The flotilla and the Third Intifada
Is a bunch of young Israeli lawyers working round the clock sustained only by Diet Coke, falafel and cigarettes about to pull off the legal equivalent of the Six-Day War?
Israel famously won that war before it even started by destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground. Now it’s beginning to look as if the Gaza flotilla of fools and fanatics may be holed below the waterline before it even sets off on its cynical and potentially murderous stunt.
It was supposed to have sailed by now. Today, however, it was reported that it now may not set sail before next week. The main reason is a series of unprecedented and ingenious manoeuvres by Israeli lawyers which have tied up the boats in legal actions mainly concerning insurance and registration issues.
And I can reveal that a separate legal move today threatens fourteen of the flotillistas with arrest if they enter Israeli territorial waters.
Two Israeli soldiers in the reserves are seeking to bring a private...
Israeli innovators build new ‘Silicon Valley’
AFP
By Katia Dolmadjian
With a concentration of start-ups just behind that of Silicon Valley and an impressive pool of engineers, Israel is becoming the new standard for high-tech, with a unique business model.
Internet-related activities contributed 9 billion euros (12.6 billion dollars) to the Israeli economy in 2009, representing 6.5 percent of GDP, according to a report from management consultancy McKinsey.
The sector is worth more than the construction industry (5.4 percent of GDP) and almost as much as health (6.8 percent).
The web economy has also created a total of 120,000 jobs, accounting for 4 percent of the country’s workforce, McKinsey says.
From Microsoft to Intel through Google, IBM and Philips, almost all the giants of the Internet and technology have set up important research and development centres in Israel, spawning products and systems used worldwide.
“Israel is the country with the most engineers in its population, and it ranks second behind...
PM: Iron Dome system crucial to peace with Palestinians
I hate it when Bibi puts all the focus on our security rather than on our right to the land. I want to keep the land for its sake. It will also make us more secure. What is crucial to peace is that the Arabs compromise on the land. Ted Belman
Netanyahu says anti-missile system must be deployed along border of future Palestinian state, is keen on obtaining US help for buying more.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is starting to prepare for US help in purchasing additional Iron Dome anti-missile batteries, bringing the issue up on Wednesday during a meeting with three key Democratic congressmen.
Netanyahu, who met with Reps. Gary Ackerman and Nita Lowey of New York, and Henry Waxman of California, said the Iron Dome will play an important role in peace, since it will make an agreement with the Palestinians possible.
The three representatives participated this week in the World Jewish Congress’s International Consultation of Jewish Parliamentarians...
Cotler to Netanyahu, “accept Obama’s terms”
I am speechless. This is so disgusting, its beyond words. Its a betrayal. To suggest its a matter of “favoring internal politics at expense of its int’l standing.” is to write off all Israel legitimate concerns and goals. F..k Israel’s international standing. Keep Judea and Samaria. Ted Belman
Friends of Israel to PM: Accept Obama terms, restart talks
By GIL SHEFLER, JPOST
In apparent criticism of Netanyahu, Ronald Lauder reportedly warns Israel against favoring internal politics at expense of its int’l standing.
Members of the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians gathered at the King David Hotel on Tuesday for a candid conversation closed to journalists dealing with the considerable challenges facing Israel in the international arena.
During the event, speakers pledged support for Israel, vociferously defending it against its critics, but in between the words of praise some genuine concern could also heard.
Irwin Cotler, the former...
U.S. to resume formal Muslim Brotherhood contacts
Barry Rubin commented. “First of all, the headline is basically a lie. The US has never had “formal” contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood but only informal ones. This represents a major policy shift.”
REUTERS
By Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States has decided to resume formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, in a step that reflects the Islamist group’s growing political weight but that is almost certain to upset Israel and its U.S. backers.
“The political landscape in Egypt has changed, and is changing,” said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It is in our interests to engage with all of the parties that are competing for parliament or the presidency.”
The official sought to portray the shift as a subtle evolution rather than a dramatic change in Washington’s stance toward the Brotherhood, a group founded...
Israel should be pumping oil within three or four years.
With its oil treasure, Israel gets a shield from tyranny
By Neil Reynolds
OTTAWA— The London-based World Energy Council says Israel’s Shfela Basin, a half-hour drive south of Jerusalem, holds 250 billion barrels of recoverable shale oil, possibly making the energy-vulnerable country (as expressed by The Wall Street Journal) “the world’s newest energy giant.” With reserves of 260 billion barrels, Saudi Arabia would remain the world’s No. 1 oil country – though not, perhaps, for long. Howard Jonas, CEO of U.S.-based IDT Corp., the company that owns the Shfela Basin concession, says there is much more oil under Israel than under Saudi Arabia: Perhaps, he says, twice as much.
Even with a mere 250 billion barrels, the Shfela Basin (or 238 square kilometres of it) would make Israel the third-largest holder of shale reserves in the world – right behind the U.S. with 1.5 trillion barrels and China with 355 billion barrels. Assuming for the moment that Mr. Jonas is...
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Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
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