone synagogue is slated to reopen in October following extensive renovations. PLO embracing Jewish lobby (AP) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas believes that courting the American Jewish community can benefit the Palestinians, The Associated Press reports. Breaking News An Israeli career soldier is suspected of passing sensitive military information to Hezbollah. An exhibit of crucifixion paintings at The London Jewish Museum of Art has stirred a substantial number of complaints. Minister Louis Farrakhan, in a letter addressed to U.S. Jewish organizations, accused Jews of hurting blacks and called for dialogue to "repair" the damage. A Jewish singer who has described himself as the "Michael Jackson of Jewish music" was sentenced to prison for stealing $36,000 from a fan. The judge who is leading an Israeli inquiry into its interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla has requested a wider scope for the investigation. Robert Byrd, the longest-serving U.S. senator who criticized Israel but refrained from using his considerable power to cut its funding, has died. German national security police are investigating an attack, apparently motivated by anti-Semitism, on two Israeli tourists at a Berlin disco club. A fire that broke out near the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh and consumed nearly 750 acres was among several major blazes to hit Israel. A Kassam rocket fired from Gaza hit a packing plant in the western Negev. For the fourth year in a row, Israeli jazz musician Anat Cohen received the clarinetist of the year award from the Jazz Journalists Association.