04 February 2009

Israel says Iran's satellite launch is a "technological achievement" that points to a growing nuclear threat. A statement by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that Iran has improving missile technology capable of delivering a nuclear bomb that could hit Israel and beyond.

"The proven capability to launch the satellite, to launch it into orbit, shows something about the missile technology of Iran and it is worrying," said Israel Space Agency chairman and parliament member Isaac Ben-Israel.

Iran says the satellite is for peaceful purposes, but Ben-Israel says that is nonsense.

"If you translate the missile technology, missile capability, to what will happen if they will take the same technology and use it for a ballistic missile, it means that they can deliver a bomb to Western Europe," he said.

Ben-Israel said Iran is about a year away from acquiring the technology and materials to build a nuclear weapon. Therefore, he said Israel has a one-year window in which it could launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. He said this would not destroy Iran's nuclear program, but would set it back for years.

With Iran's president threatening to wipe Israel "off the map," Israeli leaders have warned time and again that there is a military option, though they say it is a last resort.

In his statement, the defense minister urged the U.N. Security Council to tighten sanctions on Iran because, "time is running out."
 

Erdogan-led Turkey 'can't broker talks'

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "has lost all credibility as an honest broker in peace discussions," a senior Israeli diplomatic official told The Jerusalem Post Saturday night, citing Erdogan's recent anti-Israel rhetoric.

"As long as he is the prime minister of the country, Turkey has no place in peace negotiations or discussions," the official added. "It is not a trustworthy diplomatic partner anymore."

At the Davos World Economic Forum on Thursday night, Erdogan launched a blistering attack on Operation Cast Lead, Israel's offensive against Hamas infrastructure in Gaza.

This was followed by an impassioned defense of Israel's actions by President Shimon Peres, Erdogan's fellow panel member at the prestigious conference.  When Erdogan tried to respond, he was cut off by the moderator, and quickly stormed off the stage, accusing Peres of lying.

The Davos incident was the culmination of a month of angry tirades against Israel by the Turkish prime minister. Throughout the Gaza fighting, Erdogan blamed Israel alone for the escalation and called for it to be barred from the UN.  He accused Israel of "inhuman actions which would bring it to self-destruction. Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents," he said.In a January 13 speech to Turkey's parliament, he accused "media outlets supported by Jews" of "disseminating false reports on what happens in Gaza, finding unfounded excuses to justify targeting of schools, mosques, and hospitals."

Anti-Israel demonstrators
march in European capitals

January 11, 2009

LONDON and PARIS (JTA) -- Anti-Israel demonstrators clashed with police in several European capitals over the weekend.

Protests in London and Edinburgh on Saturday, drawing demonstrators on buses from all over the country, were organized by the Stop the War Coalition, a group initially established to protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the British Muslim Initiative, and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. All of the organizations are affiliated with Muslim and far-left groups.

Three police officers were injured -- one of them was evacuated from the area unconscious, and two suffered facial injuries. Twelve demonstrators were also transferred to hospitals, some injured by projectiles thrown by other demonstrators.

Assad applauds Mashaal on

Gaza 'victory'

Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday congratulated Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on his organization's "victory" in the Gaza Strip, Syrian news agency SANA reported.

At a meeting in Damascus with Mashaal and a Hamas delegation, Assad said that Israel had failed to achieve its objectives in Operation Cast Lead, "despite using its most lethal weaponry."

This, he said, was "proof of the Palestinian people's dedication to their rights over the land and their deep belief in the ultimate victory over the occupation and aggression."

The Hamas delegation reportedly expressed its gratitude to Assad for Syria's support.

Chief Rabbi
Confirms Gaza Miracle Story

(IsraelNN.com) Former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, recovering from a life-threatening disease, prayed several times at the Tomb of the Biblical Matriarch Rachel before the recent war in Gaza. Informed that an “old woman” saved IDF soldiers’ lives in Gaza, he said, “Did she mention that I sent her?”

The story was first told by Rabbi Lazer Brody, a rabbi in Ashdod who “devotes his time to spreading faith around the globe via Breslov Israel and the Emuna Outreach organization” that he founded. Rabbi Brody told Israel National News that he receives many phone calls in the framework of his work – including a particularly noteworthy one about two weeks ago. “The caller, an Israeli man, was clearly knowledgeable about how IDF infantry troops operate,” the rabbi and former IDF special-unit veteran said, “and this is what he told me:”

‘My son is in the Givati Brigade, and his unit’s job is to clean out areas around Gaza City. Outside one house, a woman dressed in black appeared and started yelling at them in Arabic, ‘Ruchu min hon – Get out of here! It’s dangerous!’  The troops thought she might be trying to protect her family, but they didn’t want to take chances; the company commander called the regiment commander, and they went on to their next target.  There, too, the same woman appeared and gave the same warning. The soldiers thought she probably came somehow through the tunnel network that Hamas had set up between houses, and one of the soldiers even yelled at her… Then they went to a third house – and the same woman appeared again.  This time, all the soldiers froze.

‘The soldiers then hooked up with a Golani Engineering force whose job it was to blow up houses that were found to be booby-trapped. My son’s unit asked them to check these three houses – and they found that all three of the houses that the woman had warned them away from had been booby-trapped.”

The story did not receive high-level confirmation, though it made the ranks of the rumor mills - and many dismissed it as just that. Then, on Monday night of this week, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat and son of former Chief Rabbi of Israel Mordechai Eliyahu, was teaching students in Machon Meir in Jerusalem about the sublime level of soldiers fighting on behalf of Israel.  In this connection, he said:

“There are soldiers who have been telling that in some places where they went in, there was a woman who told them not to enter certain buildings because they were booby-trapped, and that she said her name was Rachel... I asked a certain Yeshiva dean about this story, and he told me that it wasn’t a ‘made-up story,’ but that he actually knew one of the soldiers involved, and he told me his name.

"Then the Yeshiva dean asked me if it was in any way connected with the fact that my father, Rabbi [Mordechai] Eliyahu, had left the hospital before the war and went to pray not once, not twice, but three times at Rachel’s Tomb, and went nowhere else to pray?  I told him I didn’t know, but that I would ask.

“In truth, I was a little bit afraid to ask him, because he usually dismisses these kinds of stories… But I decided to go, and I asked him, ‘Do you remember that you told us one time about Rabbi Shalom Mutzafi, of blessed memory, during World War II, when the Germans seemed about to enter the Holy Land, and he prayed at Kever Rachel against the decree, and he said that he actually saw Rachel praying.  [My father] said yes, he remembers.

“So I told him about this story that I had heard, and I asked him, ‘Should we believe it? Is it truth?’ And he said, 'Yes, it’s true.’  I asked him to explain, and he said - in these words: 'I told her: Rachel, a war is on!  Don’t withhold your voice from crying [based on Jeremiah 31,14-16]! Go before G-d, and pray for the soldiers, who are sacrificing themselves for the Nation of Israel, that they should strike - and not be stricken.'

"I told him, “Well, you should know that she really did that.”  So he asked, “Did she mention that I sent her?”

“Everyone should then make his own calculation,” Rabbi Eliyahu the son then continued. “If this is the great level of the soldiers, and if this is the great power of prayer, then how can anyone say anything against them?...”

Natural gas find
could transform Israel's economy

Drilling for the gas will not be easy: the sea floor at the site is located more than a mile underwater, and the wells are covered by a mile of salt.

Israel could be one step closed to energy independence after drilling companies announced the discovery of "extremely significant" natural gas reserves at an offshore drilling site in the Mediterranean about 60 miles off the coast of Haifa, Israel.

One massive pocket of natural gas is expected to contain more than three trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to feed Israel's energy needs for 15 years, lessening its dependence on foreign fuel.

This is the largest natural gas reserve discovered in Israel, with an estimated value of $15 billion. It is three times larger than an existing drill site on Israel's southern coast, which is expected to be depleted in five years. Israel's National Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer called the discovery an "historic moment" for Israel.

The Tamar 1 site, named after the granddaughter of Israeli geologist Yossi Langotsky who helped locate the site, is a joint venture between four major stakeholders: the Houston-based Noble Energy, and three major Israeli partners Isramco Negev, Delek Drilling, and Avner Oil and Gas Exploration.

Independence from foreign fuel sources

Delek Drilling's PR representative Shaya Segal told ISRAEL21c that it will take some time to understand the impact of the find: "First of all we don't have the full information," he says. "We just know there are great quantities there. In about two and a half weeks, after more tests are concluded, we will know more exactly what is there."

In terms of Israel's future, the impact could be enormous. "It can contribute a lot to the Israeli economy," says Segal. "And give us independence with anything that has to do with natural gas."

In Israel, that would mean fuelling power plants with natural gas, as opposed to the more polluting coal or oil fuel sources. "It's much more environmentally friendly," agrees Segal.

Biggest in US company's history

In a press statement, the companies announced: "Subject to receipt of further data from the drill site, the estimated reserves of natural gas are likely even to increase." And Charles D. Davidson, the CEO and chairman of Noble Energy said: "This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the company's history."

While the drilling is difficult - the sea floor at the site is located more than a mile underwater, the wells are covered under more than a mile of salt, and some analysts say that actualization of the wells is speculative, since transporting natural gas is difficult -- Tel Aviv stocks for Isramco, The Delek Group and Avner rose more than 45 percent.

Some analysts estimate that it will cost about $1 billion dollars in infrastructure to extract the gas from the depths of the sea. Extraction of gas could begin in 2013.

The find also gives hope for environmentalists, who have been petitioning that the building of new coal-fire power plants in Israel be stopped. It will certainly be good news to Shai Agassi of Better Place, who plans to install an electric car system and grid in Israel, over the next years. One of the criticisms of his project, before this new gas pocket find, was that the electric cars would be fueled by power plants running on "dirty" fuel such as coal.

But before the champagne corks are popped, analysts caution that further investigations at the Tamar site be made. They are also insisting that while the natural gas find will boost the country's economy for some years, Israel's future remains in high tech, not energy.

Dan Halman, the CEO of Halman-Aldubi Group, a mutual funds firm in Israel told The Jerusalem Post: "If the Tamar site opposite the Haifa coast succeeds in producing the significant quantities of natural gas predicted, we are talking about a revolution which will have an impact on the Israeli economy for the coming generations."

Joseph’s Tomb
Gets a Paint Job After 9 Years of Arab Desecration

by Avraham Zuroff

(IsraelNN.com) A team of Jewish workers accompanied by the IDF spruced-up two nights ago the tomb of the Biblical Joseph in Shechem. The restoration was performed by the Shechem Echad organization, which is responsible for restoring historic Jewish graves throughout Samaria.

The campaign to restore Joseph's Tomb, spearheaded by Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika, began last Chanukah, immediately after Mesika began his tenure. Mesika and his strategic advisory board visited the holy site and held a special prayer meeting thanking G-d for the opportunity to lead the Jewish communities in Samaria. Mesika stated at the event that he would use all of his influence to restore the Tomb of Joseph and to reestablish the yeshiva that thrived there until the site was overrun by Arab mobs and burnt down nine years ago.

After his election, Mesika set in motion monthly visits to the site for thousands of worshipers from around the country and around the world. The Shomron Regional Council has been in continual contact with the IDF and even lobbied the Knesset in order to allow at least partial access to the throngs of Jewish worshippers.

At present, the IDF usually allows access to Joseph’s Tomb once a month, but limits the number to 1,000 people. Due to the security situation, the IDF only gives limited advanced notice when Joseph’s Tomb is officially open to Jews. Due to a large waiting list, the Shomron Community Council also does not publicize extensively the dates when access to the tomb is authorized. In addition, many of the coveted spots are reserved for public officials and other VIPs from abroad.

On Wednesday night, among the hundreds of worshippers who came to Joseph’s Tomb was Rabbanit Dorit Kadouri, the widow of Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Kadouri. Over ten busloads of worshippers throughout Israel visited the tomb on the fourth night of Chanukah. That night was the first time worshippers saw the tomb's renovations. Jewish workers funded by anonymous donors painted the blackened walls of the defaced religious landmark and built a new stone covering for the grave of Joseph, which was smashed by Arabs in an act of hatred for the Jewish religion and heritage. Local leaders hope that this will be a first stage towards the goal of completely rebuilding the site and the yeshiva.

Testing the Waters While Tracing the Footprints
The IDF is currently testing the Arabs’ response in Shechem to the renovations. Although a relative calm permeated the tense Shechem atmosphere, soldiers found fresh footprints in the recently poured cement. The Jewish organizers hope that the incident is isolated and that the Arabs’ tacit acceptance will allow the IDF to ensure access to the tomb more frequently.
 

Shomron Community Council liaison David Ha’ivri stated, "Jews who are willing to consider giving Jewish holy sites over to Arab administration must be made aware of the disgraceful events that led to the desecration of a Biblical burial place of an important father of our nation. For two thousand years the site was untouched and within hours the Arabs burned it to the ground.”

Gravestone at traditional burial site for biblical patriarch Joseph after it was ransacked by Palestinian mobs.

New Film for Rebuilding Joseph's Tomb
to Premiere in Big Apple

by Gil Ronen

(IsraelNN.com) The Samaria (Shomron) Regional Council is stepping up its effort to rebuild the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem, which was desecrated by Arabs in the year 2000, and is about to begin screenings of an original film about the recent rebuilding of the tomb.

Americans for a Safe Israel will be sponsoring the premiere screening of the film Wednesday, January 21st at 7:30 p.m. at the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue (11 E. 63rd St. between 5th and Madison, NYC). David HaIvri of the Shomron Liaison Office will present the film.

A preview of the film can be viewed here:

On October 1, 2000, Arabs attacked an IDF force that had been stationed in the tomb and killed one soldier. They then ransacked the tomb and desecrated it. Since then, Jews have not been able to enter the tomb in daylight hours. The IDF has allowed a series of nighttime visits by Jews in the past year. It claims that daytime visits constitute a security risk.